Ask ApplicantLab

Hello,

I seek some advice regarding the suitability of my profile for the schools that I am targeting for fall 2020. Would be grateful if I could receive some feedback.

Background:

• Indian, male
• Engineering bachelors (electrical) - GPA 6.1/10 (equiv to 61%) at tier 1 university
• 5+ years' worth of work experience (be 6 by the time I apply) - Renewable energy - Consulting and operations
• GMAT 700 (Q47 V38 IR4)

Target colleges:
• LSB
• INSEAD
• HEC
• Oxford Said
• ISB

Post MBA goals
Career acceleration in the same field

Short term:
Manager/Team lead at a Developing/Investing firm that could leverage my knowledge engineering and operations to build a strong renewable energy portfolio
OR
Senior Consultant/team lead at a consulting firm that assists governments in emerging markets to set up appropriate policies to maximize benefit to their economies - technically as well as financially.

Long term -
Senior executive at a firm that builds on a portfolio of energy projects through organic/inorganic growth to maximize its gains. Would also like to be involved in policy related advisory for emerging markets.


Work exp break down:-

3 years at a technical consulting firm (largest in India) - Energy industry. (2013-2016) - location India

• Worked on conventional power projects in Greece and Morocco - 1 year. Clients were foreign nationals. Had limited travel during this time.
• Mostly focused on developing strong technical fundamentals
• Shifted to renewable energy industry (utility scale solar plants). Offered consultancy services to lenders, policy makers and developers. Drew on the rich technical learning that I garnered in the first year of my service.
• Travelled extensively all over India and witnessed the boom in the renewable energy space first hand.
• Promoted to the position of an Engineering Consultant – Design


2 years at the world's 2nd largest solar PV (photo voltaic) Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) company

• Employed as senior design engineer.
• Employed at double the pay.
• Shifted from consultancy to operations in the space of a couple of months
• Drew on the wealth of technical experience garnered in previous employment as technical consultant
• Started the energy storage department in the firm
• Picked up financial modelling and programming even though these were not a part of my job description. Employed this skill set to pivot discussions with management and clients and to engage in objective arguments.
• Led a team of 8 at the home office and a team of 24 at site, to successfully commission the largest solar PV plant (at that time) inside an Airport (beside the runway) at the Kolkata International Airport.
• Obtained recommendation from Client (central government of India)
• Manager (team lead) for 3 large scale solar PV projects that were completed - concept to commissioning - within a space of 2 years and were based out of India, Egypt and Argentina
• Employment included extensive travelling all over the country and to Egypt and Vietnam (for construction monitoring)


1 year at the world's largest energy consulting form (2018- present)

• Offered a role of a Consultant in Energy Storage and Renewable energy
• 4x the pay that I received at my previous employment
• Permanent employment offered at Dubai office. Currently hold a resident Visa.
• Centre of excellence for solar PV. I have been asked to disseminate my operations experience to the solar consulting team.
• Offer consultancy services to private equity forms, banks and developers investing in energy storage (primary role)
• Travel to Jordan, Egypt, Kenya and Saudi Arabia

Extra curriculars

2011- present
• Started a cooperative for sustainable tourism in the Himalayas. The geographic location is quite limited to few high - altitude locations in Jammu and Himachal Pradesh.
• It’s a low-key initiative that includes locals as well as travellers and I have never wanted any hype around it. There is no formal company registration. It is an initiative that has been popular only because of the heavy involvement of the local people. It's a cause I personally care about.

2013-2015
Volunteer at an NGO that works to offer education to the underprivileged - run by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi

2016-present
Active member of a vocational training institute where I disseminate my knowledge of operations to budding technicians

Kindly post your opinion whether my profile looks competitive enough to be considered by the aforementioned schools. I am a bit worried about my GMAT score. I only had 12 days to prepare for it and I have a feeling that I can probably do better. But to be very honest, I don't think i will have enough time to retake, thanks to commitments at work. Should I actively consider retaking?

Thanks a lot!

SNG

Hi Maria

Thank you so much for your feedback, really appreciate it!

I do intend to apply in R1 (for fall 2020 admit) to all of the colleges that I mentioned earlier in my post. Your point is well taken, I will retake the GMAT. Though it would be incredibly onerous to manage with my current workload.

Thanks once again for your prompt response, and I'll look forward to work on my applications with Applicant Lab once i have that "competitive" score

Hi Maria. I emailed you a week ago and you've led me to this thread. Would love a profile review. Will apply to Oxbridge MBAs next year (4 years WE at matriculation, age 25) so I'm wondering what my chances are right now and what I can do to strengthen my application to make me competitive for scholarships.

