soumitsaha wrote:
Hello GyanOne,
I would like to have my profile evaluated. I will be applying this year to start Bschool in July 2018 onwards. I am targetting only the top 3-4 US Bschools however, your assessment will evaluate the reality. I am open to other suggestions as well that may seem relevant.
I have a personal desire to go to Stanford and get Silicon Valley & Bay Area exposure.
Education -
1. BITS Pilani Mechanical Engg , graduated in 2012 with 9.13/10 CGPA and top 5 of Class. Extra Curriculars Include - Leadership Positions in Two Clubs, Founding in one with high yoy growth to show (2010-11). Merit Scholarship in College awarded for excellence in academics (2009), Tedx Speaker, High quality extracurricular internships spanning - Journalism, photography work with magazines and brands) .
2. Awarded full Scholarship to study at The Young India Fellowship's second Batch from 2012-13 [ 1 year course on Leadership and Liberal Arts ] - Alumns from this program have now reached Stanford, HBS, Wharton, Kellog, Tuck , ISB. Graduated with a 3.14/4 CGPA. Interned with a startup - Chai Point, worked on Film making on a national Non profit backed by the Gandhi family, mess secretary, and of course - Studied from the Best global professors (from Harvard, Upenn, IIMS, ex-Govt stalwardts) in diverse subjects like literature, history, politics, leadership, business, economics, group psychology.
Work Experience:
1. Company X (India's 4th largest Pharmaceutical company by mkt cap), Supply Chain Transformation , India Business - in Mumbai - Reporting directly to Industry Veteran and head of Supply Chain. This profile was meant for an MBA + 3 Years of Work ex, but landed with me so got grinded a lot personally and professionally. Reformed the supply chain end to end (procurement, distribution, waehousing, and marketing) for a 4000 Crore business working with outside consultants and all company stakeholders right from factory worker to Founder of Cipla (including CEOs, HODs, Directors, middle management - everyone!!.) Note: This wasnt like the many shadowy kind of roles reporting to senior leadership, I was given a lot of power and lot of responsibilities to track progress and show outcome for all consulting initiatives. I visited factories and warehouses countrywide to implement the Project. All brainstorming and software development was led by a core team of 5 - My boss, me and 3 consultants. This went on for 1.5 years after which I moved on to New Product Project Management Office - Where I spent 6 months overhauling the processes behind the launch of a new drug by the company. This involved over 15 departments, over 200 stakeholders across these and 200 detailed steps - everything from Drug launch govt applications, to R&D to procurement. My boss was a senior ex-Mckinsey recruit into the firm. I got groomed under here. Grooming has been solid and harcore under first the Industry Veteran (63 years old) and then under the new boss.
2. Left the corporate life in 2015 April to start my small canteen inside Ashoka University (now the parent body of the Young India Fellowship). I started from scratch with my own savings and in 2 years, I have triples daily revenues and monthly profits. We have also now become a full size takeaway outlet from an earlier garden cafe format. The menu offered has grown 6 times. I am everything from Head Chef to Head Janitor. I have managed over 20 blue collared rural haryana staff (very tough demographic to hire and get work done form) in this time and employee retention has been the biggest challenge. All in all - solid grinding for past two years sitting in semi rural Haryana for me across functions.
3. In Jan 2017, I launched Letsdinodotcom, an Airbnb for Food startup aiming to explode the concept of Social Dining and experiences in India. We've held over 30 events in 3 Months and continue to work on product market fit as of today. I co founded it with my BITS junior (ex-microsoft). Selected as Entrepreneur - in -residence at Ashoka University. We are based out of Delhi.
Why MBA - I've realized the skill and knowledge gaps along with the environment gap that I need to thrive and move ahead in life. I want to be studying and living amidst the best in the world for my own upliftment. The network and the brand stamp matters a lot to capitalize on in my future entrepreneurial initiatives. A lot of strategy,marketing, finance and operations knowledge on top of all this from the best schools in the world will be an added bonus. I am not too keen on a US high paying or consulting type job. I am an entrepreneur at heart for now. I also love to study and huge apprecitae good faculty. It's that time in my life when I feel I want to study again a bit.
Other Info
1. GMAT - I am prepping, its on 27 July
2. No International Work Experience
3. Need help on recommenders for my restaurant and startup stint yet. For Pre-restaurant can get recos form both bosses, college professors, internship bosses, mentors etc.
4. Current Age - 26
Hi Soumit
Thanks for posting.
- First of all, can see a pretty good profile there. Congratulations on all the hard work that must have gone into getting to this point.
- Now, you are aiming for the best schools in the world, so the next steps must be well executed too. A GMAT score of 740 and above is definitely what you need (of course the higher the better). Given that you have ~2.5 months, that should certainly be possible.
- The lack of international experience is a slight downer, but here's the good news. You can certainly make up for it with excellent applications that highlight clear career goals, and show your passion for an MBA (will cover this bit a little later in this response), but this is going to take a lot of hard work and deep thought. Looking back at top applicants (former clients) who succeeded at the global top 5/10 schools without international experience, or highly visible corporate experience, it is the quality of their stories and their impact that stood out. Period.
- Your work in X in building up the supply chain seems excellent. Team leadership roles in such roles is always a bit hazy and difficult to establish, but the process design and implementation part really counts. The credentials of your boss etc and that this was an MBA role is of little value (though it helps in the evaluation, so great that you included it)
- The startups seem great, but as of now they are in an initial phase. Not sure about the extent of operations/profits (the former is more important), but a key question to be answered may be that given you are an entrepreneur at heart and in practice, why not devote full time attention to these initiatives?
- The Why MBA part seems good in spirit but it will need a lot more detail. Entrepreneurship can be a double edged sword when applying for B-school.
- Finally, the school selection part will need further thought. This space/forum is restricted to ISB so not getting too much into the depth of that. You can contact us directly (see the signature below) if needed.
Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.
close
09 May 2017, 00:30
