anubhavmax wrote:
Hi,
I have just completed all the examinations and I am planning to apply in round 1 for September 2016 intake. I have a pretty decent work experience. But I am not sure if it is good enough for the colleges I have shortlisted. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
GMAT - 720 Q:51, V:35, IR:5, AWA:5.5 (650 and 690 - first two attempts)
TOEFL - 116
Undergrad - National Institute of Technology, Rourkela (Electronics Major)
GPA - 8.36/10 (Honors)
Nationality - Indian
Work Ex
Sony India (Aug 2011 to Jul 2013)
Product Development, Individual contributor
Significant contribution -
Significantly contributed to a major product where sony was the market leader for the year
Conceptualized and commercialized a Proof of Concept (PoC) on Sony Entertainment Network working beyond project boundaries.
Bagged 3 commercialization projects for the financial year 2012 – 2013 based on the PoC
Awards - 2 division level (500+) and 1 company level (2000+)(Young achiever of the year in 0 - 4 yrs experience category with an experience of 2 yrs)
Samsung Research India(Aug 2013 to present)
Joined as Senior Engineer and got an early promotion to Lead engineer (1.5 years before the average age)
Significant contribution - Joined a project when it was escalated and faced severe delays. With 2 yrs of work ex.. took over the complete project in a month's time leading a team of 4 and stabilized it. Replaced the lead (a 9 yr experience guy) in the process. I was awarded for successful completion of this project within 5 months of joining Samsung
Led a team of 4 for another project which involved regular communication with 5 engineers at HQ, Korea. Completed it successfully and traveled to Korea for 3 months to conclude the project. This bagged me early promotion.
Ranked within the top 5% of the organization for two consecutive appraisal cycles & within top 1% in software competency across the organization, mentored junior engineers and conducted trainings to develop competency across the division.
To Summarize -
Awards - 3 sony, 1 samsung
Before time promotion at Samsung.
Leading projects at Samsung with work ex much less than the average (8-9 yrs)
International work ex of 3 months
Recommendations from my reporting manager at Sony as well as Samsung are going to be pretty good as they have seen me grow.
By the time I join, total work ex will be close to 5 yrs.
Volunteering Activities-
Co-founder of an NGO which is dedicated to children education. Have been running basic courses in a govt. school for children aged 5 to 9 for 2 years now. Designed course curriculum and have achieved promising results. Organized events with education experts to broaden our knowledge base as well as organized fun events for toy creation to attract interested volunteers for full time teaching.
Was leading a sub-team of 5 in a team of 25 to design a formula one car in the final year of my undergrad to participate in Formula SAE. (Formula SAE renamed as Supra SAE held in India for the first time in 2011). Year long project with a budget of 600,000 INR and coordination with team members across various major (mechanical, electronics etc) and various years.
Short term goal - Product management.. Move beyond the technical domain and drive a product from inception to market
Long term goal - To lead a company/ start a venture of my own where I have the flexibility to come up with cheap but quality product and services to strengthen the education system of a developing nation (as my home country, India) where primary education is not up to the standard and technology has the capacity to revolutionize the whole system at root levels. (With my teaching experience, I have realized how technology can accelarate the process while making it fun)
Why MBA - acceleration in career, understand the whole gambit of financial, operational, marketing aspects of product development beyond the technical development, improve/re-fine my leadership skills, and develop a network
Target Schools - INSEAD, MIT sloan, Haas, UCLA Anderson, Tepper
I am keen to know if these b-schools are too ambitious as per my CV. My GMAT score is not a great one but is it going to be a bottleneck as I am an Indian. I had kept Tepper as a safe school but then I have heard that Tepper prefers candidates with a high GMAT (around 750).
Hello there,
And thanks for writing.
Sooooo first of all, I think you have a very nice profile. Great grades, a great TOEFL, a great GMAT, great companies on your resume, and quite good leadership experience. You co-founded an NGO, and built a car. All this together tells me that you are one interesting dude.
And I think your school list, although ambitious is not unreasonable. If you can apply to all these schools in R1, you should do so, that way you can leave some options open for R2.
One thing though, is that you will need to think out your goal trajectory more fully before you apply. where exactly do you want to work? What company? In what industry? And how do you imagine progressing? And how will this build off your previous experience.
Get that down, make beautiful essays and get your recommenders excited, and you'll be giving it the best shot you can.
Best,
Jon