MBA Profile Eval

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MBA Profile Eval

by yashthakar1 » Fri Oct 24, 2014 9:37 am
Hi,
This is for application to MBA programs in fall 2016. I'm trying to understand my weaknesses so that I can plan the year ahead.

I'm an Indian national living and working in NY. Below is a high level overview of my background. I understand that my chances are depended on good execution but at a high level I want to gauge where I stand based on everyone's understanding.

Please note that even though I graduated from an engineering background my experience since graduating from grad school has been in non-technical consulting roles. I was an engineer by accident. While I say this, please note that I have some financial technical knowledge from course work/auditing of classes in graduate school. I have also developed deep capital markets and financial regulatory understanding from my job responsibilities since they have all been focused towards the same industry.

Undergrad: Computer Engineering, University of Pune (54%), Class Highest: 73%)
Grad Program: Master in IS from NYU (Joint program between Math and Stern Business school: GPA 3.56). Course work focused on Finance including corporate finance and capital markets.

Work Experience:

FYI, I went to grad school straight after undergrad.
Starting working with a big 4 firm in the advisory practice focused on high pressured regulatory risk projects. Moved to a competitor firm and promoted to Senior Associate. The group was new and expanded from 5 to 150 people in a year (senior management team moved from my old to new firm and gave me the opportunity to join them in the new venture, hence had lots of responsibility outside of my projects(recruiting campus hires, experience professionals, etc)). Received top performer rating at both places

After 1 year at both firms moved to a role with a Tier 1 bank (Goldman, Morgan, JP) in the Wealth Management group and have been working there since the past summer. (Will have 2 years with the firm by the time I enter business school)

Summary, total experience when I enter business school: 4 years (1+1+2)

Leadership during professional career:
Managed large project teams during my experience with the big 4 (7-18 team members in difference projects across multiple countries (London, Singapore and Hong Kong)). Delivered client presentations to regional and global heads of business. All my work dealt with extreme regulatory fines and clients in extreme trouble, hence requiring 100 hours/week for both years.

I now work within the bank in a fast paced market oriented role. Scope of the projects involves global interaction with various functional and regional teams (most people I work with everyday are based out of NYC, London, India, Singapore and Hong Kong)

References: 1 from 2nd Big 4 firm and 1 from current manager (should be very good references)

GMAT: 670 (q:46, v:37)

I know I bombed the quant but studying again and will retake the test in 2 months. For now want to understand the implications if score doesn't improve

Extra-Curricular:
Working with a children's nonprofit to design their curriculum for about 3 years. The curriculum is focused on helping provide under privileged children with an education so that they may attain sufficient knowledge to effectively succeed academically when they join public schools.
Captain of college basketball team for 2 years and helped organize the first sports festival in the college's history
Cultural and technical events co-lead coordinator
Led the school specific recruitment team to hire undergraduate and graduate students from NYU during my time with the big 4.

Short term career goal:
Leveraging past experience and transitioning to a role in Investment Banking. An MBA will help me gain the technical skills that I don't have. It will also help me cross the Chinese wall within banks (corssing from public side (market trading)to private side (deal making) and also help move from middle office to front client facing role

Long term career goal:
Internal Transaction & Execution group in a fortune 500 firm

Target schools: I have already visited information sessions for some school and reached out/spoken to some alumni. I have an affair understand of the pros and cons of each school. Will be visiting each school over the next year and hope to apply round 1 to the following schools. I'm not looking to stay in a big city (ps: I loved the Georgetown campus). Also, im not sure about my how I would stand at Columbia
"¢ Yale School of Management
"¢ Duke University: Fuqua
"¢ Dartmouth College: Tuck
"¢ University of Michigan: Ross
"¢ Cornell University: Johnson
"¢ Georgetown: McDonough

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by mbaMissionJenK » Wed Oct 29, 2014 5:29 pm
Hi there,

Yes it sounds like a GMAT re-take would be a good plan; schools take the highest score and it's not uncommon to take it more than once, and you're in a place score-wise where many do see improvements. Otherwise it sounds like you've got some solid work experience and skills and exposure under your belt. The experience leading teams and international experiences will also help. And some interesting extracurricular involvements. With an increased GMAT I think your school list is reasonable and you are right to visit, talk to alum, do as much research and getting to know the schools as you can. Good luck on the process, and the GMAT!
Jennifer Kedrowski
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by manyaabroadtpr » Thu Nov 06, 2014 3:04 am
Hi Yash

I agree with Jennifer that a GMAT retake would be a good idea. You have a strong profile and a good score will go a long way in giving you an advantage.

Also I would suggest you to visit the campus with open eyes and ears and take in as much as you can since from experience we know it can make a big difference in choosing a school.

Good luck!

Regards

Manya Abroad Team

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by mbaMissionJenK » Sun Nov 09, 2014 8:01 am
Just a note that manyaabroadtpr is not associated with mbaMission; this is the 'Ask mbaMission' board fyi. ;)
Jennifer Kedrowski
MBA Admissions Consultant
www.mbamission.com
[email protected]

Register for a Free Consult from mbaMission: https://www.mbamission.com/consult.php

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