Ask The Red Pen : Ask Admissions Consultants - Page 3

anandpranshu, Please don’t send in your question multiple times. You just need to send it only once

bratbg,
Hi,
You have exciting and diverse work experience. I would avoid mentioning another switch in the application. Consider talking about returning to your family business to show a linear path or just accelerating the timeline for your long-term goal.

Next in the queue anandpranshu,

YashasviniM, Please send in your question as one message

Hi Nikhil, I think my profile has been missed

RSinghS wrote:Hi Nikhil, I think my profile has been missed

I think TheRedPen team is answering your profile questions as of now

RSinghS,
Your sacrifice to help your family out is very commendable. I am sure the adcom will appreciate that as well.
The fact that you secured a corporate role after family business also shows initiative and grit.
It would help if you highlighted the interactions with the Australian team to show comfort with diversity in the resume, LOR or the essays.
Given that you are working in a financial setting currently, consider opting for finance-based roles post-MBA as well. It will increase your employability and allay adcom's fears.
Your extracurricular activities will help you stand out.
You can consider Indiana Kelley as well as it has good relations with consulting firms.

Next in the queue Upasana219,

Everyone, We have around 20 more minutes left in this chat session.

TheRedPen wrote:Very interesting profile Utkarsh. Securing a high GMAT will definitely help you overcame a less than stellar GPA.
The best thing about your profile is that is very differentiated. In addition, you have been in the same industry for the last two year. Finally, you have a unique leadership experience.
You could stand a chance at the top colleges if you can show a need for MBA.
MBB recruit on campus and have a preference for applicants with high GMAT. Finally, everyone has to go through the same case studies, therefore with good networking efforts and case prep you stand a decent chance.

Thanks a lot for your valuable comments Nikhilesh.
Regards,
Utkarsh

anandpranshu wrote:Profile Evaluation for MBA 2022 Intake-
Indian / IIT Guwahati (Maths and Computing) - 2015/ Male / 27/ MBA from US School
GMAT: Yet to take (Target 760+ - mocks 750-780)
Undergrad: 9.36/10 CGPA in B.Tech Maths and Computing (IIT/Top 10 school) .

Work Experience:
Amazon Software Developer Summer Intern (got Pre-placement offer)
2 years Amazon Software Developer [Mentor to interns]
1.25 year gap (working in family business and partly preparing for civil services)
2.5 years Software Lead US-based Unicorn startups (with clients of the likes of LinkedIn and AWS) [Mentor to new hires[
Taking responsibilities of program, tech and product manager for some projects, but no official position till now.

EC’s -
College Technical Inter-college Annual Event Chief Organizer
College: North India Regional head for tech events.
Involved in cultural committee (both as an organizer and participant) of all the current and previous employers.

Post-MBA goals -
Short term: Tech consultancy or a product management role in big-tech.
Long term: Aim to start my own venture helping small business to leverage tech to focus on their core business; or to join a startup doing the same.

Dream Schools - Stanford/Wharton
Target schools - Booth/Sloan/Stern/Ross/Cornell/Ross/HaaS

Request for:
— General evaluation
— Chances in these schools? or if the list needs addition/modification?
— Concerns regarding the family business leap in between.

Congratulations on your stellar academics!
With a good GMAT score, your academics will be a breeze.
Even if you don’t have a PM designation, your leadership roles will hold value, particularly as you are punching above your weight.
Plus, it makes perfect sense that you would aim for a PM role post-MBA. So, your career goals are sorted. I believe that you have a good chance at these colleges. Consider Kellogg as well for their great PM courses. If you haven’t had any career switches in the recent years, you will do great.
You need to address the switch to the family business and show the impact you created in this area. But your reasoning will require a more detailed conversation. Feel free to reach out at team.mba@theredpen.in

Next in the queue YashasviniM,

Upasana219 wrote:Indian, female 30
Bachelor in commerce 74% (tier3) , Mba 6.19cgpa (tier3)
Target gmat: 2targets @680 &720
Job ex: -2016-2017 (Deloitte, audit support)
-Changed profile from audit to valuation
-2018-2019 (Evalueserve, Investment banking
support) (Amlyst role)
-2019-now (got hired for senior analyst) (Moody’s
PE support) (Both valuation roles include
Financial modeling, industry analysis, investor
Memo, trading comps)
-Guide 2-3juniors in product deliverable
-Did a financial modeling certification
Extra-curricular: - professional singing certificate with a few concerts under my belt (concerts since the age of 5)
Have been investing and generating profits since the age of 20
Ngo involvement in financial literacy (1year) with a batch of 20-40students

Post MBA: Venture Capital or Product Management
Questions: Colleges to aim for at top 25range for both scores?
Is it easy to transit from a finance heavy career to marketing?

