Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

raptor1985 wrote:Hi Alex,

Can I please have your views on my profile
https://www.beatthegmat.com/profile-eval ... 14271.html

Cheers

Post your question/profile directly in this thread and I'll answer it here. Thanks

Hi Alex,

Hoping to receive an initial assessment on my MBA candidacy.

Academics :-
Institute : RGPV University
Degree : B.Engg (I.T.)
Secured 78.6% - First Class with Distinction (Among top 10% of my class)

GMAT - 730 (Q:50, V:38, AWA: 5.5)

Work Experience -
4+ Years with a leading IT Solutions company of India.
Extensive international experience (2+ Yrs).
Work as an ERP consultant for a global pharma-giant in Corp. Financials delivering systems that result in significant financial benefit for the organization.

Why MBA:
Post MBA I want to break into the field of Strategy Consulting.
In the longer run, I would use this experience to become part of Corp. Exe. Team for a global organisation.

Target Schools :
Kellogg
UCB Haas
Yale SoM
UCLA Anderson
NYU Stern

Extra Curricular Activities -
Career mentor for college juniors and colleagues
Event Management (Team building / College Cultural Events / State-level IT Symposium)

Feedback on my profile and target schools will be greatly appreciated.

raptor1985 wrote:Hi Alex,

Hoping to receive an initial assessment on my MBA candidacy.

Academics :-
Institute : RGPV University
Degree : B.Engg (I.T.)
Secured 78.6% - First Class with Distinction (Among top 10% of my class)

GMAT - 730 (Q:50, V:38, AWA: 5.5)

Work Experience -
4+ Years with a leading IT Solutions company of India.
Extensive international experience (2+ Yrs).
Work as an ERP consultant for a global pharma-giant in Corp. Financials delivering systems that result in significant financial benefit for the organization.

Why MBA:
Post MBA I want to break into the field of Strategy Consulting.
In the longer run, I would use this experience to become part of Corp. Exe. Team for a global organisation.

Target Schools :
Kellogg
UCB Haas
Yale SoM
UCLA Anderson
NYU Stern

Extra Curricular Activities -
Career mentor for college juniors and colleagues
Event Management (Team building / College Cultural Events / State-level IT Symposium)

Feedback on my profile and target schools will be greatly appreciated.

As an Indian IT services guy (I'm guessing you worked at a firm like Infosys, Wipro, Tata, etc.), you may be overshooting a little.

Top 8 schools are big stretches or long shots. If you really want to apply, focus on just 1 school.

Stretch schools where you have at least a chance of getting into are top 16 schools like NYU, UCLA, Yale, Cornell, Duke, Darden, Ross (choose 2-3 from this list).

Sweet spot schools are top 30 schools like Georgetown, Emory, Tepper, Texas, UNC, Purdue, Indiana, Maryland, USC, and so forth.

Hello Alex,
Main question: Am I a candidate for a Top 20 US B School?
Please suggest Reach, Target and Sure shot schools.
Any other input is appreciated as well.

My profile is as follows:

GMAT: 680 (Q50 V32), AWA (6.0)
Undergraduate Education : Mechanical Engineering, Top 10 University in Asia
GPA: 2.5 (Very Low I know.., I tried to make up for it in my masters)
Postgraduate Education : Mechanical Engineering, Top 10 University in Asia, Gold Medalist (Top outgoing student)
GPA: 3.95

Nationality: Indian
Age: 28

Work Experience: 7 years at matriculation (hopefully applying for Fall 2013) in new product introduction roles.
Current Work: GE Water Thailand. Involved in developing new products in the Water industry and government related projects in different sectors.

Job: I am a technical Lead at GE Water heading global team of experts. I might have a patent filing by the end of the year. I am the lead technologist on that along with two other phDs. I am one of the very few non-phDs in the technology team.
Extra Curriculars: I was the captain of my university cricket team. I head several green initiatives in GE. I am business development officer in another NGO. I was on management committee of the school council. I play professional cricket as vice-captain in the Malaysian League. I was also formerly U-15 Hong Kong National player. I manage a budget of 60,000 US dollars to manage initiatives with HR folks to organize events for regional sites to improve teamwork and engagement across sites.

