Trade off
Synergy. That ubiquitous word we find mentioned in every merger, alliance, partnership or business acquistion. That most elusive of things to actually realize business value from. Ok so, the most common synergy resides in cost efficiencies that are achieved through combining shared activities of two firms. It is THE easiest synergy to realize, if there was ever a low hanging fruit among synergies, this is it. Now, in order to achieve these cost efficiencies some people will lose there jobs, well someone will have to fire them. We slickly call it ‘active management of overhead’ or ‘SG&A trimming’ from a financial perspective or ‘right sizing’ in the realm of corporate strategy. Whatever it maybe, we state is so simply, in our case reports – an easy win, an obvious move. But it changes the life of people who are affected.I saw some one get fired the past week. I was a bit saddened by how quickly it happened, how quickly people forgot and moved on. The business student in me understands the logic behind it and does admire the ruthless effectiveness of the human machinery that kept on working inspite of this key ex-employee’s absence, but the person in me dislikes the way in which the termination was carried out. I felt like saying “show some respect” to those who oversaw the job termination.
Somethings must be done, like reducing staff but there is a civil respectful way of doing it and this way sometimes is not consistent with Effectiveness and Efficiency tenets and a trade off must made.
Selecting b-schools to apply to ~ A closer look
Deciding where to attend Business School can be an overwhelming experience. Not to mention that it will be one of the most important decisions that you will make in your life. To help you in your selection process I have outlined five key factors you should consider in your selection process called the five C’s.
The first of the five C’s to consider is the chance of acceptance. In other words, what are your chances of getting accepted into your business school(s) of interest. Before you get too far in the process, you must be honest with yourself and assess your situation. You need to assess your GPA, GMAT, and other related scholastic measurements against the respective average of the admitted students at the school(s) of interest. The key is to be honest with yourself.Take me for example, I received a 640 on the GMAT and my GPA was 3.3. I really wanted to apply to Northwestern’s MBA program, but I was honest with myself. I had absolutely no chance of getting accepted.
The second of the five C’s is costs.I am sure that you are already familiar with this consideration. However, it is an important consideration.In weighing schools you should consider the cost of tuition, cost of living, and financial aid. For example, if you are considering a school out of state then you need to consider out-of-state tuition. This could more than double your tuition expenses.Remember to consider cost of living differences between places such as Los Angeles and Columbus if you are considering UCLA and The Ohio State University.
The Third component of the five C’s is concentration of study.It is particularly important that you determine what area you plan to specialize in, if any.Some of the possible concentrations include: marketing, finance, and supply chain management. Do your research to determine what schools excel in the area you plan to specialize in.This may even lead you to eliminating a school from consideration because they do not have a concentration in your area of interest.
The fourth “C” to consider is career prospects.It is important that you investigate the schools’ placements rates and salary figures.You need to know that you will be able to increase your income and secure a good job after graduating. If you are interested in a particular industry or company then you need to investigate which companies recruit the schools’ students. Each company has a core group of schools that they recruit from.
The last “C” is climate.I don’t just mean the weather outside but also the climate inside. I recommend visiting the campus and with students at the school to uncover this.Also, if you don’t like snow then you probably shouldn’t apply to a school such as the University of Minnesota or the University of Michigan. But it really is important to get a good feel for what is going to be like to be a student at that school. You need to know if you will be comfortable at the school. After all, you will be there for 2 years out of your life. Remember to use the five C’s when considering schools business schools.
~ Thanks to my friend Jason for his views
Stage 2 – Applications (College Selection, Resume, Essays, SOP et al.)
So done with GMAT. A very important question. Did you get the score that you were hoping to get?
If you got less that what you expected, then you should try to analyze why that happened and give GMAT a second try. No matter what some business schools says about GMAT not being the only thing considered; In reality it is the very first thing that is considered. Some schools like Purdue in particular are very GMAT centric and do not even need a interview. A high GMAT score increases substantially your probability of getting a interview call and in case of acceptance the probability of getting GA or merit funding from the school. One more thing, for those who are interesting in a career in consulting after MBA. A GMAT score of above 700 proves to consultancy firms that you are a serious job candidate with good intellectual ability. So GMAT matters even in job search post MBA in some functional business areas.
If you got more that what you expected to get, then there are two certain things, one that you are in the minority(many people undershoot that overshoot) and that your aim was low(a mistake not to be repeated during the application process… MBA are typically arrogant about that abilities, like to brag about there achievement and very human… I will elaborate on the human part later in the post).
Prospective College Selection :
Enough about GMAT. So you have a score. Now comes the next the task of preparing a list of colleges that you want to apply to. I guess most people already have the list of colleges that they want to apply to even before GMAT and some of them are real close matches to your GMAT score. But your real GMAT score may be higher or lower that what you anticipated and so the list must be revised. The best resources for finding information about the schools are usnews , business week, college journal(wsj) and my personal favorite princeton review . You will come across many multiple ranking but i believe the US News rankings to be the best followed by Business Week. You must choose your school ideally based on your post MBA goals, the school teaching methodology and atmosphere; but in reality there is another important factor too – financial constraints
While preparing a list of colleges to apply to choose three categories of college viz. optimistic, realistic and safe. Apply in two of each category. I think of optimistic as ones for which my profile(GMAT + Work Exp + Extra Curr.) is at the lower end of applicant pool. I think of realistic as ones in which I have a 50% chance of getting admission but a not so great chance of getting a huge scholarship. I think of safe as ones in which you have a 80% chance of acceptance and a good chance of getting a huge scholarship. Once you get admits then you may have the problem of plenty, but that is a nice problem to have. A more detailed discussion on college selection here.