Thank you in advance 😊

Hi,
Although rare, an MBA is your best bet to make a transition from Finance to marketing.
However, your goals will need to be refined. Venture capital and Product Management require very different skills and marketing is an entirely different industry.
The VC industry, in particular, is tough to break into as an international student.
Your NGO experience will definitely help you stand out from other applicants.
It is tough to suggest a school as different schools specialize in Marketing, PM and VC- Wharton is one of the schools ranked highly across all three and is understandably competitive.

Next in the queue kntombat,

YashasviniM wrote:Hi team RedPen, looking for a profile evaluation for MBA 2022 intake.

Indian/female/25

Worked for a year building India’s largest community platform for budding journalists and writers in tier-2 towns. Spent two years as a journalist in New Delhi reporting on governance schemes and was one of the youngest newsroom runners and editor in the country.

Switched to development consulting and have been creating & implementing programs supporting rural livelihood generation and a switch to sustainable agriculture in collaboration with various state governments. have worked with three state governments and led a project with a central ministry.

Post-MBA goals: Management/ Strategy / Development Consulting and eventually be a partner at a impact VC fund

· Target schools: Booth, Kellog, Columbia, Darden, Ross Rotman, Stern, HEC Paris, and Tuck

You have an interesting profile as not many journalists apply for an MBA. In addition to the schools you have mentioned, I would consider Yale as well.
It is hard to evaluate chances, though, without a GMAT score or GPA. Do consider companies like Bridgespan for your post-MBA goals

kntombat wrote:Is volunteer experience with NGO’S a must ? What if a candidate’s other parameters are good but he lacks volunteer experience will that be a deal breaker?

Admission committees understand that applicants are busy, particularly if they are from fields like Investment Banking or Consulting. Such applicants should find other ways to show their desire to give back to community and to differentiate themselves.

Thanks, everyone for joining

Thank you TheRedPen, for your time

We are Live with a student panel. Join us at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ21IBfEU70

Thanks, everyone for the wonderful question. If you have a follow up questions please reach out to us at team.mba@theredpen.in

Thank you everyone for joining us, This chat is officially over

AbhinavSV wrote:Hey, Please evaluate my profile

GMAT Expected Score-750
BTech in Mechanical Engineering from IIIT Jabalpur
GPA 8.4/10(6th rank in class of 87)
HSC: 96.15% (3rd rank out of 1,20,000 students)
SSC: 91.33%

Work Ex:
~5 years at the time of application

1.Founder and CEO of a Startup developing assistive technology for people with speech and hearing disability. (started in early 2017)
-Taking care of product development, starting from Idea to Launch
-Raised fund of around 150,000$ in mixed of equity and grants
-Working with NGOs, Govt, Special schools for co-creation and co-execution
-Defining the marketing strategy
-Working with business to create job roles for deaf people where using our technology they can perform as good as anyone else or better
-Managed a team of around 10 people.
Startup is still running though the pace is a bit slow because of COVID

2. Co-Founder and CTO of another startup working in the domain of Solid Waste Management and circular economy.
Products/Offerings- Effective Door to Door waste collection, Material Recovery Facility, Waste Recycling,
-Bootstrapped to a ~$1.5m annual revenue within 2 years
-Handling ~150MT/Day waste everyday
-Working with Govt Providing cleaner and sustainable world to 500,000+ population of multiple cities/towns
-Some of our products/Services have been chosen as best practices by state govt and recommended for implementation countrywide under Clean India Mission of Govt of India
-Total team of 200+ people with offices at three different location


Patents
3 patents published

Extra-Curricular Activities during College:
1.Only person in the class to be elected as Student Senate member all 4 years.
2.Associate Co-ordinator of Student Counselling Services
3.Head of Event Management for the College’s Cultural Festival
4.Media and PR Head for a couple of other fests
5. Co-coordinator of the literary club
6.Chief-Editor, Hindi for Institute’s magazine
7.Started different initiative during for years related to cleanliness, Education for unprivileged and youth awareness

Target School : MIT SLOAN, HASS, Stanford,HBS

Thank you for sharing your profile with us, AbhinavSV,
You have a very interesting profile. In particular, the recent entrepreneurial venture aiming to help those with hearing challenges.

