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After realising that short-term programs can not ship the identical bang for his or her buck, an growing variety of chartered accountants like Srinivas Venkataraman are discovering and appreciating the advantages of an MBA after CA.
We’ve helped many CAs get into MBA packages overseas and in India. You’ll discover a few of their success tales on the finish of this text.
As soon as the choice to pursue a enterprise administration diploma has been made, the following large query to sort out is that this.
Which is a greater possibility after CA – MBA from IIM or ISB or overseas?
The reply to that depends upon the place you’re in your profession and your long-term objectives.
Srini, a CA and tax advisor, began his profession with a Huge 4 accounting agency and began planning for an MBA after 8 years of labor expertise.
He was lucky to get admits from 4 high enterprise colleges in India and overseas – together with 2 IIMs (IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore), ISB and ESADE (Spain).
He explains how he acquired into such an enviable place and the way he made his closing selection.
MBA after CA from IIM vs ISB vs overseas
by Srinivas Venkataraman
I’m a Tam-Bram man, married to a Bengali lady, love cricket and worship Rahul Dravid. I’m additionally a die-hard Rajinikanth devotee.
My father’s transferrable job meant that we journey throughout the nation from Tamil Nadu, to Kerala, to Gujarat and at last to Mumbai. I’ve travelled a lot that I had studied in additional than 6 colleges by the point I accomplished my tenth Class.
I’m a Chartered Accountant by career, a pure profession selection for a commerce background pupil. I began my profession in Taxation with Ernst & Younger (EY) as an Oblique Tax Guide.
I then moved to a boutique Skilled Accounting Agency the place I headed the Tax vertical. I lately shifted to Godrej Properties Restricted, an business position, the place I headed all the tax operate for one of many geographical zones of the corporate.
Through the years I’ve helped shoppers optimize their taxes, handle their regulatory compliances, transition into a brand new tax regime and helped them with tax litigation issues.
I had a euphoric second after I represented my consumer within the Tax Tribunal and gained the litigation price INR 8 crores.
The ever-changing tax legal guidelines, demonetization, shift to a brand new regime of taxation underneath GST, meant I needed to be on my toes updating myself with the most recent developments.
The monetary consulting position offered me nice publicity in consumer supply since I had shoppers throughout business spectrum – starting from Pharma to Hospitality to Infrastructure and to Actual Property entities.
After getting over 8 years of labor expertise on this area, I felt the necessity to broaden my skill-set additional to tackle different facets of enterprise consulting past finance and taxation. I initially explored choices in my very own career with area of interest certifications.
Nevertheless, I rapidly realized that I wanted to pursue one thing concrete and significant to realize my aim. After thorough analysis, an MBA diploma from a famend institute appeared probably the most appropriate path to tread.
I lastly determined in March 2021, to pursue an MBA diploma. Little did I do know that this was going to be a year-long pursuit earlier than I get into the goal b-school.
And so, the sport started!
GMAT Preparation
Fast Tip – One advantage of the GMAT is that the scores are legitimate for five years. Therefore, I might suggest potential candidates to get performed with it a lot earlier, so you may work on different facets of the applying. Plus, GMAT is all about technique than lengthy hours of prep.
I had grown 8 years from my final educational pursuit. I needed to undergo GMAT, step one.
I enrolled for an internet studying module and commenced my GMAT prep. I spotted I had misplaced contact with my learning self, at the least with respect to aggressive exams.
I spent 3 months making ready, together with my work and appeared for the take a look at.
The Gods weren’t with me, I suppose.
The net take a look at was stuffed with technical glitches. I ended up writing the take a look at for nearly 5 hours and scored 670. Not an important rating, if I needed to crack the highest b-schools.
I assumed that the technical glitches had been the rationale for my low rating, so I re-appeared for the examination within the subsequent out there slot. Growth 640! – one other bummer.
I then realized it was my technique that was mistaken all the way in which. I corrected my strategy by means of a distinct on-line prep course and this time I used to be feeling assured of breaking the 700 barrier.
I lastly scored 720.
Generally late realizations value you 3 makes an attempt at GMAT and the financial institution stability was lighter by INR 60,000.
