Hi JOn. Thank you for your honest feedback. Would really appreciate some guidance on schools to apply to! considering my work ex and goals, i am interested in 1 year programs as well (Insead/Oxford/ Kellog?) Here are some more details about me
1) At Aon Hewitt, i got an opportunity to work on several global assignments- in the Middle East, and South Asia region. This included actual assignments out of India, and also working extensively with people from various nationalities. For instance in 1 project i worked on, we had a people from of the fol countries: Netherlands, Egypt, US, India and Oman.
At Adobe, i was part of the Global team and again worked on multiple global projects (in addition to the day job).
2) my primary work experiences have been in the hi-tech industry. worked on projects for big MNC brands such as MS/Yahoo/ IBM during consulting, all my employers are from the hi-tech space. however during consulting - i also worked on projects in healthcare/ manufacturing and financial services as well
3) At Aon Hewitt, i very quickly progressed from a team member to a Project manager. i also had Sales and BD responsibilities, in addition to project management and delivery. I was actually promoted 3 times in the 5 years i spent there and also got the highest performance rank for 3 years, out of the 5 years i was assessed. (the first one was too soon after i joined, and one year everyone got dinged because of the economy- 2009!)
4) i have been a people manager for the last 4-5 years. when i joined Adobe i had no one reporting to me, by the time i left i had 5 people reporting to me- this was in recognition of my strength as a people manager and also the value that the people i work with saw.
5) in my current role (as HR Director), i partner with leaders of the tech org, on all people aspects- strategy of hiring the best talent, organizing teams to ensure success, designing and driving performance and reward programs to enable high impact results for people and the org etc. i am a people manager- very hands on in this role.
6) 2 things which i believe have lead to my current situation- i take initiative and i demonstrate commitment.
Initiative- have the courage to take on more (examples of additional responsibilities during all my work assignments, undergrad, and school- had positions of responsibility- School prefect, Class Rep during undergrad for 3 years etc.) this means, i have the courage to take risk (jump into unexplored areas), a high interest in learning and doing 'new' things and also have learned by making mistakes (i had to make mistakes as i took on new things which i havent done before). it also means, i have learned how to manage time across various commitments (including personally being a mother of a 1.5 yr old right now)
demonstrate commitment- no point of raising your hand and not completing what you have been tasked with. in each of the examples above, i can demonstrate how i completed things i took on
7) goals from the MBA:
Uber goal: become a stronger (with a deep understanding of business and hence HR needs) HR professional
way to get there: gain business knowledge through a business degree, get exposure to people who have played business roles, actually do a non-HR job (marketing/ operations) for a period of time (3-5 yrs); further strengthen understanding of business; come back to HR and leverage experience and understanding of business to be stronger HR professional
8) what value i can add during the MBA:
during my career, i have had the privilege of working with many leaders across levels, including C Suite leaders (while delivering on HR projects, specially during my current role as well). this has given me insight into:
a) challenges of growing an organization
b) people challenges as a leader of an organization
c) decision making
i dont think there is a solution/ or i ave figured out and have answers to everything, but i have definitely seen things which work, and things which dont...more than often business decisions (however data based and seemingly objective), are fraught with unknowns...and in these situations different leaders styles sometimes make the difference between success and failure. as an HR professional, while we solve 'people problems' we are actually constantly solving for 'org growth/ org success' issues...and i would be able to share some of these perspectives- from a successful 30 year old mature company, a 5 year old globally recognized and successful org with very high ambitions and from the various consulting assignments i have done- during the MBA program
