Hi,
I took the GMAT on Sep 21, 2012 and was pleased to see 740 (Q49, V42) as my final score. Pleased since in all my practice tests (usually not taken in completely appropriate settings), I had not crossed 720 and usually hovered between the 660-700 mark over more than 10 tests I had taken over a period of 2 months (6
MGMAT, 3 Kaplan and 1 GMAT Prep). But I deal very well with pressure and usually it tends to get me working the hardest and at my best. Additionally, I'm keeping in mind that this is from the unofficial score report and I still don't have my AWA and IR scores so keeping my fingers crossed.
Anyhow, the pleasant shock over, the next steps seem fairly daunting so here I am seeking your expert advice.
1) My academic record is average, nothing extraordinary
School: 87.4% in Standard 10th (Top scholarship in Math)
School: 86.4% in Standard 12th (Science)
Grad: 69% Specialization - Marketing (2nd position in Marketing, College from Delhi university, India) - unsure of calculating GPA
Post Grad: CGPA: 6.1/10 Specialization - Marketing (top 10, top 5 MBA schools in India- PGDM degree)
2) Work experience: 6.5 years with a leading Investment Management firm (the world's largest Investment Management firm's presence in India) in Marketing as Assistant Vice President and Head of Advertising, Branding, Relationship Marketing and Digital Marketing (Reporting to Executive Vice President and Head- Marketing and Corporate Strategy). Role: a diverse team of 5 reports to me (all elder to me), I independently handle annual budgets of over 3-4 million USD and have created, planned an implemented marketing programs from scratch worth over 1 million USD on multiple occasions; responsible for development of overall marketing strategy, media planning and buying, mainline advertising & product and corporate branding; driving brand evolution and global brand guideline compliance, liasioning with global marketing teams; developing and implementing multi-media communication strategy in close association with the advertising, media & PR agencies; key member of parent company's India Integration Team, a core team of hand-picked individuals across the entire organization, that drove a large scale rebranding exercise in 2008 - was responsible for all external and internal rebranding/ marketing initiative. Great exposure to global teams, vendors from across the world, travel to various Asia and Europe offices on work. At the age of 28, one the most well exposed and experienced guys in the system with a stellar work experience record (in my mind of course), youngest in my organization at my designation and also the youngest to have a diverse team of 5 reporting directly to me. At the time of admission, will have completed seven years of work experience.
3) Settled well at work with an MBA equivalent degree back in 2004-2006 (Post Graduate Diploma in Management) but need to propel myself to the next level. I don’t think that will happen by continuing to work where I do and I need to push myself hard to get myself to the US where I truly believe the most radical education opportunities are available. Willing to take a 2 year break from job and then I will ideally like to figure out a global level role for myself. I may not want to return to India post MBA as I envision myself to become a global corporate leader of some kind (sounds like a stretch at this time but that's the life goal).
4) Confident of writing good SOPs with clear stories and answers and reasons behind my decisions to study further.
5) Average Extracurriculars:
- Represented school/ college/ MBA college in various sports team- Cricket/ football - school level football at zonal level (below state/ national)
- Represent my organization in its cricket team as Captain, play an active role in annual team selection and some basic coaching, planning the sport calendar, organizing friendly matches and representing the team in various amateur corporate tournaments.
- Play a musical instrument at an amateur level as a keyboardist and have represented school/ college bands at various competitions/ recitals
- Worked closely with a slum dwellers-benefit, under-provided students and spastic society upliftment program while back in school, undertook voluntary social work
- Member of my organization's CSR committee, actively involved in working with NGOs and associating with them- including work with a for-profit group that helps NGOs manage money and understand finances and streamline their business model appropriately.
- Had been teaching my neighbourhood kids to play the keyboard at an amateur level, purely out of interest to teach- not really entrepreneurial as it didn't involve finances, and not even corporate social responsibility so don't know if it adds anything to my profile
- Undertaken some informal voluntary social work in my neighbourhood: teaching underprivileged kids some basic math. More than the teaching itself I could motivate some older kids to pick up basic math and teach the younger ones in their own areas. This wasn't formal and I will really not have any way of proving it, I used to do this in my free time along with the keyboard classes (pre-marriage back in 2009-2010, when I had some free time.
- Informally mentored a couple of our office runners (seriously underprivileged and not highly educated) on the basics of savings and investments as they have worked with me over the past 6 odd years and run a lot of office errands, but are the sole earners in their family - have encouraged them both to start saving and investing appropriately and they have both seen a big difference in their lives due to this.
(Not sure if this is a strong section but I don't think I can add much more to this at this stage in life)
6) Schools I want to apply to?
I'm a Marketing guy in general so I'm going to apply to only the top Marketing schools and that also only in the US as my agenda is to eventually shift base in some manner to the US. I'm probably going to apply to only Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg and Chicago-Booth. Would be interesting to hear if there are other schools which I could possibly consider but I'm basically aiming for the absolute top tier.
7) Can manage to get good recommendations if I try and beg hard enough
1. Senior guys from parent company (Managing Director from the London Office OR Head- Asia Pacific marketing from the Hong Kong office) OR my India firm’s President and Chief Investment Officer (most likely)
2. Head- Marketing, India for a Top 10 competitor investment management firm
3. Professor of Strategy, who is also Director of Competitiveness Institute, Sloan Affiliate and Member of the Collective. Also an affiliate faculty for Microeconomics of Competitveness at Institute of Strategy and Competitveness, Harvard Business School. However, this is unlikely as I've been out of touch but I'm going to try nevertheless. If not, then one of my professors back at school (whose profiles will definitely not sound as impressive as this guy's profile)
Additionally, Does it make a big difference if the recommendation is from really senior/ well-networked professional whom you may not have direct affiliation with on a daily basis but have regular working experience with/ known in the past, or is it better to get them from someone who you interact on a daily basis such as your immediate supervisor at work (which I want to avoid as I may not like to inform them that this is something I'm planning for)
8). Does applying for Round 2 or 3 make a massive difference?
My plan: Will miss R1 as it seems just around the corner, but can target R2 for December.
9) Others:
I’m married with no kids; Financially average - Even if the 0.01% chance that someone may accept me comes true, I will have to really stretch to see where the funds will come from; No family business background or network or connections to call upon.
close
27 Sep 2012, 13:17
