Profile Evaluation- Indian| Female| GMAT-710| WE-7 years

Question

General Information 
Nationality- Indian
Gender- Female
Age- 29 years (30 by Fall’15)

Academic highlights

GMAT – 710, Q-59, V-35, IR-7, AWA-6

Graduate GPA – 9.4/10 (MBA from top 10 institutes in India)
- Recipient, merit scholarship for scoring highest GPA
-Awarded silver medal for being the batch topper

Undergraduate GPA – 66% (Best undergraduate business school in Asia)
- In top 15% of the batch

Work Experience Highlights 
I have around 7 years work experience spanning across channel sales and consumer insights in the consumer products domain with companies such as Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser and Ipsos.

Unilever -Sales and Customer Manager – Personal Products (2011- Till date)
 
-Managed annual turnover of $ 3.5 million for hair, oral and skin care category in one of the biggest states of North India by leading a team of sales officers, market executives, promoters & distributors
-Collaborated with cross-functional teams to reduce increasing channel conflict caused by entry of international retailers in the state. Recipient of teaming and collaboration award in national sales conference in 2012. 
-Recipient of Best Area in Execution Award for 2013 at HUL for being the best performer nationally in all key sales execution metrics
(Have a big story around how the team was not doing well before I took over and transformation into a high performing team over the years. Supervisor’s recommendation will also corroborate the story.)

Reckitt Benckiser –Area Sales Manager (2 years)

Rural channel specialist: Managed north rural channel business that constituted 21% to overall company turnover and grew ahead of regional growth by 1100 bps
Contributed in creating the correct Go To Market model –determined the town and outlet penetration suitable for current and future business growth for the focused towns in the region

Synovate Market Research (Acquired by Ipsos in 2011) – Senior Quantitative Market Researcher
 
Managed multiple market research projects end to end and was responsible for proposal writing, client management, research instrument designing, field and data team management
Worked with international teams such Nokia APAC, Nestle Switzerland Product testing centre on various studies like mystery shopping, preference mapping, satisfaction survey etc
Developed expertise in advance statistical tools such as SPSS, R etc

Achievements outside work

• Worked in Youth wing of CRY (Child Rights and You) 
• Winner of national case study contest organized by Reckitt Benckiser and was featured on national TV 
• President of Alumni Association Committee while pursuing MBA
• Founder member of Marketing club at Grad School
• Conducted seminars on applications of Bhagwad Gita in the corporate world (700 verse Hindu Scripture)
• (I have not included activities done in Undergrad as they are almost a decade old now ☺

Why MBA? 
I want to move into strategy consulting in the international arena. My work experience has given me immense opportunities to develop soft skills, lead teams to deliver business objectives, expertise in quantitative analysis etc, I feel a need gap in certain disciplines which can be filled by an international MBA and will make me a stronger global business leader. My previous MBA as well as work experience was focused on marketing and sales aspects of the business. I need to diversify myself and gain expertise in other facets of business to break into strategy consulting.

Target Schools 
Need suggestions whether top 5 will be too ambitious? I am concerned about the following factors 
1) Not a very competitive GMAT score
2) Other factors such as my age, already an MBA and 7 years of experience

CriticalSquare · Answer

Hey there,

So you have an interesting profile - that's for sure. Your GMAT score is ok in that it starts with a 7 but it's below the median for most of the top 20. You're also clearly involved and have a strong academic track record. What's really going to narrow down your school list, however, is your previous MBA.

Most schools will consider a previous MBA-holder but some flat out won't. Even those that do, you're going to need a REALLLLLY good reason why you need this MBA. Also, think about schools from a career enablement standpoint. Strategy consulting is broad. What firms? What tiers? Different schools can get you into different companies. Some schools, like Booth, are great with McKinsey but others like Duke put ~40% of their students into consulting making them the highest from that metric standpoint.

Unless a school strictly forbids previous MBA holders from applying, you're in the game. But understand you're already behind the 8 ball. I know you're concerned about your GMAT but, at this point, I don't think you have time to fix it. You're already looking at R2 deadlines and you're on the older side. The top 5 are going to be serious stretch programs but apply to maybe 1 or 2. The rest of your strategy has to be diversified across the remainder of the top 20.

Check out these free school guides - they're a great place to start.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions!

Bhavik

vaishalibajaj · Answer

Hi Bhavik,

Thanks for your revert. And Apologies for the duplication.

Just a quick question. I have heard a lot about some schools closing their doors for MBA degree holders. However, my research shows that most of the top rated school take it case by case. For eg HAAS does not consider PGDM from India as an MBA!! (I tried checking my eligibility for the program as the FAQ states that MBA degree holders are ineligible to apply and got this as the response).

Duke Fuqua and Tuck explicitly state that they will not accept MBAs. Apart from these exception, I could not find any school in the top tier that would not be open to considering an already MBA applicant. Have i missed something in my research?

I understand that the real deal maker in my case is showing why I really need another MBA, However, at the same time, I don't want to target a school that strictly closes doors for a 2nd MBA. Please do let me know if I have missed any school in top tier that would not even consider my case apart from the ones already mentioned above

Best

Vaishali

CriticalSquare · Answer

Ah, yes, I didn't realize you had a PDGM (got a bit confused when you mentioned a "previous MBA"). So yes, most schools don't view those as the same and the case by case component is generally reserved for actual MBAs (accredited, etc.). That doesn't completely remove the fact that you have a previous related degree. From a school perspective, just pick up the phone and call the admissions office. See what they say. It's really the simplest way to find out if they have a hard line against your type of degree. They usually only state MBA restrictions explicitly.

Even when it is on an exception basis - why not apply? If you think it's a good idea and valuable for your career - all you have to do is convince them of the same!

Bhavik

Even when it is on an exception basis - why not apply? If you think it's a good idea and valuable for your career - all you have to do is convince them of the same!

Bhavik

Profile Evaluation- Indian| Female| GMAT-710| WE-7 years

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