Ask MBA Crystal Ball

I have dropped you PM... please check..

No, you haven't.

But I did see the numerous other 1-line posts you've made on other GC threads...not to mention those on other sites (like the MBA Crystal Ball forum).

I hope you realise that the client who's hired you for SEO work won't appreciate your approach.

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Thanks, buddy. But the action out there seems to have changed dramatically in the last few years.


I see that you have other schools on the list too. So let's look at all of them.


The Masters degree has taken away 2 years from the work-ex. But that's fine, because you are more qualified (and in an international setting) than your competition.


Was this a highly technical role? How does this link to your post-MBA goal of getting into Biz Dev or Gen mgmt?


The last line is the one that matters. And you are doing fine there.


I like that, bro. TT was my favourite too. Never reached the heights that you've reached, though.


All tough ones for Indian tech applicants. So takes me back to the earlier question of what you were doing in the tech commercialisation role.


Considering your target geography, you've skipped the Asia favourites and a few good ones in Australia? All good from a 'fit' angle.

Hi Sameer

I am relatively new to this discussion and the decision to write GMAT and go to the US for an MBA. Actually, its a decision that both my husband and I are thinking over. Only one of us will be giving it a shot. Wanted to share both our profiles so that you could give us an idea.

Giving you a very brief snapshot of my profile.

Education:
1. CFA Charterholder from CFA Institute, USA
2. MBA (Finance) from FMS Delhi - 2007. No GPA system -- First Class with 66%
3. B.E (Hons) from Delhi College of Engineering - 2005 - Distinction (79%)

Work Experience
1. Started out as MT in large private sector bank in the investment banking team, which was just being set up. Was part of a transaction involving a large financial institution. Worked here for 2 years
2. Currently working in a mid-market boutique investment bank. Have worked on number of deals, particularly on the infra side - have closed transactions across PE, Cross-Border M&A and Structured Finance
3. Have been promoted at my current workplace and have been top-rated.

Total work ex - 5 years

Extra-Curricular
1. Worked as a placement team member in both years at B-School (elected position) - key person in organizing placements for both batches (summers as well as Finals)
2. Worked as editor in Technical magazine in Engineering College
3. Worked as key organizer for Technical fest in Engineering College and have arranged sponsorships.

GMAT : Yet to take.

My goal: To move into a buy-side (PE/VC) role in a US organization. Since I already have an Indian MBA, I am not interested in ISB. If I have to take the time and money out to pursue a second MBA, it has to be a top US school - HBS, Wharton, Booth, Stern, Stanford.

Please let me know what you think.
Also, do you think it is too late to start working towards Round 2 deadlines for Fall 2013 course?

I will share my husband's profile in another post.
Thanks in advance!

Sameer

Continuing from my last post, please find a brief profile of my husband.

Education:

1. PGDBM (SPJIMR, Mumbai) - Batch of 2006 - GPA of 2.9/4.3
2. B.E (Electronics & Comm.) - PSG Tech, Coimbatore - GPA of 8.6

Work Experience:
1. Started as Graduate Trainee in Deutsche Bank (Mumbai) - underwent rotations in Banking & Cash Operations, Branch Banking, Payments. Quit this job in 1 year because he was not interested in the Ops portion of banking and wanted to move to investments.
2. IDFC - As a Specialist in the Project Finance side for 3 years -- significant exposure to Infra including Roads, Airports, Logistics etc. Cumulative value of transactions handled - USD 320 Mn. Exposure to a variety of instruments - senior, structured debt, mezzanine & equity products
3. Standard Chartered -- Moved from IDFC to SCB for 1 year because of relocation for personal reasons. Worked as credit analyst for Mid Markets Group.
4. IFC - Joined in Dec 2010 - Associate Investment Officer - Closed 3 transactions across various sectors such as education, logistics and manufacturing with a total deal value of USD 150 Mn.

Extra Curricular:
1. Organized placements for a large batch size in MBA for internships
2. Organized Social Impacts Award in B-School for the first time
3. Key member of Photography Club in engineering college - won awards and organized events
4. 6 weeks work with Azim Premji foundation
5. Avid Current Affairs enthusiast, with an opinion on most issues.


GMAT - Yet to take

Thanks in advance.

Dear Sameer,

Could you please evaluate my profile? Thanks in advance.

Nationality: Indian Female
Age: 28
GMAT: 670 (Quantitative: 49, Verbal: 33)

As I already took GMAT four times, I have decided not to take GMAT again.

Educational Background:
Bachelor of Engineering in Information Science from Visveswaraiah Technological University, Karnataka, India. – First Class with Distinction

Professional Background: Experience: 6.5 years (as of August-2012)

1) 2006 To 2010: Associate Consultant at Oracle, India

I worked on Supply Chain Management to solve the purchasing problems of Oracle customer, Alcoa. I had extensive contacts with customers located in Asia, Australia and US.

2) 2011 To Current: IT Consultant at Shell Asset Management Company (a subsidiary of Shell Oil Company), The Netherlands

I provide software solutions and services to customers located in Asia and Europe.
I don’t have any budget responsibility and don’t have any direct reports.

Extra-Curricular Activities:

From 2011 To Current: Coordinator of Amnesty International Group in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

I coordinated fund raising in 2011 and 2012. I led many actions for women’s right in Saudi Arabia, Gays right in Turkey and Arms Trade Treaty. I coordinated Amnesty benefit concert in 2012.

Languages known: Tamil, English, Hindi, Kannada

International Exposure: Since 2011, I have been working in the Netherlands (20 months)

Reason for doing an MBA: Career Progress
After MBA, I like to work as Senior Consultant for an IT company such as Oracle or IBM located in Europe/Asia.

