Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

saransh11 wrote:I actually posted this in the main forum as a separate post but realized that you were probably the best person to give me some feedback... I am yet another Indian male with work-experience in Finance IT. Wanted your feedback:

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I work at Goldman Sachs in New York as an IT/quant type guy for a trading desk doing programming for a Prop desk's risk management system.
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I m looking to segway into the asset management/investment management business, specifically either a hedge fund or as a portfolio manager sort of opening at a buy side shop. Also interested in trading gigs. I do harbour some dreams of private equity/venture capital since I m involved in the NY Tech start-up Meetup scene but I dont wanna throw that into my admission essays since I feel I dont have a connecting theme there yet.
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Also have NYU parttime mba as a backup since my work will pay for me to go parttime, although a big motivation for me to leave my job is basically to effect a career change and I am not sure how effective a part-time mba will be on that front.
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Saransh,

I know folks who've completed the part-time NYU degree and are doing pretty well in life. But none of them has managed a career shift on the lines that you are planning to. I also know of folks who've used the exec-MBA programs to manage a career change, but these have been exceptions rather than the rule. So think twice about taking up the part-time option at NYU.

I guess you are already aware of how tough it is for sell-side guys to move into buy-side roles. In your case, the challenge is gonna be tougher - as you are planning to move from IT to front-office roles. So your choice of schools is justified. Considering you are already in NY, NYU's full-time program not on the list?

Without sugar-coating the last part, I'd say - yes the competition for your applicant pool isn't going to make things easier. But if you've got them on the list, focus on putting in your best and strongest applications to each of them.

School visits can give you brownie points, but the primary focus should be on the application, not the visits. We helped a guy last year who travelled from India to the US and visited some of the schools that he had on the list (including Stern). He got into 4 out of 6 schools that he applied to.

Barcelona's top business school

We've found out a very effective way of punishing, I mean rewarding folks who comment excessively on our blog posts. We pester them incessantly to write guest posts until they give in. In his inimitable bindaas style, our friend narrates his story.

Improve Your MBA profile
by D Murali

If you are located in South India and are one of the 185,000 subscribers of The Hindu Business Line newspaper, you would've possibly read it already.

For the others, here's an online link to the article that picks up a few key points from the book 'Beyond the MBA Hype'.

sojourn wrote:Indian/IT/Female, Age-23
WE: 1 year in Asia's largest IT consultancy firm. If I apply this year, would be 2 years by matriculation.
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Post MBA goals: I want to work in the finance sector(preferably in investment banking) in future and my plan is to gain experience and international exposure in that field.

Target schools:Harvard, Tuck, Booth, Duke, Darden, Yale, Ross, Haas, Tepper, Cornell, sloan, kelley

Realised that I missed responding to this one and jump to the next query. Apologies.

sojourn wrote:My questions:
1.I realize that my experience is quite low compared to other candidates, and especially compared to the competitive Indian-IT pool. So, I know it makes sense for me to wait at least another year before applying. But I would really like to apply to atleast one school this year to get some perspective. Is that a good idea?

Yes to both the questions. From your work-ex description it seems that your profile could definitely need some pumping up. Waiting for a year more might give you more opportunities to hit the ball out of the stadium. Going in with very little experience and is more or less like the others may not be a good idea. Unless you have a trump card that you haven't revealed here.

sojourn wrote:2.Are these schools within my reach? Would my prospects increase if I wait another year?

Just answered this above.

sojourn wrote:3. Should I retake the gmat? Would a higher score (say above 750) help?

At this stage, I'd just focus on strenghtening the profile, adding a few more feathers to the cap and then if you still have the inclination and the potential to go above the 750 mark, then go for it.

sojourn wrote:I know a lot of these questions are difficult to answer, but some guidance and insight would be helpful.

Nope, not difficult at all. Took me 3 mins 24 seconds exactly, out of which 2 mins 23 secs were related to formatting

Hi,

I have a B.E. degree in Information Technology from Mumbai University.

