Here's my profile -
Work ex: 7 yrs; working as a project manager with Forune 500, with around 20 - 25 people team; have been promoted 4 times in past 7 years; part of organizations top talent program
International exp : 3+ yrs in US and 1 month in Africa - High light - traveled to Kenya as part of corporate service corps program and worked with local gov in a consulting role (only top 0.1% of the org employees get to participate in the program)
Awards : 2 in 7 years
Extra circulars : 3 chair positions in college organizations
White paper published : 2 (internal to organization)
Volunteer exp: help a India based org to get a $10K grant, Did the business case & application
Gmat - 700 - 710 (planned for this month end)
undergraduate : BE from india - non IIT - 67% -1st class
Age - 32 (my biggest fear)
Looking at 1 yr programs - insead(R1 - jan 2014), LBS (r2 - 2013), cambridge judge,pgpx in iim's
Year Gap - 2 yrs (1 yr after high school & 1 yr after college)
Questions -
1. How do you rate my profile in view of my short listed schools (far stretch, etc... )?
2. What should be my application highlights, and if you can recommend some other schools as well ( I am looking at general management/ strategy)?
GMAT Forum
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- pinakibhattacharya1
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- mili
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- Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2012 3:47 am
Re: profile evaluation Request
Thanks for the info. Let's break it down:
1. Professional experience: From what you indicate below, I think you'll have plenty of great professional leadership and team stories to tell in your application. Sounds like you rising top talent in your company, so that is great. Judging from all this, you'll have great recommendations, too. Solid! I'm a little unclear on your background though -- you did a Bach in Engineering. But have you transitioned completely out of a technical role, or are you a technical project manager? If you are still on a technical track, that is going to make your odds a bit lower, as Indian engineer demographic is fiercely competitive. Really try to position yourself as a business project manager as much as possible.
2. Academics: GMAT is still an unknown quantity, but hopefully you can achieve that target score of 700-710. Undergrad scores seem reasonable. This should be fine.
3. Extracurriculars: seems like your extracurricular activities date back to college for you. This is something that is common among applicants in your demographic. If you have any more recent extracurricular activities, especially that demonstrate your leadership capacity and passions, that would go a long way in strengthening your profile.
4. Community -- seems that your recent community experience is more through work (Kenya) and one point in time volunteering experience helping with the grant for that Indian org. Try to make these stories robust, as you are lacking consistent and deep community leadership experience.
With all this said, looking at your target schools, assuming you've truly transitioned out of the technical field, I think you are in a fairly good position. The European/UK schools do not focus quite as much on extracurricular and community activities, though they are still important parts of the application that you shouldn't ignore.
INSEAD is quite competitive but not impossible if you get that 700+ score. Depends how well you execute your application nd show your leadership and multi-dimensionality. LBS and Cambridge are good targets, as is the IIM program (though to be honest I am not as familiar with the requirements for that one). If you're focused on 1 year international programs, you might also consider IMD, Oxford, IE (that's as competitive as INSEAD though). Also look at Forbes' list of top 1 year international MBA programs: http://www.forbes.com/sites/specialfeat ... -programs/.
As for your age. You're right that 32 is on the higher end of the age scale for business schools, but the fact is that you aren't getting any younger :) Not much you can do about this one, just have to apply now and see what happens. No use wasting energy thinking about a factor you have zero control over. Focus more on the applications themselves.
Hope this helps,
Mili Mittal
Senior Consultant
http://www.mbamission.com
Read the mbaMission Insider's Guides (16 individual school titles)
Download mbaMission’s Free Personal Statement Guide
Visit the mbaMission Blog
Follow mbaMission on Twitter
1. Professional experience: From what you indicate below, I think you'll have plenty of great professional leadership and team stories to tell in your application. Sounds like you rising top talent in your company, so that is great. Judging from all this, you'll have great recommendations, too. Solid! I'm a little unclear on your background though -- you did a Bach in Engineering. But have you transitioned completely out of a technical role, or are you a technical project manager? If you are still on a technical track, that is going to make your odds a bit lower, as Indian engineer demographic is fiercely competitive. Really try to position yourself as a business project manager as much as possible.
2. Academics: GMAT is still an unknown quantity, but hopefully you can achieve that target score of 700-710. Undergrad scores seem reasonable. This should be fine.
3. Extracurriculars: seems like your extracurricular activities date back to college for you. This is something that is common among applicants in your demographic. If you have any more recent extracurricular activities, especially that demonstrate your leadership capacity and passions, that would go a long way in strengthening your profile.
4. Community -- seems that your recent community experience is more through work (Kenya) and one point in time volunteering experience helping with the grant for that Indian org. Try to make these stories robust, as you are lacking consistent and deep community leadership experience.
With all this said, looking at your target schools, assuming you've truly transitioned out of the technical field, I think you are in a fairly good position. The European/UK schools do not focus quite as much on extracurricular and community activities, though they are still important parts of the application that you shouldn't ignore.
INSEAD is quite competitive but not impossible if you get that 700+ score. Depends how well you execute your application nd show your leadership and multi-dimensionality. LBS and Cambridge are good targets, as is the IIM program (though to be honest I am not as familiar with the requirements for that one). If you're focused on 1 year international programs, you might also consider IMD, Oxford, IE (that's as competitive as INSEAD though). Also look at Forbes' list of top 1 year international MBA programs: http://www.forbes.com/sites/specialfeat ... -programs/.
As for your age. You're right that 32 is on the higher end of the age scale for business schools, but the fact is that you aren't getting any younger :) Not much you can do about this one, just have to apply now and see what happens. No use wasting energy thinking about a factor you have zero control over. Focus more on the applications themselves.
Hope this helps,
Mili Mittal
Senior Consultant
http://www.mbamission.com
Read the mbaMission Insider's Guides (16 individual school titles)
Download mbaMission’s Free Personal Statement Guide
Visit the mbaMission Blog
Follow mbaMission on Twitter
2 posts Page 1 of 1