Ask Vikram Shah Consulting

I wish you all the very best with your applications!

I have released all the questions into the chat, FYI.
_________________

Name- Aastha
Indian, 24yo, Female
Target GMAT Score- 700+
Education- BTech in Instrumentation and control, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, Karnataka
Overall Score in Undergrad- 7.0 CG
12th Grade- 85%
10th Grade- 9.4 CG
Work Experience- 2 years in Consulting at top consulting firm.
6months Internship as an Amazon Alexa developer

Aim: I have always wanted to get into marketing, I am a people’s person and have had client facing role at my current firm giving me exposure and experience for the same. I want to switch careers from an IT consultant to a Brand Manager which is why I am interested in doing an MBA degree.

Schools I aim for: ISB, Kellogg, UCLA, SPJIMR

Questions:
1. Is my profile good enough to get into the schools I am aiming for
2. What steps I should be taking to be able to achieve my goals
3. Is the transition from consulting to marketing attainable?


I would love to get your insights further on my profile.

Name- Aastha
Indian, 24yo, Female
Target GMAT Score- 700+
Education- BTech in Instrumentation and control, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, Karnataka
Overall Score in Undergrad- 7.0 CG
12th Grade- 85%
10th Grade- 9.4 CG
Work Experience- 2 years in Consulting at top consulting firm.
6months Internship as an Amazon Alexa developer

Aim: I have always wanted to get into marketing, I am a people’s person and have had client facing role at my current firm giving me exposure and experience for the same. I want to switch careers from an IT consultant to a Brand Manager which is why I am interested in doing an MBA degree.

Schools I aim for: ISB, Kellogg, UCLA, SPJIMR

Questions:
1. Is my profile good enough to get into the schools I am aiming for
2. What steps I should be taking to be able to achieve my goals
3. Is the transition from consulting to marketing attainable?


I would love to get your insights further on my profile.

You can get into kellogg with the target profile and score

aasthaabhatia1997,

Anyone who can help me practice case interviews - I have an interview lined up this Friday and Monday. And I really reallly need this one. Would highly appreciate any leads. (P.S. I have prior experience with BCG (1 yr) but it was more on the backend. Now I’m interviewing for a boutique consultancy firm.)

We also help clients at Bschool prepare for consulting case interviews and could possibly help you prepare. Friday may be short notice but we could use the weekend to help you prep for Monday. Let me know how many hours you require and we'll provide you with a quote accordingly. Which country are you currently in (to plan for time zone differences)?

Request if someone could help in reviewing my profile My details are as placed below-



Personal Info
 Indian Male, 30 years.
Serving as an officer in Indian Navy 


GMAT Score
740 (Q49 V41)

Work History –

2019 – 2021
Inventory Manager
Single handedly undertook management and streamlined a large and fast moving inventory of over 10.8 lack weapon equipment.

2016 – 2019
Technical HoD – Corvette class of Warship
Headed the technical department of a warship and effectively led a
team of 130 men.

Efficiently led the team into border patrolling post pulwama incident in
2018
Was awarded Commendation by the Chief of Naval Staff for excellent
performance onboard the Ship

2012-2016
Weapon Officer – Destroyer class of warship
Efficiently led a team of 75 men to ensure optimal maintenance of
weapons onboard a destroyer class of ship
Was awarded Commendation by the Chief of Naval Staff for excellent
performance onboard the Ship

Education –
B.Tech – Computer Science 71%
XII - 64%
X - 79%

Skill –
Operational management
Human Resource management
Inventory management

Accomplishments -
Undertook flood relief operations in Mumbai floods in 2018
Participated in intra state table tennis championship

Interest
Long Distance running

Post mba want to work for a firm as an operation manager for some 5 years to gain an understanding of the corporate sector. As a long term goal want to get into entrepreneur role.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi , I need help with shortlisting B-schools that I can target with my profile. And preferably, also to categorise them in the Dream, Practical and Safe buckets.

Demographics: India | Female

Academics:

- GMAT: 730 Q50 V38

- Undergraduate Major - Computer Science | Graduated in 2018
Top college in country - BITS, Pilani
CGPA - 6.5/10 - converts to 65% according to University guidelines | Upper Second Class

Work Experience
3+ years of experience with one promotion

- > 1 year as Software Engineer at an early stage startup - joined as a part of its founding team
Startup is product-based and is being used by global startups and Fortune 500 companies - who I get to interact with.
Significant organisational impact - lots of ownership opportunities to drive end-to-end product decisions
Took initiatives of major milestones that have had a direct impact on the company’s revenue and also in expanding to new countries.

- ~ 2 years experience at a mid-stage fintech startup - part of the Product Engineering team
Worked closely with Product Managers to build a suite of new features and products - these played an important role in company’s Series B funding round.
Mentored group of new joinees

- 6-month Internship at a multinational tech company
Cross-functional collaboration to drive end-to-end test strategy of a yet to be released product

Additional Information

- Volunteering : Several roles at 3 NGOs over the course of 7+ years. Mostly related to Academic support to underprivileged kids.

