AragornElessar
Hi Everyone,
Below is my profile, and it would be very nice if you guys could look at it and see if I could get into some of the top MBAs
Nationality : Indian
Age : 32
GMAT : 730 (V40, Q49, IR 6, AWA 5.5)
Acads :Engineering (Average Grades), Post Graduate Diploma in Management - Finance (Top 10 B Schools in India, 99.8 CAT percentile)
Work Experience : 5 Years as a Fixed Income Research Analyst at Goldman Sachs (Buy Side Investing Role), currently working with a top US Based hedge fund (2+ years, distressed asset investing). In both these roles, have been working extensively and collaborating with offices across the globe (US, London, Europe, Japan). International Work experience is close to 13 months (London, UK).
Extra Curricular : Won National level competitions in stock pitching / investing competitions hosted by each of the top 4 B Schools in India, Part of student run mutual fund & Finance club at my B-School, volunteer at a couple of NGOs that teach underprivileged kids
To Address the elephant in the room, I have done my MBA earlier and this would be my 2nd one. I believe I have extracted most of the value from the first one - I've worked with my dream companies in great roles, have financial stability along with ability to pay for further education without assistance and a good professional network. The reason I want to pursue a 2nd one is because I want to pursue entrepreneurship and want to learn as much as I can / build an international network before taking the plunge. The backstory here is that I informally tried to run a startup along-with a couple of friends 2-3 years back, while I was still working (was a big decision to leave my job then as I was still paying off my education loan & I didn't want to commit 100% before getting it up and running). We raised some seed money and scaled the company moderately but ultimately our venture failed (the idea we worked on has since been validated by a competitor that came after us but scaled much more impressively). There were great lessons along the way and one (among many) of them was to go back to school and learn more. Given my background in Finance, I have got that covered but as a co-founder, I had to take on many roles - strategy, marketing, sales etc. which I should brush up on.
I am currently looking at 1 year options (Insead, IMD, LBS etc.) given my profile but open to 2 year ones as well, if there are any suggestions to schools I can pursue.
Any suggestions / opinions are welcome. Thanks in advance.
Hi
AragornElessarThanks for posting. Here are our thoughts:
- Your education, professional background, and GMAT score is solid. You could aspire for INSEAD, IMD, LBS, Oxford, Cambridge. On the US front, Kellogg 1-year and Cornell 1-year are decent options. Many other options out there as well, but given your goals, would advise against 2-year ones given their cost. Overall, INSEAD, IMD, and LBS seem like the best outcomes from your selection set that are possible.
- Do bear in mind that this education may not be required to help you on your entrepreneurial journey. A $100k+ loan (at the least), and a new geography, will be factors to keep in mind. On the other hand, you may gain access to an evolved angel ecosystem abroad, so weigh against what your avenues abroad would be.
- Also evaluate whether a second MBA is the best avenue to help you brush up on business functions - evaluate MOOCs as alternatives, and if you are from an IIM/comparable school, you probably have the knowledge already.
- In case you do ultimately decide to apply, now is a good time, as many of your target European schools are in early rounds. Some have even announced GMAT deferments owing to Coronavirus, so a solid application at this time will have more weight than in normal times.
Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.