Mr. Smart Operations

Hi, this is Deepak Punwani from MBA Exchange. Your odds are around the average for HBS admit rate and that in itself is an encouraging sign. As my peers have mentioned, your GMAT is spectacular and so is the scholarship award. In a “normal” year my advice would have been the conventional advice to seek more leadership experience and apply two years down the line. But these are anything but normal times. Our prediction is that operational roles will make a comeback in post COVID19 world and anyone who is making supply chains more efficient, will be worth more during recruitment season. This fact wont be lost on the adcom. If you can highlight your leadership in making the factory operations more “smart” and show that you have a worldview on how manufacturing can contribute meaningfully in years to come, you may be a “wild-card” entrant in the Harvard admissions process. Would advice you to strengthen your leadership outside work as your extra curricular activities are fairly plain vanilla at the moment. So if you can execute well on these details you could do what Goran Ivanišević achieved at Wimbledon – win the tittle as a wild card entrant in the draw. Good luck !

Hi Mr. Smart Operations, this is Julie-Anne Heafey. I think you bring a lot of impressive things to the table here, and I’m sure the community odds are rating you super-high because of your perfect GPA and sky high GMAT. While you certainly can and should be proud of those things, HBS is looking for more than just excellent stats but impact, leadership and perspective. At 24 and only 2 years of work experience, you’re at a disadvantage on that front in the application pool, especially recognizing that the average work experience is around 5ish years. While time served is less important than what you do, it’s VERY tough for consultants to show that outsize impact early. It sounds like you’re making a strong contribution, not in a leadership/influence position quite yet, but more in a (well-executed) supportive/analytical role. To improve your chances at Harvard and some of these other names, I’d highly recommend gaining some more experience and looking for ways to build leadership both inside and out of work. Best of luck!

Hello Mr. Smart Operations, it’s Lisa Cummings of Stratus Admissions. Wow, those are impressive stats, that’s a great place to start. However, I agree with my peer that your short working tenure will make it really hard for you to stand out in Harvard’s pool- or at any top school. When I was on the Sloan adcomm we would occasionally see candidates with 2 years of work experience but they would have to completely knock our socks off to get an offer of admission. With more experience and evidence of solid impact you could be a star. Not sure what consulting firm you are with, so I don’t know if there is an opportunity for you to stay there or if at 2 years you are expected to move on. It seems like there is a degree of operations work in your current role. Given your goal to continue in operations consulting might you be able to move into more of those types of projects for another few years? This would give that time to develop and highlight your leadership skills, both formal and informal as well as gain more traction professionally so you can start to show real impact. These are things that, coupled with your GMAT and GPA, will help you stand out. Also, you may want to round out your extracurriculars. I applaud your commitment to the Grad School Preparedness work but one could argue that you also benefit from that as you are applying to grad school yourself. Are there other things you do to help other segments of the community? investing a little more time now will allow you to work on areas of your candidacy that may not be as strong right now so when you do apply you have a very robust application. Best of luck!