Profile evluation!! Please help!

Question

Hi

Could you pls suggest some ambitious, possible and safe schools for my profile

Gmat -690
Toefl - 109
Acads - ok abt 3.3 gpa

Work exp - Overall 3.5 yrs ...a bit more than 4 by the time I start in 2013
 Manufacturing  
Worked in the Family Manufacturing business for abt 11 months
 Responsibilities 
• Lead a team of 10 people that ensured on-time product delivery, generating 15% more revenue for us, above average operating margins, and leading to three subsequent major contracts
• Co-ordinate with the clients to ascertain their expectations from the product
• Manage the supply-chain to make sure raw materials were received on time
• Generate cumulative and quarterly reports to quantify and monitor performance
   Achievements 
• Optimized the supply chain to receive all raw-material from single vendor, which saved 10% of the money spent
• Implemented an “On-site Maintenance” trend, which became the business’s USP

IT Quality Assuarance (Not a typical coder..but a domain related job)
Worked as a QA (Tester) for the brokerage application. Learnt a lot abt brokerage and different financial instruments

Responsibilities 
• Work as a QA Lead/QA Engineer for the Brokerage application of Fidelity Investments
• Understand and Analyze requirements from SDS/ Stories
• Contribute to project planning by preparing a Test plan
• Create and executed test cases to demonstrate the functional quality of application
• Conduct peer to peer test case review to adhere to the quality standards
• Create a weekly project status report
 Achievements 
• Created a historical data and defect tracker sheet, which helped in the successful delivery of projects and reduced project back-outs by at least 20%
• Created a Macro which helped with test case creation and reduced time and efforts by 20%
• Suggested new opportunities for business growth, which were highly appreciated and could soon, be implemented
• Conducted Knowledge transfer sessions for the new entrants to the project

HONORS & AWARDS 
• Certified “ISTQB” Quality Assurance Engineer
• Awarded “Achiever of the Quarter” for my performance in IPO enhancement project
• Awarded “Most valuable person” by Fidelity for my performance in ATP project
• Awarded “Pat on Back” award for my performance in Fidelity SPS project
• Received a rating of 4 (highest & only 10% of 26000 people receive this) during first annual appraisal cycle

OTHER INTERESTS/ACTIVITIES 
• Represented college at State level Football tournaments
• A regular participant in the Standard Chartered organized Marathon held every year to raise funds for charity
• Volunteered at an Orphanage, to teach the basics of computers to children and also volunteered at an old age home.
• Led many events and “Infrastructure team” during college festivals and technical festivals.

Please evaluate my profile!! Thank you for your help

Admissionado · Answer

Your IT experience is good, but pretty "middle of the road", your GMAT is very good, without being excellent.. sooooo the big question is about your family business. this may be a gem for you, because form what I have seen candidates from family businesses tend to do quite well. Of course it helps if your business is big and well connected and has a promising future... and the more it does, the better it will be for you! Sooo I will ask for more information...

Tell me a wee bit more about the family business (size, turnover, manufacture what?)
Tell me a bit more about your goals
Tell me a bit more about what schools you are looking into and when you want to apply...

And with that information in hand, I'm sure I can give you a much better answer.

pratb · Answer

Hi Jon Well the family business in not very big about 20 workers. I led a team of 10 workers. The turnover is also not amazing about 120,000$. We are into manufacturing of mechanical parts such as shafts, Rollers..etc Abt my goals..I want to finally start my venture or take further my Family business. Mostly a few small ventures..into different domains. i was inclined towards consulting..because that would give me exposure to different client businesses and their problems and also because i like to better businesses. When even i enter a business or project, i think from the user's perspective..what more can a user want from this..how can we give that..how to better satisfy the consumer and increase our business. Hence Consulting I am expecting a school to help me get a good internship opportunity with consulting firm. Excellent hand on Consulting projects.Have both Consulting and Entrepreneurship clubs. Some sports clubs (Very Passionate for football).Not very expensive and decent scholarship I had a few questions abt consulting Do consulting companies consider Gmat before hiring. if so is 690 ok for them If not would it go negatively for me while applying to schools with a goal of "Management consulting". i mean would schools think his Gmat is less for a consulting job..so he probably might not get a consulting job..so no use taking him?...Just clarifying if they think this way

It would be great if you could suggest some possible as well as Back up (Safe) schools for me Thank you so much for your help and for taking efforts to evaluate my profile well Regards pratik

Admissionado · Answer

Dear Pratik,
First of all thanks for the additional info. It really does help me figure things out.
Management Consulting is a very fine and good goal to apply to business school with, about 20-40% of all Bschools are made up of folks who go into consulting. So that makes sense, as does your further goal of improving the family Biz. So you're good there.

However Management Consulting IS one of the industries which will take a look at your GMAT too (maybe it's not THE decisive factor, but many of the large companies i.e. McKinsey look to have a 700+). I would say that your experience with your family business and all is like I wrote previously relatively "middle of the road" so you want to be applying to schools whose average GMATs are around yours. Actually since you are aiming for Management Consulting ALL B-schools can be good for you and you need to choose them in regards to fit, location etc. In a very general manner, if you are looking at the US News and World Report, I'd say schools ranked 15-50 are your sweet spot. You can add to this one school (or maybe two) in the top 15 but out of the top 5 which would be your dream schools, and then have one or two near the bottom of the list.

that is a first way to select schools. But you should inform yourself more about the specific programs before you select.

Hope this helps!!!!

Profile evluation!! Please help!

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