Background and nationality: Citizen of a South East Asian (SEA) country. Ethnicity is mixed: SEAn and East Asian.

Age and gender: 23 male (25 by matriculation)

Undergrad Information: Top 2 university in my country, does not rank well globally. Majored in a quantitative business course. GPA converts to slightly below 3.65 (no grade inflation).

GMAT: Yet to take. Practice CATs hover above 700, but I'm targeting a 730.

Work experience and leadership: 2 years (as of right now) in a middle market bank working in Equity Research as a covering associate (so 4 years by matriculation if I apply next year, with a promotion to analyst by then hopefully). Very client-facing. Also informally work (multiple non-hands on roles such as some asset management and HR recruiting) in a diversified family business that's considered medium-sized in my country. Eight digit annual revenues in USD.

International experience: Have gone to business trips to other Asian countries. Constantly in contact with international buy-side clients across the globe.

Community and others: Had strong leadership roles in a charity-based UG org. Semi-active after as a consultant to the org. Plan to be a lot more active.

Post MBA goals: I will run the medium-sized family business one day, and an MBA would help with the network, learning, and reputation. These things are important because: 1. we have been dealing with more international clients lately, 2. reputation helps in making deals and gaining clients, and 3. reputation helps because I plan to IPO one of the companies we hold.

Anything else? Took summer courses in top unis in UK and an East-Asian country.

Cheers!

Hi Maria,
Request you to evaluate my profile.

Indian Male, Age: 30 at the time of matriculation
GMAT: 680

B.Tech: NIT Jaipur (Electronics & Communication)
M.Tech (Aeronautics)

Work Ex:
Indian Navy as Lieutenant Commander (total 10 years at the time of matriculation)
Handled various roles as Department Head, Manager etc.
Presently, Manager at a Naval Aircraft Yard (mainly looking after operations, logistics & HR management)

Extra curricular: Runners up in Indian Naval Boat Pulling Regatta (most prestigious sailing competition of IN), Runners up in Enterprise Class sailing, conducted various events etc.

Awarded Commendation (awarded only to 3% officers)

Other details: Holds a PMP and have done various courses from Coursera & EdX to enhance my skillset and work in the Navy.

Why MBA: Post retirement, I want to get into Operations Management. I have decent managerial skills, good analytical and problem solving abilities and good leadership skills. I think an international MBA will enhance my overall personality, will help me learn from my coursemates & will provide me a learning opportunity to excel in corporate.

Please suggest colleges which are within my reach and which are a bit out of my reach but likely possible. I intent to do a full time MBA from US/ Singapore/ Europe.

Thank you

PS: I will be giving GMAT again in 3 months time and expect to increase the score by 30-40 points.

Hi Maria
I am Asish, and I am from India. Following is my brief profile-
GMAT-710
Age-30
GPA-3.5
WE-2 years (Non profit Govt org) + 6 years in retail banking
Target admission year-2020
Post MBA goals- Corporate finance followed by IB and consulting.

Though I have 6 years of experience in banking, mostly I worked in branch level during these years. I consulted with some admission consultant, and each of them suggested that my experience is a bit one dimensional. Truly speaking I don't have significant leadership experiences.

How should I project my profile to the Adcoms? What kind of profile enhancement do I require? What should be my target schools?

Hello! Thanks for reaching out and apologies for the delay -- I was on vacation last week due to the Holy Week / Passover holiday over here! Let's dig in:



I think your career is off to a strong start -- a key component of your application will be demonstrating the people skills I'm guessing you have (client facing work) -- but kicking it up a notch to demonstrate leadership skills. In other words, making sure that the different components of your application (essays, recommendations, etc.) really show that you have the ingredients for leadership. I say this because often equity research is viewed as being a "reactive" role (analyzing what other companies are doing) vs. a "proactive" role (actually driving change at a company)... so showing them that you have the raw ingredients for leadership via the application, so that you will be a more "proactive" leader later on, will be important.

Great! Please do try to increase your contribution to that charity between now and when you apply next year. This can be a great place to go "above and beyond" especially if your work at the bank is more structured / hierarchical and doesn't give you a ton of room to,. e.g. lead projects by yourself.

OH! Ok so, given your young age, my advice to you is to go work for the family business starting now, work there for a year or two, and then apply then. This will help give a ton more credibility to the career vision -- proving that you actually are committed to (and good at!) the family business. It will also help you stand out more vs. being an equity analyst.