Int'l Experience: Worked in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and United States.

Planning to work after MBA in product management preferrably back in GE and want to get an MBA from Top US business school.

mourinhogmat1 wrote:Hello Alex,
Main question: Am I a candidate for a Top 20 US B School?
Please suggest Reach, Target and Sure shot schools.
Any other input is appreciated as well.

My profile is as follows:

GMAT: 680 (Q50 V32), AWA (6.0)
Undergraduate Education : Mechanical Engineering, Top 10 University in Asia
GPA: 2.5 (Very Low I know.., I tried to make up for it in my masters)
Postgraduate Education : Mechanical Engineering, Top 10 University in Asia, Gold Medalist (Top outgoing student)
GPA: 3.95

Nationality: Indian
Age: 28

Work Experience: 7 years at matriculation (hopefully applying for Fall 2013) in new product introduction roles.
Current Work: GE Water Thailand. Involved in developing new products in the Water industry and government related projects in different sectors.

Job: I am a technical Lead at GE Water heading global team of experts. I might have a patent filing by the end of the year. I am the lead technologist on that along with two other phDs. I am one of the very few non-phDs in the technology team.
Extra Curriculars: I was the captain of my university cricket team. I head several green initiatives in GE. I am business development officer in another NGO. I was on management committee of the school council. I play professional cricket as vice-captain in the Malaysian League. I was also formerly U-15 Hong Kong National player. I manage a budget of 60,000 US dollars to manage initiatives with HR folks to organize events for regional sites to improve teamwork and engagement across sites.

Int'l Experience: Worked in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and United States.

Planning to work after MBA in product management preferrably back in GE and want to get an MBA from Top US business school.

It's really simple. With your current GMAT, you'll be a stretch at the top 30 schools.

Bump it up to 700+, and here's where you stand:

Super stretch (choose 1): Kellogg, Sloan, Booth, Columbia, Tuck, Haas
Stretch (choose 2-3): INSEAD, LBS, Ross, Duke, Darden, NYU, Cornell, Yale, UCLA
Sweet spot (choose 2-3): Oxford, Cambridge, Tepper, Texas, USC, UNC, Georgetown, Emory, Maryland

You have a strong professional background, but you're also up against a lot of other folks with comparable F500 backgrounds who simply higher GMATs than you (and there should be enough who will also have wonderful essays, an interesting personal story, etc.). To put yourself on level ground, you really need a stronger GMAT.

Retake that GMAT, and do whatever it takes to boost that score by 20-30 points. It'll make a huge difference in your case.

A NEW MODEL FOR ADMISSIONS (LESS ESSAYS)

With Wharton recently experimenting with a group-based exercise, UCLA requiring a video/audio essay (2 years ago), and now HBS changing it up, there's only going to be more school I believe that will continue to move away from the old model of long essays--> interview --> decision

In fact, I think they can (and likely will) move towards the following model:
1. Resume + simple application form (demographic info, test scores, GPA)
2. Interview + short essays (questions that are meant to reveal what cannot be reasonably inferred from the resume/profile alone)
3. Two or three recommendation letters
4. Decision

I don't think adcoms need essays or rec letters from EVERY applicant. At top schools, they can pretty much identify the top third to top half based on the resume/profile alone (and for those who aren't in the top third to top half, there's no need to waste the time of the adcoms, applicants, or recommenders on the essays and rec letters). Adcoms are trying to build a diverse class based on demographics and pre-MBA professional backgrounds - they are divvying up the applications into groups as it is, so it's not that hard most of the time to identify the top third to top half based on resume/profile alone.

And then once they've identified the top third to top half - they invite these folks for an interview (or interviews) and to write short essay questions that are only given to them once they've been invited. And since only a subset of the applicants are invited to write the essays, the adcoms can provide a different set of essay questions to different applicant groups (i.e. traditional applicants or those from "crowded" demographics are given a set of questions that will be different than the questions being asked those non-traditional professional backgrounds and/or underrepresented demographics - and this will allow the adcoms to more effectively evaluate subjective info from applicants based on their backgrounds).