And I believed, now that I’ve a superb GMAT rating, it’s a cakewalk from right here on. That’s after I was in for a shock.
The applying course of is a journey by itself and that GMAT was the best half.
The most important choice an applicant must take is to decide on the suitable enterprise College that’s aligned together with his / her objectives and assets.
I can’t place extra emphasis on the analysis one must do concerning the potential enterprise colleges. The idea of ‘FIT’ for a enterprise faculty may be very actual.
The parameters for ‘FIT’ may vary from charges of the course to the placement of the B College, to the scale of the cohort, to the climate circumstances, to the common GMAT rating, to the publish MBA profession prospects or to the convenience of travelling together with your companion.
Based mostly on the above, one can shortlist an inexpensive record of b-schools and categorize them primarily based on achievability. I suppose that is the place the nice admission consultants will be of nice assist.
Admission Consultants
I had my very own private causes to consider that hiring an admission advisor is greatest for my case as this was my final shot at doing an MBA.
And I didn’t need to depart it to likelihood or steerage from associates and alumnus alone for the extraordinarily essential MBA essays.
Nevertheless, over the MBA utility course of I spotted, hiring an Admission Guide may very well be the perfect choice one can take for b-school purposes.
The admission consultants are a bunch of pros who’ve been there and performed that to begin with.
Nevertheless, what separates them from the common alumni of the b-schools and family and friends, is that the MBA consultants have the related data, useful resource, and expertise in bringing the varied views concerning the b-school and the essays. Additionally, they’re actively up to date about the entire course of.
You’ll notice that such attributes show you how to immensely as you journey the journey of MBA essays, brainstorming classes, and essays edits. That is one thing your family and friends might not be capable to do.
As soon as the choice of hiring an utility advisor is made, the following step is to pick the suitable MBA admissions consulting group.
Fast tip – All the time suggest a group that may personalize or customise the entire course of for you, and never a one which has a set template to comply with. You want somebody to experience together with you within the course of and never somebody who does stuff in your behalf.
I knew Sameer Kamat, founding father of MBA Crystal Ball, from my consulting days (I’m not positive if he even remembers 😉). I spoke to him as soon as concerning the prospects of MBA diploma and located the dialogue and his sincere insights very useful.
Nevertheless, as a prudent Indian man, I nonetheless did my impartial analysis on the perfect admission consultants out there. I discovered that amongst varied consultants, MCB had a small group and catered to a really restricted set of candidates.
This was their power as they may focus extra on the applicant and enhance the percentages. I had made up my thoughts to go together with MCB.
A smaller group meant that MCB may refuse your request for companies in the event that they discover that they aren’t suited to your necessities or vice versa.
I used to be already nervous about getting a rejection from MBA Crystal Ball.
I dropped a mail to their group, and I acquired a response from a man named Manish Gupta, the Chief Consulting Officer of MCB.
Linkedin is a gorgeous place to stalk individuals and I fulfilled the honors of stalking MG, an ISB Grad, Ex-McKinsey, IITian.
I had much more causes to really feel I might get rejected from MCB, depart alone the b-school. I used to be mistaken. MG wouldn’t do this to you.
I suppose the entire journey of admission consultancy was higher due to the beginning MG gave. I had mail conversations (that’s the one means you may attain him) of over 40 mail trails.
He would fortunately perceive intimately about my objectives, my goal colleges, GMAT prep and promptly reply to each question you publish regardless of the mental quotient of the question. He was straight-forward and brutally sincere in his responses.
Please don’t anticipate sugar-coated solutions, you’ll be in for an enormous disappointment. Fortunately for me, they agreed to assist me within the course of.
I enrolled for the 4 College Program as I had goal Colleges unfold throughout UK, Europe and India for the 1 yr MBA Applications.
I used to be related to Vibhav Agarwal and thus started the icing on the cake within the MBA journey.
Within the first customary telephone name, I hear an impressive voice on the different finish. The primary dialog was all about attending to know me as an individual and my objectives and causes for MBA.
The dialog was breezy and he made positive I calmed down and I perceive the entire means of the MBA utility course of.
