Ask an MBA Admissions Consultant

Hello,

I request you to please go through my profile and help me understand the ground reality about my preparedness for the MBA schools. Planning to apply in '15 for the batch starting n '16

GMAT: Not taken (Please suggest on the score I should target)
Target: Batch of 2016

Education:

B.Tech from IIT Bombay, India; GPA - 8.1/10; Graduated in '12
(Ranked in top 0.2% among more than 1.5 million students in IIT Joint Entrance Exam)

Work Exp: Total: 2 years and 2 months (will be 4 years total at the time of joining '16 batch)

1. India's largest e-commerce company, Flipkart.com (2 years, India)

"¢ Joined as a Management Trainee and promoted to Assistant Manager, Supply Chain in 9 months (fastest promotion in the company)
"¢ End to end supply chain and project management exposure: worked on supply chain processes, products, analytics and strategy (as an internal consultant) to scale-up operations from 15k shipments/day to 100k shipments/day in 2 years
"¢ Prepared and presented 6 business cases relating to growth, efficiency and cost to senior management; received a rating 4/5

2. An international retail franchise, M.H. Alshaya, Business Solutions Engineer (2 months - Present, Kuwait)

"¢ Working on a variety of projects such as supply chain solutions for Victoria Secrets in franchise model, business reporting metric design for all fashion and footwear retail brands
"¢ Majorly an internal consultant role to link the business side of every brand with other teams such as finance, logistics, IT etc.

Professional certifications:
1. Green Belt, Six Sigma from American Society for Quality
2. CFA Level 1 Candidate for December 2014 exam

Internship:

1. PwC India, Telecom Strategy Consulting, Summer Associate (3 months)

"¢ ERP transformation project for one of the world's leading telecom companies acquiring an arm of the British Telecom
"¢ Awarded a Pre-Placement Offer (PPO) for a full time job as a consultant

Extracurricular Activities:

1. Head of fund raising and sponsorship team for the college cultural festival
(Asia's largest 4-day college cultural festival with a footfall of 72k and a total budget of INR 20 million)
2. Hostel sports secretary
3. Organized blood donation camps and street plays during college for awareness on women exploitation
4. Captain of U-15 city team to win the handball tournament in the state
5. Participated in a lot of football tournaments and won a few
6. Conducted a joint study with Texas A&M University to optimize energy models for rural electrification for a project.
7. Active member of the toastmasters club in Kuwait

After MBA goals:
Short term: Management consulting role in a top consulting firm.
Long term: Leadership role in a Fortune 100 company.

Target Schools: Please suggest. Not done an extensive research.

Sincerely,
TN

Hi - Thanks for posting.

You have great academics and also nice WE (ecommerce vs typical engineering role is refreshing). I guess the CFA is just a plus - though I'm not sure how it fits in directly with your current WE + future consulting gig. As far as extracurriculars - from now until you apply I would focus exclusively on one of them - so many times candidates have multiple experiences (all less than 1 year in length).

Shoot for as high a GMAT as possible but avoid 680+ because you've already proven how smart you are (GPA) and I sense that if you had top GPA/rank at Uni + the CFA + 680+ GMAT - people with either assume you are a genius (and geniuses often lack social skills) or that you are holed up in your room on weekends with an unnatural obsession with trying to ace grades/standardized tests.

Best,
Leah Derus
fxmbaconsulting . com

Graduating from an IIT definitely helps. Your 8.1//10 is excellent. Green Belt Six Sigma is good. I agree with Leah in that I do not see how the CFA fits with your management consulting goals.

Over the next year try to increase your leadership experience and see if you can get more international exposure to improve your candidacy. Is your supply chain international? I am not familiar with Flipkart.com's business model to guide you on how to acquire this international experience.

You should be targeting as strong a GMAT score as possible. Target in the mid-700's but even with a low 700 score you are still competitive given your academic profile. If your GMAT score is commensurate with your undergraduate institution and grades, you should be applying to the most competitive schools.

Good luck,

tn1989 wrote:Hello,

I request you to please go through my profile and help me understand the ground reality about my preparedness for the MBA schools. Planning to apply in '15 for the batch starting n '16

GMAT: Not taken (Please suggest on the score I should target)
Target: Batch of 2016

Education:

B.Tech from IIT Bombay, India; GPA - 8.1/10; Graduated in '12
(Ranked in top 0.2% among more than 1.5 million students in IIT Joint Entrance Exam)

Work Exp: Total: 2 years and 2 months (will be 4 years total at the time of joining '16 batch)

1. India's largest e-commerce company, Flipkart.com (2 years, India)

"¢ Joined as a Management Trainee and promoted to Assistant Manager, Supply Chain in 9 months (fastest promotion in the company)
"¢ End to end supply chain and project management exposure: worked on supply chain processes, products, analytics and strategy (as an internal consultant) to scale-up operations from 15k shipments/day to 100k shipments/day in 2 years
"¢ Prepared and presented 6 business cases relating to growth, efficiency and cost to senior management; received a rating 4/5

2. An international retail franchise, M.H. Alshaya, Business Solutions Engineer (2 months - Present, Kuwait)

"¢ Working on a variety of projects such as supply chain solutions for Victoria Secrets in franchise model, business reporting metric design for all fashion and footwear retail brands
"¢ Majorly an internal consultant role to link the business side of every brand with other teams such as finance, logistics, IT etc.

