Should Indians Consider US for their MBA?

Many Indian students come to USA with their MBA dreams every year. Some are lucky enough to get great jobs and without much trouble, but most of the students have to work twice as hard and live a very stressful life until that job offer is in their hand. Why does this happen? These students are just as smart as their American counterparts, they work just as hard in fact harder than them. Then what is it that makes life so stressful for Indians?

The answer is H1-B and the Green Card. If you are amongst the ones who just want to get experience and go back home, then you should not be that worried because once you have a job and H1b you are more or less fine. Others who plan to settle in the US are pretty much screwed. The wait times for a green card are ridiculous. EB-3 category has a wait time for 7 years. You cant leave your employer or get promoted in this time. EB -2 category (for jobs that require a masters) has a wait time of 4-5 years. The catch here is that masters is required, and many jobs just "prefer" an MBA dont require it. Which means that you will have to apply in the EB 3 category. Yes there are workarounds where you can get promoted but the point is that your life will be very very very stressful until get that card in your hand. I have seen people waiting for their green card, and it makes me so sad to see their situation. Employer will harass them just because we cant really do much, they will see others move ahead, and their personal life gets screwed because there is a lot of uncertainty.

So what is the solution to this? Unfortunately there isnt one, unless you go to immigrant friendly countries like Canada. I myself am in Montreal at the moment to check out the country. So far I really like the country, but then its not USA. I know this doesnt help, but this is the reality. Here is my take, if you have never been to the US or are not very keen on living in the US, do consider Canada. Great country, super cool people, and enough opportunities.

If you are in my situation and have spent a lot of time in the US and have a good network there, it makes sense to give EB 2 a shot and apply for immigration in Canada as a backup. I have about 3-4 months left in Canada, and trust me I really want to like this place sooo much that I am certain that I can leave the US and settle here. Life would be so much easier. I dont want to spend the sleepless night trying to get a job, then trying to persuade the employer to sponsor a green card, and finally being able to get a green card. Thats about 5-7 years down the drain. Is it worth it? Only time will tell.

A Must Do Before Deciding Where To Apply

Deciding which bschools to apply is one of the most confusing decisions I made in the entire process. I looked at the rankings, class profiles, and other info to see where I will get accepted and took it from there. Although this strategy is the most common one, it has a serious shortcoming. If we are using this strategy, we are only asking one question - am i right for this school? We are not asking the most important question - is this school right for me? Believe it or not, asking this question is more important that the other question most people ask.

The answer to this question will really help you decide where to apply. All schools offer a very different experience, and its only natural that you will like some better than the others. If you only want to focus on top 10 schools or top 20, thats fine, but getting to know a little about the experience the schools offer will help you choose which of those top 20 to apply to.

It is also important to keep in mind that schools look for students who have done their research on what the school has to offer and that the student's personality will fit the school's culture.

So, here is how you can find out about what the school has to offer culturally. Read student blogs on business week and other sources. A simple google search will give you a list of blogs from students in a particular school. And read multiple blogs to avoid getting reviews of a very frustrated student or a very very happy student. Both wont do you a lot of good.

Call a current student and ask what he/she likes and does not like. Speak to Indian students if possible because they understand our needs the best. They were in your shoes a year or so ago, and know what mistakes they made and can better advice you on how to tackle problems.

So again, read student blogs and talk to current students (Indians if possible) to see what their experience at school has been, and then decide where to apply.

Confidence Is The Most Important Criterion For B-School Admission

Recently, I read a very good article on business week. It said that schools are looking for confidence in students, and that is the most important thing they look at. Think about it, it makes sense too. With the economy still in shambles, schools want students who can get jobs and it is students with confidence who have a better shot at getting jobs.

This was also confirmed when I spoke to an admissions director of a school. He said that confidence is what they really look for in students. The next thing is enthusiasm. I wish I knew that when I was applying. I knew that confidence in interviews is always important, but I did not know how big a role it played in my application process.

So, all you MBA aspirants should keep this in mind when they are preparing for their interviews. In fact, one of our professors at UNC who teaches a US Language and Culture class to internationals said that in the US, Confidence is better than correct. I have spend about 5-6 years in the US now, and I will say that I totally agree with it.