Let’s take the most significant components of your application:

Academics Potential (Undergraduate Institution, Subject selection and GPA and GMAT Score)
You have a good GPA from one of the top 100 colleges in India. In addition, a GMAT score of 750 is above the class average for all your target schools. However, you are from an over-represented pool of Indian male engineers, so having these fundamentals in place will be important before proceeding further.

Work Experience and post-MBA goals
You have a strong streak of tech entrepreneurship in domains that benefit society. In addition, you have had success in both the ventures - raising $150k in the recent startup and reaching 500,000+ people through the previous one. These are impressive numbers.
It will be easy to stand out from the crowd even as an Indian Male Engineer.
Also, it would be great to know how much international experience you have.
Finally, understanding your post-MBA goals would help determine a fit with colleges. The schools you have mentioned have great entrepreneurial offerings. I would also look at Tuck and Darden as they have great entrepreneurial programs if that’s your intended post-MBA career.

Leadership
Depending on the level of your involvement with waste management, you have significant leadership experience as well.

Feel free to email us at team.mba@theredpen.in, if you would like to discuss your profile in detail. We will be happy to schedule a call.

Join our MBA panel discussion this Saturday!

Preeti Wadekar, Head of MBA Services at The Red Pen and MBA, Columbia Business School, will be in conversation with incoming students to leading business schools including Stanford University Graduate School of Business, INSEAD, London Business School, Yale School of Management, The Wharton School and Columbia Business School.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity as six successful applicants will elaborate on their approach to test preparation, school selection, essay writing and interview preparation.

Date: Saturday, July 3
Time: 11 am IST

Register here: https://bit.ly/MBA-panel

PROFILE EVAL REQUEST - GMAT 660 / 4 years at matriculation

Hi,

Non Indian IT applicant here with a score of GMAT 660.

GPA - 6.78/10 (First Class without distinction)
Undergrad - VIT Pune University. Top 15 Universities in India. Engineering program is not that highly ranked as compared to IITs and NITs.

Work ex -

1) 6 months as an Analyst at Fortune 500 company.

2) 1.5 years at World's largest Ed-Tech Firm and India's no. 1 Startup by valuation.
- Worked in 3 different roles
a) Business Development Associate - Clocked revenue of around 40,000$ in 6 months.
b) Retention - Firm has 15 days refund policy. Retained revenue in excess of 100,000$ at 87% retention.
c) Senior Renewals Specialist - Member of a 20 member pilot team that started renewals process in the firm. Renewal rate was 94%
while revenue was around 70,000$.

3) 10 months at current company as Assistant Manager - Business Operations. It is a seed funded B2B Ed-Tech Startup Co-founded by Ex-
BCG Senior Manager. ​One of the founders was recently names in Forbes Asia 30 under 30.
​- Implemented structured post sales​ process

​- Developed a pitch for onboarding Team which the entire post sales team uses. Increase in NPS score from 51% to 73% in 3 months.

​-Implemented a product training program for the entire Sales Team defining scope and limitations of the product, thereby reducing the r efund % by 70%

​- As a side gig inside the company I am product trainer and have trained over 70+ Sales reps

​- Currently working on monetization of the user base. Generated a new revenue stream through this and guided and helped around 25 tutors and coaching institutes to generate a monthly income ranging from 600$ to 8000$


Post MBA Goals -Short Term - To get into Tech Firm as a PM

​Long Term - Entrepreneurship in Ed-Tech


The story I'm looking to develop is around the lines - Important aspects of a Tech company are - Sales, Operations and the Product itself.