- Active participation in Student Clubs during undergrad + Leadership roles in college fests

- Part of Editorial Boards of 2 college organizations

Post MBA goals: Product Management roles in high-growth companies

Recommendations: 1 from current company's CEO + 1 from current company's CTO

Thank you!

Competitive but possibly attainable and suited to your goals: Anderson, Cornell, Duke, Michigan Ross, NYU. Safe: Tepper. Ambitious: Anything more competitive than the one's listed here!

Indian male engineer, Gmat 650, 12yrs WE(first 3 as lecturer in engineering college, next 8 in core psu mechanical maintenance management)


Keen for European mba in hope to Relocate.

Acads are mixed bag, stories can be made.

What colleges are my best shot (safe shot to secure ranked colleges).

Mannheim, rotterdam, Warwick, alliance etc is what I came to know a bit about but don't know enough.

I already have an offer from. Top 5 colleges of India. If there's any safe ranked college then I may leave this admission or else I'll. Pay their fee.

Please respond ASAP.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi ,

Could you please evaluate my profile.

About Me:

Age - 24
GMAT : 730 (Q-50, V-40, IR-8, AWA- 6)
Nationality: Indian
Gender : Male
UG Course : B.E. Mechanical Engineering
Undergrad: 9.01/10 - Anna University (1 of the top 10 universities in India) - Top 1% of graduating class - Gold medalist + received partial merit scholarships.
12th : 97.17%
10th : 96.6 %
Work : Currently working as Senior Analyst in a top US MNC (Fortune 100) (3+ years) - 1 Promotion so far. (May not get another one by the time I apply as that is the norm here)
People managed : Max. 4 people for a brief period of time. Currently managing only 1 person.
Overall Work Experience : Planning to apply R2 this year or R1/R2 next year based on your feedback. So, work experience will accumulate depending on that.
Extracurriculars & Leadership positions : Have a bunch from college and work along the lines of Event Head. Also worked with an NGO during college.

Any tips or suggestions would be very much appreciated, but I have a few specific questions into which I would love some insight as well:
1. Which US B-schools should I target?
2. Any advantage with UK/European B-Schools in terms of scholarships ?
3. Is my profile good enough to get decent scholarships in the Top 20 US b-schools?
4. What more can I do to strengthen my profile so that my chances of making to Top 20 schools increase?
5. What should I improve to increase my chances of scholarships in these schools ?
6. Is my GMAT score okay or should I retake the GMAT again to get an even higher score ?
7. When should I apply - R1 vs R2 ?

Thank you for your time.

Below is a brief about my profile, request you to kindly evaluate and suggest if there is a mismatch between the schools and the scores that I am targeting:

Gmat (First attempt) - 660, Q47, V34, IR6
Planning to take the second attend by end of May.

Target score: 710-720
Target Schools: Insead, Said, Judge, LBS, HEC

Indian / Male / 29 years

Graduation: Chemical Engineering (CGPA: 7.28 / 10, Harcourt Butler Technological Institute; mid-rank engineering college)
Post Graduation Diploma In Management: (CGPA: 7.05 /10, Indian Institute of Management Raipur; one of the top 15 business schools in India)

Work Experience: (Total 54 months till date)

30 months: Worked with a national Oil Marketing Company (a Fortune 500 company) in the Corporate Strategy and Planning team.

13 months: Worked in the CEO's office as a Program Manager at a cloud kitchen Start-up (this company is part of a group that owns two mobility based unicorn start-ups in India)

7 months: Program Manager to the CMO at the largest chain of Departmental stores in India.

Currently working as a Senior Manager in the CEO's Office at 7-Eleven India.

Target Schools: INSEAD, LBS, Said, Judge, HEC

Awards and Recognitions:

Implemented a project to optimize cash flows at 'Ola Foods' (part of a unicorn start-up group) during COVID-19 that not only led to ~42% optimization of excess space in kitchens but also resulted in monthly revenue stream of ~INR 8 lacs - Received recognition from Head of Projects and Head of Business Finance.

Guest Columnist for under 30 writers, a series of a daily column focusing on current affairs started by all 65 Dainik Bhaskar (leading national news daily) editions across 14 states.
Winner - Consulting case event at Advaita’15, the International Management fest of ISB Hyderabad.
Finalist - B-plan competition at Intaglio’16, the International Management fest of IIM Calcutta.
Finalist - Markician, the national marketing case study challenge organized by IIFT Delhi.
Winner - Case-Write-up competition in DIGITAL INDIA WEEK held at IIM Raipur, 2015

Post MBA - I want to pursue a career in consulting (with a focus on Energy sector).

Posted from my mobile device

Vikram will join us in a moment and we will begin the chat very shortly

7 plus years of experience.

I am quite old at this point (35 year). But I have a PhD in engineering and have been at a start up which was acquired directly due to my work. My GMAT is 720. I am Looking for a career in M&A mainly in manufacturing. What types of schools should I look into and be hopeful to get in? I am from Kashmir, India.

Gmat - 710

I have 11 years experience in govt general insurance company . I have done btech with 62 %. I am heading my branch for last 4 years. I expect to score 700 on gmat. What’s my chances for IIM A,B,C Or L

Gmat 710

Hey, I come from a family business background who do you think will be the best person to recommend me?