Expert help needed: Very strange admissions situation

Question

Hi,
I'm looking to apply for a US or Canadian MBA in the fall of 2015, and I have a VERY strange admissions problem that I just can't wrap my head around.

I'm currently a small business owner since the last almost three years, but previously I had worked with the retail-banking Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) unit of TCS located in Mumbai, Tata Consultancy Services e-Serve (formerly known as Citigroup Global Services), for over over five years. They were a BPO company providing outsourcing solutions to various subsidiaries of Citigroup. This five-year tenure is where I got most of my grooming, and which is the pillar of my resume, and one that I'm sure will make my entry into a good school possible.

My issue is as follows:

Now, the outsourcing companies that are located in India follow hierarchies that are very typical for most Indian organisations. Hence, employees have very specific, standard designations on paper, which are recorded at HR. However, the ever-changing vendor requirements compel each department to create ad-hoc positions to meet said requirements which HR is NOT appraised of.

In the company I worked for, TCS e-Serve, a person's job title (Band 0 -- Customer Service Associate, Band 1 -- Process Associate, Band 2 -- Senior Process Associate etc.) didn't dictate or restrict his job function. Band promotions were given more on the basis of tenure than anything else, where a person would get a band hike every 3 years, with an associated salary hike. Band promotions didn't necessarily have any connection to the actual work he/she did.

For example -- There were people who were at Band 2 (Senior Process Associate), but who handled teams of/trained people who were at higher bands than them. AND, there were people at Bands 3 (Team Leader) & 4 (Assistant Manager) who performed job functions that are normally associated with entry level employees.

UNFORTUNATELY, HR doesn't record all of this out-of-sync information. HR considers your band as your "Job Title" IRRESPECTIVE of your actual job function. Also, HR records your "Job Function" as that that are normally associated with your Band, EVEN if that is not the case.

For example -- HR's records would reveal that a Band 4 employee has "Assistant Manager" as his "Job Function" EVEN if he was doing entry level work. Or, a team leader who was at a Band 2 would still have a "Job Function" as that associated with a slightly-above-entry-level employee, EVEN THOUGH this person was doing the job of a team leader.

Such is my case. On paper, I was a Senior Process Associate (Band 2), but in the department that I worked in, Citimortgage Inc., I was a team leader and also did plenty of training for sales and other job-specific training.

Unfortunately, an old buddy of mine who now works in the company's HR told me a few days ago that HR does not keep track of ones ACTUAL job function. It considers ones "Job Function" to be that which is normally associated with ones band, EVEN if that is not the case in reality. This renders ALL the managerial experience, training experience and other work experience I got, which would clearly help my chances to get into a good business school, as good as flushed down the toilet.

And to make things worse, not long after I quit the company in May 2011, Citimortage Inc. decided to withdraw that unit back to the US (which is what prompted my resignation in the first place), so that unit has been long gone from my ex-company, and most of my co-workers and bosses have either quit or are in other departments.

So I guess my questions are: What should I do here? Should I mention this scenario to the ad-com and actually mention all of my work experience even though HR doesn't keep any record this info? Or should I not mention all my additional work experience considering HR keeps no record of it?

I understand that Kroll, Revera and other background verification companies are very strict about minor discrepancies, so I don't wish to give them any reason to doubt me, even if that means deleting all the important (and admission to a good business school-granting) work experience. :-(

I wish to be 100% ethical here, and I don't want the ad-coms to have even a shadow of a doubt about my credentials. So please advice. Thank you.

