Profile Evaluation

No problem, Chris.

-PL

Hi Paul,

I am new to this forum and have just started to browse through the various posts. I especially liked the work you are doing here, simply great!

So, here is my profile:
- Personal: Male, Indian, 28. Don't know if this helps in improving the profile, but I come from a poor family and had to struggle a lot for funds initially. It was only after I started working that the situation started to improve.

- Educational Qualifications: Bachelor of Commerce (2003), CA (Chartered Accountant, 2004), CFA Charterholder (cleared level 1 in 2005 and level 2 in 2006, but then work pressure took over, cleared level 3 in 2010)

- GMAT: 700 (Q 48, V37, overall 90%), AWA awaited [do you think this is competitive enough or I need a retry?]

- GPA: As you can observe, my B Com and CA ran parallely. My focus was entirely on nailing CA in first attempt (which I did), while B Com was just meant to have a graduation degree. Hence my B Com score is not outstanding (roughly 64%). I don't know how this translates into GPA, but do you think this will impact the overall profile? In CA, my score was 60% in both level 1 and 2 but below 60% in level 3. I achieved 14th rank all over India in level 2. In CFA, my level 1 score for all the subjects was 70%+. In level 2, a couple between 50-70%, but most above 70%. In level 3, it was a mix between 50-70% and 70%+.

- Work Experience: For 1.5 years after CA, I worked with the local office of a bulge bracket US investment bank (6 months in real estate team and rest in capital markets team). Since then, I am working with one of the largest Indian PE in the the real estate investments team (5+ years of work ex here, overall 6.5+ years). The IB business was more like a KPO office, but we were pretty well integrated with the global offices and used to work on live transactions as well as pitch books, though never had client interactions. In the real estate IB, one of my major accomplishments was working closely with the London office to prepare a generic "Why invest in RE?" presentation that was subsequently used across several client meets and pitchbooks. In the capital markets team, one the major accomplishments was to establish a close relationship with the Nordic desk at the London office, resulting in regular work flow and increased involvement. I was given an opportunity to move to London for 2 months and work directly with the team there, but I had to decline that because of health reasons (I had met with a car accident and suffered spinal cord injury. I was bed ridden for almost 2 months). Finally the lure of IB ended (I felt IB has short-term focus, while PE is relatively long-term) and I decided to move to PE. The involvement has been amazing at the PE and I have been involved in 12+ investments and 100+ investment screenings. Our RE funds are development-focused, i.e. we undertake development and leasing/sale of the assets. We also actively arrange for debt financing of the assets at SPV level. My involvement has been lesser on the projects and leasing/sales side, but I do monitor the progress of under development and ready assets. We have exited from 3 investments till date, and I have been involved at various levels in all the transactions. I joined as associate in the PE fund, and have been recently promoted to VP designation.
I have tried to be as thorough as possible with the work ex, but let me know if you need further details.

- Extra curriculars: I love trekking, travelling and photography. I have trekked extensively in the Western Ghats (mountain ranges near Mumbai) and Himalayas. I am going for a 20000ft peak in the Himalayas in July this year. I have led various treks and got the team through tough situations many times.

- MBA goals: I have had a lot of experience in getting involved in investment and fund management activities. I now want to reach the next level. An MBA from an international university will help me in broadening my perspective and in integrating that knowledge with my existing qualifications and experience. Post MBA, I would prefer to continue in investments/fund management, preferably RE. Indian RE investment environment is still very unorganised and lacks structured long term investment vehicles. My short term goal is to gain further knowledge and imbibe international best practices in this field and in long term to use these in India.

I hope this will give you enough brief of my profile. Eagerly waiting to hear from you...

Thanks

It looks like you reposted this to the main thread, which is much appreciated. I will respond now.
-PL