Profile Evaluation Request-Indian Male,Project Mgmt. Work Ex

[tifosi4488]

Hi,
I've recently taken the GMAT and have managed a 710 (IR-4, AWA- yet to receive, expecting atleast a 4.5). I'm planning to apply for the fall 2015 to the schools that are mentioned later on. I humbly request you'll to evaluate my profile and give me some feedback.

Indian Male, 24 years

UG: BE Mechanical engineering from Osmania University, India with an aggregate of 81%
XII: 94.2%
X: 78.67%


Work experience - Project Management (3 years till date)

1. Worked for the first 2 years at India's largest Engineering and Construction Company as a graduate trainee and was promoted within a year to a Senior Engineer. Responsibilities included-
"¢ Project execution in the mechanical department of a Blast furnace Construction project.
"¢ Section incharge for an area that covered approximately ¼'Th of the total scope of the project.
"¢ Optimizing the use of manpower and plant & machinery, to achieve targets within the timeframe stipulated by our client while supervising, training and mentoring a 150+ strong workforce.

2. Currently working in a company that makes pollution control equipment since 1 year as an Assistant Manager (Projects). Responsibilities include-
"¢ Project planning, scheduling and coordination for the mechanical works for 3 pollution control equipment installation projects.
"¢ Planning a project by breaking it down into critical milestones based on overall duration of the projecting and estimating the overall resources (manpower and machinery) that will be required during the execution life cycle.
"¢ Coordinating with the sites to ensure timely availability of materials at the site in order to achieve targets stipulated by the client.


Key Achievements -
1. Was the team leader of a group which, under the guidance of one of India's largest consulting firm, managed to complete a major portion of the work in my area in a record time, using approximately 45% of the workforce normally used otherwise in different sites.
2. Awarded 'Best Quality Engineer' in my division consisting of about 50 engineers in site at my first job.
3. Consistently in the top 10% of my batch during Engineering.
4. Secured a rank in the state entrance examination that placed me in the top 1% of the state(about 200,000 students)
5. Participated in number academic projects at techfests including the SAE BAJA INDIA, where each team was asked to model and simulate a single seater all terrain vehicle that could theoretically be mass produced.


Extracurricular activities-
1. A former cadet in the National Cadet Corps under the Air Force Squadron.
2. Executive Member of the planning committee for the Mechanical departmental fests and activities such as science conference of the college
3. Represented the school in many inter-school sports meet and won many laurels for the Relay team of the school.
4. Active member of an NGO that strives to provide underprivileged children of a few villages an education by enrolling them in schools and bearing the costs. Working in the team that collects funds for the cause.



My aim is to work as a consultant in the operations industry and hope that my 4 years experience till July 2015 (2 years in project execution and 2 years in project planning and coordination) will be helpful to the value of my profile.
The following universities are the ones that I will definitely be applying to for the 2 year program-
1. Northwestern university, Kellogg
2. Duke university, Fuqua
3. University of Michigan, Ross
4. Carnegie mellon, tepper
5. University of north Carolina, Kenan Flagler

I also plan to apply to 4 more schools but I'm still undecided on which ones. I will be grateful for any suggestions of schools that I should apply to where my profile matches the schools requirement.

Thanks in advance!

[Eliot]

Hello tifosi4488,

Thank you for your post!

You have a competitive GMAT score and several strengths in your career history. The adcom should appreciate your progress, as demonstrated by your quick promotion, as well as direct management experience. In recounting your career history, you will want to focus on your impact. Just as you highlighted achieving success with 45% of the workforce, consider your other notable achievements with an eye on details about the challenges you faced, interpersonal skills, the size of your teams, etc. You seem to have a nice balance in your extracurricular involvement (being a member of the Air Force should help you stand out), but it would be great to take on more of a leadership role, if possible, with the NGO.

In terms of your career goals, yes, a focus on operations would be positive, given the continuity with your past. Given your background in pollution control, would you consider further refining your goals to focus on the energy industry? Overall, the more specific you can be about your vision, the better. For instance, you should be ready to identify a few target firms post-MBA. Also, account for the impact you hope to have. In turn, detailing your goals should help you hammer out your interest in an MBA. Be sure to talk about the skills you would need from an MBA to prepare for your career goals and conduct research into the individual programs to be able to highlight how they would meet your skill-based needs.

In terms of planning your applications, you should consider how rigorous the process is. It would be a good idea to narrow your list to five or six programs, instead of nine. In considering four other schools, you will want to reflect on what you want from an MBA program. What firms would you target post-MBA? How would regional placement affect your decision? For instance, MIT / Sloan is strong in consulting placement. Since Kellogg is on your list, and you would be open to Chicago, you could look into Booth. They have a solid placement in consulting, too.

If you would like to discuss more about your candidacy and applications, please contact us directly: https://www.clearadmit.com/services/free-consultation/.

[tifosi4488]

Hi Elliot,
Thanks for providing me with that wonderful insight and as you rightly pointed out, further refinement is definitely needed in terms of showing clarity to the adcoms as to what are my post mba goals-near future as well as beyond that. I also realised that my original plan to apply to about 8-9 schools might be a bit unrealistic considering the rigour each school's application will require. I hope that you will agree that my current choice of schools are within my reach.
Another issue that has been bothering me is my IR score. I wanted to find out whether my score (4/8) will prove as a major hindrance to my application for the schools I have mentioned and what is the minimum IR score that these schools generally look for in a candidate.

Thanks in advance!