Thanks for sharing your profile @Paul L ! Starting with your strengths: 2 years of dedicated energy-transition investing + PE / IB deal experience = high-value domain expertise. 4 years in investments demonstrates technical finance skills, valuation, and commercial negotiation, a strong signal for corporate/strategy placements. Good academics (3.8 GPA) and sustained professional progression across IB → private credit → PE.

Risks: “Why MBA now?” With 8 years and deep sector experience, committees will expect a crisp justification for why an MBA (not executive education or continuing in PE) and how the MBA will concretely accelerate your shift into senior energy roles. If you want to work in the US energy market after a European MBA (LBS/INSEAD/HEC), you’ll need to show a placement path.

What can move the needle? Tighten your “why MBA now” + 3-year post-MBA plan (top priority). Be specific: which skills, which networks (VC / corporates/policy), which internships, and which employers/roles you’ll target (like Head of Corporate Development, renewable arm of an EPC; Strategy Lead at an oil major’s transition team; Director, Energy Transition PE fund). Adcoms want a bridge. Quantify deal & operational impact. Produce some admission-grade STAR bullets with exact metrics: deal size, % IRR uplift, revenues/EBITDA improved, capex avoided, contracts signed, markets entered, team size, budgets managed, vendor negotiation savings, carbon-reduction metrics attributable to a project, etc. Pick 2 recommenders who can quantify commercial leadership. like a PE partner or investment lead and an executive/corporate sponsor you worked with on deal execution. Brief them on your impact memo.

If you can hit 675+ GMAT FE, you widen your reach. Do you have a mock score?

Questions worth thinking through:
1) Do you plan to stay in Europe after the MBA or return to the US?
2) Any leadership / non-deal experience (like led a portfolio company board seat, operational turnarounds, hiring / governance) you want to emphasize?

We would love to learn more about your academic background, extracurricular activities, professional experiences, and personal journey so we can offer a more tailored assessment of your profile and evaluate your chances at your target schools more accurately. Feel free to book a profile evaluation session.

Register for our Coffee Session: “Roadmap to INSEAD R2 Success: Proven Tips & Insights”, which we are hosting on 19th September, 2025 | 9:00 PM IST | 11:30 AM ET. Get Insights

Cheers!
Shantanu Sharma
Founder and Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond