Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Hi,

I'd appreciate your inputs on my path to a MBA in one of these schools (this is my order of preference): 1. IESE, 2. INSEAD, 3. IE , 4. Harvard and 5. ISB

Profile Brief:
a) 24 / M / Indian
b) Bachelor in Commerce (Loyola College, Chennai), Chartered Accountant (India), Certified Information Systems Auditor (USA)

Work Profile:
3.50 Years internship with a small Chartered Accountancy (CA) firm in Chennai (3 years in tandem with graduation and 6 months post graduation)
0.75 Years statutory audit team lead in a big CA firm in Mumbai
1.25 Years freelance audit team lead with multiple small CA firms in Chennai
1.25 Years (and counting) senior executive in the internal audit team at Wipro Limited (An Indian major IT company with revenues of $7BN)

Assignments/Projects before joining Wipro:
 Statutory audits
 Information Systems audits
 Internal audits
 Concurrent audits
 Due diligence reviews
 Relative valuations & business plans
 Special situation audits - fraud investigation and a review of a business transfer transaction
 Proprietary audits
 Certifications
 Cash & stock counts

Sectors Covered before joining Wipro:
 Non-Banking Finance
 Stock Broking
 Service sector
 Construction
 Logistics
 Manufacturing & Trading
 IT/ITES
 Nonprofit organisations

Achievements while working at these myriad CA firms (Nothing much to say Frown):
Appreciated for
 My quality of observations and adherence to timeliness
 the manner in which I identified and conducted a fraud investigation despite being an intern
 Multi tasking between CA classes, B Com classes and internship

Assignments/Projects at Wipro:
 Timesheet - leave & billing linkage
 US H1B visa nomination process
 Non PO based payments
 US Immigration compliance
 Relocation & transfer claims
 Training Effectiveness
 Quarterly accounts reporting
 Immigration compliance new system development
 Strategic Hiring

Achievements at Wipro:
 Rated either outstanding or exceed expectations in all assignments
 My team (of 3) was placed second in the business case study presentation on international finance management
 SBU heads (my auditees) have highly commended my work and have consistently given me the highest customer feedback
 Junior most ISO Management Representative and member of the Internal Quality Assessment (IQA) team
 Redrafted the Procedure and Quality manual of the function
 Organized and hosted segments of the team's annual conference. Compiled and edited the conference docket in addition to contributing articles; and prepared the team's sales pitch
 Host the monthly internal audit team meetings and contribute articles for internal newsletters

Extracurricular Activities in College/School:
 Featured as an inspiring person in Dezyre's blog, an online academy that provides training in job related skills
 Awarded the "Excellence in Leadership Award" for leading social entrepreneurship projects in college; for being the President, Joint Secretary and Treasurer of Loyola Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE, now known as ENACTUS), Managerial Committee Member of the Entrepreneurship Development Cell
 Our SIFE team's social entrepreneurship projects won KPMG's Business Ethics Grant of INR 100,000 twice in a row; HSBC's Financial Literacy Grant of $400 and $500 and our Business Plan obtained a funding of €64,000. We were the winners and runners up at the 2010 and 2009 SIFE India National Competition
 Elected as the School Pupil Leader and as the Secretary of the Literary and Debating Association in school and as the Secretary of the Oriental Languages Department in college
 Bagged the Child Scientist Award at the National Children's Science Congress in Class IX
 Won General Proficiency Awards and several other prizes in cultural and literary events at the inter-school, inter-department and inter-collegiate level
 Organised a inter school fest cum alumni reunion as the treasurer of the Old Students' Association of my school
 Completed over 120 hours of community service during graduation

Haven't taken GMAT as of now but planning to give in July. Aiming for 680 to 730.

Post-MBA Goals:
1. Short-term : Consulting - business process improvement, business process re-engineering
2. Medium-term : Private equity
3. Long term: Social Entrepreneurship

Specific questions:
1) Please review my chances for 1. IESE, 2. INSEAD, 3. IE , 4. Harvard and 5. ISB
2) Would my internship during graduation and post graduation count as work experience?
3) Other schools which suits my profile.
4) Anything else you would like to add

Thanks and Regards,

Joseph Alexander

Hi Joseph,

You have good profile for your shortlisted schools, make it stronger with 700+ GMAT score. B-schools will consider your internship experience which you gained after graduation. INSEAD and Harvard look strtch schools for you. You need to look at schools like HEC, IE, Said in Europe and few more us B-schools to increase your chances. Try Chances of B-school tool by clicking here https://goo.gl/11s5zu

Regards,
Manish
www.general-ed.com

Hi Manish,

Many thanks for your response. I agree with you that INSEAD and HBS are stretch schools for me. What's your view on INSEAD Singapore? Would it also be a stretch school for me?

