Hi Maria,
Thanks so much for the honest evaluation!! really appreciate the time you spent doing an in depth analysis & giving real advice!!
Also love the idea that you used a video to reply & not just type one out
Totally buy your point of view & insights, and i would suggest the same to myself if i was asked to evaluate myself.
However i feel that my profile is not totally one dimensional as it seems, it has more depth as far as my Post MBA goals & employability & nature of my current business is concerned. Let me allow you to elaborate a bit further, will appreciate if you can provide further inputs. I know it would get boring for you to evaluate the same profile again, i will try my best to make it sound cooler
Reason to leave Corporate Job - Lay Off!! yes, because of the demonetisation drive which the Indian government had in 2016, the company that i was working for lost a significant amount of business revenue. My department was dissolved & I along with my colleague & supervisor were laid off. Up untill then I was in a mid managerial role leading a team of 6 business analyts (my best job role till date from pov of leadership).
Post lay off, the industry still being in a slump (trust me i tried my best to find a job asap), i did a bit of soul searching (post a short road trip across rural India) & made a decision to start on my own. Since i had been involved in the fitness industry (competing/coaching) using it as a part time stream of revenue throughout my career in coporate, It came as a natural way forward for me to expand my existing part time venture to a full time venture. The decision was partly out of necessity (needed a steady income generator in the months following lay off) & partly due to my passion for Coaching (not just fitness, i also have previously dabbled in being a Guitar tutor)
To give you a brief idea of my business, it involves Online coaching(major portion of business), Personal training/Injury rehab, Kick boxing/Taekwondo coaching(mostly to kids/teenagers) & Bodybuilding contest prep. You can use the analogy of any Self employed business owner (GMAT tutor/boutique admission consultant/CA/Artist/etc.) to understand the nature of business.
I had been doing Diets/Workout Plans for my colleagues & supervisors, while i was working in coporate, often times for free. I eventually converted most of these clients to paid clients, while further expanding by getting in touch with all my previous colleagues & university classmates (most in their mid 30's & unhealthy, who were very well aware of my university level powerlifting wins). I had a great response & the business took off good.
Next i extensively used Social media (Facebook & Instagram) to reach out to a lot of the younger clientele, specific to bodybuilding/fitness. Since i had been featured in a fitness magazine as well as won numerous local bodybuilding shows, also in addition to the growing popularity of fitness & in general to look good (thanks to Bollywood/media), acquiring clients for Online coaching wasn't that hard.
I also collaborated with local dieticians/chiropractors/health clubs, which further has helped in gaining clients, especially the HNI clients (Named brand owners/indutrialists), whom i exclusively stick to Personal training/Injury rehab. Also referral played a huge part, as a good word of mouth helped build my credibility.
In terms of managing my own business, it does involve elements of marketing my service (both online & offline), price offering, differentiating my service as a premium offering, managing client progress for long term engagement & providing measurable results. Though the business may not involve using management tools to achive results, the fundamentals are still the same to generate revenue & earn profit.
To sum it up, the business keeps me busy with daily client trainings & on weekends with weekly online client checkins. The only limitation is the number of hours I can physically put in or i am willing to put in.
Now the question is why leave all of this & why MBA now?
As i already mentioned i am 38, right now, although still in great shape & easily pass off as a 20 something year old, thanks to years of training & good diet (no alcohol/smoking). However, Fitness is still a young man's game, it is a very "looks" oriented field, dare i say a glamourous field, similar on the lines of cosmetic/makeup industry. Eventually father time will take over & it will become a hard sell, as young bucks would easily replace me. Even though knowledge & experience matter, but my philosphy is leading by example.
The motto of my business has always been customised/tailored service, which is the main reason for me to not launch my own website (to go for mass) & give out a cookie cutter service, which is one size fits all. I only work with a limited number of clients at a time, so that i can gaurantee results to them. It has been always Quality over Quantity. This approach is what has built my credibilty.
As much as i love fitness, i equally love to be a part of an organisation, particularly the Consumer Electronics Industry. My past experience has been with Samsungs & the like, and i absolutely love the corporate culture. The new role as a Product manager gives me a great opportunity to do something which i always had aspired to do while i was in corporate. The only contention i have is does my story look good to an Adcom, of switching back to corporate, after starting something which i am so passionate about. Even though, i will still be able to continue my online coaching whilst working as a product manager, i am not sure whether the adcoms will buy the story, assuming that they are willing to look beyond my age.
Post MBA goals/employability -
My long term personal goal is to settle in Europe or Canada. I assume, if i continue to work in India, chances of me being able to immigrate to Europe or Canada based just on my Indian work experience are slim. Also it is quite rare, for an Indian executive to move up the ladder by being part of an Indian subsidiary of a MNC, to become a Global or Regional head of a MNC.
I also have been limited in my exposure to international markets/consumers in Consumer electronics, even though i worked for the top companies in the Industry (e.g. Samsung, etc.).
My career goal is to work in the European or Canadian market, in a Sales & Marketing role for the Samsungs, Bosch's, Haier's etc. or a company that is into fitness related gadgets (e.g. fitbit). Not limiting myself to just that but also branch out in health & wellnes related home applicances (air purifiers, etc.) & digital products related to fitness. I anticipate a huge surge of fitness related products, in the coming years, as the awareness of fitness & lifestyle related ailments increases. I think combined with my experience & an MBA from a globally recognized school, will also make me suitable for a position with Online retailers (e.g. Amazon) to manage one of their consumer electronics/health gadget products.
An international MBA will help open doors for me to be a part of Global teams & work on a larger scale of operations.
My goal is to eventually work in a leadership position for a firm, marketing & selling consumer electronics/health gadgets. I also plan/hope to stay in the fitness business through part time online coaching as long as I can.
I think my experience & stories will be valuable to any MBA class that i join, hopefully i will be able to convince the adcoms about that.
I hope it gives a more colorful picture now, though there are still plenty of bits of my story that can still be fitted in, well thats the advantage of being old i guess.
Also, is it worth while to look at 1 year MBA options in the US (MSx, etc.)? although not really keen on Exec MBA, primarily since most do not support Visa & job placements. Eventually i want to settle in Canada or Europe, an EMBA will not be a great option to achieve that.
I understand if you consider not to put more efforts into evaluating further, I really appreciate the inputs provided earlier. I would also love to utilize the tools on
Applicant Lab, I know you didn't try to sell me those, but kudos for creating such a great tool, I look forward to thoroughly using it to fix as much as I can my lame old profile
ApplicantLab wrote:
Hi Mr. Todd -- as you seem to be aware, you're a pretty unconventional candidate, and thus my advice for you is going to be pretty unconventional as well. In this video, I found myself (the more and more I read your query) feeling a bit more like a life coach than an MBA Admissions Coach
Watch my video here:
https://www.applicantlab.com/blog/mba-profile-review-indian-citizen-age-39-fitness-kick-boxing-coach/(Also, I refer to the "AdCom Hierarchy of Needs" in this video, which you can read more about here:
MBA Admissions Committees Have Needs; Do You Meet Those Needs?")
31 Aug 2018, 04:10
(applying only for US universities)
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