Please provide me suggestions/advice

[ajaykumarmidhun]

Hi,

I am planning to apply for the 2012 classes.

My undergrad history is my sore point in my profile and am not sure if any of the schools even would consider my profile due to it.

I had joined a an engineering degree in 1999.I struggled with the degree failing many courses before finally giving it up in 2003 and turning to full time work to support my family. Extreme financial woes and my working almost full time while studying to make ends meet to support my family did affect my studies. However the responsibility of not completing the degree is mine entirely .I did odd full time jobs(cashier,waiter,restaurant manager,call center agent)for two years after dropping out .These are the 6 years of my life in my profile which I am sure any ad-com would require quite a bit of convincing to admit me.

Education

BBA Indian university overseas program in UAE- 50 percent
worked full time for three years in Dubai as a regional sales executive during the degree.

Promoted as International field operation executive in 2005-

Been involved in this division with the top management and has been a member of the team which turned around the ailing department into profit making one in a year.

Developed business in over 20 countries spanning 3 continents and

Have traveled to over 7 countries in Africa and Middle East while at the same time being successful in generating business from scratch. Will travel to more countries this year as part of business.

Successfully developed the B2B sales responsibility also handed over since last year.

Major achievements- Quite a few which can be vouched for by supervisors and colleagues .Proactively had done a basic market research on certain non-contributing products .Submitted findings and actions to be undertaken. A new division as suggested was formed to market these items.

Numerous instances were leadership qualities were exhibited in personal life and work. Excellent negotiator as per client feedback.

My need to do an MBA arises from the following reasons

1. Have hit the ceiling of a successful sales career
2.Lack of specific and well defined skills to move into desired area of interest and middle management
3.Area of interest- Brand management and to work in emerging markets in the future.
4. Short term goal- Learn the nuances of core marketing - brand management in particular and to work in a leading FMCG firm in a general management role.
4.Long term goal of being an entrepreneur i.e starting an up a fine dining restaurant chain since cooking and fine dining is a passion.

Have varied and wide range of extra curricular activities ranging from Indian cooking to reading classic English poetry.

Have been involved with a NGO here in Dubai for quite some time now and plan to take on more responsible and leading roles in their marketing activities. Can speak business Arabic,basic Swahili,intermediate French apart from English and 4 other Indian languages.

I know that I need nothing less than an 800 GMAT to even afford a peek at the business schools. Well I don’t remember the person who was me at undergrad studies although I am extremely proud of what I did for my family then.

Please suggest what actions do I need to undertake to apply and get into a good school (its not worth the time and money if the degree is not from good school).By the way i will be 29 by the time I apply. Kindly suggest which schools in US and Europe with one year degrees catering to my goals.

Thanks,
AJ

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[mbamission]

Hi AJ,

Thanks for writing in and sharing these extensive details. Your background is definitely atypical of most MBA applicants, and while I do agree it's going to be an uphill climb, you can have confidence in knowing that your story will be memorable and you can easily differentiate yourself from the candidate pool.

I think your best chance to overcome these academic and work experience weaknesses is to clearly state your case in your essays. You can use the personal statement to explain what you've overcome, how you've developed professionally and personally, and why now you believe an MBA is a good move for you.

You can point to the strengths in your more recent work experience as an indicator of this maturation, and your NGO work and language skills will also be a differentiator.

Ultimately you will need to deliver on a high GMAT score to show that you can handle MBA-level academics. It doesn't have to be 800, but for a top-25 school you'll want to be comfortably above the median score for each school you target.

There aren't that many 1-year programs among the top-25 schools that come to mind. INSEAD is prominent of these, and Columbia offers an 18-month program that starts in January.

I hope this advice puts you on the right track -- good luck!

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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