Ask MBA Crystal Ball

MCB is indeed a great way to start your application process. Sameer and team have really helped me in thinking in the right direction for soul searching....I am on a much clearer line of thinking than I was when I started myself. A sure recommendation for any lost MBA applicant soul.

Thanks for the kind-words, Arora sahab.

[Self-talk triggered by a sad realisation: I don't yet figure in the 'God's-gift-to-mba-aspirants' category. Damn! Need to work harder]

Ironduke:

Will your breathing and heart-rate get back to normal if I share with you a little secret? Your extra-curriculars sound better than mine.

An executive position doesn't necessarily convey credibility. Compare two profiles:

- the politician with the 'official' portfolio who's not done anything worth talking about with the money/power at his disposal

- a small grassroots social worker engaged with a small NGO as a volunteer with no money and no designation, who's been putting a few hours a week in a cause that genuinely motivates her

Time for you to get judgemental (and senti) now and tell me. What appeals to you more - designation or intent?

Of course, with the right designation and the right intent, the scale of impact can be tremendous. Coming back to your profile, all I'm assuming right now is that you haven't had an opportunity to do that yet.

Hello Sameer

I would really appreciate if you could take some time and evaluate my profile. I am planning to apply for the Fall 2011 session

Age: 29
Nationality: Indian Male
B.Tech from private school in Electronics and Communication - Avg 68%
M.S. in Electrical Engineering from USA (avg school - in top 50) - GPA - 3.72/4.0 (A's in all but 1 class)
Was a Reseach Assistant during MS, worked on a project for NASA (thesis project), wrote and presented papers in conferences.

GMAT: 640 (Q46, V31) waiting on AWA

Work Exp:5 years (as of Sept 2010) in US on H1B Visa
Working in an Avionics company (Pretty big name in avionics) in a team that builds GPS receivers for commercial aircrafts, my profile is completely NON Software, I work at the black box level on the System development life cycle. Basically working with customers, FAA to get requirements at high level, break them into SW and HW functionalities,work on design strategies, integration etc. For the last 2 years I have taken up a leadership role as in Project Management, no direct reportees but am responsible for projects (upto 5M US$).

Extra Curr:
Play racquet ball, softball, golf cricket etc.
Participated in a few debates and plays at school level and undergrad level. During Graduation volunteered with the Indian Student Association. Volunteered on and off with the university to help out local community, one specific case was the major Florida hurricane in 2004.
At work, I have been working with the Diversity Employee network (Asian network) as a volunteer (no important/lead role in committees). Also volunteer at events organized by the company/department again one case was helping out local community during the devastating Iowa Floods of 2008. I also helped out in creating an official cricket league within our company.
All in all, I have only been volunteering ocassionaly, have never been in a leadership role.

Short Term Goal:
I want to get in Strategy and Business development role in avionics industry in asia pacific reason. Avionics industry is growing in Europe/Asia region with lot of avionics companies opening up facilities in there (specially India, Singapore etc). I want to get into the strategy development role in such company.

Long Term Goal:
I want to open up my own business in avionics in India (not too sure what right now) but in the same industry specially because it is still developing and has lot of scope.

My Questions are:
1) I know I have a very weak GMAT (and not so good Extra Curriculars) but I have heard that schools considers low GMAT for people with different profiles/work ex, Will my profile/industry experience be considered “Different” and that different that it can offset the low GMAT?
2) I am thinking about taking GMAT again but not too sure if I will be able to take it before the deadlines, so in case I am not able to take it again, With this GMAT do I even stand a chance ?
3) I was thinking of applying to some schools in US and some in Europe/Asia region like INSEAD, ISB (I am more inclined towards ISB as avionics industry is growing in india and there are lot more strategy and business development roles there, also eventually I want to open up something in india and a good network would be very helpful). What do you think my chances are at ISB ? (am thinking Round 2, I don't have my essays done yet)
Also, What schools would you recommend I should aim at with this profile (if I am not able to retake the GMAT)?

Thanks, I really appreciate your time and effort.

Motteboss:


@BB: Are you listening, sir? I think we might have just cracked the secret here. More power to the GC smiley collection


Muchas gracias.