One piece of advice though -- don't tell a school you're only interested in them for their "reputation" -- that's like telling someone you only want to date them because they're wealthy. Your "Why MBA" argument needs to be tighter. Thankfully, in the ApplicantLab I have an entire module devoted to helping you develop a strong rationale for getting the MBA.


The summer courses are not really all that impactful -- they neither help nor really hurt you.

Just out of curiosity, why are you interested in only the UK schools? Several of the US programs have the ability to study topics specifically related to family businesses, e.g. Cornell, Columbia, etc. Also, European programs tend to skew just a smidge older in their applicant pool compared to US programs.


Thanks!,
Maria

Hi there Ashish -- great to meet you. It can be difficult to assess chances based on these sorts of message board postings, but your post in particular is pretty "lite" on details so it's an even tougher task.

That having been said, I will do my best!

As you may know, most U.S. MBA programs' students have around 5 years of work experience, so your 8 years (9 at matriculation) as well as age of 30+ puts you at a slight disadvantage. So for starters, look into the "class profiles" of each school you're considering and see if they take older students. Your best bet may be with one-year programs and/or programs in Europe, which tend to be more open to more seasoned applicants.

Regarding your work experience, it's true that retail banking isn't considered all that elite. That having been said, you might have more leadership experience than you know! Just because you have not formally managed teams doesn't mean that you have not had opportunities to demonstrate leadership skills, it just means that perhaps they have occurred in a more informal way.

How many promotions have you received? Are you ahead of your peers, career-wise? Can your recommenders speak to how you have pushed for innovative new ideas, inspired the team during tough times, etc.? All of these things can potentially serve as "evidence" that your career is in fact on an upward trajectory.

One thing I would very much work on are your post-MBA career goals. To be blunt, it would be almost impossible (at any age, but especially at your age) to jump from retail banking to corporate finance to investment banking to consulting. Applying with a career vision like this would automatically sink your application, as it would look as though you had not really researched / thought carefully about what a realistic career path is, post-school. Should you decide to apply, I'd urge you to spend a lot of time researching viable career paths and being thoughtful about the plan you present.

Regarding schools to consider, here is my blog post on the topic: https://www.applicantlab.com/blog/mba-a ... mine-odds/

Research to see -- when other people from your bank, in a similar role , have applied to business schools -- where have they ended up going?

Again, there's very little info provided, so it's not all that easy to do things like provide a list of schools to apply to. Usually, a general rule of thumb for Indian applicants is to start by finding schools with GMAT scores about 30 points lower than yours (in your case a 680), but if you really don't have much leadership experience, etc. then I'd go even further and look for schools with, say GMATs in the 650-ish range, in the hopes that they'd be willing to give you a chance based on the score and not on the strength of the profile.

Now, if you DO have leadership experience, but it's just informal vs. formal, then THAT can be overcome by submitting strong essays giving concrete examples, a resume that shows upward career progression, and recommendations that vouch for you being a rising star. This is why the "qualitative" sections of the application make up about 60% of the admissions decision -- so conveying those experiences correctly can make a big difference!

Hi Maria,

I read on the FAQs on your portal that you usually do not evaluate profiles but looking at the reviews(@applicantlab) of how you have helped out people in their applications, I could not resist posting this! I would really like to hear from you on my profile.

Could you please evaluate my profile for a top-10 US B school, INSEAD and LBS? I have 18 months of full time work experience. Do you think it would be a good idea to apply to these schools next year?(so I would have 3 years of work experience at the time of joining). I see that most of these schools have an average work experience of 4-5 years. Would I be at a disadvantage the year following the next if I apply and get rejected next year? Is it a right time to work with a consultant?

Hera are more details:


Academics:

10th standard: 94%, ICSE
12th standard: 85% Maharashtra State Board
Undergraduate: IIIT Bangalore, Major Computer Science CGPA 3.61/4(Deans Merit List, among top 5 of graduating cohort), Minor Data Science. It was an integrated program so I have a B Tech and M Tech in Computer Science.
GMAT Q49, V38. Total 710 (I read your previous posts and understand my GMAT is on a lower side for these schools, I am already working on it)

Professional details(Internship):
AMD, BNP Paribas, Yatra.com(Indian startup)
Selected for Summer school organized by Stanford

Professional details(full time):

September 2017-December 2018 Hilti Group in Kuala Lumpur as Data Scientist
Jan 2019- Present Hilti Group in Switzerland as Product Owner(promoted). Leading a team of 4 developers (not direct reports but). I plan to change geographies again next year. The location is not decided but it would be a European country.