I have an experience in Sales and operations with decent impact. Get into PM Role post MBA and learn how to build a scalable product, what are the challenges that one comes across. Use this knowledge of all 3 things to eventually start an Ed-Tech firm of my own in the long term.



I want to do MBA in USA. What are the MBA programs I should consider applying in Round 1 in which I would have a decent chance of getting in.

Aragorn101 wrote:PROFILE EVAL REQUEST - GMAT 660 / 4 years at matriculation

Hi,

Non Indian IT applicant here with a score of GMAT 660.

GPA - 6.78/10 (First Class without distinction)
Undergrad - VIT Pune University. Top 15 Universities in India. Engineering program is not that highly ranked as compared to IITs and NITs.

Work ex -

1) 6 months as an Analyst at Fortune 500 company.

2) 1.5 years at World's largest Ed-Tech Firm and India's no. 1 Startup by valuation.
- Worked in 3 different roles
a) Business Development Associate - Clocked revenue of around 40,000$ in 6 months.
b) Retention - Firm has 15 days refund policy. Retained revenue in excess of 100,000$ at 87% retention.
c) Senior Renewals Specialist - Member of a 20 member pilot team that started renewals process in the firm. Renewal rate was 94%
while revenue was around 70,000$.

3) 10 months at current company as Assistant Manager - Business Operations. It is a seed funded B2B Ed-Tech Startup Co-founded by Ex-
BCG Senior Manager. ​One of the founders was recently names in Forbes Asia 30 under 30.
​- Implemented structured post sales​ process

​- Developed a pitch for onboarding Team which the entire post sales team uses. Increase in NPS score from 51% to 73% in 3 months.

​-Implemented a product training program for the entire Sales Team defining scope and limitations of the product, thereby reducing the r efund % by 70%

​- As a side gig inside the company I am product trainer and have trained over 70+ Sales reps

​- Currently working on monetization of the user base. Generated a new revenue stream through this and guided and helped around 25 tutors and coaching institutes to generate a monthly income ranging from 600$ to 8000$


Post MBA Goals -Short Term - To get into Tech Firm as a PM

​Long Term - Entrepreneurship in Ed-Tech


The story I'm looking to develop is around the lines - Important aspects of a Tech company are - Sales, Operations and the Product itself.

I have an experience in Sales and operations with decent impact. Get into PM Role post MBA and learn how to build a scalable product, what are the challenges that one comes across. Use this knowledge of all 3 things to eventually start an Ed-Tech firm of my own in the long term.



I want to do MBA in USA. What are the MBA programs I should consider applying in Round 1 in which I would have a decent chance of getting in.

Hi Aragorn101,

Thank you for sharing your profile with us.

Let’s break down your profile.

Academics
A 6.78 GPA from a decent institute couple with 660 GMAT will raise eyebrows for the admission committee. You need to show that you can handle the rigorous MBA Curriculum. Consider retaking GMAT. Also, take a few GRE diagnostic tests to see it suits you better.

Work Experience
You have great work experience. Past success in sales, renewal and retention shows strong people skills. You deal with customer complaint. At the same time, you get to work with people from different backgrounds such as lawyers. This shows you are a team player. In addition, you have always been in a client-facing role.

More recently you have taken on strategic roles somewhat like a product manager. It is a good precursor for your post-MBA goals. (more on this below)


Post-MBA Goals
Your short term goals are well aligned with your experience in tech and start-ups. And the long term goal is also fine. Try to be a visionary and understand what problem are you trying to solve in the ed-tech space that is currently not addressed. Why do you need to go to a particular business school and how that school will help you address this problem.

Extracurriculars and Leadership profile
International business schools are looking to admit clients with a well rounded profile, hence understanding these details will be key to evaluating the profile as a whole. Business schools are also increasingly conscious about developing leaders who focus on the social upliftment and use business as a force for creating a positive and lasting impact in the society. Hence, your contributions to your immediate communities and why it matters to you, will be important here.


School Selection
I would recommend retaking the GMAT and aiming for a minimum score of 720. With that, you can consider these schools that have a strong post-MBA employment within the Technology sector - NYU Stern, Michigan Ross, Tuck, Berkeley Haas and UCLA.

Hope this helps.

Please feel free to reach out to us at team.mba@theredpen.in for any follow-up questions.