I see that the spirit of Gokulashtami is already in the air (Mach gaya shor saari nagari re...Any Amitabh fans out there?)

Just one request, though, Motteboss. Take off your footwear before you climb. The last guy who tried the stunt was wearing track spikes (yup, the ones used for track and field events) and my shoulders still hurt.


Baalak, thy diligently cultivated skill with the written word is thy brahmastra. Wield it well in thy quest for success.

Considering you've already experienced the MCB's legendary chhatra-chhaaya offline, would you be kind enough to share your feedback on the margadarshan you've received.

Articulate as ever, Shri Raj. Good luck with your apps.

Hi All,

I would like to give feedback on the MBACRYSTALBALL process.
- Sameer guruji is very kind and patient. After you give a feedback form and have a small telephonic Q&A session, you get the mystical MCB report in a day (or two). Some say Djinns from Tirunelveli make it, some say a pdf creator running on infinite monkey theorem and others cite a BPO in Gurgaon. I say, the origin does not matter, but the content is usually well organised and relevant.
- Going by the feedback time which is super fast, I will go with the Djinns of Tirunelveli.
- There is a feedback session after the report is created. This is truly paisa vasool. The secrets of the adcoms are passed on in true Guru Shishya parampara from Sameers mouth to our ears. Questions are answered patiently and great feedback on all points are covered.
- I think the report pays for itself (or more) because the money you save in just 1 application, for a program which is not a great fit, is almost what it costs for this report. And the suggestions from Sameer are usually helpful in considering some B schools which you never though would be a great fit..

MCB report is truly worthwhile. Just go for it, I say...!

Hi Kalyan,

Considering you've mentioned MIT twice in our post, I'm guessing you view it as a trump card (and it could be if you are able to address the points below). So let's focus on that.




The 'Before' part
If you are mentioning the size of the company to put your selection in context, then you are implicitly saying, all 200K employees were potential candidates for this program. If that is correct, what was the selection criteria for this? Aapki kameez doosro ki kameez se safed kaise?

The 'After' part
What happened after you came back from the program? Did you get a chance to use that training in your day-to-day responsibilities? What was the outcome? Apart from the envious stares from the remaining 199,999 employees (and Z-level security), what else did you gain after coming back?

A training program by itself does not tell me much. It was an opportunity that you got (earned?). What did you do with it?

A B-school seat at a top MBA program would be very similar. Adcoms will select you over several qualified competitors in the hope that you'd use the opportunity to do some good for yourself, for the institution and other stakeholders (your employer, community etc). They could use your MIT experience to judge what you'd do if you are given another opportunity for world-class training and access to the best resources.



7 page report!!! Are you sure it was a recommendation and not a khufiya case study ('Inside the mind of an Indian genius') that he plans to use in his classrooms? Or are you talking about one of those standardised personality evaluation reports (like Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)? What does he talk about in it?

Fire on, Kalyan-bhai.

[MG: Do you want to take on Kalyan's query on Management Consulting?]

Thanks Sameer.
Kalyan, your profile does put you in a competitive pool. Having said that, you do have elements that can set you apart. The transition from IT to consulting is a bit on the rarer side. Having said that, there are definite pluses in your profile, the lesser years of experience being one in this case.

But for consulting, you need one clear spike at the time of applying for a job. But given the fact that you have an IT background, adcom would want to see elements of this even at the time of applying for a b-school. So, if you can really prove your mettle in either acads or ECs so far, in addition to a stellar work-ex, you got a decent shot at it. For your case, just a stellar performance at work may not suffice unless you can really create a very compelling story on why you as an IT applicant has done which only a very handful of candidates would have accomplished. And here, this needs to be communicated in a very non-IT kind of language so that you can counter the prejduice that prevails.

Hope this helps! Cheers!

Schools do give weightage to profiles that are different, but the bhaav that your application will get will also be driven by the degree and scope of that hat-ke factor.

You've highlighted the fact that you have nothing to do with software (by this I'm guessing you mean 'not into coding'). But the same sentence has SDLC jumping out of the page. If you fit somewhere into the SDLC process, I'm not sure you can completely blank out the IT association.