Other stuff

Co-founding member of E-Cell of my college(2014)
Mentoring students pursuing Masters in technology with their thesis(2019)
Learning German (2019)
Worked with AIESEC, Bangalore(2014)
Did a research internship at RMIT University in Australia and published a paper.(2015)
Won 10-12 tech competitions at a national and international level(2013-2018)

Thanks in advance, Maria! Greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the review Maria.

I do plan on working in the family business the moment I get an acceptance to a program, which should be around a year before matriculation. Parents made it clear that I have to take an mba before I dive into the family business full time because once I do so, the opportunity cost would be too high to leave for 1-2 years. Especially in the context that we're currently jumpstarting a diversification into new industries. So there definitely is a time aspect to why I'm applying relatively young. Furthermore, I don't think I can get strong LoRs if I work in the family business compared to in my current role. Would it be enough that I tell adcom my plans to work in the fam business righr after an accept?

I do like to point out however that in the last 3 years, I had been involved in the fam business, just not in a hands on manner. I've dabled into wealth management, HR recruiting, and institutional sales (of course not full time) with strong results.

I like UK schools because 1. They are one year programs (less opportunity cost vs a 2 year one in the US), 2. the class profiles are much more international on average vs US schools, and 3. it seems easier to get into top UK programs vs T10 US schools (correct me if I'm wrong).


I'll make sure to get more involved in the charity organization, and find ways to show leadership. But as it is, does it look like I'd be competitive for Oxbridge/LBS?

Cheers!

Posted from my mobile device

Hi Maria,

Plz evaluate my profile for CMU Tepper,Haas,NYU Stern and Yale

My profile is as follows:
Indian Male, 32 years old
Engineering graduate in Computer Science.

10th- 78%
12th - 77.6%
B.Tech- 68% From State Technical University.

Total of 8.5 years of work experience :
3 years with Infosys Limited as Senior System Developer.

5.5 years in retail banking with the largest bank in India, State Bank of India (Joined as Probationary Officer). Branch Manager since last 3 years.Dealing with retail finance as well as general management.

GMAT : 710 Q 50 V 36 IR 5 AWA 5

Extra Curricular:
1. Have been a part of an NGO which works in education sector for rural students, for 6 months
2.During my stint as Software Engineer, was a member of employee club and conducted a fundraising program for wedding of poor girls.
3.Have conducted a number of financial literacy camps in rural areas,outside of my work area.
4.Appeared for UPSC Civil Services Interview twice,probably the toughest exam in India.

Achievements: In both my organisations,got promoted to a higher position in the minimum possible time.
.In recognition of my work,was selected to open and head a new bank branch catering to Defence Officers.
.Numerous internal awards for achievements catering to different areas of work.

Have a unique exposure of working with the farmers and the rural population of the country,as well as with High Profile Defence Officers.

Want to change my career field,and an MBA would be a right step in that direction.Post MBA industry preferred is Consulting or Finance.

Hi Maria,

I came across your interview with that client who got into Emory and I'm pretty set on getting ApplicantLab in time for my applications this fall. I wonder if you could have a look at my profile and tell me what sort of schools I should be looking to apply to.

Gender: Male
Nationality: Pakistan
Age: 25

Education and Background:
- Born in Pakistan but grew up in Bahrain (till High School)
- Received full scholarship to go to boarding school in Canada
- Went to Uni in the UK (Top 20 in the World)
- Electrical and Electronics Engineering (2nd Class Honours (Lower)) - GPA converts to 3.01 on the WES calculator. Basically I was completely immature and decided to pursue an engineering degree cuz that's what everyone in my family had done before. Started off strongly but then floundered in the middle when I realised this just wasn't for me. Got my head down and worked super hard in the final year (final year GPA is 3.24).

Work Experience:
- Global Project Coordinator for large Industrial Automation company in Tokyo. Essentially technical sales to customers (Big Oil and renowned EPC contractors).
- Currently 26 months. Will be 40 months by matriculation.
- Studying Japanese. Will have official intermediate proficiency certification at time of application (hopefully).

GMAT: 690 (Q44; V:40)

Target Industry: This is where it gets interesting. I'm not averse to moving into operations consulting (as this is what my current role most strongly relates to) and I think this is what I will position as my main goal for North American programs. My dream career is within the sports industry which is why IESE Spain is my highest priority in the coming application cycle. They have dedicated sports treks out to London and NIKE happens to be one of the biggest employers for their graduates. Am I dumb for having two vastly different career paths in mind?

I'm hoping I can leverage my international experience and GMAT to make up for that GPA.

Target Schools: IESE, Rotman, McGill, Emory, Notre Dame, Fisher

Target schools above are the ones I plan on applying to this year but I may swap out one here and there.

I'd love to hear what you think!

Thanks!