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Dear Experts,

I would be grateful if you could make some time for my profile evaluation.


Profile
Name: Nitish Agarwal
Age: 24 yrs

Qualification:
B.Tech (Graduate), Civil Engineering from IIT Madras
CGPA: 8.35/10
Publications:
1) Published a paper on use of Bluetooth sensors for indian roads in an international research organization
2) Another paper published in a national research organization
Campus Involvement:
Campus Placement Team Head - Led team of 80 and organized placements for over 1200 students
Held several other managerial positions in the campus organizations

GMAT: 750

Work Ex.
Senior Field Engineer, Schlumberger > 2.5 yrs experience
Team Lead (up to 8 members) for project planning & execution in high-volume exploration and development projects across India; Promoted to Lead Engineer at a seniority of 10 months when company guidelines required a min. seniority of 2 years; Received client appreciation letter for outstanding safety and service quality record during an exploration project; Completed more than 10 offshore and 15 land based projects while generating an average revenue of 1.2 MUSD/ year; with Zero non-productive time and 100% compliance to safety & service quality standards; Mentored a multi-cultural team of 12 (technicians and engineers), which led to timely promotion of 7 members

User Interface Developer, Wipro Technologies ( 6 months experience)
Led a team of 3 trainees to develop multiple PoC for prospective pharmaceutical clients

CSR:
Involved with in-house CSR initiatives of Schlumberger, namely, SEED, a educational NGO

Other Activities:
Certified Scuba Diver

MBA Goals:
General Management
Entrepreneurship
Consulting

Interested MBA Schools:
INSEAD
LBS
TUCK
YALE
FUQUA
IE

Story:
Till my graduation, I have several peaks to show including campus involvement. Working with Schlumberger, has made my profile very tech based and industry specific. I have made revenue for the company, been a high performer and additionally have been involved in quality improvement teams. But after 2.5 yrs I am more or less saturated working in the field. And Hence, I plan to move on and do an MBA.

Questions:

1. Is my work experience relevant to these schools? I another 1 year of experience really necessary to make it to above enlisted b-schools?
2. In 2.5 yrs, I have taken 2 promotions, is another promotion really necessary? Both times I was promoted ahead of other team mates.What should be the approach / strategy? 2016 intake or 2017 intake?
3. What else could I add to my profile so that it shines in the applications?


Happy to share more details.

Dear Nitish,

Diving straight into your questions:

1. You have some fantastic credentials - IIT brand name, great GMAT score, nice GPA and big professional brand names. All these will make you a pretty interesting pick for many of the schools. The transition you have made however from Wipro to Schlum is a non-common one and will beget explanation. For reasons mentioned here, it is tough to say whether you can make it to these schools really. But your profile has sufficient positives to give it a shot this year imho
2. If the promotion is going to be on similar lines/function as the ones before, no it won't matter a lot. Of course that doesn't mean you should decline, should one come you way.
3. If you apply this year, there isn't a lot you can do to 'enhance' you profile frankly. Instead, you'd do well to dwell deeper and hence develop much more clarity on your post-MBA goal. Networking with current/past students and figuring out what works best with your profile is one of the things you need to do for instance. For this year's applications, now is about the right time to begin your efforts.

Hope this gives you some direction and clarity

Cheers,

nagarwal91 wrote:Dear Experts,

I would be grateful if you could make some time for my profile evaluation.


Profile
Name: Nitish Agarwal
Age: 24 yrs

Qualification:
B.Tech (Graduate), Civil Engineering from IIT Madras
CGPA: 8.35/10
Publications:
1) Published a paper on use of Bluetooth sensors for indian roads in an international research organization
2) Another paper published in a national research organization
Campus Involvement:
Campus Placement Team Head - Led team of 80 and organized placements for over 1200 students
Held several other managerial positions in the campus organizations

GMAT: 750

Work Ex.
Senior Field Engineer, Schlumberger > 2.5 yrs experience
Team Lead (up to 8 members) for project planning & execution in high-volume exploration and development projects across India; Promoted to Lead Engineer at a seniority of 10 months when company guidelines required a min. seniority of 2 years; Received client appreciation letter for outstanding safety and service quality record during an exploration project; Completed more than 10 offshore and 15 land based projects while generating an average revenue of 1.2 MUSD/ year; with Zero non-productive time and 100% compliance to safety & service quality standards; Mentored a multi-cultural team of 12 (technicians and engineers), which led to timely promotion of 7 members

User Interface Developer, Wipro Technologies ( 6 months experience)
Led a team of 3 trainees to develop multiple PoC for prospective pharmaceutical clients

CSR:
Involved with in-house CSR initiatives of Schlumberger, namely, SEED, a educational NGO

Other Activities:
Certified Scuba Diver

MBA Goals:
General Management
Entrepreneurship
Consulting

Interested MBA Schools:
INSEAD
LBS
TUCK
YALE
FUQUA
IE

Story:
Till my graduation, I have several peaks to show including campus involvement. Working with Schlumberger, has made my profile very tech based and industry specific. I have made revenue for the company, been a high performer and additionally have been involved in quality improvement teams. But after 2.5 yrs I am more or less saturated working in the field. And Hence, I plan to move on and do an MBA.

Questions:

1. Is my work experience relevant to these schools? I another 1 year of experience really necessary to make it to above enlisted b-schools?
2. In 2.5 yrs, I have taken 2 promotions, is another promotion really necessary? Both times I was promoted ahead of other team mates.What should be the approach / strategy? 2016 intake or 2017 intake?
3. What else could I add to my profile so that it shines in the applications?


Happy to share more details.

Nitish,

IMO, you should wait it out for another year. You have a great profile and a great GMAT score. Another year will complement your experience phenomenally and increase the probability of you getting into your target schools.

All,

Thanks for the swift reply. Your replies provide somewhat better view of my current standing. I kind of
guessed that I needed one more year of work ex. Will need to either plan for it or supplement it something.

Manish,

As part of the placement team at campus, I led a huge team which organized a campus placement drive for over 1200 students. Also, undertook several initiatives which I can talk about which proved to be helpful for the currents students and future placement seasons as well. I was part of several teams in campus which organized the cultural and technical festival as a coordinator. I was also elected Hostel Mess Secretary, were I represented 300+ students on the institute panel. Can provide more details to you on all these fancy posts held in college.

I would love to have a one-on-one chat sometime this week with you. Now I am deeply committed to the idea of cracking one of the top b-schools. Haven't really narrowed down on the list though, But I have a fair idea what I want from the b-school. I will be speaking to more people from my university, etc. during the next couple of weeks and would also like to get your inputs throughout the application process.

Regards
Nitish

nagarwal91 wrote:All,

<<snip>>

Manish,

As part of the placement team at campus, I led a huge team which organized a campus placement drive for over

<<snip>>

Regards
Nitish

Nitish,

From my time there, I know the placements thing is a far bigger deal than being a mess secy - and trust me, adcoms too can make out what's important and what's nice to know

Happy to help here - feel free to reach out on the coordinates provided in my signature.