Ask MBA Crystal Ball

Human Resource Management: HR Jobs and Careers – 2

Jobs in Human Resource Management can literally give you the power to control the careers of hundreds or even thousands of employees.
Hari Raghavachari started a 2-part series add some clarity to the field of Human Resources (HR).
Here’s the second part.
Part 2: HR Jobs: How to get them? Qualifications & personal qualities...Read More

Santosh, thanks for reaching out.

Is your work purely technical or does it have overlaps with the functional/business side? How much do you know about the telecom industry?

If there was a way you could specifically link your personal contribution to the more impressive number of 500%, this could be a strong point.

Sure, but just be careful that you don't try to push project management tasks (meeting deadlines, avoiding slippage) as leadership. Use stories where you've use some leadership traits to accomplish the bigger objective.

Including the top-20 US schools directly conflicts with your earlier statement about considering only 1 year MBA programs.


You could look at European MBA programs (Oxbridge, IMD, IE, IESE, RSM) or Canada (Ivey, Schulich) or closer back home (NUS, NTU, HKUST).

Interview with MBA Admissions Consultant Paul Bodine

In an interview with MBA Crystal Ball, MBA admissions consultant Paul Bodine shares some tips on how to tackle MBA applications and get into the top business schools.

Paul is also the author of several popular books: The Perfect Phrases series (Perfect Phrases for business school, law school and medical school acceptance), Great Applications for Business Schools...Read More

Hi,

Need your help to evaluate my profile. I am looking for Indian B-Schools and am also open to explore schools in Asia. Please help. The profile details are as below:
1. GMAT Score - 740 (Q 51, V 39)
2. Total experience - 10+ Years
3. Field of work - IT MNC in India - worked for the same company throughout my career
4. Graduation - B.Tech with 76% from one of the NIT colleges
5. Acads in 10 - 83% / 10+2 - 84%
6. Involved in lot of extra-curricular activities in my job
7. Got the best performer award from employer
8. Involved with recruitments for my company
9. Involved in multiple company wide initiatives
10. Wrote 3-4 whitepapers in reputed forums and online magazines.

Please help evaluate - with the information i have gathered so far, i have in my wish list the following programmes: IIMA PGPX, IIMB EGPG, ISB Hyderabad, INSEAD Singapore.

Please advise.

Thanks,
Asterik

Hello ,

Below is an excerpt of my profile.Please evaluate my profile and provide your valuable feedback/suggestions

Name:Gopal Panigrahy / 30 Y/ Male

Citizenship: INDIA

Qualification: B.E in Computer Science and Engineering- 78%/2004 (75% is the score for distinction in the university).Just adding this point, if it is noteworthy. The highest percentage attained in the CSE stream was 84% and I am ranked in the top 5.If required can get a recommendation letter from the university.

Query: I understand Adcoms use various merit methods to convert the percentage into CGPA/GPA for evaluation. So, I am not quite sure, on conversion, how the CGPA/GPA would look like. Please provide your comments on this.

Work Experience: 7 years 9 months of experience in Insurance/Accounting and Telecom software development industry.

Gist of my WE:

Overall International Exposure: 1.5 years at various locations such as Liverpool/London (UK), Dallas (TX) and Los Angeles (CA).

Current Exp:

Project Manager – SAP services at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for a European Telecom Client.

Duration: 1.5 Years

Managing a team of 20+ associates

I have contributed significantly towards the revenue growth by acquiring many multimillion dollar projects and by successfully executing them. In the last 3 quarters (Q2-Q4), the team size under SAP Services portfolio has doubled and revenue realization has stayed quite higher than the corporate set figures.

Prior Exp:

Business Development Lead at Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
Duration: 4 Years
Software Engineer at Accenture Services Pvt Ltd
Duration: 2.2 Years

Awards & Recognitions:
1. Certificate of Appreciation (innovation - MCCA MMS project) - CSC India, 2010
2. Certificate of Appreciation (innovation - MCCA RFR project) - CSC India, 2010
3. Certificate of Appreciation (Delivery) - CSC India, 2010
4. Special Recognition Award - CSC United States (At Client Location, LosAngeles), 2008
5. High performance Delivered Award - Accenture (RSA Client), 2007
6. Instant Karma Award - Accenture, 2006
7. Super trooper Award - Accenture, 2006
8. JSE Achievers Award - Accenture, 2005

Query: Please provide your feedback on my WE.I would still like to invest a year to shape up my WE, if required. Basically I would like to do anything that can help me offset my low GMAT score.

