Advice on MBA & Business Schools

Question

Good Morning,

I am quite new on the forum so I hope I am posting this in the right section.
I was taking in consideration to apply for an MBA in a prestigious Business School in a couple of years (2018-2019 for instance)

I have done some research and in Europe INSEAD, LBS and LSE appear to be the best choices.
I was also considering US but unfortunately I don't know much about US Business Schools there.

Actually I am looking for some advices regarding which school to choose and if my profile could be suitable for an MBA.

Here below a brief description of my experience so far.

Italian Male (with South african nationality as well)
Age: 28
Bsc in Marketing and Economics (1st class degree)
Specialized Master in Logistic, Transport and Infrastructure
IELTS: Score 7,5
2 years work experience (of which 1 in Brand Management and 1 in Trade Marketing)

Many thanks for your help

Kind Regards

CriticalSquare · Answer

Hi there!

Would be glad to help, but we'll need a bit more information.

Academics: GMAT? GPA/class rank?
Work experience: achievements, nature of work, leadership capacity?
Involvement: extra curricular activities and leadership in your community?
Future goals: what do you want out of your MBA? short/long-term goals?

Looking forward to hearing back!

gianm87 · Answer

Good Evening, Many thanks for your help! I really appreciate it! Academic: Regarding the GMAT I was planning on beginning the preparation for the test during spring time (hoping to reach a score of 650-700) As for the GPA I don't have an official conversion of my marks, but I believe that would be around 3,7 GPA for my Bsc and 3,4 for my specialized master. Work Experience: Total experience almost 2 years I have started my professional experience as an intern in a big multinational company as an Assistant Brand Manager. After 6 months of hard work the company gave me an opportunity to grow further and hired me full time as a Junior Brand Manager. During this time I had the chance to measure myself with all the problems and issues surrounding Brand Development in a key market (sales monitoring, consumer insights, financial & controlling issues, P&L, Brand Plan, 4 year Plan, etc.). I didn't have any human resource to manage under my supervision but I was all by my own reporting directly to the Marketing Manager. After this experience the company gave me the opportunity to deal also with issues more concerning the Trade Marketing Departement. Since I strongly believe that a multidisplinar approach is a valuable asset for the personal and professional growth of any future manager at some point, I accepted. So I have started as an Assistant Trade Marketing Manager and I ended up as Trade Marketing specialist which is my current job position. Right now I have the opportunity to cover all aspects of Brand management and Trade Marketing Management for all Luxury Products in my company (Trading Terms, Implementation long term strategy, Pop Material development, Below the line activities, etc.). At the present day I do n't have any resource assigned to manage, but I dealt with the daily work reporting always directly to my Managers. The company will assign me an intern during the next months Involvement: About extra curricular activities, since I was a child I used to play an instrument and did some acting in my school theatre during high school. I am very fond of sports and I played Rugby a couple of years. I have started recently an experience as a voluntary worker in an NGO (main activity: provide shelter and food for homeless and poor people) Since foreign languages have always been a passion of mine, during my university studies I took some french classes and I'm practicing the language in my free time since then. Future Goals: Well. Tough question (but i believe the most important one..) First of all, since I am half foreigner, I have always dreamt about living and working abroad in a big company. I was always very keen to travel, get familiar with new people from other countries and learn about foreign cultures. This has always been a strong part of my personality. I believe an MBA could give the opportunity to achieve these "soft" goals both in the short and long term. As for my professional career, I'd like to have of course the opportunity to grow professionally with a solid preparation in a top B-school. In the long term I'd like to continue to develop my skills in the Marketing/Trade Marketing office in a big company operating in the Fast moving consumer goods departement. Hope you have all the necessary infos. If something's missing (or some info is incorrect), please excuse me but it's my first post

Many thanks for your precious help. Kind Regards

CriticalSquare · Answer

Thanks for all of the detail you provided. The schools that you should be considering, assuming you're looking into the US, range between the top 25-40 MBA programs. Your GPA seems to fall in the range for those programs, and if you can get your GMAT above a 650, you'll be in great shape from an academic standpoint. Your work experience is a bit light, so I'd encourage you to start trying to take on more leadership roles on projects and initiatives. Your involvement activities sound great, but keep in mind that it's important to have an impact - you want to be more than just a volunteer and you want to do more than simply practice your passion for foreign languages from time to time. You need to immerse yourself in something and get engaged. Your goals are really generic, so take some time to hone in on a specific role to strive for. This will help align the right programs for you later on down the road. If you find yourself needing help with navigating the application process, developing an application strategy, or picking schools, sign up for a free consultation so we can chat. Hope this information helps. Feel free to get back to us with the answers to the above questions. Also, feel free to check out  our free resources  to get you started. Best of luck!

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