My point is, that effort is not even needed. You don't have to go out of your way to hide that fact or sound apologetic about it. You are at the cutting edge of technology dude. Be proud of what you are doing and highlight what you do in the industry and why is it special. Just belonging to an under-or-over-represented industry doesn't make your profile good or bad.

What the rest of us do isn't rocket science. You are right in the middle of it, literally. There's plenty you can write that can get the reader excited. Avionics, black-box, NASA! Do you see the goose bumps on my hand?

Moving on to the next question. And I'm keeping the top schools in mind when I say this. I don't think your profile is radically different to make Adcoms ignore the GMAT score. The product you work on is ultimately an IT/technology application within a niche industry. With the current score, I'd skip INSEAD and ISB.

Either get closer to the median scores of the top schools or choose schools where your current score will not be a big liability.

Let me know which side you are inclined towards and we'll make the discussion more specific.

Hi Sameer,

Please evaluate my profile.

I want to work in the field of finance. So, I am looking at a degree in MS(Finance) or MBA(Finance) in the US.

Constraints: Max expenditure for tuition fee is 35 lakhs. So if the tuition fee is above this amount, please suggest colleges that provide scholarships or other aid options.

My GMAT score is 750 (Q50 V41) , AWA - 5

Profile
3 years Experience in one of the top MNC company in India
Worked as an R and D intern in an non-profit organisation

Acads :
Class X- 92 % , Class XII - 95 %
B.Tech from NIT Warangal( Top 10 Tech school in India) -- CGPA -8.61/10
Institute Merit Scholarship for the freshman year
AIEEE rank of 170 ( out of 4,00,000 applicants).
EAMCET rank of 91 ( out of 1,00,000 applicants)

ECs:
Active member of the Volunteers group at my present company
Volleyball player. Represented the company at various corporate events
One of the coordinators for the tech fest of NIT Warangal
Additional Secretary, ECE Association, NIT Warangal
Joint Secretary, IEEE Student Branch, NIT Warangal
Won prizes in various paper presentation contests in various colleges including IIT Roorkee, Osmania University
Conducted a mock AIEEE exam for AIEEE aspirants in Hyderabad

Hi Samir,

Thank you for inviting me in this forum. A number of positive feedbacks as well as your style of giving suggestions in humorous way were really a treat for me to read. Now would like to have some similar kind of suggestions for me as well.

Here goes my profile:

X ICSE : 90 %
XII ISC: 86.3%
BE (2007) VTU(Bangalore) : 76.03%
GMAT Scor: 690 (V:35, Q:48) AWA : 5.0

Professional Experience: 2yrs 11 months experience in a leading Telecom Company. Have 6months onsite experience in China. After 6 month of telecom software development, I joined the presales team to demonstrate my project for some of the leading Indian Telecom Operators. After that I have led a team of 10 members for the deployment of my project. Currently I am leading another team(which i have set up by taking interview, trained and mentored) for Managed Service project in the client side (a leading telecom operator). My responsibility is customer interaction, leading team and providing solution to client and client relation management.

By April 2011 I will be having an experience of 3.5 years.

Awards : 1. Table Tennis 2. Distinction Awards in College 3. Best Contributor Award from both my employer and Client(almost 5)

EC: Played Table Tennis in state level and have been captain in the school team. Have taught poor people in my locality during my school days and still continue whenever I get time.

Post MBA Goals: To stay in Telecom Industry and to know know more in depth business knowledge. Would like to intoduce few good business practices in my family business as well..Further I would like to start off a telecom consultancy.


I have already applied for ISB and will be applying for NUS and Nanyang.

Please give your comments on my profile and my chances to crack ISB. I also want to know whether in ISB, I will be considered in the IT pool of candidates. And last of all, is my score on the lower side taking into consideration my entire profile?

As far as your question regarding my selecting only Singapore schools are concerned, I am open for US and Internation B-Schools as well. But am facing a dilemma in shotlisting them with based on my profile( acads+GMAT+work-ex).

Would appreciate if you can help me in selecting US and European B-Schools.

Regards.

Hi Sameer,

How do you see my profile ?.

