Can I still get into TOP European/Indian B schools - Please advise.

Hi gauraku,

Thank you for your post. I am very sorry to hear about all of the hardships that you experienced in recent years, but I admire your perseverance in getting through them and your desire to focus on positivity and next steps. Here are my responses to your questions:

WORK EXPERIENCE, CHANCES, PROGRAM TYPES

With respect to your chances at these programs, the biggest baseline obstacle for you is going to be the amount of work experience that you have (and will have at the point of application). At IIMs you'll often find work experience averages of only a few years; at IIM Calcutta, for example, only 1.7% of the class has more than 48 months of work experience. The European programs trend a little older (e.g., average work experience of six years at enrollment), but even there, you already have over 2x the average, and you're going to have even more than that if you apply two years from now. I understand the reasons for your delayed pursuit, and if you really want to try for these programs, then you can do your best to explain the situation and "why now" dynamics. But I do think that it's going to be extremely difficult. At this point in your career, you align a lot better with Executive MBA programs (and possibly some part-time or evening-and-weekend programs, though with those, you should still heavily research age and work experience profiles, as they can vary heavily from school to school).

CAREER TRANSITION, PASSION, SPECIFICITY

The IT to NGO shift is certainly justifiable if that's where your heart is. The key will be to articulate the genesis of this passion and interest, how it evolved in recent years, what your super-specific short-, medium-, and long-term goals are, and why exactly you need an MBA (now) in order to achieve those goals. What exactly do you want to do in the NGO space? Where exactly do you hope to work post-MBA? Which organizations, roles, teams, and geographies? What projects do you hope to work on and impact do you hope to have? How does who you are and what you've done to this point -- plus the MBA -- equal, lead to, or enable these goals? What knowledge, skills, and experience do you already have that are relevant? What knowledge, skills, and experience are you missing and therefore need to acquire via an MBA? How exactly will you acquire these things at each program? How will each program enable this transition? And how can you uniquely contribute to each? It is a fairly substantive transition, but if you reveal the authentic interests and passion and purpose behind it -- and articulate all of the above with nuance and specificity -- it can become a strength in your essays and applications. (Likewise, poor articulation of the aforementioned elements could make it a weakness.) You can read more about these dynamics here: https://www.avantiprep.com/blog/the-mos ... on-process

HOW TO CONTINUE TO BUILD

Finally, if you really really want to try for full-time programs, then I would encourage you to consider applying sooner rather than later. As mentioned above, you already have over 2x the average work experience as even the "oldest" of the programs you listed, and waiting two more years to apply and three more years to enroll will only make you even more of an outlier. That said, I will note again that I believe that Executive MBAs are better aligned for you at this point in your career. So if you do wish to pursue those, then over the next two years -- and along with really thinking through the goals dynamics above, researching programs very heavily, getting to know them and talking to current students and alumni at those you're interested in -- I would encourage you to consider what else you can be doing inside of work and outside of work that can elevate your leadership and impact and truly make you stand out. Within work, this might mean raising your hand to lead an initiative beyond your core job responsibilities. Outside of work, this might mean devoting yourself to a community-focused passion, which will in turn help build toward and enable your NGO transition. With these things, going super-deep and having real impact in a couple of areas is always better than sporadic involvement in several. Finally, if your scores end up coming in on the fringe for certain programs, or you feel that your pure business foundation is lacking, then you might also consider taking some foundational business courses or a pre-built series such as HBX CORe.

Hope this helps -- I wish you the best of luck!

Kind Regards,
Greg