Job Dilemma : Credit Suisse versus Oracle Retail

[reetendrachauhan]

Hi,

I am a final year engineering student from India. I will be embarking on my professional career soon, and really needed advice on choosing from the jobs that I have in hand right now. I plan to work for 3 to 5 years and then apply for an MBA in the USA / Europe.

1) Credit Suisse:

I will be starting as a Risk Analyst. I have interned here, so have a fair idea of the place. The big pro with Credit Suisse is the brand value.

But the work is slightly back office, learning opportunities are slightly less as well, and there is very less opportunity to grow (in terms of increased responsibility, promotions etc). The back office where I am joining doesn't really support candidates leaving them for MBAs.

2) Oracle Retail:

The profile is related to Consulting / Analytics, and not software development. I will be advising retail clients on their inventory, discount, pricing strategy.

The pro is that there is scope for client interaction (limited, but still yes) if I stick around with the company for 3 years or so. The learning curve too is steep, and growth seems to be slightly better then that at Credit Suisse (although its too early to comment on this now). The team in Oracle supports candidates going for MBAs.

The con is that the brand value is not as high as Credit Suisse. There might be a chance that inspite of being in Retail Consulting, AdComs might stereotype me as an Indian IT professional (please correct me if I am wrong here), which forms a very large pool of applications. Will the description of my work in my essays / CV help me get categorized under the 'Consulting Applicants' umbrella in the first screening step itself, or will I be slotted under the 'Indian IT Professionals' Tag till the last stage ?

I plan to go neither to finance nor to consulting post MBA, my aim is something like Brand Management / Marketing Strategy etc. Fortunately, the other aspects of my profile (GMAT, Undergraduate University Ranking, Undergraduate GPA, Extra Curriculars etc.) are really good I feel. I would really appreciate any advice on what I should choose.

Thank you so much.