Am I aiming for the right schools or way high ?

[Sabari Ram]

My Profile:
Indian male
25 years
Total years of Exp : 4
Industry : IT
UG : 84%
GPA : 3.5
GMAT : 740

Academic achievements:
Gold Medallist in B.E

Extra Curriculars :
Active member of the CSR initiative by my current firm
NSS member in College
Youth Red Cross member in College
Participated in various dance competitions at school and college days
Have won prizes at Divisional Level in atheletics during school days

Why MBA : Career Shift

Now my Questions:
1)How to define an appropriate short term goal?
For example,I am currently working for an Insurance Company as a Data Warehousing/Business Intelligence Developer.My prior work experience was for a Banking Major as an Applications Administrator.
Can I use these technical experiences plus little domain knowledge to claim that I would like to move to the Banking sector? Will that be a realistic goal?
2)My choices of school
University of Chicago: Booth
University of Michigan: Ross
Carnegie Mellon: Tepper
University of Virginia: Darden
Pennsylvania State University: Smeal
University of Texas at Austin: McCombs
University of North Carolina: Kenan-Flagler

Of the above,which schools can I apply for?
I know this is a vague question,considering the roles played by essays and other admission reqs.
However, I am very skeptical about applying to the top schools like Booth or Ross due to my average,redundant work profile(Indian IT male).

Regards,
Sabari

[ivyctor2010]

Hi Sabri,

My answers to your questions:

1) Short term goal is always derived from your vision of yourself. Where do you see yourself after 7 years, i.e. your long term goal. For example if you say in long term I wish to open my own Niche consulting firm in BFSI domain. Consequently your short term goal would be to join a consulting firm which has a BFSI practice.

2) GMAT 740 is good for the schools of your choice.
But given your profile Booth and Ross are a stretch, rest are within reach if you write some brilliant essays.

3) Being from the Indian IT male group does make it tough but then you need to differentiate yourself through your essays and that's a challenge. Just take up that challenge and give it your best shot, who knows you will land up in a top B-school.

Please tell me more about your experience in terms of leadership experiences you had at work, team size handled, project budget. Any client-facing projects with quantified impact. Any promotions, awards at work? And I will be able to help you more.

Regards,
Varun

[Sabari Ram]

Hi Sabri,

My answers to your questions:

1) Short term goal is always derived from your vision of yourself. Where do you see yourself after 7 years, i.e. your long term goal. For example if you say in long term I wish to open my own Niche consulting firm in BFSI domain. Consequently your short term goal would be to join a consulting firm which has a BFSI practice.

2) GMAT 740 is good for the schools of your choice.
But given your profile Booth and Ross are a stretch, rest are within reach if you write some brilliant essays.

3) Being from the Indian IT male group does make it tough but then you need to differentiate yourself through your essays and that's a challenge. Just take up that challenge and give it your best shot, who knows you will land up in a top B-school.

Please tell me more about your experience in terms of leadership experiences you had at work, team size handled, project budget. Any client-facing projects with quantified impact. Any promotions, awards at work? And I will be able to help you more.

Regards,
Varun

Hi Varun,
Thanks for the reply...
Now regarding the leadership experiences....
In my first job, I led a team of 12 offshore folks seated at various locations such as Chennai,Chandigarh and Hyderabad.As a team,working in a 24x7 model, we were supporting more than 35 Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence applications.I suggested and executed a process management activity which greatly reduced the turn around time by 25%.SLA was our make or break factor in the project.Our major tasks included resolving issues for BI applications which had direct impact on the revenue of the customer and building environments for voluminous BI applications based on Ab Initio.

As the POC from Offshore, I took great efforts in educating the entire team as most of the team members joined as freshers.I was awarded spot awards twice in a year.For many issues,as an administrator, I had to bring multiple teams sitting across the globe together and resolve the issues ASAP.Client interaction was a daily task, considering the size and number of applications that we handled.I have also won many appreciations from the client managers for effective task management.

In my current job, I am developing a DataMart for an Insurance Major.I have been added to the Center of Excellence for my technology.However, I dont lead a team now.I am an active participant in the Go Green club and the Outreach wing.

Leadership at college:
Student President for my department
Campus Placement Organiser for my department
NSS co-ordinator

Please let me know your thoughts on this.....
Regards,
Sabari

[ivyctor2010]

Hi Sabri,

I think there are a lot of points to talk about, let me do it in an organized manner. Can you please fillup the attached candidate profiling form and send it to me at [email protected]. I will do free 360 degree profile assessment for you on all aspects of your profile.

If you are not comfortable with this I can do the evaluation for you on this thread. Do let me know.