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Hello All,

I hope that you can help evaluate my background, here it goes: I am applying to MBA grad schools this fall, with the objective of starting next year, likely during fall time. Here's my profile:

My background is in International Business and Marketing, I studied at SDSU (class of 2011) and also studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain. While in school, I did various internships, one of which included me working for a Marketing Agency in Casablanca, Morocco. The entire period, I conducted business and communicated only in French, which I speak fluently and learned since the age of about 5. I am also fluent in Spanish, which was a emphasis with my International Business program and took various University courses. I can read, write and communicate with business context in Spanish and French. So, I am fully fluent in English, Spanish and French and hence my International Business focus. I am hoping to highlight that as my strengths as my objective is to be involved in emerging markets such as Latin America and Asia. I am interested in also working with European firms, and am considering studying in Germany, to learn a new language and be close to industries and technology like mobile, telecommunications and clean energy.

I now live in San Francisco, CA and am a California native. For the last few years since graduating college, I have been involved and working with high growth tech start ups in the Silicon Valley, mainly in Mobile Advertising. I work with mobile developers and am now working in sales to expand into the Latin American markets as well as locally. I am also interested in Berkeley and Stanford because of the local exposure.

My question is, are there some schools you would recommend for me given my background? How about Stanford and Berkeley? And Europe? Lastly, I am not the strongest test taker but have been studying for my GMAT the last couple months. What score would you recommend for me (of course higher is better) but can my background strengthen the overall picture? My undergrad GPA is 3.0, and have been under the impression I would really need to prove myself on my GMATs.

Look forward to your feedback!!

Thank you,

Nishant

Hi Nishant,

There is a bit of a confusion here - you say you want to study in schools in the West coast to get local exposure, which probably ties very well with your current work experience in the Bay area. But you are also keen on going to Germany to study and you want to work in LatAm / Asia markets. That kind of contradicts. You will need to get your preferences in order, because writing anything like this in an essay will make you sound confused. Its good to be flexible, but there has to be a clear plan in place, maybe a plan B as well, but a plan to do everything together will not work.

I would extend this comment to your career goals as well- do you want to work in mobile telephony or clean energy (and what's the linkage with your past experiences over here?)? Both are different.

I am also not very convinced with your goal of studying in Germany to learn German- you seem to be quite a linguist- if you have to learn German, you can do it right there in CA. Why join b-school for that?

I don't mean to dissuade you in your plans by any chance, rather just get you to think deeper.

Hi Nishant,

There is a bit of a confusion here - you say you want to study in schools in the West coast to get local exposure, which probably ties very well with your current work experience in the Bay area. But you are also keen on going to Germany to study and you want to work in LatAm / Asia markets. That kind of contradicts. You will need to get your preferences in order, because writing anything like this in an essay will make you sound confused. Its good to be flexible, but there has to be a clear plan in place, maybe a plan B as well, but a plan to do everything together will not work.

I would extend this comment to your career goals as well- do you want to work in mobile telephony or clean energy (and what's the linkage with your past experiences over here?)? Both are different.

I am also not very convinced with your goal of studying in Germany to learn German- you seem to be quite a linguist- if you have to learn German, you can do it right there in CA. Why join b-school for that?

I don't mean to dissuade you in your plans by any chance, rather just get you to think deeper.

Hey Namita,

Thanks for your message. You are right in that there are a few open ideas I have about this and appreciate you trying to get me to think differently. Both industries have been of interest to me, but if I where to narrow it down my objective would be:

To introduce Mobile Products/Telecommunications (from my experience in mobile) to developing countries like in LATAM and possibly Asia (India). I feel that although that industry is strong here, the european global business community is more aggressive in investing in LATAM, and with B school in Germany this would expose me to local and international professionals who have interest in expanding to LATAM in the future along with a school curriculum that potentially analyzes LATAM and India trends? My language would be an entrance for EU companies to LATAM>

On the other hand, I also feel that locally in CA such as the Bay Area or Los Angeles, there is already a very heavy LATAM community, more so than in Germany. Given; it is possible that locally at a school like Berkeley or UCLA I may be presented with more research and background from the LATAM developing countries and commercial opportunities?

