Can I get into these schools?? Any better options available?

Question

Hi Paul,
I really appreciate if you can evaluate my profile.

Demographic: Indian Citizen/ Canadian Permenant Resident/ Working in UAE / Male / Chemical Engineer (Working in Oil & Gas)

Academics: 
GMAT: 710, Q:49, V:36, AWA: 5.0
UG: Chemical Engineering, GPA: 3.5 from Indian University (Perhaps not known on global scale)

WE:
8 Years all in Oil and Gas (in different disciplines and capacities)

2 Years Commissioning (Engineer)
1 Year Operations (Operator)
2 Years Construction and Commissioning (Engineer - Coordinator - Oil &Gas Projects)
3 Years in Process Designing. (Sr. Engineer)

My story – Ups and downs: 
 
- Second prize winner in State level Technical Quiz organized by IICHE (Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers) during UG
- Was able to catch first job abroad (Arabian Gulf) in a European company. (One of very reputed companies around the world. More than 35000 employees worldwide. Let’s call it “Company-1”)
- For the second job, I was able to get into Client Company (A local government of Arabian gulf Oil Production Company “Company-2”) with just 2 years experience. (The norm to recruit for the client company was minimum 5 years experience. Till now I know only one other person who was able to join overriding the minimum 5 years experience requirement). However, the company recruited me at lower level with a verbal promise that when I reach 5 years of experience, I will be holding the position I applied for. (I left the company before I completed 5 years)
- As third job, my first company “Company-1” called me back (to another country in Arabian Gulf) with 3 times pay compared to my first assignment. (At that time I had 3 years of experience and I was getting salary equivalent to that of employees with 10-12 years experience. There is a reason for such an increase in my pay and company’s (Boss’s) obsession for me. But unfortunately I can’t disclose that achievement here or even on the admissions file)
- By the time I completed 5 years of experience; I was already married and wanted a stable life in one country. My job demanded me to move almost every year to a new country. I already had good savings. So, at the expanse of pay, I joined another organization. (One of the top design firms in oil and gas sector from Europe and well known globally. Around 25000 employees globally. Let’s say “Company-3”)
- After 8 months again I changed the job as “Company-1” opened a new design office in Arabian Gulf (same country where I was working). With almost 10% increase in pay I joined design engineering. Promoted to Sr. Engineer in two years. (The department head is called Chief Engineer. After two more promotions I can reach his post. But it may take years in company like this)

Goals: 
-ST: Concentrate in Finance, Get in to Energy / Oil and Gas firm (Preferably the operating company) after completion of MBA.
-LT: To hold Chief Executive Position in Energy / Oil and Gas, to shape energy business in a way that minimizes the environmental impact, to promote the world’s dependence on renewable energy.

EC: 
-Teaching music (Keyboard) to children of age between 5 and 12 free of cost (On availability basis, Twice a week, bring your own keyboard) However, I have never received any formal training for playing keyboard. As my mother is a graduate in music, I learnt keyboard during childhood. I truly believe that keyboard learnt in childhood gives intuition for the tunes. (OK its hard to describe...) 
-Member: “Company -1” cricket team (won many matches against other companies)
-Active member of Greenpeace.org. Planning an online campaign on an environmental issue in India. (But not yet initiated and it is quiet possible that I will be able to initiate only after completion of application process.. so no use for application purpose)
-Some volunteer work during under grad period for mentally challenged kids. 
-Held secretarial position in Gujarati Samaj (Gujarati community organization in Arabian gulf) during early years of work experience.

Other Information: 
-Always worked in multicultural environment. Dealt with people from almost all regions around the world such as Indians, Americans, Canadians, Italians, French, Dutch, Germans, Russians, Thai, Chinese, Nepalese, Sri Lankans, Romanians, Croatians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Qatari, Emirati, Omani, Jordanian, Tunisians, British, Australians, Malaysians, Indonesians, and list continues....
-Dealt with almost all categories of the people in my industry: from laborers to Construction and Design managers.
-High exposure to leadership (But most of the time lead the construction workers. I don’t know if this will add any value to my application. However dealt with difficult situations during this time...)

Target Schools: 
-Richard Ivey School of Business, Canada
-Kellogg
-INSEAD – Paris / Singapore
-HEC Paris
-Rotman – Canada
-ISB – India
-IIMs – India

I highly appreciate your candid opinion. Can you also suggest me best possible school in US where I can get into.
Thank you very much for such a wonderful work.