I wish to be 100% ethical here, and I don't want the ad-coms to have even a shadow of a doubt about my credentials. So please advice. Thank you.

mbaMissionJenK · Answer

Hi there,

Thanks for posting and I can see how this would be a frustrating situation for you. My suggestion is to not stress about it too much (hope that will help as I'm sure you are worried/nervous), and to be 100% HONEST, as you suggested you want to be. In other words, the admissions committee wants to know WHAT YOU DID in your job.... so you need to tell them!! All that you did that you feel is relevant, and that shows your skills, your leadership opportunities, management responsibilities, teamwork situations, results achieved, impact made, etc. It is very much up to the APPLICANT to showcase your experiences, responsibilities, and accomplishments; it's not up to HR or anything along those lines. While I understand that official 'records' of detailed job info are not kept in the HR divisions, while it may be slightly different in the US, to a certain degree it's still the case that HR would have on file an individual's job title and not much else. It is fairly common here for a 'title' to not mean or indicate much, in that at different companies/organizations, a given job title can mean very different things... so again I think it's more about the applicant describing all in their CV/resume and applications, essays, interview, etc. If there is any brief clarification of what you've described here, about the way the bands and titles work as far as HR, that you'd like to list in an optional essay that would be fine; my suggestion is you have it read by someone else (admissions consultant, or colleague you respect, etc) to get their take on how you've described it.

Hope that makes sense, and best of luck to you!

knight247 · Answer

Jen, thank you SO much for your prompt response and your kind wishes. I seriously appreciate it. However, I hope I can ask for some clarification on some of the points in your last post. You said: I guess my question on this comment of yours is: While I fully understand that it's up to the applicant to showcase his/her responsibilities, how would the admissions committees (or the verification companies they hire, like Kroll, Revera etc.) know that I'm speaking the truth when HR hasn't kept track of any of this? I'm sure they can't just "take my word" for it, right? ;-)

A point that I failed to mention in the original post is that my recommendation letters from my superiors WILL reflect all of the work experience I mentioned above (even though HR doesn't have record of those responsibilities). So will that help? Secondly, don't you think that if it's up to the applicant, and not HR, to showcase his/her responsibilities, that someone with a devious mind might use this reality to fib and embellish on the resume? How will the ad-coms and the verification companies work their way around this unfortunate reality, and differentiate the ones with genuine cases versus the fraudulent ones? Thanks in advance. :-)

(Sorry about so many questions, but I'm trying to be as truthful and honest on the resume as possible. I hope you understand my concerns. Thanks a ton for your help and good wishes. :-)

)

pennyless · Answer

I wouldn't stress over this. Make sure your title is accurate by HR standards, but make your accomplishments stand out in your essays, recs, and interview.

This actually happens fairly often at many client service firms (eg consulting) where you have junior employees outperform more senior levels. Again, make sure your title is correct but make your role and responsibilities stand out.

Sent from my e2001_v89_zlh_hd using Tapatalk

mbaMissionJenK · Answer

Hi again,

I certainly understand your concern... but overall yes there is a certain degree of taking your word for it!! It would be quite involved to actually score high on the GMAT (which cannot be falsified); provide strong academic transcripts (ditto); letters of rec; full/complete applications and compelling essays and resume.... all with fraudulent intentions. Can it be done, sure. Can it be done successfully... rarely! And, it's a stereotype, but often the type of candidate who has strong academics and GMAT and essays etc, is not the type to be falsify an application. You do have to support your main achievements through detailed stories in your essays and interview, and adcomm reps would be pretty skilled at detecting false/fake stories and any applicant whom cannot support their stories/professional experience well would likely not be accepted either way. And yes some verification can be done, plus overall-- applicants sign a statement that if anything is determined to be untrue, that would be grounds for them to be taken out of the program even at a later point in time... rarely, this has happened so there is always that risk for anyone considering doing something falsified-- be kicked out of the program later, or degree stripped !

And again, many if not most HR offices do not have a detailed description of job responsibilities and achievements on file for every individual. Some do, sure, and some also may have an old or standardized description that may not be accurate or thorough. Recommendations play a large role in having a 3rd party speak up on your key achievements and what you've accomplished and managed professionally, so yes it's good that you'll have strong recommendations supporting your work.

Hope that helps!

Expert help needed: Very strange admissions situation

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