What is your opinion on the above?

Thanks,

Nishant

nishantghaiy wrote:Hello All,

I hope that you can help evaluate my background, here it goes: I am applying to MBA grad schools this fall, with the objective of starting next year, likely during fall time. Here's my profile:

My background is in International Business and Marketing, I studied at SDSU (class of 2011) and also studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain. While in school, I did various internships, one of which included me working for a Marketing Agency in Casablanca, Morocco. The entire period, I conducted business and communicated only in French, which I speak fluently and learned since the age of about 5. I am also fluent in Spanish, which was a emphasis with my International Business program and took various University courses. I can read, write and communicate with business context in Spanish and French. So, I am fully fluent in English, Spanish and French and hence my International Business focus. I am hoping to highlight that as my strengths as my objective is to be involved in emerging markets such as Latin America and Asia. I am interested in also working with European firms, and am considering studying in Germany, to learn a new language and be close to industries and technology like mobile, telecommunications and clean energy.

I now live in San Francisco, CA and am a California native. For the last few years since graduating college, I have been involved and working with high growth tech start ups in the Silicon Valley, mainly in Mobile Advertising. I work with mobile developers and am now working in sales to expand into the Latin American markets as well as locally. I am also interested in Berkeley and Stanford because of the local exposure.

My question is, are there some schools you would recommend for me given my background? How about Stanford and Berkeley? And Europe? Lastly, I am not the strongest test taker but have been studying for my GMAT the last couple months. What score would you recommend for me (of course higher is better) but can my background strengthen the overall picture? My undergrad GPA is 3.0, and have been under the impression I would really need to prove myself on my GMATs.

Look forward to your feedback!!

Thank you,

Nishant

Hello Nishant

A GPA of 3.0 is slightly lower than the average of most top business schools. It is especially low for UCB - Haas and Stanford. You will need a 730+ to offset it for these schools.

Being multi-lingual and experience with international clients does add an advantage to your profile and will, to an extent, help you in explaining your post - MBA goals, but there are several other areas of work experience that hold most of the weight of your profile. You have mostly written about who you worked with. Tell me more about your accomplishments at your jobs. For example, in the tech start-up that you have been working in, to what extent were you able to expand the market? Business schools will be interested in your achievements and leadership skills. Have you led teams at the start-up. How is your performance compared to your peers - this obviously depends on the size of your startup.

Your extracurricular activities are also important for business schools. What ECs were you part of during college and after it?

Since you are interested in working abroad, I would suggest you to take a look European Business Schools - INSEAD, HEC - Paris, IE, IESE, ESADE, SDA, IMD. Your study abroad and international experience will be of more value to admission committees of schools in Europe some of which have the most global MBA programs, compared to schools in USA. In Germany, Mannheim Business School offers the best MBA program. If you can learn German before applying, it will earn you a few more brownie points. What exact specialization of MBA are you looking for - marketing, technology? For Marketing, INSEAD, IE, LBS, Cambridge - Judge and SDA - Bocconi feature in the top.

You can take a look at this article to get a better idea of what business schools look for in your application https://www.interviewbay.com/blog/6-comp ... pplication

All the best

www.interviewbay.com

Application Reviews & Mock Interviews by Alumni of Your Target Business School.

So it sounds like for you its MBA in Cal vs MBA in Europe and you want to work for Latin American and Asian Markets. You can do an MBA from Californian universities and still work for markets in those countries. Or you can work for companies in the US that are looking for expansion in Asia. But the opportunities for such a job would be slightly more if you study in Europe because of the kind of network that you would be part of. The alumni would be more diverse and spread out all over the globe including Asia and South America.