And then only ask for reference letters once they've weeded out those from the interview/essays. The majority of the time, the rec letters won't make a difference either way, and it's really just to uncover any potential "gotchas" or info about the applicant that may be incongruous with what the adcom has seen so far. The rec letter in a way is a "human" background check to complement the standard background checks they will do on admitted students.

This kind of process I don't think will require more resources or time from the adcoms (in fact, it may be less) -- and it's a more efficient and effective way to evaluate applicants (and saving the applicants time as well - giving them more chances to apply to more schools, which will benefit all b-schools as they see applications rise since more applicants will "punt" if there are no essays required for the initial round).

A QUICK NOTE ON THE HBS POST-INTERVIEW ESSAY

A lot of people will fall into this trap of trying to pre-write the essay. DO NOT DO THIS.

That's why they are asking this essay in the first place. They want to know how you follow up based on what happened in the interview.

Adcoms can sense pretty quickly if something is pre-written: it's either too vague and generic, or it's covering material in such a decorated and stage managed way that it's obvious someone spent way too much time trying to manicure every single sentence and to contrive an example that had nothing to do with what happened in the interview.

A strong post-interview essay is one that directly responds to or is a follow up to what was discussed in the interview.

And you have no real way of figuring out what that will be. Sure, you can do interview coaching (and you probably should - if not with a consultant, at least practice mock interviews with colleagues and friends), some folks may tell others what their HBS adcoms had asked them and so forth. But it's not about that. It's about the nature of the discussion and what you actually said in the interview - and more importantly, how the adcom responded to some of the moments in the interview as you were talking about yourself. There is no way of predicting how an individual will respond to you, or to even know in advance beyond just a vague idea of how the actual moment-to-moment experience will be like in that interview room.

Finally, too many people are stressing out about this post-interview essay. The thing is, it's not going to really matter for 99.9% of the folks who actually get interviewed. The decision is basically made based on the interview itself - no "mini essay" afterwards is really going to change their mind if they already liked you, or they thought you were a tool. It's something they instituted this year - and it's an experiment. If it doesn't really impact their decision making, it will be gone (or significantly changed) next year. Again, this year is an experimental year for HBS - they are trying to change the format in which they assess people, and so they are keeping an open mind about the process. Having said that, in my opinion I think the importance that many applicants seem to put on this post-interview essay is overblown.

In short, what HBS is basically saying this year is that the two biggest things that matter are: your resume and your interview performance. The essays and rec letters are minor and likely won't be a huge factor for most applicants. In other words, HBS adcoms believe that for many applicants, they can pretty much figure out whom they want to interview based on the resume alone (and the essays won't matter much unless they really suck). And that for most of the people that get invited for an interview - they can figure out based on the interview performance alone whom they want to admit.

Alex,

I am interested in getting your feedback on my candidacy.

I am a 30 year old Indian female and grew up in South Carolina.

I graduated from Cornell University with a 3.5 GPA in Hotel Management and a concentration in Law (3.7 GPA).

I currently work in a family business, which owns, develops, and operates hotels/restaurants. I am responsible for all of our real estate development and positioning strategy. I've opened 5 new hotels in the last 2-3 years and currently have another 3 in development.

Below is the breakdown of my GMAT score.
Total - 760 99th %tile
Verbal - 99th %tile
Quantitative - 83rd %tile

My current extra curriculars include a cultural organization and a few trade organizations.

For the last five years, I have mentored an underprivileged Indian girl and also provided financial support for her university education. This is something I did personally/informally and not through an organization.

One of my brother's graduated from the Harvard MBA program and the other one graduated from the Wharton undergrad program.

I am considering applying to a top 20 MBA program to start school in the Fall of 2013. Is it too late to start this process? Should I consider waiting to apply in 2013 instead of this year?

My concerns are my age, job experience within the family business, and lack of leadership position in an established service organization. How do you think schools will look at these factors in my particular case?

Also, what do you think my target schools should be? Also, considering my age, should I consider an executive program?

Thanks so much for your help. I look forward to your feedback.

neera213 wrote:Alex,

I am interested in getting your feedback on my candidacy.

I am a 30 year old Indian female and grew up in South Carolina.

I graduated from Cornell University with a 3.5 GPA in Hotel Management and a concentration in Law (3.7 GPA).