Though 3 one year programs feature in my initial list of target schools, I am looking for a 2 year program. I have been very happy about narrowing down on IESE and am unable to find other reach schools similar to IESE (probably because I am over excited about IESE ). I hadn't short listed HEC and and Said because the average experience of the class is 6 years unlike 4 or 5 for the other schools (I'd have 4.75 years of experience by the time I join)! Do you think I have a chance in HEC and Said?

Based on your inputs and my discussions with some b school alumni from Europe, my present list of schools is 1. IESE, 2. IE, 3. ESADE, 4. HEC, and 5. ISB

Could you please suggest some programs for me, especially in the US?

Regards,

Joseph Alexander

Hi Joseph,

INSEAD has 2 campuses and admission process is same for both hence INSEAD will be a stretch school for you. You still have good chance at HEC and Said with solid application and GMAT. Considering your score between 680-730, you can apply to top 20 US schools like Wharton, Kellogg, Booth, NYU Stern, Columbia, Haas, UCLA, Ross, Cornell, Tepper, Duke, Kenan Flagler, Kelley, McCombs, Darden. For more information try B-School Selector tool, visit https://goo.gl/LVWTay

Regards,
Manish

Joseph_Alexander wrote:Hi Manish,

Many thanks for your response. I agree with you that INSEAD and HBS are stretch schools for me. What's your view on INSEAD Singapore? Would it also be a stretch school for me?

Though 3 one year programs feature in my initial list of target schools, I am looking for a 2 year program. I have been very happy about narrowing down on IESE and am unable to find other reach schools similar to IESE (probably because I am over excited about IESE ). I hadn't short listed HEC and and Said because the average experience of the class is 6 years unlike 4 or 5 for the other schools (I'd have 4.75 years of experience by the time I join)! Do you think I have a chance in HEC and Said?

Based on your inputs and my discussions with some b school alumni from Europe, my present list of schools is 1. IESE, 2. IE, 3. ESADE, 4. HEC, and 5. ISB

Could you please suggest some programs for me, especially in the US?

Regards,

Joseph Alexander

Joseph_Alexander wrote:Hi,

I'd appreciate your inputs on my path to a MBA in one of these schools (this is my order of preference): 1. IESE, 2. INSEAD, 3. IE , 4. Harvard and 5. ISB

Profile Brief:
a) 24 / M / Indian
b) Bachelor in Commerce (Loyola College, Chennai), Chartered Accountant (India), Certified Information Systems Auditor (USA)

Work Profile:
3.50 Years internship with a small Chartered Accountancy (CA) firm in Chennai (3 years in tandem with graduation and 6 months post graduation)
0.75 Years statutory audit team lead in a big CA firm in Mumbai
1.25 Years freelance audit team lead with multiple small CA firms in Chennai
1.25 Years (and counting) senior executive in the internal audit team at Wipro Limited (An Indian major IT company with revenues of $7BN)

Assignments/Projects before joining Wipro:
 Statutory audits
 Information Systems audits
 Internal audits
 Concurrent audits
 Due diligence reviews
 Relative valuations & business plans
 Special situation audits - fraud investigation and a review of a business transfer transaction
 Proprietary audits
 Certifications
 Cash & stock counts

Sectors Covered before joining Wipro:
 Non-Banking Finance
 Stock Broking
 Service sector
 Construction
 Logistics
 Manufacturing & Trading
 IT/ITES
 Nonprofit organisations

Achievements while working at these myriad CA firms (Nothing much to say Frown):
Appreciated for
 My quality of observations and adherence to timeliness
 the manner in which I identified and conducted a fraud investigation despite being an intern
 Multi tasking between CA classes, B Com classes and internship

Assignments/Projects at Wipro:
 Timesheet - leave & billing linkage
 US H1B visa nomination process
 Non PO based payments
 US Immigration compliance
 Relocation & transfer claims
 Training Effectiveness
 Quarterly accounts reporting
 Immigration compliance new system development
 Strategic Hiring

