Request to evaluate profile. Help out please !!

Question

Friends, Experts,

Please help me here as I am literally confused and panicking. I need to know what I have to do next and also how good my profile stands :

I am an Indian male, 26 years old with 4 years of Software (I.T) Experience. (Worked as a Junior Business Analyst for 1 year) and certified IT Service Management practitioner. Have loads of extra-curricular from my college days - including being the lead of Movie Club (Entertainment Club), Organizing cultural programmes , games/events from my college days. I also Play flute and write poetry. In my 4 years of my WE, I have organized competitions, and loads of team outings, dinners, parties and even a trip for the team members to an island resort.
I also take trainings and orientation (induction) sessions for the new joiners in my company. My contributions towards social service has been mainly through the Corporate Social Responsibility wing of my company and have around 300 hours of experience in the same.

Have a CGPA of 7.2 out of 10 (equivalent to 76%) in my UG Course - B.Tech in Electronics & Communication. Graduated in 2010 from Jaypee University of Information Technology, (Though it translates to a 2.6 on a 4 Scale )

And I wish to do a MBA in Marketing or Travel/Tourism.I gave my gmat exam off, however now I just don't know what to do next (since I do not know any one who has gone for an MBA outside (know loads of M.S people though)).

I am looking for Jan 2015 Intake and Sep 2016 Intake - Full Time MBA - In Top 20 colleges - USA/Western Europe/Asia. (My funda - Sooner the Intake, Higher the College - Better it is)

My Questions :
1) How good is my profile. What are my chances in the Top 10 or Top 20 colleges.
2) What do i need to do now?
2) What all documentations I need to have in order?
3) What all colleges are good for a) Marketing b) Tourism (It would be great if I could be given a ranking - US/Western Europe/Asia
4) Basically I need to know - where do I go next since I gave off my GMAT (710)

Please Help !!

Thanks!

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

Dear Lovinlife4u,

Diving right into the questions you raise and adding a few dollops of perspective:
 
  Your profile looks pretty balanced. Being part of a super competitive pool will make the top 10 quite a bit of stretch though. With the right application story (read 3 below) and impactful instance from your WE, you should have a fair shot at the next 10 though.  
  Not sure what you mean by 'documentation'. I am not a visa or financing expert, but read  here  to get a sense on these. In addition, you'll usually need the usual stuff such as official transcripts, certifications etc.  
  It is not clear when you say marketing, which sector you have in mind. Be aware that the B2C marketing space is almost impossible for international candidates to break into. For the same reason, tourism will be a tall order. If you are talking of marketing/biz dev/product mgmt within the IT space, that would definitely make sense. The tourism story overall seems pretty weak as your efforts in that space are not on a large scale. Besides, the tourism industry rarely hires folks from top b-schools. The prudent thing would be to decide whether it is marketing or tourism and then apply. The rankings are pretty much out there (not sure on tourism though) and not a rocket science. Refer 2-3 rankings to have a balanced view and rely much more on your own research to select the programs to apply to. 
  Guess this is pretty much covered in above points. Quickly decide the schools you want to apply to and get cracking.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

GeneralEducation · Answer

Hi,

You seems to have an interesting profile. You have a pretty good chance, if you choose the right B-School and also the good application essays to back up your profile. There are a couple of questions that I would need clarity on. Please provide more insight on your career goals. Marketing is definitely a good option for you, but why tourism? If you are planning for an MBA, you can definitely target getting into Tourism and hospitality sector to fulfill your goals. However if you are just targeting the colleges (tourism) it would be a difficult task finding the right schools and also making it into them.

You can try out the chances at the B-Schools here:  https://goo.gl/TqFWKY

Hope this helps.

lovinlife4u · Answer

Hi Manish & Neha,

Thanks a lot for the analysis. I am sharing my key aspects about my decision, hope you can help me analyse the same..

Well to share in detail with you, basically My strength is my Out of Box thinking, coming up with new ideas, designing and thinking about "how to promote" any event.. and then organizing it end to end.

I come from a family business background where my father owns a departmental store and I have suggested ideas there as well which have clicked and brought about sales improvement.

The results from these, my college days (when used to think about and organize the events there) to the events I have organized in last 4 years have been overwhelming and have made me realize that my core skill (what i am good at) is definitely this.

Plus I wanted a job post my MBA which involved a lot of travelling, thus Marketing/Tourism were the areas I figured could utilise my skill to the fullest.

I just narrowed down to Marketing however I am not sure how well I stand in front of any Ad-com.

Post MBA, I want to start my own marketing company that does creative marketing and involves people from the weaker section of the society. I have worked in NGO's involving blind kids, deaf and dumb kids, physically challenged kids and have realized that no matter what the record says..these people do not get any job easily which pays them off help.
I want to start a new marketing strategy which not only involves these people but these people help form the core of the marketing.

I love challenges and specially take up things which others say are impossible - like I got a book proof read /edited/type set/printed/cover designed all by myself - when one publisher said it's impossible to get it printed under 10 grands.

Request you to share any further views which you do have on the same.

Thanks!
Regards
Sudeep

GeneralEducation · Answer

Hi Sudeep,

That's a pretty impressive profile. I believe with the kind of activities and goals you can definitely make the cut to the top B-Schools provided you get a good GMAT score and submit good application essays. School selection is very important and try selecting the schools which matches your needs. This will help:  https://goo.gl/BqS0ks .

If you are based out of Bangalore, Mumbai or Delhi you can register to interact with the Alumni from Top B-Schools to clear your doubts :  https://goo.gl/Sd1iCJ

All the best!!

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

Sudeep,

Entrepreneurship can be a double-edged sword; a high risk game. If you arent able to put this convincingly in your application, chances are the adcom will rate it down adversely. The converse holds true as well - if you have a solid plan and can show hard evidence that you will follow through on your plans, you actually become a pretty attractive candidate.

From what you've described above, it appears that you have some experience in Entrepreneurship and some in non-profit. It is not clear as to 'when' you want to start you own firm - immediately after graduation or after a few years. In any case, you'll also need to justify why you want an MBA and why from an international location (assuming you'll want to start the firm in a developing economy). In addition, it will be important to also address the point about what stops you from doing exactly this right away, without an MBA. All these are a some more questions become super critical if you have to justify this choice of goal.

Hope this sparks some introspection.

Cheers,

Request to evaluate profile. Help out please !!

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