Area of interest: Technology/IT Consultancy

Target Schools: INSEAD, IMD, LBS, Oxford, Cambridge, HEC
I like to do my MBA in Europe. I already visited HEC, IE and RSM and am going to visit INSEAD, LBS and Oxford in September 2012.

My partner got into INSEAD and will be beginning his MBA in January-2013.

I request you to evaluate my profile and let me know the schools I have good chances at.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Amnesty

Cornell MBA essay tips (Johnson): Book author of your life story

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We just got a sign-up from a (soon-to-be) husband-wife pair. And I was asking them if it would be a better idea to stagger the MBA plans, so the financing and risk aspects can be better managed. But for personal reasons, they've decided to apply together.

I think your approach is a less risky one in comparsion.


I like your profile and your husband's as well. Reminds me of someone we helped 2 years back. He had a finance background (with similar responsibilities and experience level), plus an MBA from India.

He got admits to multiple schools (in the Us and outside) and took up one which offered him a scholarship. He now works in an international (non-US) private equity fund.


When are you both taking the test? Or is that also open for now?

Do you want to reach out offline [info at mbacrystalball dot com], so we can get dig a little more. There's time for R2 apps, but I'd like to highlight some risks that you are taking with your current strategy.

It's peak time for Round 1 apps. But if needed we could get into a quick call. You and hubby dear can join in together if you have a speaker phone at home (that's what the other couple used to do).

Hi,

Would be great if you let me know what you think of my profile. Here is a very brief summary.

WORK EX
~4.5 years’ experience in cloud computing, virtualization and security domains.
3 years in McAfee, 1 year in Citrix as Software Quality Assurance Engineer.
IT Skills – Responsible for overall product quality, collaboration with global teams, test execution and reporting
Non IT skills - Sales enablement, project management, hiring and mentoring, setting up new processes etc. Indirectly leading a team of 5 members. Have mentored 9 people.

ACADS
GMAT: 700 - (Quant - 49, Verbal – 36), yet to receive AWA scores
B.TECH - 83.3% (CS)
12TH - 70%
CFA Level II candidate PRINCE2 foundation certified - Project management
ITIL v3 foundation certified- IT Service Management
CompTIA Security+ certified - Security domain

ACHIEVEMENTS
rated >4 (out of 5) for 3 years of operations in McAfee
‘Employee of the Quarter' award in McAfee
Stock Grant Bonus for outstanding performance
Spot Bonus for outstanding performance
Promoted within completing 1 year in McAfee

EXTRA CURRICULAR
Freelance test mentoring for a 2 year old tech start-up, also gave a talk to its employees
Service-lead, managing CSR activities for my present team of 20.
Program-manager for McAfee's CSR initiative for 2 years, managed team of 50 volunteers.
Elected student representative - Mess committee in college
Prefect/ House Captain in final year of school
Editor of school magazine in 11th standard

AREA OF INTEREST
Management consulting, general management, strategy

TARGET COLLEGES
Kellogg, ISB, NUS so far.
Looking for colleges in US or APAC region mostly.

QUESTIONS
1. Which 2 colleges should i choose as backups for my area of interest?
2. Which 2 colleges do you think I have a fair chance of getting in?
3. Which 2 colleges do you think I can get in with a bit of luck and carefully crafted application?

Thanks for the help!

Hi Sameer,

I greatly appreciate your providing feedback on profiles. Your feedback is really thoughtful and useful. I know you are super busy, but if you do get a chance to review my profile below and comment, I would be very grateful.

I am a 26 year old female from India and applying to US business schools in 2012. I have a GMAT of 640 (Q:45 / V:34 / AWA:4) and a TOEFL score of 96. I have worked for 4 years as a marketing executive in India in the hospitality industry. I have worked for two different hotel groups 1) 1 yr at a large single hotel located in the commercial center in the capital city of India 2) ~3 yrs at a large multi-national and multi-brand hotel chain, with responsibility for nationwide (India) marketing. I had hit a ceiling at my company and without an MBA they were not willing to promote me further or give me additional responsibilities. So I quit and for last 2 months, I have been working as a full-time volunteer for an NGO for differently-abled and underprivileged children. By the time I join a business school (hopefully), I would have worked at this NGO for almost 1 year. I am passionate about dance and was part of a professional dance group for 5 years (alongside my college and job). Both at college and as part of this dance group, I have performed at multiple shows with audiences of 1,000+ people and won many awards. I have an undergraduate degree in English (Hons.) where I studied English, History and Philosophy. I was very active in my college’s dance and theatre society. Indian colleges do not have a GPA system. I would consider myself a firm mid-tier performer academically.
I am very keen on continuing a career in marketing. Can you kindly advise which schools will best suit my profile? I am keen on Duke, Haas and Cornell.
Thank you very much in advance.

Been away for a while from these forums as it's peak season right now.


Yup, good decision. Your 6.5 yrs have plenty to talk about. So ok to pull the final nail in the test prep coffin and move on.


How would this be different from what you are already doing?


Excellent. Wish him luck from the MBA Crystal Ball team. Ask him if he'd like to share his application story on our blog. A little limelight won't hurt.


If your aim is to study in Europe, then you've covered all the good schools. Stop worrying about chances and just try to make your apps as strong as possible. Your partner should be able to review your apps and help out in making it super-strong.

Good luck.

Rajat bhai, with your permission, I'll take a short deviation.

You posted your profile on 14 (!) different threads. Well, nothing wrong with that in theory.

There are lots of great consultants on this forum and they would all have several years of consulting experience. So each consultant would be 'right' from their perspective when they give suggestions. So there's also the high likelihood that you'd end up with 14 'right' answers, but still no direction.

So, just be careful on how you analyse all that subjective data that comes your way.

Good luck with your apps, bro.

Dear Sameer,

Thanks many for your reply. I will follow your suggestions.

Greetings,
Amnesty