Achievements at Wipro:
 Rated either outstanding or exceed expectations in all assignments
 My team (of 3) was placed second in the business case study presentation on international finance management
 SBU heads (my auditees) have highly commended my work and have consistently given me the highest customer feedback
 Junior most ISO Management Representative and member of the Internal Quality Assessment (IQA) team
 Redrafted the Procedure and Quality manual of the function
 Organized and hosted segments of the team's annual conference. Compiled and edited the conference docket in addition to contributing articles; and prepared the team's sales pitch
 Host the monthly internal audit team meetings and contribute articles for internal newsletters

Extracurricular Activities in College/School:
 Featured as an inspiring person in Dezyre's blog, an online academy that provides training in job related skills
 Awarded the "Excellence in Leadership Award" for leading social entrepreneurship projects in college; for being the President, Joint Secretary and Treasurer of Loyola Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE, now known as ENACTUS), Managerial Committee Member of the Entrepreneurship Development Cell
 Our SIFE team's social entrepreneurship projects won KPMG's Business Ethics Grant of INR 100,000 twice in a row; HSBC's Financial Literacy Grant of $400 and $500 and our Business Plan obtained a funding of €64,000. We were the winners and runners up at the 2010 and 2009 SIFE India National Competition
 Elected as the School Pupil Leader and as the Secretary of the Literary and Debating Association in school and as the Secretary of the Oriental Languages Department in college
 Bagged the Child Scientist Award at the National Children's Science Congress in Class IX
 Won General Proficiency Awards and several other prizes in cultural and literary events at the inter-school, inter-department and inter-collegiate level
 Organised a inter school fest cum alumni reunion as the treasurer of the Old Students' Association of my school
 Completed over 120 hours of community service during graduation

Haven't taken GMAT as of now but planning to give in July. Aiming for 680 to 730.

Post-MBA Goals:
1. Short-term : Consulting - business process improvement, business process re-engineering
2. Medium-term : Private equity
3. Long term: Social Entrepreneurship

Specific questions:
1) Please review my chances for 1. IESE, 2. INSEAD, 3. IE , 4. Harvard and 5. ISB
2) Would my internship during graduation and post graduation count as work experience?
3) Other schools which suits my profile.
4) Anything else you would like to add

Thanks and Regards,

Joseph Alexander

Hello Joseph.

For the schools you are planning to apply the average GMAT ranges from 680 to 730. How much did you score on GMAT? You have not mentioned your undergraduate GPA. It is one of the most important aspects of your profile and a very good GPA with top grades in quant related courses will definitely help your case.

Whether your internships count as relevant work experience solely depends on the quality of work you did with the CA firm. If you were part of major projects, then it is definitely worth mentioning and will be considered as relevant. Coming to your work experience as a whole, diverse work experience in your field is a good thing. The fact that you have worked with a variety of firms will certainly work in your favour. As you went from one firm to another you went from being an intern to a team leader and then worked at senior position at Wipro. You can consider this as an achievement as it will matter to business schools that you went higher up the ladder during your work experience. Focus on these areas while writing your admission essays and also how successful you were at multitasking during your college days.

Mostly you have mentioned what you did at each of the firms you worked for. I would suggest you to shift your perspective from the things you did to the things you achieved, the heights you took your firms to, and the outcome of the projects you were part of. Because your accomplishments and leadership skills, and how you portray them are very important to your application. You ratings were always good, but can you tell me how were they in comparison to your peers? Being the youngest member of the IQA team and ISO management representative is something that shows that you outperformed your peers and I think you should definitely mention this in your essays.

The section of your extracurricular activities is slightly weak. You have good ECs to show from your college days but you should have done something during your work as well. There is still time and I suggest you do something about it. In your essays, I would suggest you to focus on the leadership roles you played and your experience in entrepreneurship. The later can be cited while discussing your post MBA goals. It is good that you won prize money on several occasions for your ventures but you have not mentioned what your social venture did, how successful it was and what you learnt from the experience. I would advise you to not mention the extracurricular activities from your school days.

Finally, your post MBA goals - why do want to shift from being an accountant to consulting and later to private equity? Perhaps you can discuss any experiences you have had in the field or with other consultants that have moved you to consider working in consulting. Do think about this.

Your profile lacks the international experience factor. Although one can do without it, but since you are planning to apply to INSEAD which prides itself on being an international business school with the greatest student diversity, I thought of adding this. If you have worked with international clients or completed part of your education abroad or travelled to a lot of countries, do mention it in your application for INSEAD.

