Please review my Profile and need an MBA consultant

Question

Hi,
I am going to apply in Round 1 and Round 2 for an MBA program starting in fall 2017. Please find below my academic record, GMAT scores and work experience followed by a brief description of myself.

I am 28 years old Indian male, married(4 years) and have a son(16 months old). Me and my wife have been a couple since we were 12 years old.
I was a very bright student but lost my way as a teenager and hence spoiled my academic record. Not until did I receive my first paycheck that I realized what I had done and since then I have worked diligently to get my career back on track.

Education:
B.E. in Computer Science from Pune University, CGPA : ?
I scored First Class with Distinction (Highest Possible Grade). My university doesn’t follow a CGPA grading system; I have started the process to get an equivalent CGPA score.

12th: 75 %
10th: 83 %

Work Experience:
5.7 years across 4 different companies.
1. 11 Months: Systems Engineer, Infosys Technologies Ltd (Sep 2010 – Aug 2011)

2. 34 Months: Senior Software Engineer, Genesys Telecommunication Laboratories, Alcatel Lucent India (August 2011 – Jun 2014)

3. 13 Months: Senior S/W Development Engineer, Comverse Network Systems Pvt. Ltd. (June 2014 – July 2015)

4. 8 months: Lead S/W Development Engineer, Workrings R&D Services Private Ltd. (July 2015 – Mar 2016).
No. 4 is a start-up of which I was one of the founding members and a full-time employee. Unfortunately, it did not work out.

I have not gone into the details of every job because it will take too much space. But in brief: I started as a low level s/w engineer and with hard work worked my way up to lead R&D s/w engineer(Team Leader leading a team of 8 s/w engineers) within 5 years and increased my salary 5 times the initial amount.
I have to mention the salary because my initial salary was a very modest amount and it was the primary reason why a number of my batch mates immediately went for a Masters Degree (MBA or M. Tech). But I did not do so; I stayed in the I.T. industry till the time I found the reasons for which I would want to get an MBA degree. I found them last year and can now genuinely give a proper answer when asked to do so in an MBA interview.

I have worked for an NGO (not a famous one), teaching children over the weekends for the last one and half years.

I am currently on a sabbatical and the reason is as follows:
My wife had complications during pregnancy and because of medical reasons she had to take break from her job for 21 months starting August 2014(9 months + 12 months after the baby was born). She is a qualified accountant and you can imagine her mental status when she had to stay away from her job for such a long time and be with the baby all the time. She never complained because she is both a dedicated wife and a dedicated mother but I could feel it. Hence, I decided to stay at home and take care of the baby while preparing for GMAT starting April 2016 allowing her to rejoin office. I know that many people will not agree with my decision (my parents included) and that I may get rejected because of this but still I am quite proud of what I did. I have offer letters to prove that it was a conscious decision not to take up a job, not a forced one.

GMAT SCORE:
Test Date - 04 August 2016
Verbal - 40 / 91%
Quant - 49 / 77%
Total - 730 / 96%
AWA - 6.0 / 90%
IR - 6 / 69%

I will have one strong LOR given by the guy who was the founder of the startup I worked in.
He is a senior director level guy who has over 20 years of experience working in U.S.A. He has done M.Tech in U.S and is a graduate from The Kellogg’s school of Business Management. I was one the 3 people that he cherry-picked when he decided to float his own start-up in 2015.

I know that some of the information given above can be considered too personal and/or irrelevant, but my gut feeling is to be honest not only on this forum but also in my MBA essays and interviews. I feel more confident if I include these details when I speak or present details about myself as they have made me the person that I am today and I have made peace with the mistakes I have made in life. I also believe that since with respect to GMAT score or Academic record, there would be hundreds of candidate who would be better than me; these are the reasons which will get me through to an MBA course of my choice.
I would really appreciate a strict scrutiny of my profile and if you find any gaps, errors or misunderstandings in my thought process please do spell them out and let me know. Better to be evaluated right now than during an MBA interview.

Target Schools are: 1. INSEAD, Singapore 2. NUS,Singapore 3. NTU, Singapore

One final question: I did not spend any money on tuition or course of any kind during my GMAT preparation because I knew I could get a good score on my own but I am thinking of investing(not spending

) some money on an MBA consultant, will it be helpful?
Thanks and regards,
Rahul

) some money on an MBA consultant, will it be helpful? Thanks and regards, Rahul

StratusDonna · Answer

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

Hi Rahul, first of all I think that your profile is quite competitive and that you're really in pretty good shape here.