I currently work in a family business, which owns, develops, and operates hotels/restaurants. I am responsible for all of our real estate development and positioning strategy. I've opened 5 new hotels in the last 2-3 years and currently have another 3 in development.

Below is the breakdown of my GMAT score.
Total - 760 99th %tile
Verbal - 99th %tile
Quantitative - 83rd %tile

My current extra curriculars include a cultural organization and a few trade organizations.

For the last five years, I have mentored an underprivileged Indian girl and also provided financial support for her university education. This is something I did personally/informally and not through an organization.

One of my brother's graduated from the Harvard MBA program and the other one graduated from the Wharton undergrad program.

I am considering applying to a top 20 MBA program to start school in the Fall of 2013. Is it too late to start this process? Should I consider waiting to apply in 2013 instead of this year?

My concerns are my age, job experience within the family business, and lack of leadership position in an established service organization. How do you think schools will look at these factors in my particular case?

Also, what do you think my target schools should be? Also, considering my age, should I consider an executive program?

Thanks so much for your help. I look forward to your feedback.

Between an executive program and a full-time -- it comes down to what you're looking to do *for real* in your career. If you're looking to stay in the industry (even if you're looking to move out of the family biz, but still stay in hotel mgmt/tourism/leisure) then an exec MBA may be a better bet as you get to continue working while working towards an MBA (and if you're not changing industries, experience ultimately matters more than just an educational credential; treat the MBA as the dessert and not the main course).

If you're looking to switch careers/industries entirely, then a full-time MBA will make more sense. Which schools you end up targeting will come down to where you want to be post-MBA geographically (since even at the top schools, alums tend to cluster in the same regions that they went to school i.e. east coast schools tend to attract those who want to live/work on the east coast post-MBA, and so forth).

Given that you already have a degree from an Ivy (and in one of the most well regarded programs for its specialty), you're in a situation where the only schools worth applying to are the top ones, but at the same time, the top schools aren't shoe ins either. You certainly have unique experience which is a catch-22: on the one hand, you will stand out in a sea of bankers, consultants, engineers, corporate, etc. but on the other hand, there's few if anyone to benchmark you against, which will make the admissions decisions even more subjective (and therefore even harder to predict than say for a more traditional candidate). In a way, because you're a wild card and also the fact that you already have solid educational pedigree as a base, you may want to take the "top school or bust" route - and just apply to the schools you really really really want to go to, rather than worrying too much about what your chances are.

dup

Dear Alex

I have been following your posts on the GMAT Forums and on your blog mbaapply.blogspot.in. I really appreciate your straight-forward opinions and and thus, would need your help in evaluating my profile. So here it goes,

Basic Information:

Age - 26 yrs (Male), Nationality - Indian

Educational Background:

B. Tech in Metallurgical Engineering & Materials Science (2008) from IIT Bombay. CGPA: 6.65/10. I understand that the CGPA is quite low and it all happened just because I did not either like the subjects or study much. Although I had an 8+ GPA after 1st year of common courses of Mathematics and Economics, but later when things became more theoretical, I lost interest. But I understand that I will lose some points here....(or not?)

Internships:

I have always valued internships more than the theoretical classes and during my tenure at IIT, I could gather a good experience working as a summer intern with the following companies ,

- Year 2006 - 2 month internship with M/s Honeywell at Barcelona (Spain) - worked in their Friction material laboratory and conducted tests and simulations on new materials for brake pads.

- Year 2007 - 2 month internship with M/s Honda at their Scooter & Motorcycle Division (near Delhi) - worked with their Quality Control Department on a typical technical problem. It was a very important part of my career as I developed a lot of flavor for tech and since then aimed to join a tech firm.

