Profile Evaluation and School suggestions for Consulting

Question

Hello,
I am an Indian male(25 years old) working in IT, will have 4.5 years of IT experience by the time I'll join. Following are some of the highlights of my profile

Prior to joining the IT sector I had worked in various stints:
1. Worked in a prominent NGO as a Change Leader: (2 months)
• Participated in events organized by IIM A for support of Underpriviledged children
• Conducted a Literacy Development Program for the Poor by HDFC
• Organized the 'Bring Smiles to you Mother' program hosted for poor children with chief guest Ho'nable A.P.J Abdul Kalam

2. Worked as a Pubic Relations intern in an Event management startup (3 months)
Was responsible for interviewing and preparing write-ups for chief guests and other notable people and preparing media communication documents

3. Worked as a Proof reader and Copy-editor for a prominent and renowned author of competitive examinations for proofing and verifying the content of a competition preparatory book "Cracking the CAT" (3 months)

4. Worked with Coaching class to formulate a digital marketing strategy (3 months)

5. Worked as a contributing editor of a student start up magazine, (which continued for a few months after joined the IT) with a readership base across my state of 3300 (8 months)
I left t it to further pursue my interest in technology. I have worked with many big clients in India during my experience at TATA but no international experience.

Breakup of WE within TATA:

Banking and Financial Services Domain: Involved with major clients like State Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Daiwa Capital, Reserve Bank of India, NABARD
Medical: Hinduja Hospital
Worked in the position for 7 months, and the position involved client interactions . Impressed with my work, I was moved to SBI Core Banking -world's second largest core banking implementation with 330 million accounts, for deploying and maintaining a flagship solution (developed by our team) to cater to ATMs all across the country. Got appreciated for my work there and received awards (star of the month and best team). 
Responsibilities also included Top-Level client interactions and obtaining Sign-offs

Government Domain: Worked with Government of Gujarat as a client in the prestigious HOME-department (police dept.). After understanding the technical processes and functional infrastructure, implemented solutions and processes that save the company around 3 million INR.
 Also involved in SLA negotiations with top level government officials: Joint Secretary of the Department, ADGP and DIG etc

Extra Curricular:
* Cleared ‘Institute of Banking Personnel Selection’ Examination and interview to gain a better understanding of Banking industry while I was in SBI Core banking project. Was offered a ‘Probationary Officer’ role at Canara Bank, a leading PSU in the country
* Regional round finalist at Tata Business Leadership Awards, a business case study competition which required us to prepare a detailed e-Commerce strategy for Croma,Tata groups electronics retail chain store

Involvement with Start ups:

Participated in various events organized by start up committees in my city: eChai, Venture Studios, iCreate whereby I came in contact with various start ups, with whom I have been consulting on an honorary basis for the past 2.5 years.

Some of the clients and the work I have done for them are enlisted here:

Startup 1: An IT firm with a niche in open-source technologies and a turnover of 10 million INR yearly having tie-ups with a London based firm. 
Work Done: 
* Documentation and streamlining of key processes to be followed while working with cloud technologies
* Involved in new client deal negotiations for its key upcoming projects involving customers like ADANI & Gujarat Maritime Board
* Involved in contract rate negotiations with its international client base including cloud based companies like Ravello and iamondemand

Startup 2: It is an IT startup which specializes in E-Commerce website development with an annual turnover of 3,00,000 INR. 
Work Done: 
* Involved in defining its branding strategy and identifying key tie up partners
* Facilitated its tie-up with a media company as a part of its branding strategy
* Involved in the company’s projection calculations for diversification
* Involved in its strategy discussions for delving into social media site (myamist)
* Provided valuable inputs in the company’s partnership negotiations with an e-Commerce player  (Onyourwish.com)

# Also involved in tie-up negotiations for an Internship start up and a manufacturing company, having a turnover of multi-million INR

Under Grad:
I completed my engineering from a mid tier university with a first division degree. (No idea how can I convert that to gpa, considering all the gpa calculating methodology it would lie somewhere between 2.7-3.3)
Extra Curricular:
• Part of Caferati club Ahmedabad-Chapter (meeting platform for amateur and well-established writers)
• Participated in Economic Times ‘Power of Ideas’ to pitch our business plan on a start up of Corporate Barter ship
• Final year project on ‘Home Automation Systems’ was taken up by one of our team members and turned into a start up Dernek Engineering, for automating homes and providing home security systems
• Winner of a paper presentation competition on Humanoid Robot
• Stood third in a national level debate competition on ‘Corruption’ hosted by a prominent university & Gujarat Coke NRE
• participated in robotics competition hosted at IIT Bombay and the design, was shortlisted as one of the top designs by the moderators
• Created an aero-model with 3 meters wing span (RC powered)

Please advise on the colleges I should target since I am very much interested in Consulting (preferably Strategy Consulting but Tech consulting is also fine). Also what documents will I be required to produce in my SOP

MBADecoder · Answer

Hi

Congratulation on your huge jump in GMAT.

I am a little lost after reading your profile description: how many companies have you worked for? Can you please give a break up with the time period at each company? Or, is your entire WE at Tata?
 
You have been involved in a tremendous amount of initiatives, which is a good thing. But the experience seems to lack depth. Most of them are small assignments lasting a few months. This is something you will need to be careful about - adcoms like consistency and linkages. If all these small projects are assignments you did for one organization, then its okay. If you were jumping around, then its definitely going to need some explanation.

So, until I hear more from you.....

jdthemaverick · Answer

Hi,
 First,thanks for the prompt reply.

To clarify, I have had a full time employment with only TATA . However, in the entire duration beginning from my graduation, I have been involved with different startups to cultivate my perspective. They might be classified under extra-curricular.

Timeline for the same is as under:

Got campus recruited at TATA, but was waiting for my date of joining (which was delayed for 6 months since graduation-june 2011)

1. Worked in a prominent NGO as a Change Leader  
 2. Worked as a Pubic Relations intern in an Event management startup   
 3. Worked as a Proof reader and Copy-editor   
 4. Worked with Coaching class to formulate a digital marketing strategy  
 5. Worked as a contributing editor of a student start up magazine

Got my Date of Joining (Jan 2012)

Startup 2: January 2013 onwards

Startup 1: October 2013 onwards

The full time employment is only with TATA. Please let me know if further clarification is required

Cheers

MBADecoder · Answer

So JD the Maverick,

You are a sort of maverick pursuing so many things at the same time.

So let me break this down into 3 components:
1. work experience - you seem to be going strong here. You have built expertise in more than one domain and seem to have well. 
2. Entrepreneurial experience- Since you have done this for 2-2.5 years, there is consistency here as well. 
3. Extra curricular - this is scattered. Pick out some themes and try to categorize your involvement into these.
The banking certificate also looks out of place.

So why do you need an MBA considering you have already achieved so much? Working in two start-ups along with a full time job, managing marketing and finances of these two companies, and also managing a tech career alongside this?

To answer your initial question: Please advise on the colleges I should target since I am very much interested in Consulting (preferably Strategy Consulting but Tech consulting is also fine). Also what documents will I be required to produce in my SOP
1. You can research colleges which rank from 10-25 (US News).
2. SoP is a written statement of why you wish to do an MBA. It does not require anything.

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