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I am Vivek. Age 29 Yrs.

Academic Qualification.

10th 83%
12th 78%
Grad: B.Sc. Nautical Sciences (78%)
I hold a Certificate of Competency (COC) that enables me to take command of any foreign going commercial ship- be the captain. Since not many people are aware of the Merchant navy or the qualification required to command a ship, I feel compelled to elaborate a bit. Through out our career we have different certificates of competencies that entitle the holder to serve on various capacities on ships. A Master's COC is the highest license that can be held by a deck officer.

GMAT: 690 Quant: 47 Verbal 38 AWA 5.5
Industry: Shipping/ Transportation/ Oil/ Energy.
Work Exp: 8yrs. Position: Chief Officer.

To tell you a bit about myself.
I serve as chief officer on one of the largest oil tankers in the world.
In case you are not aware about the hierarchy in the Merchant navy, a chief officer is the second in command for the ship- the guy below the captain. I rose to the rank of Ch. off at the age of 26 yrs. I am the youngest Ch. off in my company. I received my Captain's COC at the age of 27- a young age by shipping industry standards.

As I have spent my entire career dealing with crude oil, I am very keen to get into the financial/ commercial side of the oil/ energy sector. In fact that has been my dream ever since I cleared my exams and became an officer in the merchant navy. I shall be applying to B schools for the entry year of 2015. My target Schools are UT Austin Mccombs school of business or Jones Graduate School of business- Rice University. I zeroed down on these schools as they are based in Texas, which has bright prospects in the energy sector. Both these schools have concentrations of energy finance.

I am in a major dilemma regarding the often asked question of what do you want to do after an MBA. Now MBA is meant for career changers. I want to go ahead and tell admission committees that I intend to take up finance related roles in energy company. But I was wondering whether my lack of finance background is going to prove to be a major drawback. My other option is operations management roles. But that's my second option. Could you tell me whether ad coms can reject me if I tell them that I am interested in Finance related roles simply because I don't have a Finance back ground. I was also wondering whether mbacrystalball could help me with the Application process. I am looking for some professional help with my applications.

Thanks.
Regards
Vivek

Hi vivekvijayan,

Thanks for your post.

Regarding your career goals question, prior experience in finance is not expected in order to successfully pursue a corporate finance career track post-MBA. Your experience in the energy industry will also help support your overall career goals story.

I suggest reaching out to students at Rice and McCombs (maybe the co-chairs of the respective Energy clubs?) to further refine your career goals based on the specific career opportunities available at those schools.

Good luck!

Best,
Heidi