Hi Stacy,
I am putting below my profile. If possible please evaluate my profile and indicate suitable colleges (It would be good to mention here that I am not interested to get in any school beyond US top 10+Insead becasue of many constrainds I have. Esp. looking for your view at H/S/W). It would be good to have some odds, though I know it's hard to judge upon but I presume that's your experties
.
My profile:Personal details: Single Indian Male, 27- Even getting a graduation (after 10+2) in science was a daunting task for me given my family background (absolutely nobody to guide and scarcity of money for even daily necessities made life more than wretched). It was only after I got into IIT Bombay for Masters that I could get loans for Banks and continue my studies without bothering my parents and thereafter things changed (at least financial misery was a day of past!) Thanks to IIT brand value
(and offcourse my little hard work
). I do not know for sure if it helps to give one's family background in so detail but I feel given all the odds if some one has been able to show toughness then one should be getting extra points for that.. no ? any thoughts ?
Academic Achievements: A) Master of Science in Applied Statistics & Informatics From IIT Bombay (Top college of India, Statistics shows getting into IIT's & more so in IIT Bombay is more tougher than even HBS!) - 2007 pass out with a CGPI of 7.8 out of 10.(Applied Maths & Stats as Major)
B) Bachelor of Science- From a deemed university- 2003 pass out with 78% in all 3 years (Stats, Maths as major)
C) 10th (1998 pass out) and 12th (2000 pass out) Standard from regioanal State Board in science stream with about 63% in the exams.
D) GMAT: 680 (Q 49, V34, 85th percentile), waiting for AWA [I know the good feeling of having at least 700+ but I feel my whole profile makes up for this little not so lower score (or do you think I should give one more shot? )]
Work Experience: Since I am planning for next fall (2012) by then I would have 5+ years of work experience- Worked for Citi Bank operation (2+ years), HDFC Bank (India, for 1+ years ) and at present working for Discover Financial Services (about 9 months or so and counting).
Industry - Majorly in the consumer finance business (Cards, PL) and to a some extent mortgages with major Banks across globe.
Roles/Job responsibilties - Started my career as an statistical analyst and now my role involves training people on best model practices along with consulting my clients on best possible solutions (be it Statistical models or decesion trees).
Through all the past 4 years I have been churning out Statistical models- End to end from project scoping to implementation phase for Risk, Marketing functions (at different stages of the cutomer life cycle such as Acquisition, Portfolio mamagement- CLI, CLD, Recovery etc...) in order to help Banks priortize efforts to tweak/improve the current strategies. I undertook some segmentation projets as well for marketting purposes. So to sum it up I am part of a very critical function to Banks in order to make them better (not so better for customers though- you would have seen credit score goes down, credit line decreases or some offers to you - give credit to folks like me
) strategies and being competitive at the martket place.
One more point about the Nature of the work- I have been fortunate enough to work for different markets of the globe- from Emea (Romania), Asia Pacific (India, Singapore) to United States. I find it pertinent to mention this as I think different market places pose although similar problems but solutions (in my case models, trees) were need to be developed differently altogether. Working with people of different corners of the globe has been full of fun and challenges (cultural & work timing differences).
Extra curriculars: I am kind of person who loves everything under the sun
. That said I have keen interest in social service (I do it every year since I got job in 2007 though not in an organized way) and have started ground work towards building a trust to help deprived students from remote areas of the country (most likely in terms of scholarship based on some exams) to study. I plan to so more- as full time @50's not only in education but in helathcare and social upliftment.
I am an avid reader of wide verity of subjects ranging from social sciences, philosophies to life sciences. Yog, trekking, travelling, and photography to name a few other activities I enjoy and do.
Languages: Apart from English, I am fluent in Hindi (Mother tongue), Bhojpuri. I can understand Bengali and Urdu and trying to learn some of the south Indian langauages.
MBA goals: broadly I am looking for follwing but not restricted to this only -
A) Goal is to gain better insight of the industry knowledge and learn best practices (across the globe due to diversity of the class) in the field and in long term to use these learnings in later part of my career. So as a short term goal I expect doing MBA would help me to advance my current roles / responsibilities and/or pay. Though I see the upfront cost, I forsee it would pay me good dividends eventually.
B) An MBA would increase my marketibility and to a some extent job security with my persepective employer or within the industry.
C) In long term I eventually plan to start my own business- a good MBA program will provide me a learning platform applicable to running my own business and will definately provide good networking opportunities, which will come handy.
D) Though I am not sure at this stage (still probing myself, since I have sometime before i start suting my application) but I might try my hands into quant, financial modeling (little different than what I do now).
Please note that I will be applying for the first round as I see this as a better opportunity to get in top schools and also to have a good chance of getting scholarship
(?).
Though I have tried to write with utmost care but if you feel something is not clear please let me know. I hope I have given the reasonable enough information about my profile for you to give a suggestion. Hope to hear from you.
Thanks for patient read, Yogesh