Profile Evaluation Request - Weird background - Thanks

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Hi,

Thank you so much for taking out the time to evaluate my profile. I am applying to schools in R2 this cycle. My credentials are:

Gender : Male
Nationality : Indian
Age : 29 years

Academics :
Xth - 83%
XIIth - 87%
Graduation : Chemical engineer from IIT Delhi (Consistently ranked among the top 2 engineering universities in India)
CGPA - 6.5/10

GMAT - 700 - bad experience ( Planning a retake and expect to score around 730)

Work experience :

Total 50 months (in chronological order)

* 1 year 8 months as a Proprietary trader at one of the largest prop trading firms in India. Not very famous outside India though.
* 2 years 2 months as cofounder of an educational startup that grew to 60,000 monthly users. Did not not raise venture funding. The startup has been closed.
* 2 months as a Product Manager at one of India's hottest startup - Series C funded (more than $50 million in bank)
* Managing director of family investment firm for the past 6 months. This is part-time so don't really know how much it counts.

Extra Curriculars :

* Director of a family run Non Profit organisation that is working towards the prevention and eradication of Encephalitis. It's a small organisation currently and work has been limited to 3 districts in India.
* Captain of hostel soccer team.

International Exposure:

3 months as an International Research scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Activities & Interest:

* Traveling : Have traveled to more than 10 countries. Into exploring cultures and understanding the values and traditions of people living in different parts of our beautiful planet.
* Soccer.

Post MBA goal - Product Management at an established technology company or a high growth startup so that I can learn valuable skills I am currently lacking, and which along with the lessons from my previous startup enable me to create an organisation that significantly improves the lives of people involved. Product Management is a very new role in India (very few startups have it) and even in US it's been less than 15 years since such a role was created. It's like a mini CEO for products and one of the most sought after roles currently in Silicon Valley. My two years of startup experience prepare me well for such a role.

5-7 year goal : Disrupting education/ healthcare by building a technology organisation that creates value for people around the world - I know this is very generic, but would love to have a conversation and go deep into this.

My target schools are - Berkeley, Kellogg, UCLA and Yale.

My main considerations are - Location (Silicon Valley) and placement in technology companies. I plant to apply in R2 2015-2016.

I would love to know your view on my profile, preferably the weaker points and things that can be done to mitigate the weakness in my profile.

Again, thank you for doing this.

GMAT/MBA Expert

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by CriticalSquareMBA » Mon Nov 02, 2015 11:18 am
Hi there,

Thanks for sharing your profile information! Love the detail you provided. Given your applicant pool, your academic profile is a bit behind the pack at Haas, Kellogg, and Yale - less so at UCLA. However, it sounds like you plan to work on that GMAT which will certainly be a great boost - 730+ will be key here.

Your work experience has potential, however I have a couple questions. Your educational startup experience that closed hopefully served as a solid learning experience. Despite its closure, you can demonstrate how you grew as both a person and an entrepreneur. The next question the AdComm will have is where did you go from here? What additional details are there behind your role as a PM in the funded startup? Are you still there? If so, what is the scope of your role? What have you achieved so far? Your role in your family investment firm could be used as long as its legitimate, but should be less emphasized given its part-time status. Your non-profit involvement is solid and your international exposure is a plus.

Yes, your long-term goal is super generic, so have a think about how you can refine this. If you're having trouble figuring out how specific you need to be, try articulating your goals without any buzzwords (e.g. disruptive, creating value). If it is clear without such verbiage, you're likely in a good spot. Hope this information helps. Feel free to get back to us with the answers to the above questions. Also, feel free to check out our free resources to get you started for your R2 preparation. Best of luck this season!
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