Demography: Indian/Male/24

GMAT : 740 ( q 50, v 42 ) AWA 5.5
Toefl : 110
BE from VTU ( 81%)
12th 90%
10th 93%

GPA: 3.7 from a good university

Work experience:
1. 2 years in R&D
2. Got promoted within 2 years
3. Tech leader for the projects and mentoring new engineers
4. Proposed an idea , which was voted for presentation at company HQ at Austin .
5. International working exposure.

Leadership Experience:
1. Founder and Chapter leader of Net Impact Bangalore professional chapter
2. Was responsible for coming up with a team from scratch to build the chapter
3. Managed to get memberships and was responsible in developing relationships with other NGO's such as Starting bloc etc
4. Started board fellows program
5. As a part of our green initiative, we tied up with local NGOs and organized two green events.
6. Partnered with a TEDx event and improved the visibility of Net Impact

Extra Curricular:
1. Started as a member , and then grew to be elected as the Vice-Chairperson of IEEE student branch in my undergrad
2. Was the head of financial committee for an annual national level technical event. My job was to find sponsors, and manage budget for the whole event.
3. Have participated and won 2 management case studies competition
4. Have won a national level project presentation competition organized by Agilent technologies
5. Have presented a paper in IEEE

Entrepreneurial:
Participated in a national level B plan competition by Economic times, and was selected to make a pitch to an Angel investor. Had to work on developing the complete b plan and present it to an investor. Due to my inexperience in the given field, I was not provided the funding.

Why I need MBA?
To develop the skills required to start my own company. To apply the skills developed to take my b-plan forward. I am looking for a school which is good in consulting as well as entrepreneurship.


I have sent my scores to MIT Sloan, Ross, UCB Haas, Kellogg and Duke. I spoke to some of the alumna of HBS and they are pushing me to apply to it as well. Can you please provide me info on my chances on all the above mentioned schools. Also, any suggestions on what i should work on to get into these and your thoughts of the safe school in the list.

Thanks in advance.

Hmmm..an unusually creative compliment! I laaik.

I will now proceed to carry out further research on Tirunelveli and Gurgaon based-BPOs.

Hi Nikhil,

You'll first have to make up your mind which way you want to go. Both are legit ways of getting into the Finance field (and both come with their share of challenges). But the kind of roles you want to target and what you want to do with your degree should influence the choice.

During the 1-2 yrs in b-school, many candidates discover career options that they hadn't considered before. It isn't unusual for people to keep harping about how crazy they are about a particular industry (probably coz this was the only one they were familiar with) and then change tracks completely midway through the course. A regular MBA will leave many such options open for you.

A specialised MS degree however will not give you all of those options. Of course, within the finance industry you'd find a variety of roles people get into and some that are VERY lucrative. But effectively you are sealing yourself from most of the non-finance opportunities that an MBA can provide.

The top programs in both categories can be pretty expensive. Once you firm up your decision, we can continue the discussion further and talk about optins in one area. Right now you've kept the field wide open. The choice of schools, the application requirements can be quite different for each.

Also a little curious to know. Are you hoping to fund the entire degree on your own? Or does that figure of 35 Lakhs refer to personal savings, schols, additional sources of funding?

Hi Sameer,

Many thanks for the reply. Please provide me a shortlist for an MBA(Finance) degree.

About my funding options, no I am not planning to fund my entire degree. The 35 lakhs is cumulative of my personal savings, some additional sources of funding and possible bank loan. As I have mentioned, please suggest colleges that provide scholarships or other aid options.

Thanks
Nikhil

Alright. 50% complication taken care of then. Let's focus on finance focussed MBA programs. You could look at the regular suspects - Chicago, Stern, H/S/W, Kellogg. MIT is pretty strong in finance too. But don't go in there looking for scholarships. The budget would be way beyond what you have in mind.

If you go further down in the rankings you can get good schools that aren't as dhinchak as the ones listed above. But you'd be able to get a good education, a decent network and a good-to-strong chance of bagging one of 'em big-money jobs. But don't go overboard with your expectations.

Be prepared to say bye-bye to PE/VC/Bulge-bracket kinda opportunities.


Care to expand on that? What lies in there will make a lot of difference to where you get in and how much free money you can get.