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daebis
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Suggestions on MBA programs for 31 year old self-employed male. 15 Apr 2018, 04:37
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Hello,

I am a 31 years old male from India. I'm new to the field of MBA admissions and I need information based on my profile and objectives to know the schools that are reasonably within my reach.

My background:
Completed UG in Mechanical Engg. in 2012 from a top-20(non IIT) school with 61% marks.
I took me 6 years to complete UG instead of 4.
Work experience is ~12 years(6 years part-time during graduation and 6 years full time).
Haven't written GMAT yet but wrote two practice tests recently and scored >720 in both of them.

I had to work while I was studying because my dad had an accident during my first year of studies and he was left paralysed in a major part of his body and unable to work. I dropped studies for an year, started a business of contracted construction work(on a very small scale) to support my family, came back to school next year but had to manage both work and studies and this severely effected my UG performance.
It took me 5 more years to finish my studies and in the meantime I took care of my family, my own education and my younger brother's education. I managed to grow my business reasonably well, registered it in 2013 as a partnership between me and my brother and currently have 18 full time employees and >50 contracted and sourced workers working for me.
I was not involved in EC during my studies at all, later on I got involved in some community work.

Objectives:
I want to transition into finance, and I'm interested in 1 year MBA programs, preferably in western Europe as I would like to work there post-MBA. I'm gonna apply for admission in 2019.

Questions:
Is such a transition even possible in my case?
I mean is transitioning into finance possible from such an unrelated field of work? I have thought about it earlier too and started working towards it as well, cleared CFA level 1 last December and will write level 2 in June. I'm also planning to write FRM 1&2 later this year. I can show the intent but I dread justifying my career choices and goals as I don't have a good reason. I had to start my business out of necessity and I had no other choices as to what else I could have done back then (my dad worked in the same industry and his contacts helped me secure my first few contracts) and frankly, I've grown bored of the work that I've been doing, developed an interest in finance and now want to change industries.

What are my chances at securing admission at a top rated European MBA program?
I know my UG performance is very poor and its gonna effect me wherever I apply, so what can I do now to improve my chances?

Based on my profile and career goals which schools do u think I should apply to?
I'm planning to write GMAT in 2019(Jan/Feb).


Your inputs are welcome.

Thanks.
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Suggestions on MBA programs for 31 year old self-employed male. 15 Apr 2018, 05:26
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daebis
Hello,

I am a 31 years old male from India. I'm new to the field of MBA admissions and I need information based on my profile and objectives to know the schools that are reasonably within my reach.

My background:
Completed UG in Mechanical Engg. in 2012 from a top-20(non IIT) school with 61% marks.
I took me 6 years to complete UG instead of 4.
Work experience is ~12 years(6 years part-time during graduation and 6 years full time).
Haven't written GMAT yet but wrote two practice tests recently and scored >720 in both of them.

I had to work while I was studying because my dad had an accident during my first year of studies and he was left paralysed in a major part of his body and unable to work. I dropped studies for an year, started a business of contracted construction work(on a very small scale) to support my family, came back to school next year but had to manage both work and studies and this severely effected my UG performance.
It took me 5 more years to finish my studies and in the meantime I took care of my family, my own education and my younger brother's education. I managed to grow my business reasonably well, registered it in 2013 as a partnership between me and my brother and currently have 18 full time employees and >50 contracted and sourced workers working for me.
I was not involved in EC during my studies at all, later on I got involved in some community work.

Objectives:
I want to transition into finance, and I'm interested in 1 year MBA programs, preferably in western Europe as I would like to work there post-MBA. I'm gonna apply for admission in 2019.

Questions:
Is such a transition even possible in my case?
I mean is transitioning into finance possible from such an unrelated field of work? I have thought about it earlier too and started working towards it as well, cleared CFA level 1 last December and will write level 2 in June. I'm also planning to write FRM 1&2 later this year. I can show the intent but I dread justifying my career choices and goals as I don't have a good reason. I had to start my business out of necessity and I had no other choices as to what else I could have done back then (my dad worked in the same industry and his contacts helped me secure my first few contracts) and frankly, I've grown bored of the work that I've been doing, developed an interest in finance and now want to change industries.

What are my chances at securing admission at a top rated European MBA program?
I know my UG performance is very poor and its gonna effect me wherever I apply, so what can I do now to improve my chances?

Based on my profile and career goals which schools do u think I should apply to?
I'm planning to write GMAT in 2019(Jan/Feb).


Your inputs are welcome.

Thanks.
Show more

Thank you for your detailed post. It is impressive to do so much during college and take care of the family, so that is something that admissions directors will take into consideration when they are looking at the low GPA. To offset that you want to of course get the highest GMAT you can and I also recommend taking a couple graduate level extension courses to show your ability to do well in the classroom.

It is possible to make a transition as you mention but I would make a stepwise change. For instance perhaps you do something that relates to real estate but is more finance focused and then once you build up experience you can make another move. (This would all be post-MBA).

One year programs would make sense and I recommend applying across a range of schools. For instance we could target Oxford and Cambridge but would also want to expand and target 3-4 other schools.

Please reach out if you have other questions.

[email protected]

Best,
Scott