Early career applicant

indybiz,

My apologies for the delayed response. I was wrapping up an overseas trip and got swamped. Your HR / OB goals focus actually helps you in standing out from the pack, which will be important for you given your Male/Indian/IT profile. The following schools have very popular programs in HR / OB, and you should be competitive at them:

--Cornell
--Duke
--Purdue
--Haas
--Michigan
--UNC
--USC

I strongly encourage you to find ways to get leadership at work or in volunteer experiences. If you can do work or volunteer activities that will enable you to show your strengths in HR / OB, I recommend doing so. I also recommend that you start building personal networks among these schools students and alumni now. Also, if you can do informational interviews with MBAs who hold the HR job titles you want to pursue then do so--it will make your career change argument much more compelling.

Good luck,

Hi paul,

Thanks for the encouraging reply..never thought would hear from you!!Ok, i just wanted to ask the question that will all my leadership experiences in my college be good enough? Or is it that i have to demonstrate such potential in my work also? I asked this because it is very difficult for me take leadership positions in such short career in my industry though i can give examples of my decisions influencing my team. I am not sure whether the schools that you have mentioned accept people with just 2 years experience. That is the main reason i was targeting UCLA and carnegie mellon. They admit even college seniors. Can you help me out with this ?

Thanks
Indybiz

Indybiz,

Schools will understand that you can't have alot of leadership opportunities early in your career so they will take into account your college leadership. However, I recommend that you use your community or extracurricular activities to show the leadership you can't show at work. Volunteer for activities in which you take on responsibilities and coordinate others. If you do, then schools won't have to look only at your college activities for leadership.

In my experience, two to three years of work experience is the minium for the middle 80% of most schools' classes, though obviously that lower 10% got in with less than two to three years. So it is possible, but you'll need to explain why you can't wait for an MBA (why you need it now) and explain why you, the younger applicant, are just as qualified as the 26-year-old typical applicant. That's a tough sell for many applicants.

Good luck!