Ask Stacy Blackman

Dear Consultant,

Thank you in advance for your help. I really appreciate it!

I am a 24 year old Indian male. I am targeting Fall of 2009. I am looking to understand what aspects of my application I should work on the most.

Target schools – Kellogg, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Michigan, UCLA

Target Function – Post MBA, I want to go into strategy consulting for a reputed consulting firm, or go into product strategy in the high-tech sector.

GMAT- 710 (Quantitative - 50, Verbal - 36), AWA 6.0
TOEFL – 114/120 (Writing-27, Speaking-28, Listening-29, and Reading-30)

Work experience:
• Since my graduation, I have been working at Adobe Systems, India for the last 3 years in Bangalore.
• I started as an engineer and moved in Technical Evangelism a year ago. I was responsible for various client interactions and developer relations.
• 6 months ago, I was promoted as Product Evangelist, responsible for competitive analysis, strategy and in-charge of coordinating the academic initiatives driven by the Adobe Platform Business Unit for India.
• As an evangelist, my job takes a rainbow role with shades of marketing, technical consultancy, competitive analysis, strategy and pedagogy.

Recommendations
Two of my senior colleagues at Adobe have agreed to give me recommendations.

One is the Manager of the Engineering team I was a part of who can vouch for my initiatives at Adobe and the innovations and leadership I took when I was an engineer that led me to an evangelism role.

The other is the Senior Evangelist in my team whom I have worked closely for the past year who can vouch for my activities as an evangelist and the effect that it has had on product adoption in India and also to the product revenue.

Do I need to go for someone who might be a customer or someone who knows me through my extra-curricular activities?

Academic background:
Among the top three in class through high-school and under-grad.

I have a B.E in Electronics & Communication with a 3.87 CGPA from a reputed university in India.

Since college, I have completed a Diploma Inicial in Español.

I am also currently pursuing a diploma course in Financial Engineering to try the waters before my MBA.

Extracurricular involvement:
I have always been interested in creating passionate communities around ideas. I founded the Robotics Club in college and was an active member of the IEEE.

Once I joined Adobe, I started the “Flex-India” initiative to increase product awareness which resulted in me being offered an Evangelist position. Flex-India currently has chapters in over 7 cities in India and an online membership of over a 1000 people.

Due to my hectic travel schedule i haven't been able to do a lot of volunteer work. I am involved with an organization where i teach under-privileged kids whenever i can.

My hobbies include reading, a good game of tennis or badminton and traveling. I am also a self learning guitarist and try my hand at song writing and composing.

Awards, patents, publications
I have written various technical papers through college and won many awards at various technical events (does that count?)

I am a reviewer for various books written on the product I evangelize.

Since these are mostly technical in nature, should I down-play them in my applications?

Special Experiences:
Nothing much here except for the fact that I bring to table the realities in the top companies in IT industry in India and the hurdles for product penetration therein.

Even with a product evangelism profile, will I still fall under the "An engineer from India in the IT industry" profile which most of my fellow applicants from the country will sport?

If yes, then can you advice on parts of my app which I can highlight so that I can stand-out in this application pool?

Thanks a lot...

Raghu

Thanks Lisa

That was a great morale booster. Thank you for taking time out for this

Raghu