Hi, Please evaluate my profile.
I am 33 yrs Old. I am yet to give my GMAT. After 3 mocks I have reached 600. I am targeting 730- 740 and I have plans by end of June to get this on the real GMAT.
Acdemics: So So
MBA (2011)- Marketing- ICFAI- 7.26 CGPA
BE (Mech) (2007) - 55%
12th CHSE State Board (2001)- 56%
10th ICSE (1999) -63%
I am a working Management Consultant with 8yrs of experience with average academics.
Extra Curricular - 12th- Sports - Played Table Tennis- Won District Level Championship,
Engg. - (Mech) -Played Football for College Team participated in University championship,
NGO-Along with my parents started an NGO for aged people
MBA- 2009-2011 ADOBE 2010 Summit- Represented Esberi Technologies as a Marketing Executive. Branding activities at the booth to attract customers
Yes this would be my 2nd MBA. I did my first one from ICFAI Business School Kolkata. I did a Marketing Specialisation. I was working in steel plant (1yr) with 18hrs a day work schedule. Somehow after 7 months I realised I can't be doing core Engg. work. Not my cup of tea. So decided to go for an MBA, tried getting through CAT but failed miserably to balance my studies with work. Quit my steel plant job joined start-up in Bangalore as a marketing executive for a print media magazine ( 1yr). Gave my CAT got a humiliating score but got through IBSAT and got a seat at Kolkata. I was lucky to have a phenomenal Mentor cum Teacher (Currently he looking after IIM Ranchi Executive Batches), due to whom, even after having lost 2years during ENgg (Due to financial troubles with my father's business. He went Bankrupt) I was able to get into Management Consultancy.
Currently working as a Senior Consultant- Corporate Advisory- Management Consultancy Practices, Mott MacDonald India. I have worked across 12 different sectors (Including Renewables- Solar). Executed over 40 plus consulting projects for SMES, Maharatnas like GAIL etc, International Clients like Meyer Burger, UB Ostan etc in the following specialities- Technical Due diligence| Viability & Feasibility Study| Market Strategy | Strategic Market Assessment and Entry strategies | Competition Analysis| Data Analysis | Market/Business Plan | Go-To-Market Strategy| Market Research | Market Sizing & Demand Estimation | Market Forecast | Market Estimation |.
My key responsibilities- Project Management | Report writing and communication with client | Proposal preparation | Presentations | Client Management | Technical & Market Analyst | Training and Mentoring
Now, coming to WHY 2nd MBA
We prepare reports which are a requirement for Banker's to fund various projects. Implementation part we don't do hence we have no control on the outcome. Just Excel models and in-depth analysis but whether it will work- WE PUT IN CAVEATS if it doesn't(This is something which is frustrating at times. Have to be blunt here). Having been associated with Management Consulting for last 6 years and having been through various facets off consulting assignments- this has always been limited to Market and sometimes Technical aspects like Right sizing, Capacity planning; I have come to realise I need to upgrade my skills in-order to break into STRATEGY CONSULTUING where they actually see the OUTCOME of their work. This struck me when I wanted to change my Job and applied to the likes of BIG FOUR and gave interviews. Though I was considered but it was more to do with Internal teams and not the client facing ones. I thought to myself and asked what was the issue. I realised I didn't have two Things
1) Finance Knowledge. It easy to say I can learn on the job, which I am doing but it is in limited capacity. With project Life cycle of 3 to 4 weeks and timeline crunches it is rare that I get opportunity do a through and through financial assessment. Even If I do learn I will take few years and that's not adding any value to my career progression
2) During the course of my interviews, I interacted with many people and then I realised that my Current CTC was very low in comparison to my peers in similar role - as low as 56% lower. So if I were to get hired in the CONSULTING DOMAIN I needed to justify my demand for this 56% hike and that is possible if I can give a holistic view points on businesses but that's not possible without understanding the financial nitty-gritties. Honestly, I didn't expect anyone to give me this.
Now, question- Why not Executive - (Those Monthly or weekly certification courses). Personally I feel it will not add value to me because these courses are job specific and mostly funded by Employers. So the personal perspective is out of the window. What if some one like me wants to do Strategy Consulting and my Company does only a part of it and not the whole. If I were to look for jobs based on certification and no real experience then it defeats the purpose of the certification.
That's why in my opinion a fulltime 1year MBA is a good option I believe.
These points drove me to seriously consider a 2nd MBA and that to it had to be a 1year MBA from a prestigious B school and specifically in the domain of Finance (Major) plus Marketing (Minor). Here I am only considering ISB and IIM PGPX, rest 3 options I am yet to decide.
I am open to criticism
Regards,
Ritesh