Think about it.

Get Your Resume Reviewed

Hi All,

Upload your resume as a word doc on google docs and post a link here. Share your doc with anshul.agrawal12@gmail.com.

Or

You can just email your resume to the above mentioned email and post here that you have emailed it to me. I will check that email only if I see a post here.

I hope this helps.

Anshul

Importance of Your Resume

When you think about the business school admission process, you mainly think about GMAT, essays and the admissions interview. Resume is often not given the top most priority. It is fair to say that the interview is the most important aspect of the admissions process, but your resume certainly comes next.

Schools want to see what you have done in the past. Have you progressed? or are you at the same job since graduation. Promotions matter a lot and add a lot to your profile. Many schools like UNC schedule interviews even before you submit your essays. They just ask for your resume and interview you. Other schools will give the interview-er your resume and a list of questions. So you can see that your resume is one of the most important pieces of the b-school application.

It is also important to choose the right resume format. Most top schools have a similar format, which really looks plain and simple. I personally dont like it that much, but thats what schools prefer and like to see. Just google mba resumes and you see many examples. Remember it should be very simple.

Make sure there are no spelling mistakes, the best way to do this is to have a friend who has not seen your resume before review it. I often missed small errors cuz I had looked at my resume way too many times.

I have been getting a lot of requests to review stuff, so in a day or two I will post another post with details on how to send me your stuff.

As always, questions and comments are welcome.

Anshul

Why you should spend a few extra hours analyzing the class profile

Class profile is something we all look at when deciding which school to apply to. When I was in that boat a year ago, I mainly looked at GMAT, average work experience and acceptance rate (if given). My thought process would be something like, well I have the GMAT they want, but my work experience is a little low, but they have a high acceptance rate. That's 2/3, plus they are a top 20 school, so here comes my application.

This thought process was not the best one. In fact it is not good at all. The reason for this is that it only takes into account half of the equation. The MBA consists of 2 parts, getting in (your admission) and getting out (your recruitment). I analyzed the first part and left the 2nd one untouched. And now, I am dealing with the consequences.

Here are the things u should look at - average age, professional background, placement locations (specific to state). Average age is important because if a school's average age is 29, and u are 25, u will have a hard time finding a job. Most employers will want more experience and all jobs posting will be aimed towards older people. So, you would be left behind because you dont have enough experience. Now if you were in school where the avg age was 25, all recruiters come there with a mindset to hire young people and all jobs will be aimed towards you. think abt it!

the same goes to professional background, if your school mainly has students who are business ppl, and u r an engineer, you wont find many jobs that match your profile. Whereas, if you were in a school that mainly had engineers, all jobs would fit your profile. Get my point?

Get started on your career choice early

We all write about our long term and short term goals in our admission essays. We work hard to convince admissions ppl in b-school interviews that this is exactly what we want and our entire life we have been working towards it. Finally, our hard work pays off and we get admitted into a good b school.

You would think that after putting in so much thought, one would be sure about his/her goals. It is amazing to see how many people are still not sure about what they want (including me) after getting in. I still remember that on our first day, the dean asked us, "How many people still want to do what they wrote in the essays?". Only a few hands were up.

There is nothing wrong with being undecided, but the sooner you know, the better it is. Here it why. Let us say you are confused between Finance and Consulting and you try to pursue both in the beginning. By doing so you will burn out very quickly, because the preparation for i banking and consulting is completely different. Your networking will be very different too. You will only have time to go for one career trek (a short trip to various companies where you meet alums), so you will have to choose. In the end, you will be left in the middle with average prep for both industries.

Now think about the other scenario, you know you want to be in marketing. You start preparing your resume and interview answers accordingly. You connect with the right companies and alums at those companies. So, by the time internship resume offs happen, you will be all set and ready with your story.

I switched my career choice from venture capitalism to private equity to consulting to marketing to the internet industry. Yea, it was BADDD!!!! I wish I had decided early on that I wanted to be in the internet industry, I would have a much better shot at my target companies.

Well, its too late for me, but you guys should get started on what you want to do right away.