Profile Evaluation.Need Help

Question

Hi,

I am 24 years Old Male Engineer. Working in Oil & Gas Sector for past 34 months.Planning to apply for Fall 2016.

Job Description:
Working as Key Accounts Manager(34 months) in Lubricants Department of IndianOil Corporation Limited(Govt of India PSU) which is the highest ranked indian company in Fortune 500.
My key job responsibilities are increasing sales of Lubricants, technical development of products, monitoring the outstanding payments of clients, promotional activities etc., in the assigned area. I am doing turnover of around ₹3500 millions. The job is such that it will make one to feel that he is running his own company considering the responsibilities, freedom, target oriented evaluation within the framed policies.

GMAT Score:
730 (Q49,V39,IR7)

College Background:
Completed Mech Engg in 2011 from Sri Venkateswara University College of Engg, (Top 3 Engg college in Andhra Pradesh, India)
Secured percentage of 79.5% & will be well within Top 10 among the class of 60.
Class Representative for 3rd & 4th year of Engg based on voting. Main Organiser of Mech Engg class activities & Member of Executive commitee to organise the College Fest.
12th percentage of 96.3% from private college,AP & 10th percentage of 78.3% from Railway School, AP

I will be applying ISB, Kellogg, NUS, Rotman, HEC Paris.
I need your guidance & suggestion regarding the chances in above colleges. Also, i am interested to apply IVY league colleges like HBS, Wharton, Booth, LBS . So kindly suggest my probability of standings in these B-schools and need guidance in selection of colleges for applying.

Admissionado · Answer

Hello there good sir!
And thanks for dropping by,

So in a nutshell: You are in a good industry with a great GMAT. I'm not sure yet exactly how strong your job is because I would need more detail, but it seems to have potential. On the weakness side is your school, which is not IIT/NIT. (pretty helpful for Top school applications).

I don't feel that I really have enough info to give you a clear evaluation. My feeling is that Top 10 US might be stretches for you (Schools like HBS, Wharton, Booth LBS too even if its not US), and that the schools on your initial list are a bit more reachable. You might also think about applying to the two Texan schools - Austin and Rice - since they are very well connected with your industry.

But like I said this evaluation is pretty rough because I am missing lots of detail. I do hope that it helps you somewhat, and if you need more advice, don't hesitate.

Best,
JF

pruthvi532 · Answer

Hi JF,

First of all, Thanks a lot in understanding my profile & providing realistic feedback

Regarding the questions posed by you, the below are my details.

Academics:

I know that considering the college & school , i am at weak wicket. Due to coming from small town & being less aware, i could not go to any recognizable school in India. 
But i have exceeded & pushed myself up the ladder compared to my peers who have studied along with me & also displayed considerable leadership in schools, colleges.

Also, a point i would like to highlight is that i got an AIR of 158 out of 75,000 mechanical Engineers in GATE'11 which is an All-India exam for Masters in Technology in IITs/NITs. With this rank, i could have easily got into my preferred branch in IITs but i chose to apply & got selected to Indianoil Corp Ltd(Currently all the renowed PSUs are filtering through GATE ranks & further evaluating through Interview/GD/GT) since i was very less interested in studying Technical courses further.

Overall, I agree that i am at disadvantage due to my schools but this can't be changed. But i require your advice whether my decent performance in GMAT can offset the negativity of schools.

Professional Experience:

I am confident that my kind of profile & exposure will be rare.Before describing about my current job, i just want to add that i got into Citigroup GDM AAS as an Technical Analyst from the campus placement.This is the first & last time , the company has recruited from our college & the no.of people recruited is 2(1 being myself & other 1 from Computer science Engg) out of 240 students. This is because i was very good at coding even though i am from Mech Engg.
But i have worked here hardly for 1 month as i got the offer from Indianoil Corp Ltd which was offering very good financial package, Govt Job & most importantly being Oil sector.

You are absolutely right that i am in Biz Del/Sales role. My profile is handling key clients in my area. Before briefing of my job, i like to put forward how i got this role.
We were new joinees undergo training at Calcutta, in which i have really performed or exceeded my peers in terms of understanding & taking my teammates into confidence for completing the task assigned through intuition & Target oriented approach. This is the reason for putting me in Retail Lubricant sales(who has to manage Channel Partners & Distributors) at my desired location of Bangalore (which was confirmed by my Training Dept afterwards). Next comes the current job of Key Accounts Manager(which is highly respected, heavy work, Responsibilities & given to senior person ), this happened by luck as the role was vacant due to unfortunate death of my predecessor & also his area being too important to leave vacant for considerable time. After arriving in Bangalore, i have been immediately taken into ILS department as KAM rather than Retail sales. I have been told my immediate boss & his boss (B.Ashok) who is now the chairman of Indianoil Corp Ltd that the role is very difficult for which i need to put lot of efforts & also assured that they will help me in the job. Hence i have accepted
the job but strugled for intial six months understanding the complications which almost brought me on the verge of asking profile change( but glad i have not done so).

Also, a brief description of IndianOil- Highly respected, offers the best compensation for fresher. This made it attract many from IIT/NIT, IIFT etc thorugh campus placement( the reason for becoming aware of Global B-school & the oppurtunities it provides is my collegues who are passed out of IIT/NIT)
My profile is to manage the Key Accounts/Clients which is direct sales to large consumers -B2B (requirement of Lubricants, intoducing the products as per their machine manufacturers' recommendation & collecting the huge payments as agreed in the credit terms)such as Karnataka Road Transport Corp(STU of Karnataka), South Western Railway, Bharat Earth Movers Limited, Hindustan Aeronautic Limited, Karnataka Power Corporation Limited, Paragon footwear, L&T, Komatsu, Federal Mogul etc., Due to working in highly respactable company & also because of relations established over last 3 years, I can directly enter the chamber of my client companies' directors without appiontment.