Resume :
This resume that you will submit to the b-school will be significantly different that any technical resume that you have written till now. I will list some basic things and for more specific information you may search on the web.
1) It should not be more than one page long.
2)The points in the resume should NOT be task oriented. Each point should highlight a transferable quality(Qualities which will be equally useful in any job function in any industry) that you have. Each should have the following format : WHAT YOU DID + SITUATION BACKGROUND + EFFECT OF ACTION.
3)Do not be afraid of showing off your achievements.
4)Stress more on achievements in professional life as against school life.
5)If your extra curricular activities are expectational then mention them , but of they are not… don’t worry… really doesn’t matter to some schools.
6) If you are a engineer, make sure that you highlight the management aspects of your job and have your resume reviewed by a non-engineer to ensure that this person is able to understand the things mentioned in your resume. The person who will be reading your resume will 90% of the times will not be a engineer.
ESSAYS :
There is not much that I add say about writing essays than that take time to write essays, essays should tell a consistent story, they should be reviewed by a trusted friend, guide or relative, should have no grammatical or spelling mistakes, should adhere to the word limit specified in the essay and should paint before the admission commission a human picture of you; a picture of a future alumni of the school..
Last but not the least, remember to send all the school your GMAT scores.
Stage 1 – GMAT
To the uninitiated who dare to ask what GMAT is, here it does. GMAT is Graduate Management Admission Test. It is the admission test of choice for all the MBA b-schools of US and rest of the world. GMAT is the first and most important part of the quest for admission to a b-school.
The very first thing to do once you have decided to appear for GMAT is to prepare the schedule for the next year. Needless to say that GMAT can be taken throughout the year but the ideal time for giving GMAT would be in the months of June or July. I say so because this will ensure that one has sufficient time to reappear for GMAT, if gods forbid he\she messes up the first try.
Next, try to gather as much information about GMAT as you can. The official website for GMAT is http://www.mba.com/, on this site one can get preliminary information about GMAT and also register for it online. One thing to remember about GMAT is that, in countries like India, passport is the only official identification that is accepted. So if you intend to appear for GMAT then get yourself a passport, if you don’t already have one. Create a user id for yourself on http://www.mba.com/ right away but you can wait for sometime before you register for GMAT.
Another website of interest to you should be http://www.pagalguy.com/, most people already know about this one, but for those who don’t. This is the mother of all MBA forums. Make PG your friend, and people on PG will help you along the way in GMAT preparations, b-school application and other very many things along your way to the b-schools. You also here will really get to know your competitors and also future colleagues.
Here, I go again talking about another website, http://www.princetonreview.com/ , this is a real gem. Here you will be able to get all the information regarding the entire journey of a MBA applicant. This site is perhaps the best source of preliminary information regarding the specific b-schools.
Anyways, let’s get back to GMAT. GMAT is a Computer Adaptive Test i.e. the level of difficulty of questions changes depending on the accuracy with which you answer the previous questions. The better you answer, the harder the test gets.
Format of GMAT (Duration 4 hours)
As far as the format for GMAT goes we have three sections viz. Analytical Writing Assessment, Quantitative section, and Verbal section.
1. Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)
The GMAT exam begins with the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA). The AWA consists of two separate writing tasks – Analysis of an Issue and Analysis of an Argument. Test takers are allowed 30 minutes to complete each essay.
2. Quantitative Section
Following an optional ten-minute break, the Quantitative section of the GMAT test begins. This section contains 37 multiple-choice questions of two question types – Data Sufficiency and Problem Solving. Test takers are allowed a maximum of 75 minutes to complete the entire section.
3. Verbal Section
After a second optional ten-minute break, the Verbal Section of the GMAT test begins. This section contains 41 multiple-choice questions of three question types – Reading Comprehension, Critical Reasoning, and Sentence Correction. Test takers are allowed a maximum of 75 minutes to complete the entire section.
Scoring in GMAT
The AWA section of GMAT is scored on a scale of 1 to 6 with 6 being the best. A score of 5.0 is considered sufficient with anything equal to more than 4.0 sufficing.
In case of both the verbal and quantitative section GMAT gives raw scores in the range of 1 to 60. When the raw scores of these two sections are combined the final GMAT score is received which is out of 800. Scores above 700 are good and scores above 750 are exceptional.
Books to Refer
KAPLAN
This is a very simple book and one should breeze through the book in 2 weeks if one has been studying for CAT and in 1 month if not studying for CAT.
OG11 – Official Guide, 11th edition
This is a bible and one must solve each and every question in this book. If possible solve the verbal part twice.
Kaplan 800
This is a book which has significantly tougher question especially for quantitative.
Princeton Review
This is a book for people who are aiming in between 600 to 700. So don’t use it.
~
Finally an admit
I have in the past week gots admits for MBA from “Purdue University–West Lafayette (Krannert)” & “Ohio State University (Fisher)” ranked 21 & 22 respectively in US. This comes as a relief than any great sense of achievement.
There are many things that remain to be done before I can actually begin my MBA. I haven’t recieved news of scholarships from these both schools, so waiting for that with baited breath. A lot many formalties like financial proof & visa are remaining but at the moment, feels good to be admitted.
It makes no sense for me to this story of “Path to MBA” at this point, so late on in the journey.
Let me begin from the beginining … before the first MBA ding, before the mad rush for applications, before the TOEFL woes, before the GMAT triumph & the CAT debacle(s).
Continued in next posts…