1. Approximately 70% in the final year of engineering which is relatively lower as compared to other universities, say West Bengal where 85% above is the average score. Does it affect some aspect of my application?
2. Will have 4 years of work experience in a single IB company by June 2012. I have been into more of technical, system admin and audit regulatory kind of work. I want to shift my career to finance or equity derivatives field. Does my current work experience act as hurdle to my post-MBA ambition?
3. GMAT Score

• a. First Attempt - 700 (49/37/5.5)
  b. Second Attempt - 670 (50/31/6.0)
  c. Third Attempt - 700 (49/35/6.0)

Does three attempts without a score improvement impede my chances?
4. Not much extra curricular activities, nor any social work
Although, my profile is not impressive enough, how do you rate my chances of applying to the top 20-25 US Schools based on my profile?

Thanks.

Hi Sameer ji

Please tell me what all things should i add in my profile to make it intresting.

Thanks

Post-MBA career: Rotational programs and what they offer

'An MBA widens your horizons' is an oft-heard statement that has degenerated into a truism (pretty much like - 'A high calorie diet widens your waistline'). Can't argue with both. But if you have too many options to choose from, wouldn't that leave you confused? (rhetorical question, you don't need to answer that) After graduating, everyone may not be interested in the most-sought-after roles in management consulting, corporate finance or investment banking. There may be many who prefer 'industry' roles (i.e. clients that consulting firms and I-banks offer services to). But again, 'industry' per se doesn't tell you anything as you would come across a wide variety of roles there as well. Kanphoojan in the mind! Which means, you try to dig deeper and figure out the responsibilities and the ... Read entire article »

prateek_guy2004 wrote:Hi Sameer ji

Please tell me what all things should i add in my profile to make it intresting.

Thanks

If you are applying this year then there's very little scope to significantly alter your profile.

What you can do, instead, is to focus on your strengths and present them in the best possible light.

prabhakarreddy wrote:3. I have 3 years of Entrepreneurship Experience running an IT Services company (4 yrs by Fall 2012).
4. Nationality: Indian; Age: 24 yrs old (25yrs by Fall 2012)

Prabhakar-garu,

Deja vu! I was speaking to someone yesterday with a similar profile. He had applied last year to some of the top schools and wasn't too lucky. Strong profile, but his story had two main issues - GMAT (lower than your estimated score) and the application timing.

7. Biggest success is an Online network currently ranked among the top 150 websites in the world.

Good. You'll have stories on the marketing, finance, HR, srategy and entrepreneurship aspects that you can build upon. Curious to know the name of the site. Drop me a PM if you don't want to mention it here.

"¢ Company's annual turnover is currently over 1 MM$ - would say it's a pretty successful venture, having started off without any external funding from family or VC's.

I like the sound of that!

Target Schools:
2 Year Full Time MBA at Stanford (Entrepreneurship), Kellogg (Marketing/Entrep), NYU: Stern or McCombs.
Safety Schools: Babson, UCLA, ESADE & IESE (Spain)

Good mix of Ambitious, Stretch and Practical schools.

Why MBA?
To network with people from my Industry, to network with VC's for my projects currently in development, to learn how to efficiently form & execute business plans on a much larger scale and to hone my leadership skills.

Logical enough for me.

From my perspective, my strong points are: Entrepreneurship, EC's, Right age-group for Stanford.

Agree.

Potential weak points could be: GMAT Score (not yet given, but with my profile would 680-700 be low?), Undergrad-GPA (is 3.28 low?)

Agree.

Nationality (Indian male, from Engg background in IT)

Nationality is never a weak point, sirji. You could be the only applicant from Krypton (well, it's a planet not a country, but humour me please) and you still may not...oh cr@p, I knew that analogy started off well, but I lost it somewhere around that country vs planet detour.

Essay Tip number 27: Stick to answering the main question without resorting to gimmicks. No detours that you cannot control.

And I wouldn't consider you to be an IT professional. You are an entrepreneur with a million dollar business, remember?

Please let me know your thoughts on this. Thanks a lot for your help!

You've done your homework well, my friend. Go ahead and apply. Come back here and share the good news. (Damn! Can't pitch you our MBA MAP)

MBACrystalBall wrote:

prateek_guy2004 wrote:Hi Sameer ji

Please tell me what all things should i add in my profile to make it intresting.