MBA Software Course of
As soon as we determined the goal Colleges to work with, the essay drafting begun. The perfect half about working with MCB was that they allow you to pen down the essay.
They won’t share you a readymade essay template, as they consider each candidate is totally different.
When you share the primary draft of your response to the essay questions, be ready to obtain brutally sincere suggestions on the essay.
Vibhav made positive that I perceive the angle behind each essay query and the expectation of the enterprise faculty.
My preliminary drafts had been fully distorted and had no construction. Vibhav would guarantee we ponder upon the responses, dig additional deep into the solutions after which deliver a complete new perspective.
He additionally insisted that I join with the alumnus of the goal b-schools to get their insights. In hindsight, I consider that was among the best facets concerning the course of.
The insights you may get from the latest alumni are very a lot helpful for 2 causes –
- It helps in your essays;
- It helps in attending to know the tradition of the b-school to gauge whether or not you match into the varsity.
The ultimate essays had been poles aside from the preliminary drafts I shared.
The preliminary b-schools we utilized to didn’t see by means of and we had ESADE and ISB as the 2 remaining Colleges to work on. I and Vibhav ensured that we put extra efforts to the remaining colleges.
He left no stone unturned in getting the perfect essays for ESADE and ISB. I nonetheless bear in mind telling Vibhav a couple of success story of a candidate he labored with and hoped I might get to be one too.
Fortuitously, I used to be assured that I used to be in a greater place on this journey.
The trouble resulted in shortlist for interviews from ESADE and ISB.
I leveraged the essay expertise on these 4 b-schools whereas making use of to IIM-A, IIM-B and IESE. I acquired shortlist from all of the B Colleges.
MBA Interview preparation
I had additionally signed up for the MBA Interview Prep service as I had acquired interview invitations from Eurpean and Indian enterprise colleges faculty. I used to be related with Maitabi Banerjee from the MCB group.
We had a mock interview, the place Vibhav and Maitabi had nice insights to share about my responses, voice modulation, and strategy to interview questions.
The entire expertise of interview prep was a revelation and the suggestions had been completely spot on. It was an enricing expertise to say the least, as I used to be properly ready for the precise interviews.
I had interviews with IIM-A, IIM-B, ISB, ESADE and IESE. The interview with European enterprise colleges had been extra conversational and pleasant as in comparison with the Indian b-school interviews, which had been extra grueling.
The interviews lasted for nearly 45 minutes. The questions hovered round the usual interview questions relating to my motivation to pursue MBA and my management expertise.
I used to be watlisted at IIM-A and IIM-B, which ultimately transformed to an admit and I additionally acquired profitable admission to ESADE and ISB.
MBA after CA from IIM vs ISB vs overseas: Which is best
After evaluating the 4 MBA packages (IIMA vs IIMB vs ISB vs ESADE), I lastly selected ISB. Listed below are the explanations.
ISB is the perfect enterprise faculty in India. The fame, and legacy of the b-College is actually world class and the curriculum was clearly aligned with my profession objectives.
ISB is actually a global faculty because it has famend school from the highest b-schools on the planet. Additional, the curriculum is targeted on the consulting sector, instantly aligned to my objectives.
Above all, the current geo-political uncertainties and restrictions on journey and visa for companions meant that ISB was the perfect enterprise faculty selection for me. I hope the expertise can be actually transformational.
After all, your selection might differ primarily based in your preferences and the ‘FIT’ issue that I discussed earlier.
Closing ideas
My journey began in March 2021 and I acquired the admit letter from ISB in February 2022. I tried GMAT thrice to realize my goal rating.
I had a number of the greatest individuals to work together and work with in MCB and in addition acquired an opportunity to work together with alumnus from varied B Colleges. The entire journey was a curler coaster experience alongside my urgent work schedule.
As I sit as we speak anticipating my First day at ISB, I’m grateful to the MBA Crystal Ball consulting group and excited for the issues in retailer for me going forward.
Regards,
Srinivas Venkataraman
Additionally learn:
– MBA in Germany after 30 for Chartered Accountant
– Do MBA packages contemplate Chartered Accountant (CA) articleship as work expertise?
– Regardless of a 580 GMAT, this CA acquired scholarship and a number of MBA admits
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