Solid GMAT, good recommendations upward trajectory with your career, even though there's a bit of job-hopping but that's a little less detrimental in your industry. And explainable.

What is the fascination with Singapore? Is that a place where your wife could get a job or something like that? Are you aware of the requirement to spend time on both campuses at INSEAD? And the three language requirement?

I agree with my colleague above with regards to pretty much all the comments and esp lean toward you getting some bonus points in the US for the stay-at-home dad choice. I really think that's going to show depth of character. The best LEADERS do what's right no matter what other people say. I really think that if done properly, it will set you apart.

I most definitely encourage you to work with an admissions consultant, a profile is only good as it is presented in final form.

I've done a heap of ding analysis work recently, and I just want to pass along, make sure to look at samples of their work and don't give your power away to the person that you're working with.

There's some information asymmetry, but speak your mind and follow your heart . That's what I've been saying to people lately .

There are several other relevant variables to give you a full profile evaluation, I would be happy to work with you on that if you like.

Feel free to email me at Farrell at MbaCoach.com

And congratulations on your long and healthy partnership with your wife, that is an incredible blessing.

Farrell Dyan Hehn, MBA
Admissions Consultant & Verbal Strategist MBAPrepCoach.com

GyanOne · Answer

Hi Rahul

Thanks for listing out your story in detail. That helps. You have some good life experiences, and your decision to help your wife with her career is strongly appreciable from a personal perspective. The following points may help as you plan further:

- You don't really need to convert your percentage to a CGPA. Most schools accept the percentage as is. The fact that you graduated first class with distinction shows that you did very well in the program. 
- While your work experience till 2014 is largely fine, the switches post that could give rise to some questions. 2 job switches (understood that one was a failed startup), and then a career break, followed by an MBA application is not going to be smooth sailing in terms of how most admissions committees would look at it. A career gap at the time of application can be a negative. Would suggest that you perhaps return to work (when you can, but sooner than later, personal circumstances permitting) and put in one more year there before you apply. Your GMAT score is really good, so that will help your chances when you do apply. 
- In case you do not have significant international experience/exposure, INSEAD may be a tough ride. NUS and NTU are possibilities. Perhaps consider SMU Singapore in addition as well, if you are looking only at Singapore as your target geography. You should ideally expand the list a bit more though.

Overall, you are certainly a valued professional in your industry, and you have a bright career ahead. However, try to plan things out well to ensure positive outcomes in the MBA admissions process.

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with further queries as needed.

rahulprasad11 · Answer

Hi,

Thank you for the review, I am truly grateful. There are few points which I would like to clarify with you.

1. Would the following not count as international exposure/experience?

In my second job with Genesys, none of our software's major clients were from India. Of the 23 months out of 34 months that I spent in the company, I worked with a team based in Canada. I was a developer working from India but the quality assurance team was completely based in Canada, so we had frequent video calls and email interactions. For the rest of the 11 months that I stayed in the company, I worked in a project in which I was one of the two people based in India and the rest of the project team members were working from Canada, China and USA. My company had acquired another company in USA and I was part of the team of people who were tasked with integrating the two company's code-bases together, during these 11 months as my reporting manager for some time I had a Chinese citizen and a US citizen for the rest of the period. I was also onsite in USA for 2 months. I had other opportunities to travel as well but since there was no need I used to avoid travelling unnecessarily, I hope this won't be held against me.

In my 3rd company, the R&D team of which I was part of was based in India but the product owners were from USA and Israel. Most of the monthly scrum meetings and product development meetings took place in India, so people from those countries used to come to India instead of us travelling to US.

In the start-up that I worked in, there were four people: two including me from India and two were US citizens.

Won't the above experiences be sufficient for INSEAD? I know I have not traveled as much but I have mostly worked with teams based across different geographical locations.

2. With respect to your suggestion to work for another year before applying for an MBA course: I do not agree and below are the reasons->
I will not gain anything more by working for another year, I have already taken up a variety of roles that a Software Engineer based in India can take. I have worked as bug fixer who also does minor development work, as an independent contributor, as an integration specialist working across multiple product lines, as a team leader who had complete control over the architecture of a new product and as a founding member in a start-up. Honestly, my third job was the best I could hope for with my level of experience, I was hired as a senior s/w engineer but was promoted to the position of team lead within 2 months leading a team of 8 people(5 from BITS, Pilani, 2 from DTU and 1 IITian). 
Most importantly, I am sure about why I want to do an MBA course right now. While sitting in scrum meetings, it used to tore me from inside when we(the R&D team) had to work on something which we know was wrong or an incorrect way to move forward but because the decisions had already been taken at a higher level, we(the R&D team) had only a limited say in them. 
I want to be part of the team who makes the decision, I want to have a say in how a product will be shaped from the beginning, how many team members will be allocated, what will be the short term and long term goals within a sprint!! No company is going to put me in that position with my current qualification. I need an MBA degree to be even eligible for such positions, I need to learn new tricks and I need to know how the whole machinery works, just being a technical guy is simply not enough for me now.