Work Experience:

- I have more than 4 years of experience with M/s Essar Steel India Limited - fully integrated flat carbon steel manufacturer from iron ore to ready-to-market products - the flagship company of a big Indian multinational corporate Essar Group
- Joined as a Senior Engineer (June 2008) and after a month's class-room training, was hand picked by the HR to work directly with the Country Head (Projects) for the 5 million tonnes steel plant greenfield expansion project in Gujarat (India)
- Had unlimited and diverse exposure to all aspects of project planning and execution including land and labor related issues
- On behalf of the Project Head, I conducted review meetings with EPC agencies to monitor the progress and de-bottleneck the critical areas
- Worked closely with technology suppliers (domestic and international), design and engineering team, project procurement team and on-site project executing construction team for scheduled completion and commissioning of India's one of the largest single location 10 million tonnes steel plant
- Worked on many other techno-economic feasibility studies for energy saving capital projects such as Power Generation from Waste Gases and Finding cheap substituents of Natural Gas
- Rated with "Performance Significantly Exceeds Expectations" for consecutively 4 years in annual appraisals, re-designated to the position of "Deputy Manager" in Oct 2010 and promoted to the position of "Manager" in April 2011
- Presently working as EA to Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Essar Steel India Limited, 10 mmtpa steel plant
- Providing all technical and administrative support services to the senior management to realize the company's business targets of Safety, Production Volumes, Cost and EBITDA
- Working in tandem with the plant heads, supply chain teams and commercial teams to optimize daily operations with a view to achieve long term targets

Extra Curricular:

- Worked in the Productions and Logistics department of Performing Arts Festival (PAF) - Biggest Inter-hostel cultural competition, IITB. We won the competition and I was awarded with the Hostel Color momento....(that was given to 1 person per department). That was in Mar 2006.
- Co-founded "Dhatuki" - Monthly Editorial, Department of Metallurgical Engineering, IITB (Dec 2005)
- I participated in the Dream Run of Mumbai Marathon this year in Feb
- I have won a number of solo and group singing competitions...but all that happened during my school days..some 10 - 15 years back (can i mention them in my extra curriculars?)
- At Essar, I worked with the HR guys and designed training manuals, learning plans, skill builders, organized quizzes / tests and conducted panel interviews for new joinees

Why MBA:

- I think I have learned much from my work experience and now need to diversify my options. I want to go back to the school, relate my learnings with those of people from other fields of life, share my experiences and learn from theirs. I think an MBA will provide me with the platform to network with the brightest minds of the industry.

Post MBA

- Hold a strategic position in Operations Management / Supply Chain

GMAT:

- 1st attempt in 2010 - 600 - Q 48 / V 24 / AWA 5.5 - frankly, I did not take the exam seriously; read some arbitrary unofficial stuff and was surprised on the GMAT day
- 2nd attempt in 2011 - 560 - Q 49 / V 20 / AWA 5 - screwed up the Verbal again...
- 3rd attempt in 2012 - 700 - Q 49 / V 36 / Rest awaited

Target Schools:

I do not have much of an idea that where does a profile like mine finds a place, but I am focusing on these schools,

- MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Duke Fuqua - Tough stretches
- Tuck, Said, Yale, ISB, NUS S'pore, Nanyang S'pore, Ross, Anderson - May be..
- Tepper, Darden, Emory - Safety

(Please correct me on this)

I am sorry for the long verbose, but please do comment on my candidacy. I am planning to apply this year; but not sure whether to do that in R1 or in R2 !

Thanks a ton !

Regards

breadbutterjam wrote:Dear Alex

I have been following your posts on the GMAT Forums and on your blog mbaapply.blogspot.in. I really appreciate your straight-forward opinions and and thus, would need your help in evaluating my profile. So here it goes,

Basic Information:

Age - 26 yrs (Male), Nationality - Indian

Educational Background:

B. Tech in Metallurgical Engineering & Materials Science (2008) from IIT Bombay. CGPA: 6.65/10. I understand that the CGPA is quite low and it all happened just because I did not either like the subjects or study much. Although I had an 8+ GPA after 1st year of common courses of Mathematics and Economics, but later when things became more theoretical, I lost interest. But I understand that I will lose some points here....(or not?)

Internships:

I have always valued internships more than the theoretical classes and during my tenure at IIT, I could gather a good experience working as a summer intern with the following companies ,

- Year 2006 - 2 month internship with M/s Honeywell at Barcelona (Spain) - worked in their Friction material laboratory and conducted tests and simulations on new materials for brake pads.

- Year 2007 - 2 month internship with M/s Honda at their Scooter & Motorcycle Division (near Delhi) - worked with their Quality Control Department on a typical technical problem. It was a very important part of my career as I developed a lot of flavor for tech and since then aimed to join a tech firm.