Thanks

If you are applying this year then there's very little scope to significantly alter your profile.

What you can do, instead, is to focus on your strengths and present them in the best possible light.

Hi Sameerje

Thank you for replying , well i am preparing for fall 2012 want to apply before R2.....

Also want to ask you how to do that....Is there a way i can read other's MBA profile....because i am confused that what is the best way to write my own strengths ....

thanks

Hi Sameer,

My profile is:

Age: 29
Years of WE: 6 in IT
GMAT: 720
Grad: BE Comp Sc (70%)
Area of Work Experience: IT Service industry in Content management domain.
Current Role: FileNet consultant
Desired field post MBA: IT Strategy consultant

I am applying to ISB. It would be great if you could help me and answer my below queries

1) Are my post MBA aspirations realistic? Will MBA really help me in moving from IT technical consultant to IT strategy consulting?

2) What is the career path(progression) for an IT strategy consultant? How does it lead to CIO role in future?

Thanks,
Ankit

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saxenankit wrote: I am applying to ISB. It would be great if you could help me and answer my below queries

Taking a quick jump to address this one as there have been several similar queries coming to me from various sources - emails, phones, facebook, pigeon-mail.

Ankit,

Just a few high level points as I know you're short on time.

Warning: No sugar-coating in the responses that follow.

1) Are my post MBA aspirations realistic? Will MBA really help me in moving from IT technical consultant to IT strategy consulting?

A little bit of a catch-22 situation here. The second question is something that you'll have to address first, before the first one becomes clear. If you leave the Adcoms to fill in the gaps, you'd be expecting too much from them. I'm guessing the person reading your essays will have no clue what FileNet really is and does. And what skills you are using in order to be successful in your current role.
Unless that is first clarified, there's no way for them to know if your aspirations are realistic or not. And considering the competition, my guess is you will NOT get the benefit of doubt if there's a dilemma in their mind.

2) What is the career path(progression) for an IT strategy consultant? How does it lead to CIO role in future?

Simple answer. It varies. The straight forward route could be. You spend a few years as an IT strategy consultant, move up the ranks, become engagement manager or partner. Or you quit somewhere in between and move into industry roles and then continue the ascent there.


General gyaan for the other ISB aspirants out there.
If you aren't clear about your story, don't rush in your ISB apps in a half-baked manner. Get the fundas sorted out first. The ISB adcoms have seen tons of IT applications and they have the eye to quickly locate flaws in an applicant's story.

And polishing up the essays at the last minute would just end up as window dressing. The adcoms at ISB will very quickly find out if you have or haven't put in enough introspection into the process.

So my suggestion, if you aren't confident about the essential questions, hold on to your apps and submit them in R2. I know, R1 chances being better...yada yada. But no point in meeting deadlines just for the heck of it.

I have posted a similar question in a new thread but couldnt get a specific reply for what I was looking for.Maybe you can help me out on this.
I am planning for the enrollment in the year 2013,uptil then I want to enhance my profile so as to fit for Top B schools around the world.Is there any Career/MBA Consultancy which can help in Delhi,India.I have heard Princeton Review giving such services to its student,do we have any other options.

Excuse me people for interrupting your discussions with Sameer via this post. I am posting here to testify that the MAP process can be very useful for a lot of guys out there. People are just starting off with GMAT on BTG, but they know nothing about the application process and the difficulties that can come on way.

The MAP process is by no way comprehensive, but it gives u a lot of details into the strengths and weaknesses in your profile. In fact I suggest that you go for the MAP pretty early in ur road to MBA. MAP process is a must especially for Indian applicants who set out MBA journeys just to change their fields and do not research MBA programs and end up wasting a lot of money in vain. I have been through the wretched app process last year with a poor GMAT score. I ended up wasting so much money and not even a single admit !!!

Guess what I am back with a better GMAT and the first thing I took after over a year of research IS MAP.

Finally I think you guys can take my words for sure. I cant be someone who Sameer paid to write good stuff about his services ! I am the "bblast"- a BTG original! :mrgreen:

Sorry for the unrefined language Sameer .