You can check out this article to know about which schools are good for entrepreneurship. https://www.interviewbay.com/blog/top-20 ... reneurship

All the best
www.interviewbay.com
Application Reviews and Mock Interviews by Alumni of your Target B-School

It is difficult to give guidance without your GMAT score as that is a very important factor, especially for an Indian candidate. The selectivity of schools are HBS, INSEAD, ISB/IE and IESE (Note: selectivity is not just acceptance percentage but also applicant quality).

As an Indian candidate, you should bump up the approximate average GMAT (by 40 as a rule of thumb). So, if you score a 680 you will find it hard to be competitive at top 10 schools. It has been a while since your original post, have you taken the GMAT which would help us narrow down the options?

Thanks,

Hi Experts,

Thank you very much for your detailed responses. I have responded to each of your queries here under separately calling out your names. But before that here are some basic data:

1. GMAT:
I was getting a 680 in my last 2 GMAT prep mocks. Somehow in the test I felt that the last 10 quant questions were way too easy and that I did not use the scratch work at all. Though I know it shouldn't have lost focus because of this, I got distracted and did badly in Verbal. Got the same old 48 I was getting in my mocks in the real test, but verbal slipped from 36 to 31 and I got a 640. I am retaking the gmat in a month now.

2. Schools:
The more you research, the more you find. Based on advise from some friends and experts and discussions with b school students and alums, I've shortlisted the following schools
a) ideal 3: IESE, Harvard, Darden
b) favourite 3: Kellogg, Tuck, Tepper
c) Good to go to 2: UCLA, Columbia

3. GPA:
3.4+ (sending documents to WES for evaluation. Based on what other graduation classmates got from WES, I am expecting something over 3.4)

4. New resume (draft 1) work experience extract:

Senior Executive - Corporate Internal Audit, Wipro Limited, Bangalore Apr'13 till date
Key Assignments include strategy and policy reviews and business process improvement/assurance reviews.
"¢ Benchmarked the niche global strategic hiring team, interviewed business leaders and identified avenues for improving the team's strategy, policy and operations
"¢ Identified gaps and chartered a new process which integrates travel and immigration compliance systems and covers all nationalities and visa types; this automated system is being implemented and would reduce cycle time by over 50% for employees traveling from outside India to the US
"¢ Interacted with HR and legal teams across the world and compiled leave and work time regulations in each country for all bands of employees; reviewed the impact of global regulations on Wipro's timesheet and leave systems
"¢ Scrutinized timesheets of Wipro and its subsidiaries, the systems linkage with leave and billing systems and created programs for auto detection of anomalies
Achievements
"¢ Voted the best debutant, Mr. Ambitious, Mr. Imaginative and Mr. Sincere and awarded the most enthusiastic team in a script writing competition
"¢ Redrafted the Procedure and Quality manual of the function; junior most ISO Management Representative and responsible for ensuring ISO compliance and enhancing quality of the team's activities
"¢ Placed second in the business case study presentation competition on international finance management

Non-Executive Partner, AKR's HR Consulting Group, Tiruchirapalli Mar'12 - Mar'13
"¢ Analysed data and guided this not for profit startup's partner in operations and finance
"¢ Attended partner meetings and assisted in preparing reports and presentations

Team Lead, Freelancer, Chennai Jan'12 - Mar'13
Senior - Assurance, ASA & Associates LLP, Chartered Accountants, Mumbai Apr'11 - Dec'11
CA Intern, C.B. Joseph & Co., Chartered Accounts, Chennai Jul'07 - Jan'11
"¢ Lead and worked in teams which handled myriad audits across sectors
"¢ Conducted due diligence reviews of two entities and reviewed two frauds
"¢ Did the proprietary audit of a not for profit organisation and identified avenues for improving fund allocation and spending
"¢ Identified process gaps, drafted reports and multi-tasked between assignments completing them within timelines

Assistant Executive - Private Equity, Tata Capital Limited, Mumbai Sep'10 - Oct'10
"¢ Updated and stored all investor and fund documents and agreements
"¢ Prepared investor statement of accounts, contribution agreements and other customer documents

5. Career plans post MBA:

a) I have always had the interest and insanity to do everything extremely correctly. During my graduation days when I was working in the social entrepreneurship club, I realised that this is what I want to do in the long term.

b) Since private equity firms work is similar to what we guys did back in college, I thought I must work in PE, get the experience of how these guys turn around/enhance growth in anything they invest in and to use the same strategy in my social entrepreneurship work.