GMAT Score:

GMAT 1: 470 (Q48,V11)
GMAT 2: 630(Q48, V28)
GMAT 3: 600(Q48, V24)
GMAT 4: 660(Q48, V34)

I do not wish to retake the test. I am done with it. It is not that I have given up, but I feel I am shelling out lot of my valuable time to attain the 700 mark. Although 700+ is a strong criteria for many good colleges,I would like to manage without that score.

Query: I am targeting for only 1 year MBA programs. Please advise on the colleges that I can apply in India and abroad. I understand that I need to be more specific on my question. But at this very moment, I am not able to figure out the best chances I have for the top 30 colleges.

Extracurricular Activity:

Member of a voluntary organization (in TCS) that works for various social causes. I mostly contribute towards educating homeless children and arranging funds from TCS – associates by demonstrating various social problems through articles in newsletters, cultural events etc.

Since a decade, I am working in one of the rural areas for various developments, such as facilitating a library, drinking water etc. There are many areas that I have worked and I can provide an elaborate list of my work. Well, I am not sure if any proof of such activities will be needed, but I can get a recommendation letter from the govt appointed committee.

Query: Please comment if such involvements can add value to my profile. I am ready to invest more number of years, if required, towards any other suggested extracurricular activities.

Why MBA? :

Short Term Goal (5 to 10 years): Business / IT consulting. To gain Industry exposure in the realm of setting up, reforming and executing various business models operative across different industry verticals.

Long term Goal (10 years +): Establishing a firm that would engage in various business consulting activities. Also, I have the aspiration to establish a network of non-profit consulting firm (driven by the above mentioned profit organization) that would engage in helping various small industries to establish (particularly in rural areas).I have not really got the framework on paper but I am working on it. The idea is to pool the knowledge and experience of many people like you and me into a single stream that can make few lives better. The motive is “To make one single place better to live”.

Query: In sum, this is what I have in me and this is what I want to do. I understand that I may not make into the top notch colleges because of a low GMAT score. But I would be happy if any decent college (that would mind accepting my profile) can help me to reach my goals.

Please comment/advise on the B schools that I can apply. Please, also, comment on my profile and suggest any improvements that can make my profile better.

I value your time .Thanks in advance

Cheers,
GKP

Hello Sameer,

I want to pursue a 1-year Full time MBA. The goal is to climb the corporate ladder. Iam interested in IMD, INSEAD and the 1 year program at Kellogg. Please evaluate my profile. Thanks for your help.

GMAT: 650 Q48, V32
Female, 35 Years old
Citizenship: India, Living in US since 2003
Educational Background: Bachelors in Electronics and Communication, India
Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering, US
(Recipient of full scholarship for the 2 year Master of Science program.)

Work Experience: 12 Years in Semiconductor and Automotive Industry.
Job Profiles: Software Engineer, Supplier and Sub-contract Manager, Project Manager, Program Manager.

Work Experience Details:
2000-2003
-- Worked as a software and design engineer in leading Semiconductor Company.
2003-2005
-- Worked as a graduate research assistant while pursuing my Masters.
2005 -2011
-- After my graduation I started working with a leading Tier-1 Automotive supplier. In the six years with the company I progressed from a lead Engineer to Supplier and Sub-Contract Manager to Project Manager.
2011- Current
-- Working as a Program Manager for a leading American Car Manufacturer.

-- International experience:
- Two expat assignments to Germany and India.
- Travelled extensively on work to Europe and Asia.
- Worked very closely with internal teams and suppliers based out of China, Mexico, India, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Korea and Japan.


-- Extra Curricular:
- Mentor at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
- Volunteer at Akshara, a Literacy mission.
- Volunteer at the Indy 500 Marathon.
- Tutoring underprivileged kids.
- Volunteer at Gleaners Food bank and Soup kitchen.

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Asterik/Gopal,

I've addressed your queries on another forum. Will skip these here.

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Yogagirl, accept my (Surya)namaskar!

I'm afraid, that's not enough of a rationale for the top schools, as it is too generic. We gotta get more specific here.

IMD is fine, but INSEAD and Kellogg might be too much of a stretch.

You might want to consider other European programs where you are deviating too much from the average class profile.

The immediate knee-jerk response (ignoring the standard "can the GMAT score be higher?") from bschools when they see such a profile is..."Why not an Executive MBA? The ladder climbing, rock-climbing, rappelling and other non-yogic pursuits can happen there as well."

Do you have an answer for that? If you do, fantastic. If not, then time for some introspection.

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