Profile Evaluation

[arunprasad.g]

Hi,

Education: B.tech (IT)
Post Grad Experience: 6 years (2 yrs in India and 4 yrs in London)
Work:
>Started as a campus recruit for an IT company in India
>Took up an opportunity to come down to UK and work within the operations change management of Tier-1 Investment Bank
>Currently working as a Business Analyst at London within a Tier-1 IB specialising in OTC Derivative Business invloving a lot of senior stakeholder management moving up the chain into project management within the front office business which in itself a bit of an achievement for a person like me with an urelated background. Help the senior management in decision making process.

Gmat: 680
GPA: 4.0

Achivement: Been a class leader all through my schooling life and hence have the natural ability to volunteer. Been the General Secretary of the Dept at college and was involved in a lot of key decision making processes.

Awarded the Best Campus Recruit award for exhibiting some good leadership qualities in a company with 70,000 odd employees

Have managed to deliver results in non technology functions even though I'm not from one and have managed to work in an international location with a lot of autonomy at a very early part of the career.

Target Schools: Harvard/Wharton

Weakness: Havent been in a single function for a long time to raise up the chain owing to turbulences in the job market and had to withstand a quiet period of time
Have been a long term contractor for sometime now due to lack of perm opportunities and not sure if this might work against me.

What are my chances of making it if I'm going to apply this year. Can you see any of my weakness going against me a lot.

Many thanks for reading this.

[mbamission]

Hi arunprasad.g,

Thanks for writing in. It sounds like you've been recognized for some early career milestones, which you should definitely highlight as you fill out your applications.

It is tough to comment as to which weaknesses might come into play as you did not mention what you plan to do after business school, and if your career progress to date helps make a logical story for your candidacy.

As I am sure you know Harvard and Wharton are in the most competitive segment, and Indian males with engineering backgrounds are over-represented. You may want to try and differentiate yourself by pointing to how you successfully switched to banking.

I do not believe the weaknesses you mention can be deal-breakers, although you will need someone who knows you well professionally to write your reference letter.

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

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