sparta1,
Thanks for your message. I am happy to review your profile and offer my feedback.
My colleagues at
Stratus Prep and I have successfully worked with numerous clients applying to INSEAD with personal and professional backgrounds similar to yours. In order to maximize your chances of admission, it makes sense to apply for the January semester as you have indicated that you are planning to do.
I think that you have the right (and enough) work experience for INSEAD and relatively strong academic credentials. In your application, you will want to be really clear about what you have achieved at the multinational tractor firm and how specifically you have achieved it without getting caught up in the technical details. Focus on your team management experiences and your strategic contributions. Do not focus so much on the designing and styling as that is not particularly relevant to MBA AdComs.
It will also be important for you to demonstrate your professional and academic skills outside of the more technical fields as this will help differentiate you from other Indian applicants with an engineering background (
Stratus Prep has successfully employed this strategy with countless applicants with profiles similar to yours).
In terms of recommenders, I would suggest you try to get someone from the multinational who can speak to how your work performance compares with that of other employees globally as well as someone from your family's company who is not related to you to speak to your demonstrated commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship (both of which are very in demand by top MBA programs today).
A weakness in your profile (that you should strive to address) is your lack of leadership in the volunteer/non-profit sphere. I would like to see you help lead a strategic initiative in the non-profit space, if at all possible.
Other than addressing you limited non-profit experience, I think that the most important thing that you can do to maximize your chances of admission to INSEAD is to work to produce compelling and thought-provoking essays (as you may know the essays are particularly important at INSEAD). In this regard, I would suggest working with an expert firm, like
Stratus Prep, that has a very established track record of helping individuals with your profile into INSEAD. Along those lines, if you would like to schedule a 30 minute free consultation to discuss how we might work together, I would be happy to do so. Please just shoot me a private message here or email me at
shawn.oconnor@stratusprep.comGood luck!
_________________
Shawn O'Connor
Founder/CEO, Stratus Prep
shawn.oconnor@stratusprep.com
212-307-1788
http://www.stratusprep.com