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.

CriticalSquare · Answer

Hi there,

Thanks for posting. I've provided my thoughts below but you'll notice a fair number of questions too. While you provided some good info, I need a biittttt more! But let's see what we've got here first!

Academics

Solid GMAT (well done!) and a great GPA with a difficult major. You went to a Tier II / III school (yeah, I know it's ranked highly in AP but that only counts for so much) but you can't change that. Overall, I'd say your academic profile, for your peer set, is a bit below average solely based on where you went to school. If you had gone to an IIT, you'd be above average all else equal. However, this die is cast and so it comes down to the rest of your profile!

Professional Experiences

Ok - it seems you have a lot here. From the way you make it sound, it seems you're in charge of a P&L but I highly doubt that given a) your age and b) the company. So I'm going to guess you're in more of a biz dev / sales role? If that's the case, then you're right in that you have a bit more autonomy than most out there. I also like how you aren't in IT. That is a plus! However, if I'm wrong about your work, let me know! Also, what do you DO? Do you lead teams? What has your impact been? How do you rank among your peers? Any promotions? Accelerated career trajectory?

Involvement

You haven't mentioned anything here. It doesn't have to be NGO volunteering. Anything counts if you are passionate about it and you do it outside of work. It seems you have some solid involvement in school but it seems to end there. If that's the case, then this next year should be all about rounding out that part of your profile!

Goals

You haven't mentioned anything here. Why do you want your MBA? What do you want to do after?

Schools

I can't even begin to assess your chances yet or suggest schools. For one, I don't know what you want to do. For another, there are some outstanding questions regarding the details of your profile.

I hope this helps get the conversation started!

Bhavik

pruthvi532 · Answer

Hi Bhavik,

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. I thank you for making me forget that i am spending 2.5 hours for writing this.

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

Regards,

Pruthvi

CriticalSquare · Answer

Hey Pruthvi,

So first off, thanks for all that additional information! That was really helpful! So a few points:

1) Your GMAT won't compensate for your undergrad institution. You don't have a 780. You have a 730. Which is pretty good but average for your peer set. You did well at university which is great and you have a good GMAT. But no, the undergrad institution is what it is. Don't worry about it.

2) It seems you have some great work performance and you're on a good trajectory. You clearly do well compared to others around you and that's important. Also, you're in a good, non-IT role (yay!). Things like the fact you're the youngest KAM there is a really important point and something you'll want your recommenders to highlight.

3) However, your involvement is a pretty glaring red flag. I know you're busy with work but so are the other folks applying. We have clients who are bankers and consultants and sailors and entrepreneurs from India who are all involved. So this is kind of a big deal. It puts you behind the curve. And don't just go join an NGO for kicks and giggles - figure out what you're passionate about and do that!

4) Your goals indicate a shift towards public policy which may not be the best foot to lead with. As to why you want your MBA, you have stated some really generic things so, personally, I think you need to a bit more introspection on that front.

5) School wise, the 15 - 20 range will be realistic stretches, anything 20 - 30 would be better aligned, and beyond that will be safeties. The reason I can't suggest actual schools is because your goals are incredibly vague. Understanding systems and career acceleration - well that's any school out there. Visit our page on    to see the level of thought you need to put into this and what to consider.

That all said, I think you should wait a year. Not only to build up your involvement profile but to also get more structured leadership roles. You're on the younger side for an applicant. I understand there might be some cultural pressures but now might not be the right time to apply. If you wait a year, you'll be able to put a stronger story forward.

However, if you decide to go forward with the understanding you might be reapplying 15 months from now, that's perfectly fine too!

Good luck!

Bhavik

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