Work Experience:

- I have more than 4 years of experience with M/s Essar Steel India Limited - fully integrated flat carbon steel manufacturer from iron ore to ready-to-market products - the flagship company of a big Indian multinational corporate Essar Group
- Joined as a Senior Engineer (June 2008) and after a month's class-room training, was hand picked by the HR to work directly with the Country Head (Projects) for the 5 million tonnes steel plant greenfield expansion project in Gujarat (India)
- Had unlimited and diverse exposure to all aspects of project planning and execution including land and labor related issues
- On behalf of the Project Head, I conducted review meetings with EPC agencies to monitor the progress and de-bottleneck the critical areas
- Worked closely with technology suppliers (domestic and international), design and engineering team, project procurement team and on-site project executing construction team for scheduled completion and commissioning of India's one of the largest single location 10 million tonnes steel plant
- Worked on many other techno-economic feasibility studies for energy saving capital projects such as Power Generation from Waste Gases and Finding cheap substituents of Natural Gas
- Rated with "Performance Significantly Exceeds Expectations" for consecutively 4 years in annual appraisals, re-designated to the position of "Deputy Manager" in Oct 2010 and promoted to the position of "Manager" in April 2011
- Presently working as EA to Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Essar Steel India Limited, 10 mmtpa steel plant
- Providing all technical and administrative support services to the senior management to realize the company's business targets of Safety, Production Volumes, Cost and EBITDA
- Working in tandem with the plant heads, supply chain teams and commercial teams to optimize daily operations with a view to achieve long term targets

Extra Curricular:

- Worked in the Productions and Logistics department of Performing Arts Festival (PAF) - Biggest Inter-hostel cultural competition, IITB. We won the competition and I was awarded with the Hostel Color momento....(that was given to 1 person per department). That was in Mar 2006.
- Co-founded "Dhatuki" - Monthly Editorial, Department of Metallurgical Engineering, IITB (Dec 2005)
- I participated in the Dream Run of Mumbai Marathon this year in Feb
- I have won a number of solo and group singing competitions...but all that happened during my school days..some 10 - 15 years back (can i mention them in my extra curriculars?)
- At Essar, I worked with the HR guys and designed training manuals, learning plans, skill builders, organized quizzes / tests and conducted panel interviews for new joinees

Why MBA:

- I think I have learned much from my work experience and now need to diversify my options. I want to go back to the school, relate my learnings with those of people from other fields of life, share my experiences and learn from theirs. I think an MBA will provide me with the platform to network with the brightest minds of the industry.

Post MBA

- Hold a strategic position in Operations Management / Supply Chain

GMAT:

- 1st attempt in 2010 - 600 - Q 48 / V 24 / AWA 5.5 - frankly, I did not take the exam seriously; read some arbitrary unofficial stuff and was surprised on the GMAT day
- 2nd attempt in 2011 - 560 - Q 49 / V 20 / AWA 5 - screwed up the Verbal again...
- 3rd attempt in 2012 - 700 - Q 49 / V 36 / Rest awaited

Target Schools:

I do not have much of an idea that where does a profile like mine finds a place, but I am focusing on these schools,

- MIT Sloan, Chicago Booth, Duke Fuqua - Tough stretches
- Tuck, Said, Yale, ISB, NUS S'pore, Nanyang S'pore, Ross, Anderson - May be..
- Tepper, Darden, Emory - Safety

(Please correct me on this)

I am sorry for the long verbose, but please do comment on my candidacy. I am planning to apply this year; but not sure whether to do that in R1 or in R2 !

Thanks a ton !

Regards

In your case, you're an IIT guy in an "old school" engineering discipline, which can help a bit since given the nature of the industry/job, you likely have more leadership experience than an engineer who is in software/technology.

The biggest concern for adcoms is whether you can adjust and fit in to a new culture - especially when it's going to be very different from what you've been used to in India. It'll require a leap of faith by the adcoms - and whether they do or not will depend on the individual adcom (that is, assuming you're doing the best you can on the written applications and interviews).

