Ask Stacy Blackman

I am curious as to what is the profile of a candidate into a TOP 3/5 university.

I have a bachelors from one of the top 10 tech schools in India (not IIT) (Class Rank 2). Further to it, I hold a masters degree in product development (Class Rank 1) from another country. While I was at school studying the master degree, I tried to exploit the opportunity to study courses in the Business School.

During school I was involved in a research initiative with a professor, and was pitching its business plan actively during university. For some personal reason, I chose to let go of the start-up and got a 9-5 job with a Consumer Electronics MNC. (The startup got funded, but aint doing good financially).

Since joining the job, I have less sexy credentials. Although I studied more management subjects than engineering during school, my job title and work content(50%) is that of an engineer. I have a patent or two (not published), and I am not too excited with this job because of the less than perfect work culture, and also job scope. During work, I dont have much extra curricular work. I am trying to do a online startup, but its taking ages. In my job, I have lead small teams for early stages of projects, which are either terminated or put on hold. Frustrating. The one I am doing now has good chances of being forwarded to the next phase - realization. I see that it will take a lot of time for me to advance in career if I continue with this job. This is among the most important reasons for the MBA.

I want to do an MBA to be able to make a change from this job (I ve tried applying to management jobs as such, but it doesnt help). Hence, I am only interested in Harvard, MIT, Stanford, or one from the other top 5. I dont expect to learn much from the course, and hence want to do the degree to make a switch to a more interesting job. I chose the top 5, in the hope that I want to find out if there is anything exceptional about these places, other than the students, ofcourse.

Sorry for the long personal brief. These are the questions I have:

Q1 - I am finding it strange the idea of going to your immediate boss and letting him know that you are going to be leaving the job (and obviously the projects you are working on) and still expect him to write a decent recommendation to you and allow you a decent space until the next year. I want to leave the organization with a nice rapport.
Further, is it better to take the reco from the direct supervisor or the head of the department. No offense intended, but my direct supervisor doesnt speak very well English (is from China). Even worse, the HOD that i spent two years with has left for another division, the new HOD knows me only a little.

Q2 - I cant get a reco from the professor in school with whom I did the startup? Because then either I dont have to reason to say why I left the startup, or I miss out mentioning this amazing experience I had.
I can get one from the Business school profs though?

Q3 - It feels strange to mention that getting out of the current job is the reason for getting the MBA. Or I want to check out the school. I am basically interested in innovation, be it technical or managerial. I dont think I need an MBA for it. But I need the MBA for getting a chance to get exposed to such opportunities.

Q4 - What are the chances of such a profile getting into a top 5 program?

I dont want the application to look like that of an escapist. But to me thats what it looks like.

Forgot to mention two things:

I will be giving a gmat: Lets assume 700 (practice tests ~740)

And I was promoted to the tile of lead engineer within 10 months of joining (the fastest promotion for the company)

My total experience at the time of admission would be 2 years (+1 year as a Post Graduate Intern in the same company)

Stacy Blackman wrote: Q2) I am sorry I do not understand this question. Academic references are generally not encouraged.

Q3) Not sure what your question is - but you are correct - you would not want to write that the reason you want an MBA is "to get out of your current job". You want to position your story in the positive, so you are looking for other opportunities, it getting away from a position.

Q2) I have some startup experience. I left the startup to join the current job that I am doing. The reason for leaving the startup was unattractive proposition made by the other co-founder, and his sense of "owning" the idea (basically incompatibility with the founder). To go back to the co-founder to ask for a recommendation sounds illogical. To not write about it in the application (or not get a recommendation from him) will miss out on an important experience.
(The co-founder was a professor at school)

Q3) What I meant to ask was that since many applicants want to do the MBA for the same reason (to get out of their current job. obviously, for career progression) what are convincing themes of most "stories" that people build up to support their applications? What sounds acceptable, as a story, and what sounds a story?
(I am assuming that a lot of people build up a story)

For ex: Just career progression as a reason and listing goals makes for a good story? Or, does it have to have something more than that (ex. debt to society, help the mankind etc.). Just confused as to where is the line?


Thanks a lot for your previous response. Appreciated.

I will come back to you after I compiled my application.

Thanks a lot for your time and consideration .