c) I got a chance to work with Tata Capital's (TCL) PE team (not in investments, but in operations) and got a reassurance that this was the place where I wanted to work. I had wanted to do a CA industrial training there but I failed in an exam which I should have passed to be eligible to continue as an industrial trainee. So I quit TCL. My boss becomes my mentor for life and told me to get experience in financial modeling and/or due diligence and to re-enter PE a year before MBA

d) Joined ASA & Associates and aced statutory audit and audit program management skills - something I felt I lacked earlier.

e) Took up CISA so that I could be competitive for a Due Diligence role and can have an integrated audit (finance + internal + Information systems) skill set

f) Learned and practiced financial modeling and prepared industry research reports to join an IB

g) Got offered by very small IBs. Didn't take them up as it would hurt my B school plans

h) Got a feedback from IBs to gain sector expertise

i) TCL boss approves and appreciates points (g) and (h) above

j) Joined Wipro thinking IT sector is a good sector as lots of PE funds focus on IT cos

k) Recently, when I introspected why and how I still was working with Wipro because I joined Wipro with the intent to work for a very short term, I felt that I had hardly regretted anything and rather enjoyed my 1.5 year stint

l) Realized that what interested me in social entrepreneurship and PE was not identifying great opportunities for investment (something a PE entrant does for almost 5 to 10 years till he becomes the fund partner/director) but on how PE firms make changes in the companies they invest in. Changes wrt (1) Capital and organization structure (2) Business processes improvement/re-engineering and (3) Various strategy enhancements

m) Accordingly career goals are thus:
Short term: Gain a general management MBA and join a top 4 consulting company. Get involved in social entrepreneurship part time.
Medium term: Work for 5 to 10 years in the above mentioned consulting practices. Get involved in social entrepreneurship part time.
Long term: Join PE firms as a part time consultant and teach strategy at a top B School. Get involved in social entrepreneurship full time

6. Response to interview bay:

a) Thank you once again for your detailed feedback.

b) I will highlight my experience and the achievements I made when I jumped between firms in my essays.Thanks for the tip!

c) I had copy pasted from an old resume. Hope the new resume summary helps. Would appreciate more feedback on it.

d) ECs - Due to work commitments, I have not been very much involved in ECs during work. I'll try to create a better impact now. I will highlight some of the achievements of my social entrepreneurship projects for sure.

e) For most of my work at Wipro, I have worked with people from different cultures and geographies. How do i showcase it apparently in my resume and CVs?

7) Response to MBAPrepAdvantage: Thank you once again for your feedback.Please let me know if you require any other information. Look forward to your insights.

8) Response to Bhavik from Critical square (from a different post --> https://www.beatthegmat.com/consulting-c ... tml#732478): Bhavik thanks for those amazing links - both on the schools and the videos. They were very helpful. Hope you now know a whole lot about me! Look forward to your insights.

9 Additional questions:

a) In terms of highlighting achievements in my resume, I have a query. I am from an internal audit background. Highlighting achievement in terms of what significant achievements I did could look slightly on a negative note on my employer. How do I strike a balance?

b) Though I am in an internal audit role, most of my work has been in reviewing a function as a whole and attempting in business process improvement (75% weightage) in addition to compliance to internal and external norms or merely reviewing controls (25% weightage). I feel it is incorrect for me to write that my current job function is accounting or accounting - audit. But at the same time, writing that I am from consulting would also be incorrect. I am thinking of writing to each of the 8 schools to get some clarity on this. Nevertheless what are your views?

As an Indian applicant, a 640 score will make acceptance into any of the schools listed difficult. You are really looking at school outside of the Top 15. Given your goals, you might investigate UNC Kenan-Flagler, Emory, UT Austin, etc. where your admissions chances will be better.

Good luck,

Hi Michael,

I am giving the GMAT again and am looking at a score of 700+. I was getting a 680 in my GMAT prep mocks and I messed up last time on test day. I am assertive of a 700+ score. How would you evaluate my profile having said this now?

Thanks.

With a 700 GMAT SCORE YOU are competitive for IESE, ISB and IE. INSEAD is more of a reach school and HBS is most likely out-of-reach (note: I never tell any candidate that they do not have any chance at a school). Your internship can count as full time experience if you were working full-time.

In the U.S. target-to-reach schools would be those ranked ~8-15 like Fuqua, Anderson, Ross, Darden, etc.

Good luck on your retake,