Profile Evaluation

Question

Hi there,

Could you please review my profile below and suggest.

I am an Indian male 27 years old.

GMAT Score : 730 (Q 50 V 39 IR 7 AWA 5.5)

Education :
1. Integrated M.Sc in Chemistry from IIT Kharagpur - CGPA - 7.26/10. Qualified the Joint Entrance Examination (the most prestigious undergraduate entrance examination in India - conversion rate 1% from a pool of around 300,00 applicants to get admitted to IITs at the undergrad level)
2. SSC - 89.4%
3. HSC - 94.2% Topper of my state.

Work - Experience:
1. Prop trader in global commodity markets ( US and UK) for 2 years with a global trading firm headquartered in London. I was working with its Indian arm.
2. Had a brief stint (around 8 months) of independent trading in the Indian equity markets with personal funds.
3. For the last 20 months working as an executive assistant to the General Manager, India Operations of a leading global Healthcare Services provider based out of US. My role involves working closely with the GM and the leadership team in India to facilitate smooth operations at the India centre. Although its a product based IT firm my role has nothing to do with coding or anything remotely close. I majorly work on presentations and analysis for my manager at the executive level which allows me to get a good view of the entire operations at large. Besides I also work with the functional teams to ensure there are no hitches in the functioning of the Centre.

Extra - Curricular :
1. I have represented my University in Cricket. Besides I was the captain of my hostel Athletics team and the General Secretary, Sports of my hostel.
2. I have been actively involved in driving the CSR strategy of my current organization. I was largely responsible for initiating the tie-up between my Organization and a local NGO which caters to surgical treatment of facial deformities among children. I drove fund-raising activities and volunteering opportunities for employees in the organization.

LOR : I should be able to get very positive reviews from my managers - both current and former.

How would you rate my chances at the top schools? I am concerned about the lack of something outstanding in my profile. With this is mind I am reluctant to apply to the top Schools in US - Harvard, Stanford, Wharton. I would be interested to know how would I figure in the other top schools. I have particularly Kellogg, Booth, Columbia, Haas, Duke, Darden, Yale on my mind. Besides in Europe I would want to target Insead. As you can see I have not mentioned my goals - short term/ long term as I am open to anything good which is not a great thing to say but that's how it is at this point in time

. Besides I am worried with my career switch from prop trading to healthcare. I don't know how effectively I can explain this in my essays.

I would love to see your reviews.

Thanks.

. Besides I am worried with my career switch from prop trading to healthcare. I don't know how effectively I can explain this in my essays. I would love to see your reviews. Thanks.

Admissionado · Answer

Hello hello, Things look pretty good from here: You got the IIT, the grades, the GMAT! Your international trading experience is pretty awesome, and your current job has the potential to be even more awesome (why "potential"??? Because I need more detail. The job seems very interesting and very leadership oriented, both which are great advantages, and your profile will be affected based on the size/growth/potential of this firm as well as your own personal responsibilities and achievements…. but let's just say "So far so good"

) I wouldn't worry tooooo much about the goals. If you are interesting in continuing in health care, than why not??? You are already there and already have experience. I think that if your current firm is relatively large, you have a more unique profile than you think, and should be quite eligible for Top 15 programs. Have a look here at a Q&A I did a while back about Indian candidates and Top 10 programs: https://admissionado.com/mba/resources/t ... b-schools/ All the best, JF

pratyush09 · Answer

Thanks for your response Jon.

To give you more perspective on my current job profile it is indeed a leadership oriented role. It is positioned as a fast track leadership stint where you obtain a broad experience of the dynamics of the organization before focussing on a mainstream area where you would be driving key projects in the future. An interesting aspect of the role involves working with the leadership team on planning, strategy and execution. One of the major projects I have worked on involves devising a long term space strategy while taking into consideration associated element of tax exemptions - potentially 15 million USD. I am my manager's proxy for overseeing the overall progress of the space expansion projects. Additionally I have worked on projects which involved portraying the India centre (the 2nd biggest centre after the HQ) as the global hub for driving projects for the other global locations and thus driving more work in the pipeline for the India centre. I have also worked on significant HR related projects like attrition analysis, leadership hiring requirements, visibility strategy of the organization in India etc.

The organization is a giant in the Healthcare IT space with presence in 30 countries (major presence in US) - globally 20,000 employees with revenues close to $4.5bn. The India centre has around 2500 employees and is rapidly growing.

To give you an idea on my current plan for applications :
R1 : Kellogg, Booth, INSEAD, Columbia
R2 : Tuck, Darden, Fuqua, ISB

I would love to go to INSEAD if selected. I understand they do look for significant international exposure (perhaps a touch more than the other top schools. Is that a fair understanding?) . I have worked with several counterparts from the US in my current role besides being involved in trading in international commodity markets before. Do you think that would be enough to drive home my international experience (besides a short trip I made to the US for work). 
Do you think I should make any changes here. Once again thank you for your insights and need I say would love to hear more from you.

Regards,
Pratyush

Admissionado · Answer

Dear Pratyush,
Happy to help, man.
Well, as a guy on a leadership fast-track in a big global company, you really can't go wrong. Health care is a very good industry too. I think your school list is pretty good, although you might want to have one or two schools outside the Top 10 (but inside the Top 20) to balance things out. (Say Tepper, or Anderson for example) I think you'd also be competitive at your favorite - INSEAD.

INSEAD does, as you have mentioned look for international experience more than the US goals - and here everything you have done that is international helps - Have you worked abroad? Have you collaborated with other offices? Worked in other languages? Managed teams live or virtually in other countries? And so on…. And the more you can get out of it, the better.

Hope this helps,
Best,
JF

pratyush09 · Answer

Thank you Jon

I would consider the schools you have mentioned. The only thing I can see there is that I don't want to go beyond a certain number say 8/9 on the total number of applications because I may not be able to put my best foot forward in that case on some of them. As for INSEAD and even others would look to flesh out as much international exposure as possible based on the things that I have done keeping in mind your broad guidelines in the previous post. Thank you again. Cheers, Pratyush

Admissionado · Answer

Pratyush, You are welcome. And good luck to you. If anything comes up in the future, you know where to find me

Best, Jon

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