With that said, here's where you stand:

Stretch: Sloan, Booth, Tuck (choose 2)
Sweet spots: Duke, Yale, Ross, UCLA, Darden (choose 3)
Safeties: Tepper, Emory, ISB, Oxford, and the Singapore schools (choose 2)

As for which schools to focus on, it really depends on where you want to work. Keep in mind that you'll have a hard time getting a work visa in the US for industries outside of financial services, mgmt consulting, or technology. So that's something to bear in mind.

Right Alex, Thanks !

Hi Alex,

First off, on behalf of all the members here and the countless others who aren't members but are following this thread, I'd like to thank you for assessing our profiles and giving us some invaluable feedback. I'd really appreciate it if you could have a look at my profile because I sure could use your help.

Nationality: Indian
GMAT: 720 (Q47 V41)
Undergrad: Computer Science Engineering from a top 15 university based in India 7/10
Age: 28

Work experience: Currently completed 4 and a half years with the German company SAP which is one of the market leaders in ERP.
Job Profile: Fortunately (or not), I work in a division that allows me to function as both a developer and a consultant. A basic gist of my work is given below:

- Develop localized payroll solutions for companies based out of North America. These companies include both private and public sector companies.

- Consult on HR Management and payroll and tax related issues for several international companies. This involves helping clients file their legal documents like employee taxes, employer taxes etc and to ensure that they are legally complaint.

I was chosen by my company to represent it at SAP America headquarters in Palo Alto to interface with clients and consultants for two months. My duties involved providing functional and technical advice to ensure a smooth filing of Tax Returns for organizations, some of which have over 10000 employees and participate in meetings / teleconferences with clients to ascertain future requirements for the product. I represented the company both in 2010 and 2011, chosen as one of only two people from the entire team. I am also slated to go again at the end of this financial year for the same purpose. The contracts with most of my clients are worth millions of dollars.

I've also mentored a few junior colleagues over the years.

I have some extra-curricular activities but nothing stellar to speak of. I've worked in an NGO during my spare time in the past and was quite active in my university social clubs. But that's about it.

If you could give me your honest opinion about which schools are the realistic shots, the stretches and the safes, it would really help me get a bearing of where exactly I stand.

Thanks again for reading this and also for being an all around stand up guy!

ashman843 wrote:Hi Alex,

First off, on behalf of all the members here and the countless others who aren't members but are following this thread, I'd like to thank you for assessing our profiles and giving us some invaluable feedback. I'd really appreciate it if you could have a look at my profile because I sure could use your help.

Nationality: Indian
GMAT: 720 (Q47 V41)
Undergrad: Computer Science Engineering from a top 15 university based in India 7/10
Age: 28

Work experience: Currently completed 4 and a half years with the German company SAP which is one of the market leaders in ERP.
Job Profile: Fortunately (or not), I work in a division that allows me to function as both a developer and a consultant. A basic gist of my work is given below:

- Develop localized payroll solutions for companies based out of North America. These companies include both private and public sector companies.

- Consult on HR Management and payroll and tax related issues for several international companies. This involves helping clients file their legal documents like employee taxes, employer taxes etc and to ensure that they are legally complaint.

I was chosen by my company to represent it at SAP America headquarters in Palo Alto to interface with clients and consultants for two months. My duties involved providing functional and technical advice to ensure a smooth filing of Tax Returns for organizations, some of which have over 10000 employees and participate in meetings / teleconferences with clients to ascertain future requirements for the product. I represented the company both in 2010 and 2011, chosen as one of only two people from the entire team. I am also slated to go again at the end of this financial year for the same purpose. The contracts with most of my clients are worth millions of dollars.

I've also mentored a few junior colleagues over the years.

I have some extra-curricular activities but nothing stellar to speak of. I've worked in an NGO during my spare time in the past and was quite active in my university social clubs. But that's about it.

If you could give me your honest opinion about which schools are the realistic shots, the stretches and the safes, it would really help me get a bearing of where exactly I stand.

Thanks again for reading this and also for being an all around stand up guy!

Where are you based - in the US or India?

Also, what kinds of jobs are you looking for post-MBA and which part of the world do you prefer to live/work post-MBA (US, India, Europe, other parts of Asia, etc. - and "no preference" is not an acceptable answer)