Profile Evaluation please

[asif.ahd]

Here's a brief view of my profile...

Undergrad: 8.1 overall CGPA from a reputed Indian Engineering School.

Work Experience:2.5 years as a software engineer at McAfee India followed by 2 years of experience as a Derivative Analyst & Trader at FuturesFirst, a Prop trading firm

GMAT Score: 680%( Q49, V33).

Community Involvement: Worked Actively in the field of Social service,linked to a NGO for last 2 years

Why an MBA? I have an engineering background. Having worked for almost 3 years in a Software firm( McAfee Software) it was the entirety of the business organization and Business plan that intrigued me. I wanted to be a part of the gigantic model of business planning, Mergers and Acquisitions,creating investment and money management strategies for companies and individuals .I aspired to be a financial consultant .However a person who is interested in becoming a financial consultant should ideally get started by working for banks, tax companies or mortgage lenders. This will allow them to gain valuable experience in handling loans and other financial services. In my case I had an engineering background backed by Technical work experience. So for me it was after a lot of hard work and some carefully chosen financial certifications I could switch from software to finance, as a Derivative Analyst, tracking American and European fixed income markets and trading STIR futures at a Trading Firm(FuturesFirst India Pvt. Limited).

Now that I have worked in the varied sectors for more than four years I intend to learn more and expand my horizons. An MBA will help me broaden my Career prospects from Trading to Corporate finance, Banking & Financial institutions.


Please Suggest the Schools I should be targeting.
Is my profile and score good enough to Apply for MS Finance at London business School and the newly Initiated Ms Finance at Columbia ?

Thanks

[mbamission]

Hi Asif,

Thanks for writing in. I'm glad to see you've given some thorough thought to the "Why MBA" question. In regards to what school you should apply to, that's a fairly open-ended question that I can't provide too much real guidance on without knowing your preferences and interests in terms of location, class size, teaching method, etc. From the information you provided I think top-25-30 is a good place to start, and maybe select 1-2 schools in the top-15-20 range as reaches.

As for the two programs you listed, my specialty is in MBA so I don't know much about the MS-Finance programs, but I'd encourage you to think through whether an MBA or MS-Finance program is the right path for you. After all, I don't believe many of the reasons you listed for seeking an MBA would be as relevant for a Finance-only program.

Best of luck!

Dan Richards