Re: teach-in-india - 4 new messages in 3 topics - digest

[Aditi S]

Hi Akshay,

As someone who did get an MBA, I can tell you that your work experience will shape, to a large degree, your own b-school graph. This is because of the nature of the program - b-school will help you use your analytical skills and logical thinking ability to approach real-world situations that will not always be straightforward or easily put in a box. That's why most b-schools stress so much on work-experience - it helps you put these situations in perspective, and helps you tackle them better. If you were fresh out of college, you wouldn't have had more than a few months of experience in the corporate/business world (max) - so your understanding of these situations would be different from, say, if you had around 3-4 years.
At seven months, I personally feel you're too young to go to business school - my advice is to get more work-ex, because then you'll get so much more from your B-school curriculum/overall experience, and also because you'll develop more specific ideas about what you want to do - within marketing, or in consulting.

Finally, on US B-schools - the admission process and selection criteria for the ISB is very similar to a good American B-school - and so were many other facets of the program. So take this decision keeping in mind your ultimate goals, and where you want to end up (US/India/other, which domain/field) , and choose accordingly. Doing this groundwork before you apply to schools will help you tremendously, else your set of expectations may not be met.

Hope this helps! Feel free to get in touch if you have more questions.

Good luck,
Aditi Sawjiani

(PS - I forgot to mention- my undergrad school was in the US (Wellesley) and I went to ISB with 4.5 years of work ex. Don't know enough about the exec program at IIM so could not comment on that).

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 12:42 PM, vijay parthasarathy <ick...@gmail.com>wrote:

> Akshay Keshavan, 22, (akshayk...@gmail.com) writes:
> i am writing on the recommendation of my cousin, vijay parthasarathy, to
> ask your advice on how best to approach my career.
> i have a Bachelors in electrical and electronics engineering with first
> class from Anna university. i graduated last year. i have taken a job with
> IMRB International, part of the WPP group, a leader in market research, as
> an initial step towards understanding the basics of marketing. i have worked
> in this position for 7 months. i hope to ease into more strategic roles in
> consumer marketing. at this point of time my company has advised me to apply
> for this exec mba from iim cal.. is it worth the effort? is it too early in
> my career? considering my young age, should i wait for a few years and try
> and break into an american b-school? what specific approach should i take to
> that?
>
> i grew up with a strong inclination towards mathematics and in course of
> time developed a passion for marketing and business. i want to get a job
> eventually with a top consulting firm.
>
> vijay spoke to me about your team's ideas, and he strongly suggested that i
> write in for advice. i know this is not meant to be about career counselling
> but rather how to improve our way of thinking, make it more coherent :)
> still, your inputs on my situation would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Regards,
> Akshay
>
> ----------------
>
> >
>

[Vijay]

Ashankya Iddya writes:



Hi Akshay,

I'm in Marketing and when I started I had pretty much the same goals
as you - to break into marketing strategy and consulting.

Having been through the entire excercise of building a resume and
searching for B-schools, I do feel that I'm in a position to dole out
some advice in this matter.

1. Before deciding on B-schools, you should be able to answer if you
are in dire need of an MBA to progress further. Only if the answer
this question should you progress ahead. There's a difference between
being stuck in a rut and hitting a glass ceiling

2. If you feel that you absolutely cannot get into the role that you
want without an MBA, the next hurdle is deciding on the right MBA
program for you. You first have to decide on what is that you want and
how an MBA program can fill that gap and which school will best help
you get there. It is not about any school per se. It should always be
about what you want and which school will help you get there

3. Once you have answers to #2, then you have to look deeply into the
program of the chosen schools and see if you can demonstrate "Fit"-
How you will benefit and contribute to the school. If the school
things that you will be an asset to them as a student and alumni then
your chances of getting are higher

4. One of the most important aspects of applying to B-schools at least
in the US is applying only when you are ready. Regardless of stats
like Age, GMAT score etc. Being ready means you have to be prepared to
answer questions that deal with handling leadership positions at work
and extra curricular activities, making a significant impact, working
extensively in teams, having significant accomplishments that you are
proud of etc. If you think you can anaswer these questions confidently
then nothing should prevent you from applying

Do let me know if you have more questions

Regards
Ashanka

[Jaineel Aga]

Hi Akshay,

 

I have a profile very similar to yours. I have an electronics engineering degree, then a masters in engineering Managament  and going to be soon joining a  top  boutique strategy consulting firm.

 

I can throw in a few  pieces from what I have seen among my managers. Work ex is an absolute  necessity  to  move towards non entry positions after a MBA. Even if you do a MBA right now from IIMC, it will be less valuable to your long term growth  as compared to doing it after say 3 - 4 years.

 

Now for my personal experience, at my management program at Duke University. Its traditionally for freshers and ppl with less than 2 years of exp but we took a number of classes at the Fuqua school of business. Trust me the work experience  shows. I was very happy to be in the midst of  some very knowlegable people but I could totally feel the inability to contribute to class discussions because of the lack of professional exposure.

 

Also most companies,  at least in the US and  some top firms in India will require you to come  to non entry positions with 2 -3 years of relevant work ex  and equipped with a top notch MBA. Just a MBA from IIM ( who take ppl without work ex won't do - for eg my firm recruits only from ISB in India  which follows the international model or  IIM ppl with work ex.

 

Hope this helps. Drop me a mail if you wanna directly get into consulting, than going through the marketing path.

 

Regards

 

Jaineel

jaine...@duke.edu
India (Mumbai) Number - 9833855968
India (Bangalore) Number - 9663382590
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jaineel