Also, I will join a company after 2 months when my son is big enough to be left with his grandparents or in day care, so till the time the course starts next fall I will be working. I think I have justifiable reasons for being on a break from job at the moment or am I wrong?

3. For personal reasons, I do not want to go to USA. My aim is to try to get into one of the best institutes in Asia, hence my preference for those in Singapore. 
 
Once again I thank you for taking the time to review my profile and I humbly request you to give your opinion on the above points.

Best regards,
Rahul

rahulprasad11 · Answer

Hi Donna,

Thank you for taking out the time to review my profile and to provide your valuable feedback. I did consider B-schools in US but have decided not to apply in one, primarily because US is just too far away from India and financially there is no way my wife and son can afford to regularly visit me there. Also (I may be wrong here but), I think the whole process of getting settled in US would be a very long one, it would take me a long time to get a good job there and then be able to move my wife and son to US. Hence , my aim is to try to get into one of the best institutes in Asia and thus my preference for Singapore. I have gone through the link you provided and will soon submit my complete profile for further consultation. Once again I thank for your wishes.

Best regards,
Rahul

GyanOne · Answer

Hi

Our responses as below.

Thanks for sharing that. Yes, that definitely counts as international exposure, and the 2 months you spent onsite counts as experience as well. However, please keep in mind that most people do have international exposure (working with global team members while being based in their own country) nowadays.  This link  will shed more light on the issue. This is our viewpoint on the issue. Beyond that, if you are eager to apply to INSEAD, you can proceed - your GMAT is decent for the school, and you do meet the international awareness requirements as well, given the additional information you posted above. The rest will be up to your essays. Please do use the optional essay to explain your career break.

We understand your reasoning, but the fact remains that the reasons need to be convincing from the point of view of the admissions committees for the schools you are applying to. Team leadership and technical expertise all count, but you should have more than personal reasons to convince a top school why your MBA is a genuine, thought-out decision for career progress, not simply another alternative you seek after a career break.

We respect your right to disagree. These are our views, based on our extensive experience. You should consider this and other viewpoints as you take a decision.

Fair enough. Perhaps you should look at schools in India such as ISB and the IIMs (executive 1 year programs) as well in addition.

You are most welcome!

rahulprasad11 · Answer

Hi,

Thank you for taking out the time to review my profile and to provide your valuable feedback. I did consider B-schools in US but have decided not to apply in one, primarily because US is just too far away from India and financially there is no way my wife and son can afford to regularly visit me there. Also (I may be wrong here but), I think the whole process of getting settled in US would be a very long one, it would take me a long time to get a good job there and then be able to move my wife and son to US. Hence , my aim is to try to get into one of the best institutes in Asia and thus my preference for Singapore. Once again I thank for your wishes.

Best regards,
Rahul

rahulprasad11 · Answer

Hi, 
Your close scrutiny of my profile and comments are most welcome, your review will be of tremendous help to me. I understand that some of the points you have raised are very relevant and I am also aware that I may find it difficult to explain my break to some adcoms but as I have said before it was something that I just had to do , it was a conscious decision and I am happy with it. Since I have just started to do research for my essays, your comments will come in very handy. I will pay heed to them and try to come with the best explanation that I can give. 
Thank you.

Best regards,
Rahul

VeritasPrepEdison · Answer

Thanks for sharing.

In addition to the advices above, I agree that your personal reasons for the break should go into your essays. The essays should reflect what motivates you, mixing this with professional and extracurricular highlights to substantiate your strengths and personal story.

Your salary growth over the years, increasing responsibilities, and concrete achievements will help show you as a high potential individual. Also, playing up how the job you will be taking on recognizes your abilities and capabilities should further help demonstrate your potential.

For INSEAD's criteria on international motivation, you can play up your ability to collaborate with and lead diverse teams, delivering results across large-scale and complex projects.

Working with Admissions Consultants can help you reflect your motivations and personal stories, while helping you catch major no-no's for your application package.

Look forward to hearing how you progress and wish you all the best!

Please review my Profile and need an MBA consultant

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