Profile Pre-Evaluation

[rahim.gmat]

Hi Admission Consultant,

I would like some help in pre-evaluating my profile - as chosing GMAT and MBA is somewhat complex decision in my current career phase. Let me outline my profile --

1) I am at a very interesting phase of my career. I am Chief Technology Officer, and Co-founder in a quite successful Software Technology company, based out of India. Company is more than 6 years old, it has its business in India, Africa, and many other emerging markets and expanding month over month. The company has current strength of ~200 people and it is quite profitable - in fact it did break-even within 1 year of the company start-up. In summary, company is quite successful - one can say only successful company among many start ups started 6 years before. The company has been nominated and won various international awards for its products. Company has multiple internationally recognized investors and a healthy balance sheet.

2) I hold around 10 years of experience; 6 years in the current company and 4 years in another company - where I grew to Senior Architect role from entry level role in short period of 4 years - I getting promotions almost at 6 months. Got 4 awards during the tenure and uncountable day to day recognitions.

3) In current company, I head 100 member technical and operation team. I execute Architecture, Day to Day Operations, Technology & Platform Road-map, People Growth. I am fully hands on guy who controls the architecture of the system and reviews design and technology level decisions till date. Around 6 months before I used to code up too, now moved away from the same - I can proudly say quite majority of components and core platform I myself have coded. I follow open culture and sits right around the team, rather than in a closed cabin.

4) Under my mentorship, couple guys have done their own startups and multiple people with my recommendations have gone for higher studies.

5) I myself is MCA (Master of Computer Applications) from Top Most MCA Institute in India. I hold 5th rank in the class. I had a GPA of 4.66 out of 6, class topper had a GPA of 5.04. Before MCA I did Bachelor of Science in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics (PCM). [My transcripts looks only weak point in the whole profile]

6) One would wonder why person with such a profile would like to now go for MBA at the age of 34. Reasoning for it is as follows -

a) I always wanted to do MBA, just that my fast paced career path did not give me chance earlier to think about it. (Not sure AdComs would like such a reasoning)

b) My future ambitions are pushing me to setup a global tech organization. MBA from Top Institute in USA would give me that required platform to setup the organization in USA, attract global talent and global investors.

c) I am looking for MBA only from Top 5 institutes and nothing lesser.

Please guide me with the pre-evaluation of my profile.

[rahim.gmat]

Dear Mili M'am,

Please help with your reply.

Regards !

[rahim.gmat]

I believe this particular forum section is no longer live. Not seeing any replies coming through, so the surprise.

[mili]

Hi Rahim,

My apologies for the delay in responding to you. I was traveling this week and wasn't able to keep up with my normal response times! Thanks for understanding.

You have a very impressive professional record. Your entrepreneurial success will set you up very well for admissions at top programs. Academically, you seem to have strong grades (not sure about GMAT though).

The negatives: I don't see much else in your profile (extracurriculars, community work), and you are on the older side for a full time MBA. Have you considered an executive MBA program? This might be more suited to your experience level and goals? Alternatively, a part time program?

It's true that admissions committees may feel that, while you're a strong candidate, you do not stand to gain as much from an MBA as other candidates with less or more narrow experiences. It's worth applying if this is your ambition, but I would consider these other types of MBA programs as well.

All the best,
Mili

Mili Mittal
Senior Consultant
http://www.mbamission.com
 
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[rahim.gmat]

Thanks mili for your detailed answers.

Reg GMAT: I would still need to give. My followup questions are -

(1) Along with my profile, what minimum score I need for Top 3 School - I believe 750+ ?

(2) I believe there might be a strong bias against Indians who are not from IIT - but I am not too sure. I have seen many linked-in profiles who have taken the route of MCA and then a graduate degree from Wharton, Kellogs etc. Do you see any such bias against non IIT degrees in your experiences ?

Reg Community Programs: My understanding is people who do not have other areas to show their leadership traits - can show these traits through their participation in community programs. Saying above, I have done some community work in parts -- like a few months Garbage Segregation rule came in the city, people were supposed to be made aware about the segregation process, and lot of other operational ground work was needed by each society. I took initiative & leadership in my 140 flats apartment - brought a team together, did lot of presentations to various groups (depending on the level: working women / house makers, kids, man etc), arranged for the extra garbage boxes from a wholesale store, did fortnight review -- now our apartment diligently follows the process.

Reg Extra Co-curricular: I have not taken any leadership in games after my 12th class. Till 12th class I used to be vice-captain of the cricket team in school and I used to open up. Now I play games (like Table Tennis, Badminton) just to keep myself fit. But on positive side, I keep challenging myself with new skills every now and then - like now a days I am learning skating; around year before I have learnt horse riding; next on my radar is shooting. I own a racing bicycle - that I try to take out once in a month to explore 50-60 KM distance spots. I spend almost 1.5 to 2 hours in gym everyday - again started this regime an year back. Not sure if these would be exciting enough for AdComs - because most of these I do to keep myself fit.

Reg High Experience: I know this can back fire at me. Although schools might see I would not gain that much from full time MBA as other students, but I am sure I would be able to give back lot of my experience in managing a successful company and team (not sure if schools would weigh that good). For example, I have interviewed almost 700-800 candidates to fill up positions in the company over past 6 years or so - I have got very strong skills to measure the candidates very quickly. On daily basis I need to deal with dynamics of team, their capabilities, their energy level and need to channelize all of this to the success of various projects in the company - I am sure this experience is unmatched.

I definitely need a full-time MBA - as I want to give extensive time and hard-work to pop-up my skills. This 2 years off time would also give me enough time to re-collect everything good and bad I have done, plan for next steps after MBA. And most importantly I am looking for a strong stamp - and entry into the ivy-league network. Part-time or executive MBA would allow me to give only limited time to the course and other benefits might not be that much.

What do you suggest ?

[mili]

Well, it's a pretty personal decision, so if you feel you want to go for two year top MBA, then go for it! It seems like you've thought about the pros/cons.

As for GMAT, I think given the strength of your professional experience, you could be competitive with a 700+ ... of course, it wouldn't hurt to score higher. But I think you'd be in the running as long as you hit that 700 mark.

Community/Extracurriculars - that one garbage project/initiative sounds like a great story. Though you won't have any consistent community work to put on your resume, it sounds like you may have a story or two to include in your essays that will showcase your commitment to community efforts/causes. As for extracurriculars, often time they are very forgiving of entrepreneurs, understanding that their time is very constrained, so you might be okay. The bike racing could make for a good story, potentially - would need to explore further.

Your professional experience is certainly unmatched and rare - it's your biggest asset. But it's also a disadvantage to be SO far beyond your classmates in terms of experience -- the adcoms may see you as overqualified, as I mentioned before. But all in all, I think the odds are in your favor outside of your age!

Best of luck,
Mili

Mili Mittal
Senior Consultant
http://www.mbamission.com
 
Read the mbaMission Insider's Guides (16 individual school titles)
 
Download [url=http:// http://info.mbamission.com/MBA-Personal-Statement-Guide/]mbaMission’s Free Personal Statement Guide[/url]
 
Visit the mbaMission Blog
 
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