tanni wrote:Hi Sameer,
I appreciate your work. I am looking for guidance on how can I improve my profile to get into Top B schools like Harvard, sloan, wharton etc. Here is a look on my profile.
I am a 2010 graduate from IIT Delhi with a CGPA OF 7.5/10. I am presently working in a IT startup. I am planning to switch job in Business analytics and also giving CFA coming June. My purpose of giving CFA is to get a taste of finance and also switch job later in finance to have a hands on experience.
I believe this will help me decide in what area should I chose to do a MBA in. My present interest is in strategy and consulting. My long term goal is to be in a big consulting firm and then later switching to social entrepreneurship.
I have had decent extra curricular like captain of drmatics team and won my team a gold medal. I also started a NGO in my college days which is still running though not in a very good state. Apart from this I was involved in various intra college events and also part of organizing team of annual fest.
I am presently a volunteer with a national NGO.
Hi Tanni,
Having fun during the Christmas/New Year break or working?
tanni wrote:Now, I have following queries
1) will my experiments in finance and business analytics harm my candidature for MBA rom top B schools.
In this post, you've covered too many things for my comfort - IT, finance, entrepreneurship, consulting. So more than getting concerned about your experiments, I'd suggest streamlining your thought process to focus on 1 or at the most 2 areas (for your short term and long term post-MBA goals).
It might mean you take a step back and analyze your current situation and what you really want to do. Of course, without actually getting your hands dirty in all those fields, your decision making will have to rely upon secondary data.
tanni wrote:2) I am very much interested in social entrepreneurship and would love to be associated with NGOs and take intitatives in the process. Will that be fine if I am not pursuing it presently as full time?
That's a very generic statement, Tanni. It doesn't tell me much about what really excites you about social entrepreneurship. Not being fully into it right now isn't an issue and it helps that you have been associated with it. But it'll help if you can drill down into this and talk about 1 or 2 specific concepts that you feel passionate about.
The mainstream NGO world can be very different from the startup experiments that we do during college life. So I'd like to peek into your mind and learn more about why you are enthused by this idea.
tanni wrote:3) I have had only 6 month exp. as of now. I want to plan my next career moves such that its in orientation with getting me into top B schools like Harvard, lbs, Wharton etc ( I really wanna make this dream come true and would love to do what it takes)
I'd suggest doing the best with your Business Analytics role in the next 2-3 years, so we have more concrete experience and lesser experiments to talk about when we are ready to start work on the applications.
tanni wrote:Does my plans seem okay? I would appreciate any kind of guidance.
You've taken the right steps by starting to think about the whole thing several years in advance. Be dedicated, be focussed. But don't spend your days and nights thinking about what will impress Adcoms. If you've been sincere in your efforts, the profile building will take care of itself.
...I guess i've been a good boy, but then let's leave that decision to the 'Chacha'. I'm focussing on GMAT and am preparing on my own. I gave a prep test at the start of Dec, but sucked big time. Got a 510 - I was able to get to only 21 questions on the Quant section (Q 23, V 32) 