Professional certifications:
1. Green Belt, Six Sigma from American Society for Quality
2. CFA Level 1 Candidate for December 2014 exam

Internship:

1. PwC India, Telecom Strategy Consulting, Summer Associate (3 months)

"¢ ERP transformation project for one of the world's leading telecom companies acquiring an arm of the British Telecom
"¢ Awarded a Pre-Placement Offer (PPO) for a full time job as a consultant

Extracurricular Activities:

1. Head of fund raising and sponsorship team for the college cultural festival
(Asia's largest 4-day college cultural festival with a footfall of 72k and a total budget of INR 20 million)
2. Hostel sports secretary
3. Organized blood donation camps and street plays during college for awareness on women exploitation
4. Captain of U-15 city team to win the handball tournament in the state
5. Participated in a lot of football tournaments and won a few
6. Conducted a joint study with Texas A&M University to optimize energy models for rural electrification for a project.
7. Active member of the toastmasters club in Kuwait

After MBA goals:
Short term: Management consulting role in a top consulting firm.
Long term: Leadership role in a Fortune 100 company.

Target Schools: Please suggest. Not done an extensive research.

Sincerely,
TN

We rate your work experience as strong. Ecommernce and supply chain experience will help. International exposure and experience of working with a high growth company ( flipkart - you can talk about evolving market, customer acquisition, streamlining ops etc) will make the story interesting.

Six sigma and CFA certifications will help. While six sigma goes well with your experience, CFA should be downplayed and only used to illustrate that you have some interest in finance related concepts.

Try a 720+ if you are targeting top 7-8 schools in US. 700 should be fine if you are targeting rank 9-20 schools in US.

Try considering HEC and Oxford kind of options as well. They value a profile such as yours and are good for getting into consulting.

Feel free to contact us for any queries.

Apphelp Team

tn1989 wrote:Hello,

I request you to please go through my profile and help me understand the ground reality about my preparedness for the MBA schools. Planning to apply in '15 for the batch starting n '16

GMAT: Not taken (Please suggest on the score I should target)
Target: Batch of 2016

Education:

B.Tech from IIT Bombay, India; GPA - 8.1/10; Graduated in '12
(Ranked in top 0.2% among more than 1.5 million students in IIT Joint Entrance Exam)

Work Exp: Total: 2 years and 2 months (will be 4 years total at the time of joining '16 batch)

1. India's largest e-commerce company, Flipkart.com (2 years, India)

"¢ Joined as a Management Trainee and promoted to Assistant Manager, Supply Chain in 9 months (fastest promotion in the company)
"¢ End to end supply chain and project management exposure: worked on supply chain processes, products, analytics and strategy (as an internal consultant) to scale-up operations from 15k shipments/day to 100k shipments/day in 2 years
"¢ Prepared and presented 6 business cases relating to growth, efficiency and cost to senior management; received a rating 4/5

2. An international retail franchise, M.H. Alshaya, Business Solutions Engineer (2 months - Present, Kuwait)

"¢ Working on a variety of projects such as supply chain solutions for Victoria Secrets in franchise model, business reporting metric design for all fashion and footwear retail brands
"¢ Majorly an internal consultant role to link the business side of every brand with other teams such as finance, logistics, IT etc.

Professional certifications:
1. Green Belt, Six Sigma from American Society for Quality
2. CFA Level 1 Candidate for December 2014 exam

Internship:

1. PwC India, Telecom Strategy Consulting, Summer Associate (3 months)

"¢ ERP transformation project for one of the world's leading telecom companies acquiring an arm of the British Telecom
"¢ Awarded a Pre-Placement Offer (PPO) for a full time job as a consultant

Extracurricular Activities:

1. Head of fund raising and sponsorship team for the college cultural festival
(Asia's largest 4-day college cultural festival with a footfall of 72k and a total budget of INR 20 million)
2. Hostel sports secretary
3. Organized blood donation camps and street plays during college for awareness on women exploitation
4. Captain of U-15 city team to win the handball tournament in the state
5. Participated in a lot of football tournaments and won a few
6. Conducted a joint study with Texas A&M University to optimize energy models for rural electrification for a project.
7. Active member of the toastmasters club in Kuwait

After MBA goals:
Short term: Management consulting role in a top consulting firm.
Long term: Leadership role in a Fortune 100 company.

Target Schools: Please suggest. Not done an extensive research.

Sincerely,
TN

Hi there,

Overall, a great profile!

Your work profile and career trajectory at Flipkart is impressive. I hope you will keep the same pace of growth at M.H Alshaya. Try working on tangible achivements during this coming one year and you will be good to go. Its a great company with excellent reach in the enitre mid-east region.

What I don't understand is how the CFA fits into the entire scheme of things? And why management consulting?

As far as the GMAT goes, try aiming high to demonstrate consistence academic excellence and maximise your chances of admit at top-tier business schools.