PaulLanzillotti · Answer

Hi amitjash: That my friend - was the mother of all posts. Thank you very much for the detail you provided. I respect the time and effort you took to tell me about every transition you made in your professional career, among other things. :-)

it is remarkable that you had to deal with so many different types of people. I need to get out more! It seems like you have been a Globe Trotter. And I think it's remarkable that you keep going back to company one. It seems like company one may be stalking you. But that is not necessarily a bad thing they are throwing a lot of money your way. There is a point in every man's life where money is no longer their almighty God. It appears you have reached that point in your life and your thirst for knowledge is overtaken your sense of what is the "next best thing". I applaud you. It took me a while to get there as well. I kept getting sucked back into the automotive industry, when it was in more of the heyday then now. I have a question for you; - how old are you? I missed that in your post. it seems like this year may be the last year for you to apply to a top MBA program -- given your age. I really believe that you should focus a little more with respect to your school choice. I can envision you working in an oil and gas trading function if you are able to attain that financial skill set your MBA. At a high-level, you will be competitive at all the schools you listed, including Kellogg. I would not worry about the GMAT so much your case. 710 is a good score and the diversity your background represents would be something that any top business school would love to have. I would add McCombs (https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/dept/fina ... energy.asp) to the top of your short list. They have an energy finance concentration. I would also add MIT Sloan, Wharton, Stanford and Chicago to your short list as they have strong entrepreneurial and technical finance programs. The reality is that I think you should be aiming higher -- not that the schools you picked are relevant. I just feel, given the information you provided, that you will be able to get into a top 10 American business school. If you are keen on Europe, I would add LBS to your list as well. I know that there are also a few other programs that focus on energy finance in Australia, Canada and Norway of all places. However the brand recognition of these degrees will ensure that you stay within this industry. This will be a problem, if you decide not to leave the industry. Trust me, your MBA experience will open up the a whole plethora of exciting opportunities. You want to make sure the school has the bandwidth to properly expose you to these activities. You could end up going a completely different direction. again, this is why I encourage you to apply to the columns as well as if you top 10 MBA programs in the US. I hope this helps you out. Respectfully, Paul

amitjash · Answer

Hi Paul,
Thank you very much for evaluating my profile and most importantly encouraging me to aim high.

For your information, I am 30 years old. I realized that I am running out of time that is exact reason why I appeared for GMAT in hurry otherwise with good preparation I would have got 740-760 range.

One thing I would like to bring to your attention when I said “Always worked in multicultural environment. Dealt with people from almost all regions around the world such as ...X,Y,Z”, it absolutely does not mean that I have visited all these countries. As I told you, I am working in Arabian Gulf. There is always a shortage of manpower in the industry in which I am working. Generally in my working field, local industry attracts people from various places around the world. For example, laborers are normally brought from dense populated parts of the world such as india, pakistan, thailand, indonasia, philipines, srilanka, north africa... etc. As we are involved in the technology related business, the suppliers are normally from US, Canada and Different parts of Europe. (As my job involved me in start-up of the plants... I had to deal with all these vendors for various issues such as quality of equipments they supplied, technical difficulties arising from that equipments, satisfactory performance, etc.) Also various level engineers are called from parts of asia, eurasia, europe and africa so, in general our peer group is also multicultural. That is how I got chance to deal with people from different parts of the world. (However, fact still remains that I am Indian citizen, Canadian PR, and working in Arabian Gulf)

Now still do you think that my multicultural experience will count for top notch universities?

I have certain questions for you if you don’t mind asking.
1. How to bring to attention of admission council regarding my multicultural work experience? At most I can give references of few colleagues(At least 15 different nationalities)
2. I have all the proofs of my employments (that i had got 3 times salary in 3rd job) but will it be OK to mention the increase in salary as achievement in the admission application?
3. For now I understand that I have to include all these details of my career in my Resume. If otherwise I would be thankful to you for getting advice.
4. I would like to bring to your attention that I completed UG from a university which may not be famous on global scale. Will this have some drawback?
5. For now I have taken your advice (List of schools) for granted (I will apply as recommended by you) Please advise me if you changed your mind after reading these facts so that I can re-arrange my list of schools.

Thank you very much for a great help

PaulLanzillotti · Answer

Amitjash:
Yes, in fact based on the information you provided in your last post, I believe even more strongly that your multicultural experience will bode well at top business schools.
The answers to your questions:
1. You bring this up primarily in your essays. When you answer questions regarding leadership, you emphasize your ability to build consensus across a diverse set of coworkers. Diversity includes working styles as well as cultural implications, nationalities, languages etc. you are going to want to provide examples of your ability to get things done in these environments. I'm going to guess that you will have some pretty good stories around overcoming obstacles and perhaps being able to deal with resistance to your ideas. This is critically important in essays that ask you about "mistakes" or "frustrating experiences."
2. Greatest achievement essays center on leadership accomplishments. Bonuses or raises and salary are the result of a significant accomplishment. I encourage you to focus more on the accomplishment and then note that additional evidence of the accomplishment is the raise in pay. Additionally, when you describe significant accomplishments, the admissions committee is more interested in why you view it as significant. They are not necessarily interested in how much money you earn. For the purposes of your essays, I would view the extra income as a "nice to have", but not the primary support for why it is significant.
3. N/A
4. Admissions committees do not necessarily care about the brand name of the University. They want to know that you did well academically. They also want to know that you did well with respect to undergraduate leadership activities. I would not worry about the brand equity contained in the name of your undergraduate institution. if asked a question about your undergraduate academic experience, focus on accomplishments.
5. My list of schools remains the same. Keep in mind that when you write your essays, you will want to pay more emphasis on why this year is the right year for you to go. I called this out because you are now 30 years old. You are not out of the range of MBA applicants, but you want to talk about why this year is the right year and how you have realized that.

Respectfully,
Paul

Can I get into these schools?? Any better options available?

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