gmatway wrote:
Demographics: 27 years old, Female, Indian
non engineering background
Education:
• Undergrad: bachelor in banking and insurance from a top university in my country. GPA 4 (10th 82% , 12th 81% , BBI- overall 69% )
• Post Graduate diploma course in banking operations
GMAT: will appear in April 2020 (what score do I need?)
Work Experience
• Total 5.4 years of worex in retail banking and insurance customer service (client facing role/front desk role) .1.9 years in ICICI bank , 3.5 years of experience in HSBC retail banking ( started my role as customer service officer in retail banking got promoted after 1.8 months titled as premier services manager and handled premier customers globally).
At present - Left banking job to pursue my own passion and fulfill my aim.
1)Building my ethical & eco friendly fashion clothing brand ( I also provide clothes on rent at affordable prices to encourage everyone to avoid one time clothing purchase which most buyers don't even plan to wear for more than one event) to bring massive shifts in reducing the textile waste (textile waste is second largest pollutant in the world) and save our environment as well as ourselves from harmful chemicals .
2)Provide jobs to help our economy grow and help people live better life . Currently I have 10 people working under me . Planning to expand my business in a way so that more people connect and earn an extra income globally.
Leadership and Extracurricular Activities:
• Won global hearts award for excellent customer service from HSBC global head and other several work related awards.
• Represented my region in national level CHESS competition and won gold medals in CHESS.
• Won beauty pageant (held in my region/locality)
Took part in many events (almost all in my entire life - school /college ), won awards in art /creativity ,converting waste into useful products,drawing,banking related activities/ideas . I was part of women development cell in college . Also won medals in chess in college sports events .
Other:
• NISM - demat certified (certification will expire )
• IRDA certified - (INSURANCE REGULATORY AND DEVELOPMENT ACT ,India)
• I teach underprivileged students for free and help people to create mental balance in their lives and be at their best .
Post MBA goal: I want to explore my capabilities and open more firms (entrepreneurship ). In case I don't get any innovative idea to open new firm that generates employment and contribute to society /world then I would want to gain some experience in finance sector to explore what more kind of financials reforms in financial products can be brought to manage current financial market structures differently .
Essay: Will focus on how being a defence kid (my dad was in army ) helped me develop my personality and make stronger bonds wherever I have visited . I wish to generate employment and encourage others to join hands and make a better world (equity ).
Other schools: Stanford, Wharton, Sloan, Columbia, INSEAD
Points of concern:
• GMAT score – I am aiming for 750 (working hard to get that score)
• Financial background – I am not sure what category retail banking fits in because our role is always a mix of customer service. I haven't visited abroad but I have handled clients globally (helped me make strong personal and professional connections with amazing people , CEO of top companies and several others (globally )who know me personally -of course I can't disclose but proud to build a relationship and converse with them directly) and have helped them choose right banking products as per their needs (whether they want to set up business, invest money , their children's education ).
• LOR - I am confused about LOR . one of my senior managers with whom I had worked can give LOR , Should I ask for LOR from my client? Who else is authorised to give LOR?
Many thanks!
You have a strong profile and you should certainly apply to HBS (you miss all the shots you don't take!). I'll analyze the information you provided a few different ways below:
- Academic: The Indian students that HBS accepts are disproportionately from IIT. You mention attending a top school in India, so I'm not sure which school you attended, but in general HBS table-stakes has become IIT or equivalent with top grades. Unfortunately, as an Indian applicant, you come from a very competitive demographic. However, being female and non-engineering helps given that your peer group shifts a little bit with those characteristics (male engineers are disproportionately represented in the Indian applicants that HBS receives. You'll definitely want to make your "right-brain" shine as much as possible in your essays, which it seems you already have plan to do.
- Testing: Your GMAT and TOEFL will be important. You are on the right track to be aiming for 750+ on GMAT. 740+ is generally where accepted Indian HBS applicants shake out, despite the HBS school average of ~730. Your undergraduate academic record is not tip-top-of-the-class, so a high GMAT score would be great for you to demonstrate performance at the highest level in an academic exam setting. Since you don't have much international experience (which isn't at all a deal breaker, by the way, especially if you can spin the experience you *do* have with global clients / suppliers, etc. the right way), your TOEFL will be important to demonstrate your strong proficiency in English since all your education and work experience so far has been in India. Unlike the GMAT, however, your TOEFL should be above HBS' passive average of 110, but you don't necessarily get loads more points for a figure significantly above passing. Your profile write-up suggests mastery of English so you should probably be just fine from a TOEFL perspective.
- Work experience: You are right to be thinking about how to best position your retail banking experience. Retail bankers/strategists definitely make it into M7 schools, but strategic positioning is uber important with these candidates since retail banking is generally regarded as less prestigious / less ambitious / less competitive and less remunerative. (Still, investment banking is its own can of worms since it's so disproportionately represented in the applicant pool, so don't fret about retail banking, just make sure you position in the right way). In general, retail banking can offer more leadership opportunities (smaller clients and more of them so more hands-on relationship building for junior, less-tenured bankers than the higher relationship value asset management, private banking, commercial banking and investment banking. Also, working with employees that are paid hourly and potentially managing them, too, is another type of leadership experience that investment bankers won't get. Working with smaller companies was likely excellent preparation for launching your own eco-fashion start-up. Make sure to play that up in your essays as well.
- A potential red flag: there are probably some nuances that you want to make sure you heed if you write about your participation and winning of beauty pageants in a potential HBS or M7 essay.
- LOR question: The best rec letters come from a current or former supervisor/manager who knows you and your professional growth well and is willing to put in what will likely be a few hours to write you a great rec letter. But this doesn't necessarily *need* to be the case if you weren't close or didn't have a good relationship with your former supervisor. Think of a person who can extol your virtues and tell the success stories you are proudest of from a different angle (it's really great if they can tell the same stories that you talk about from your essay questions to validate those successes). Whoever you chose, enable them to be your champions by creating a comprehensive bullet-point list for them of your successes while you were working together. Oftentimes managers can't necessarily remember deal sizes or revenue contributions off-hand so this detailed list of your contributions will be helpful.
Assuming you score a 750+ on your GMAT, your strategic positioning (what you write about in your essays, what you write about wanting to do long-term/short term and how this is imminently possible given your prior success plus an HBS degree, how you position your extracurricular leadership to come across as an active and involved HBS student and alum) is what is going to make or break your HBS application. If talking to an MBA admissions consultant about strategic positioning and essay content may be helpful to you, feel free to sign up for a free consultation here:
https://admissionado.com/free-consultat ... sultation/
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27 Jan 2020, 22:07