And, I dont lead any team as individual sales officer as to act directly but i closely coordinate with other service dept such as C&F agency, S&D of my manufacturing
plant, Technical services team, Finance, inputs team. Also, i rank very high among peers considering my contributions to the company & these cotributions are acknowledged . My significant contributions include introducing many synthetic products which is grey area for my company & earned substantial profits for the corp. Reconciling & closing of debt Accounts which were untouched for years, getting the difficult jobs done through personal level contact with the customers, have shown continuous growth in sales & morever i am being the youngest among all working as KAMs. Being a Govt Job, nobody can get Accelerated Promotions & i will be due for promotion in Mar'14.
The exemplery performers will be given promotion on time whereas the underperformers will be delayed promotions. The timely promotion will make the chairman of the company at the age of 56(if he joins company at 21/22).

Involvement:

Yeah, i agree i don't have any involvement outside work. The enormous job responsibility & my job requiring lot of travelling, i was not able to do think anything outside work . Since last 6-7 months, i am able to take free time atleast in weekends when i have realised that around 2.5 years has gone by, without any significant contribution to my personal life. Tried out few things such as NGO registration(but was unable to attend single day), Guitar learning(Purchased guitar & donated fees to guitar classes without attending more than 3 days), French Learning(can manage basics which is cosiderable achievement considering the no.of classes i attended).

I can add this by waiting for 1 more year but i am afraid that my weekends will go as what has happened earlier . But i am currently highly motivated to join any reputed Global B-school & will put my best in applying & getting the admit. In worst case scenerio, if i dont get admit in any of the colleges(like ISB, NUS, rotman) then i would wait for next year.

Goals:

Even though i am doing considerably well in my current management profile, i still feel i can do much better & efficient way if i can learn good management practices from reputed schools, wide variety of peers instead of learning by doing which takes more no.of years. By equipping myself with global MBA, i can better influence the larger picture.
I can know about different kind of industries, profiles ., Also i can learn how to establish an efficient system or working of systems.
The other crucial motivating factors such as to work in a global giant, take higher responsibilities & manage it efficiently. Become a global citizen, broaden my understanding, see the object in different views. If possible, i can join any govt of india assisting agency to frame policies, establish systems etc.,
Also, after seeing my trajectory in personal life from being a frivolous small town boy to becoming key link in the chain of my comapany, i like to continue the growth path of my life further.

In conclusion, the above is my profile.

So kindly suggest me the 1/2 highly unreachable schools, 3/4 acceptable schools & 1/2 most likely getting admit schools.

Regards,

Pruthvi

Admissionado · Answer

Pruthvi,
What detail!
I love it, man!
So you have lots of good stuff here, and what is important is that you WRITE IT ON YOUR RESUME! (and maybe certain things in your applications. Because if you do not tell them, they will not know!

For example, your ranking from the GATE exam. Or your selection for IndiaOil. Both of these are great facts that help push your profile forward.

Next about your ECs/Volunteer work: It would have been better for you to have more, but I also don't think that waiting another year for this is necessary.

For your schools, I think I would start with your original school list: ISB, Kellogg, NUS, Rotman, HEC Paris. Add INSEAD, McCombs. And then, if you had one more dream school you wanted to apply to from Top 10, you could add that too. You could also apply to Rice which is, as I wrote an awesome school for your industry (look at the employment statistics). That should be enough applications for one year

I hope this helps,
JF

I hope this helps, JF

pruthvi532 · Answer

Hi JF,

Thanks a lot man.
Your response is really a inspirational boost .

Regards,
Pruthvi

pruthvi532 · Answer

Hi JF,

I require your valuable guidance for the below

1)These are the colleges(listed as per priority) that i am going to apply. The list was finalised after realistic assessment of my profile, feedback from friends & well wishers like you. But final application submission depends on how i am able to complete essays, Recommendations & other requirements within deadline. Also i have give my TOEFL.

ISB
Wharton
Kellogg
Stern
HEC Paris
Ross
Mccombs
Cornell-Johnson
NUS

2)My CGPA is 7.95/10 But i rank within Top 5 out of 60 in the Department. Our College is known for Tough exam pattern & the topper in my Dept has scored 8.2/10. So how can i convince colleges that my score is not really bad. Because if i compare my CGPA with 0-4 scale, mine will be 3 out of 4 which is very bad score as per standards of US B schools.

3)I was extensively involved in the political campaigning for my uncle who has contested & won as Member of Legistlative Assembly(MLA) in Andhra Pradesh 2014 assembly elections, India.
Can i highlight this as my involvement/ extra activities

Regards,
Pruthvi

Admissionado · Answer

Looks all right.
I would still suggest you to add Rice, and probably drop one or two of your first three schools. Wharton is really a long shot, and with your goals doesn't really make that much sense, so I would drop that first (or at least hold off on it prioritizing other schools first). Even Kellogg and Stern and no easy rides for you being a non-IIT Indian. So my advice is still: make your school list a weeeee bit easier if you can,

Oh yeah, and good luck!
JF

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