Please Evaluate My Profile - Indian IT Male

Question

Hello EssaySnark Team of Experts - Hope you all are doing good !! 
 
Could somebody please evaluate my profile and let me know of my chances ? I am looking for a one year executive Full time Residential MBA, most probably from India. 
 
Target Schools - IIM A, IIM B, IIM C, ISB (Please help me out if I should stretch out my search for colleges outside India as well and gain good scholarship. Money is a special consideration if I plan to look for colleges outside India).
 
Indian IT male, Total Experience - 7 years and 3 Months, planning to apply for MBA in 2014 (I am also OK with applying in 2015 if things do not go as planned) 
 
Graduation - 79% - 7.9/10 (stood first among Boys) 
12th - 71% 
10th - 70% 
GMAT - yet to appear (Targeting score between 720-740) 
 
Work experience ranges from working in a healthcare domain to a Finance domain (current job) 
 
- Working with 3th Largest U.S. Telecommunication company (CenturyLink) after Verizon and AT&T 
- Leading a Team of 5 and working in a project that maintains and processes payments coming from 10-15 different interfaces with a customer base in good numbers 
- 3 Months International Experience on a business trip 
 
Awards At Work - 
- Best Mentor Award in the Mid West Client Delivery Group (it basically had 3 different sub units that in turn had different clients) 
- Spot Award Winner 
- AE Award Winner (won a trophy and cash voucher) 
- Director's Recognition Award from the Director of the India Technology Centre 
- Nominated for Outstanding Service Provider Award - The biggest recognition of the company (waiting for the results, fingers crossed) 
- Various Other appreciation emails from onshore 
- Have also been involved in catching a high Business Impacting issue where the company might have suffered losses in good amounts had the issue went unnoticed 
- Nominated for the Bug Star of the Week Event held in the Organization 
 
Extra-Curricular Activities 
- Have been a part of Organization's Employee club Team that organizes fests, games events, fund raising, CSRs, etc. 
- Involved in anchoring of Organization's event shows 
- Sponsoring a Child 
- Recently teamed up with a NGO to understand their work flow and will be soon involved in drawing a flowchart of their business, putting ideas that emphasize more on productivity, more customers, less turn around time, etc. 
 
Post MBA Goal - I plan to go into Financial services Industry or a Management Consulting (My first preference would be to land up with a Banking Job. I am basically looking to switch my industry post MBA from IT to something like Management consulting or Financial Services) 
 
Are my plans realistic or am I just aiming too high ? Please do guide me if there are some other courses that I should sign up to increase my chances. I am open to other options as well post MBA. 
 
Thanks in advance for your time and help !! 
 
Regards, 
Rahul Sehgal

essaysnark · Answer

Hey rahulsehgal - we're not actually experts on the IIMs and so we'd not be the best for your queries. For the ISB, your profile is quite common and it would help to see a GMAT score as well. We're noticing some good points in the profile sketch you offered but at the same time, admissions is - as you know! - very competitive there.

Unfortunately you can't count on getting a scholarship from any international MBA programs, the ROI is such on an MBA that there just isn't that much free money available, and it's rather unusual that someone from your demographic group get those awards (not impossible, but not something to bank on). If that's a requirement for you, then you should stick to the Indian schools, per your original strategy.

We're not seeing any showstoppers in this profile for trying for a school like ISB but the GMAT does matter, and the essays do too. We wrote  a post on the EssaySnark blahg about the ISB and Round 1 this past week  (sorry to link to one that's behind our paywall but it's a timely article and maybe you're already a member of the blahg), and  we did an essay review for the ISB goals question here on GMAT Club too  which hopefully you've already seen.

The most interesting thing that you wrote which caught our eye was this:

That looks like it's got potential as a bschool essay; you'll want to explore stories like that, first and foremost. Saying you have all those awards and recognition is fine but it doesn't actually communicate much (some companies give employee awards out like candy - they aren't always that meaningful for the adcom). Instead you need to focus on contributions and impact - that's what a school like ISB will respond best to.

Hope that helps, good luck in your process!!!

EssaySnark

rahulsehgal · Answer

Thank you so much EssaySnark for the comments.

Just one final clarification - I am looking for a role in management consulting/ Financial Services post MBA. Does the combination make no sense or it's better I pick only one role that's best suited for a one year MBA ?

It is like, I would need my MBA to help me transform from the current IT Technical role to somewhere in either consulting or financial services but not relating to a Technological role. Am I just thinking way too different ?

Thanks in advance for your help and time.

essaysnark · Answer

Hey Rahul - There's a surprising number of questions buried within that one simple query! Let's break them down.

1. It's certainly possible to go into management consulting with a focus on the financial services industry. There's nothing inherently flawed with that as a goal.

HOWEVER: Going from a purely IT role into **anything** else can be difficult to pull off. Consulting is the most common target because it's horizontal, and it's reasonably straightforward for many people to position their backgrounds in a way that shows they're qualified for that. In general, adding an industry sector or area of focus to "management consulting" can be useful, as it shows that you have a specific interest you want to pursue. But it really depends on what you have in your background to support it. You're in IT in the finance sector now so you do have some continuity there, but it's still potentially going to be perceived as a stretch. It depends on what else you've got to point to, that shows how you have some domain expertise and/or establishes your level of knowledge. It's often "easier" for someone from IT to position themselves for management consulting in the technology space, only because the domain knowledge is obvious. You need to show the adcom how you have transferable skills/experience that fits with the financial services angle. It sounds like you have that, so you'll just want to highlight it in the right way in the essays (it's not enough to simply have a financial services company on the resume).

2. Doing a transition like you're proposing can be more difficult in the 1-year programs since generally they lack the internship opportunity. The ISB sends a lot of grads into consulting so it's certainly possible through that track - but which jobs you actually qualify for may depend a lot on your pre-MBA work experience.

3. In re-reading your original query, we got a little concerned - you said you want to become "a Banker" - that sends up warning flags for sure. Typically people mean IB when they say that. We have seen people jump from tech to IB but only through a high-ranked two-year program, and we don't have many case studies to report on from our own experience. It can be done but it is NOT easy. It really depends on the target.

We may have just prompted more questions rather than satisfying them. Basically you need to work out the career goals first - that will settle so much else in this process for you.

Good luck!!!
EssaySnark

rahulsehgal · Answer

First of all my sincerest apologies for not being clear initially. I meant a role in Financial Services Industry when I wrote 'banker'. Sorry about that and thanks for pointing out.

Yes, the reason I said a role in financial services post MBA was because of my current position and role in Finance domain of processing payments, thought the company is Telecom. So, I thought the continuity will help me here. (it is like, I am not keeping myself open to only role and that's why I specified both management consulting/Financial services) so as to have more options.

But, I understand what you are trying to arrive at when you specified clarity on career goals. It is just the initial nerves as I have just started on my MBA journey

. I will try to have few finance certifications done as well once I am done with GMAT so as to be more profound from finance domain perspective

Thank you once again. You have been very kind, supportive and helpful.

. I will try to have few finance certifications done as well once I am done with GMAT so as to be more profound from finance domain perspective Thank you once again. You have been very kind, supportive and helpful.

Please Evaluate My Profile - Indian IT Male

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