Observer0911 wrote:
Hi,
Can you please go through the below and provide me your valuable inputs? Specific questions I have are listed at the bottom.
Bio: 1994 born, Indian, Engineer, Male
GMAT: 770 (Q 50 / V 46)
Intend to apply R1 for 2021 intake.
Education: Top 15 Indian School (non-IIT) GPA 8.11/10 Electrical and Electronics Engineering (no official figure on rank. The gold medalist had 9.84/10 GPA). (Note - Got selected for ISB Young Leaders Program but I dropped out)
Full time work Ex - Total 4+ years (at the time of applying in Sep 2020)
1. 2.9 years in a Consulting division of a Big 4 Accounting firm. Worked with Fortune 500 clients in insurance and hospital industry. Mostly on Cost Optimization, business Process Restructuring and Project Management consulting assignments. Worked at Office of the Managing Director for a year. 4 awards. Few months of international client facing experience in US (had to come back due to immigration issues).
2. 1.5 years in top tier non-profit (think Gates/Dell/Clinton Foundation) where I work with national govt on a high impact project in digital transformation & leveraging AI/ML for public health systems.
Part time work ex (pro bono):
1. Worked with a Member of Parliament (Upper house) to create a strategy to make Bangalore a tourist hub.
2. Worked as remote volunteer with a national award winning documentary film maker for his new project around families residing along borders of India
3. GMAT tutor online
Extra curricular:
School
Ambassador for a top tier international education NGO. Co-founded its school chapter. Taught English, Math to 30 children for 2 years.
Undergrad
1. Organizer (1/15, led Revenue Dept) of one of the largest college cultural festivals in the country. Led team of 80 to generate revenues of 65K USD+ and footfall of 30,000+
2. Volunteer with top tier national education NGO for 3 years in various roles - Teacher, fundraiser, career counselor, Mentor
3. Social Entrepreneurship venture with Enactus to create livelihood for 6 widows in rural India. Raised 6K USD as funds from Walmart, KPMG. Led 50 member team.
4. Co-founded a college club which was a collab between the college and an MNC. Led 40+ member team
5. Participated and won in 15+ debate tournaments (MUNs)
After undergrad
1. Ambassador for alumni association of college and created the social media presence - generating 20K+ engagement in 6 months.
2. Participated in education related CSR activities at Big 4 firm
3. Completed Certificate course in public policy (Young Leaders for Active Citizenship). Studied under Harvard MPA/Oxford MPP educated mentors.
4. Rejoined the national NGO in (2) above as a Mentor for youth (18+ years of age)
Target Schools: H/S/W/Booth
Post MBA Goal - Deciding between Impact investing in India and International Public Sector Consulting
Added Info - Applied in 2018 with a hurried application (think 4 schools in 1 month) to H/S/W/Sloan. This was when I was still at big 4 consulting. Bad Decision. I know. But that ship has sailed.
Thank you for taking time out to go through my profile. The questions I have are -
1. I have a non-IIT undergrad and not-so-stellar GPA. How do I optimize this aspect for H/S/W? the GMAT is one way. But what else can I do?
2. I have never had direct reportees during professional life. Even in my current role I am directly working with the leadership of the Ministry of Health. I have guided technical/ops teams but its not direct reporting. How do I showcase leadership?
3. Re-applicant. I applied 2018 December. I will again apply 2020 September. What is the potential impact?
4. Are the target schools realistic?
5. What else can I do to improve my profile?
Hi Observer,
Great experience! Interestingly a lot of Indian applicants are taking a career path similar to yours- some corporate experience followed by working at an NGO, while being attached to a member of Parliament. and this lot is increasingly applying to M7 programs. So, I am going to say, you still have the task of differentiating yourself from this competition.
what I specifically like about your profile is your extended experience in healthcare. A lot of your co-curricular activities also tie in with this and this would help you make a genuine case for your passion toward helping other people.
The non-IIT degree will not hurt and the GPA is not too bad. To strengthen these, you have an outstanding GMAT score. FYI, I have seen non IIT applicants get into top MBAs, so build your application on your own merits and on what you have achieved - you'll be good with that.
How do you show leadership? Well, there are several ways to do that. Working in the Government Ministry, you have to delpoy skills such as persuasion, influence, conflict management, goal setting, sharing vision, negotiations, leading initiatives while working with people over who you have no direct authority (and maybe 10+ years senior to you) - all of these require leadership skills. Infact its difficult to lead people when they don't report to you, so you have a solid case there.
Applying to 4 b-schools in a month was a bad idea, and I hope you will not make the same mistake this year. Most MBAs are reapplicant friendly, but you will end up writing a reapplicant essay. Here, compared to last year, you must show better maturity, more self awareness, any positive changes in your profile and changes in career goals. Be careful though, you should not just apply to the old programs, but also add new ones to the mix.
In terms of profile improvement- well, there's nothing much you can do now and you are in a good space already. Here are a few tips: 1. sort out your application strategy. Deadlines are a month away; 2. get down to application writing; and 3. give sufficient time per application. Also, Reach out if you need help.