About | Privacy Policy | Advertising| Editorial | Contact Us
Follow Us
Subscribe | Login
Working as a policy and business journalist for the last 6.5 years, and have written on sectors such as civil aviation, start-ups, technology, e-commerce, and telecoms. Responsibilities include identifying, analysing and reporting on a variety of trends across these sectors, including market, corporate and financial trends.
Target School: HEC Paris
Considering: Cornell Johnson
See More Profiles For: HEC Paris
Application Status: Open
Undergrad School: Symbiosis International University
Undergrad Major: Journalism
GPA: 2.8
GMAT: 690
Age: 28, Ethnicity: Asian or Indian
Extracurriculars:
Title: Principal Correspondent
Industry: Media
Company: Top Firm
Length of Employment: 3 yrs, 11 mos
In the short-term though, to pivot to the corporate side that allows me to make the best of my current skillset, I plan an immediate post-MBA career in strategy consulting. Specifically, I would be looking to join aviation practices of one of the top consulting firms.
Join in! Click here to assess the odds of Mr. Indian Journalist
Of course I like you. You’re a journalist, just like me! Your experience as a policy and business journalist nearly seven years covering such important topics as civil aviation, start-ups, technology, e-commerce, and telecoms would make you a valued member of the class, able to provide smart perspectives on a number of key issues. Also, as a male Indian, your journalism experience takes you out of the very high pile of male engineers from India. That is super important. Your GMAT score of 690 is right on target for the school’s latest class average. Still, HEC Paris’ acceptance rate is low: Just 19%, making it more selective than INSEAD, London Business School or IESE Business School. But I think your experience should overcome the odds. …
Of course I like you. You’re a journalist, just like me! Your experience as a policy and business journalist nearly seven years covering such important topics as civil aviation, start-ups, technology, e-commerce, and telecoms would make you a valued member of the class, able to provide smart perspectives on a number of key issues. Also, as a male Indian, your journalism experience takes you out of the very high pile of male engineers from India. That is super important. Your GMAT score of 690 is right on target for the school’s latest class average. Still, HEC Paris’ acceptance rate is low: Just 19%, making it more selective than INSEAD, London Business School or IESE Business School. But I think your experience should overcome the odds. What could tank you? Your attitude. Just because you wrote about important things doesn’t make you smarter or more knowledgeable than any other HEC Paris candidate. If invited to interview, go there with an open, curious mind and not a trace of arrogance which will get you immediately rejected.
Hi, this is Deepak Punwani from MBA Exchange team. Your journalism background is definitely interesting for the schools and will make you stand out among the pool of Indian applicants. Your work will ensure you would also be credited with having an evolved perspective on the India corporate (growth) story and that makes your “voice” more valuable for your fellow class members. The adcom will be cognisant of this. As long as you can tie your prior experience with your goal to move into consulting – specially aviation sector, I see your past experience as an asset. On the education side, you should reassure the adcom that you have a quantitative bent of mind and have some intuitive sense of numbers. This is especially true …
Hi, this is Deepak Punwani from MBA Exchange team. Your journalism background is definitely interesting for the schools and will make you stand out among the pool of Indian applicants. Your work will ensure you would also be credited with having an evolved perspective on the India corporate (growth) story and that makes your “voice” more valuable for your fellow class members. The adcom will be cognisant of this. As long as you can tie your prior experience with your goal to move into consulting – specially aviation sector, I see your past experience as an asset. On the education side, you should reassure the adcom that you have a quantitative bent of mind and have some intuitive sense of numbers. This is especially true if you have a sub 75 percentile quant score on GMAT. All in all, both schools on your list will value your profile and now its a matter of execution. That said am a bit curious with respect to your choice of schools – HEC and Cornell don’t seem like “soul sister” kind of school combination but am sure you have your reasons for picking those two specifically. Good luck. May you draft a good story for this next phase of your life !
Hello, Jen Kedrowski from mbaMission here. Coming from a journalism background can be a plus in that you are likely skilled at carefully analyzing and researching situations and considering issues from many perspectives. You would also be a less represented industry background in the classroom, and schools like HEC do want a diversified class group in terms of background and experience, not just nationality. The challenges are that since an MBA can be less common for journalists, there is more pressure on you to make a strong case for the ‘why’—show exactly why you want to go into strategy consulting and that you know what that career path is like and why it will be a good fit for you, and then that …
Hello, Jen Kedrowski from mbaMission here. Coming from a journalism background can be a plus in that you are likely skilled at carefully analyzing and researching situations and considering issues from many perspectives. You would also be a less represented industry background in the classroom, and schools like HEC do want a diversified class group in terms of background and experience, not just nationality. The challenges are that since an MBA can be less common for journalists, there is more pressure on you to make a strong case for the ‘why’—show exactly why you want to go into strategy consulting and that you know what that career path is like and why it will be a good fit for you, and then that you know why an MBA, particularly from HEC, is needed to get you there and what you will get out of it. Beyond that- your GMAT is right at HEC’s average of 690, though Indian male applicants on average DO score higher so that combined with what appears to be a low GPA (though assuming you translated it to US terms here? Schools will look at it within context of your home country and education system fyi), doesn’t do you any favors. I would definitely be curious as to your quant score as that would be a question admissions readers would wonder about right off the bat—can he handle the quant?? That subscore could be important here. Last but not least—HEC does value international experience.. you may indeed have that as a journalist but that’s not info I have on hand here, so do keep that in mind as well. Feel free to get in touch if you’d like to discuss further at any point and good luck on the process!
Hi, it’s Jennifer Jackson from Stratus Admissions. As a journalism major myself, I love your experience! You’re coming from an untraditional industry, which will serve you very well at HEC Paris. Coming from journalism and PR, I had such a different perspective that you will also be able to add to the myriad skillsets of your classmates. I’m intrigued by your interest in the aviation industry, which likely has come out of your reporting on that sector. Be sure to connect those dots when you tell your story, as that WHY will be important so ad-com doesn’t wonder where on earth that came from. If you want to go into strategy consulting, you may want to shoot for firms outside of MBB with your lower …
Hi, it’s Jennifer Jackson from Stratus Admissions. As a journalism major myself, I love your experience! You’re coming from an untraditional industry, which will serve you very well at HEC Paris. Coming from journalism and PR, I had such a different perspective that you will also be able to add to the myriad skillsets of your classmates. I’m intrigued by your interest in the aviation industry, which likely has come out of your reporting on that sector. Be sure to connect those dots when you tell your story, as that WHY will be important so ad-com doesn’t wonder where on earth that came from. If you want to go into strategy consulting, you may want to shoot for firms outside of MBB with your lower GPA and GMAT. I’m not seeing any extracurriculars, but if you do have anything outside of work to share, especially related to your interests, that will bolster your story. I think your interesting work experience will help compensate for the lower stats and give you a good shot at HEC!
Submit My MBA Profile
Our Partner Sites: Poets&Quants for Execs | Poets&Quants for Undergrads | Tipping the Scales | We See Genius