IIMB EPGP : Statement of Purpose(Max 600 words)

A society's culture strongly influences how an individual approaches education and also determines how that society educates its citizens. This applies to the Indian middle class too, where education is considered most potent weapon to improve one’s living status. I too was brought up with the aim that I must study hard if I hope to earn a good livelihood once I grew up. The need of good education was reinforced when my family encountered a financial emergency, leading to a financial crunch and impacting our education. I had to take up a job immediately after finishing graduation, and give up my dream of earning a post-graduate. After more than a decade in the corporate world, I feel it is now the time to give wings to those dreams again and make them true.

Why MBA?

After having spent 11 years in the IT industry in various technical roles, I feel I am pigeon-holed in an overly technical role with limited exposure to the business side of things, and that is restricting my growth. Since I have worked in the IT industry all along, my exposure to other sectors is rather limited, and which I am keen to improve. Thus, before I get into a management role, it would be essential to go through a structured approach for learning right management skills and get a condensed yet wholesome look at different functions within the industry. This provides me the motivation to do an MBA at rather late stage in my career.

A management degree will not only augment my decade-long experience, but it will also provide me with tools to re-enter the industry with new perspectives which I may have been lacking earlier. It would enable me to gain cross-industry and cross-functional perspective from the diverse backgrounds of my peers.

Why IIMB EPGP?

IIMB has been a pioneer in in imparting world-class management education, creating global managers who are adept at handling the globally changing business scenarios. As for EPGP, elective courses such as product management and decision sciences are in line with my goals. Alumni connect programs like ‘Shikshu’ will give me opportunity of experiencing a day in a CEO’s office. The career development services and a rolling placement system are perfect for experienced individuals like me.

Post-MBA Goals?

Post MBA, I see myself working in either senior functional consultant role, a step up from my current role of techno-business analyst, or in business development role to help my employer acquire or retain large customers in best possible manner. In long term, I would like to head a business development division of an IT consulting firm focusing on ABC solutions in XYZ domain. I have been working on this domain for past 6 years, and would like to make use of this experience in bolstering my career.

What will I bring with me?

As a versatile IT professional, I have won several accolades for my performances in diverse roles and my leadership skills. What makes my profile different is unlike most IT professionals serving PPP customers, I have been working for ZZZ customers, and this has helped immensely in shaping up my competencies such as cross cultural communication and ownership of work. With significant international experience to my credit, adaptability in approach to work is another of my strength.

Other than these competencies, I will bring with me a keen enthusiasm to learn new things from other participants who may belong to different industries, different functions and different age groups.

I thank you for the opportunity provided to me and look forward to being a deserving ambassador for EPGP.

IIMC PGPEX : Statement of Purpose

This should include an objective and clear statement on why you want to join the PGPEX program? what qualities, experience and achievements do you have to justify your admission; what types of jobs and at what level do you expect after successful completion of PGPEX?

My 11 year stint in IT industry has enabled me to take on multiple challenges head-on, learn something new after each success and failure alike, and become a versatile IT professional. While these opportunities have taught me a lot from technical perspective, I feel stuck in an overly technical role with limited exposure to management aspects. I wish to gain a broader view of industry and market which can enable me to become a business partner for customers, not just a technology implementer. This is where an MBA fits in, enabling me to hone my management skills with new perspectives and ensuring that I am ready for next phase of my career.

IIMC has been a pioneer in creating managers adept at handling globally changing business scenarios. The PGPEX program has strong focus on analytical and problem-solving pedagogy, and includes participants with rich global experience and diverse domain knowledge in its cohort. PGPEX will help me transition for a senior management role in a better manner, by helping me leverage my versatility with a 360-degree business overview.

I have shown an early display of leadership throughout my career. I grabbed the opportunity to directly work at the customer premises in UK barely 8 months into my first job, and to mentor the 4-member offshore team after my return to India 4 months later. I led a 6-member team before completing 3 years of experience, and worked at customer premises in Australia for 7 months in the capacity of an Analyst, Designer, Developer and Tester, all combined, and impressed the customers with my multitasking skills.

In my current company, I have had 3 designations in just 4.5 years. I played a key role in scaling up the team size from initial 8 to a peak of 60+, by taking interviews, conducting trainings and helping management in restructuring the team. My various international trips to customer premises have enabled me to learn cross culture communication, which is a vital competency in any international business. My current position has given me proficiency in setting up and managing fairly big global teams.

Post MBA, I see myself in a leadership role of a multinational IT firm where I would offer business consulting combined with technical solutions to important players in forest industry. My 6 years of experience in handling various technical and functional challenges for customers from paper manufacturing domain would be valuable in achieving this goal.

In the long term, I see myself in a VP or director’s role, developing and implementing global strategic plans that include business development and technology modernization. I aim to provide thought leadership and industry knowledge by recommending apt solutions to pertinent business challenges. These goals require cross functional understanding of business, and I would combine my know-how from IT sector with PGPEX learnings to achieve them.

Overall, my organizational skills, leadership qualities and my desire to continue learning from the diverse peer group make me a right candidate for PGPEX.

IIMA PGPX Essay 2: Describe a situation where you failed and how did you deal with this experience. What did you learn from this? (500 words)

This situation deals with my failure to secure an MBA admit in X previous attempts and the lessons I learnt from it for the fifth one.

After graduating in 20XX, I had started studying for MBA entrance exams while handling my job responsibilities. I did not get the required scores to clear the cutoffs for the interviews. Undeterred, I tried harder in the next three years and studied meticulously for the exams in each of these years. However, I never got the full taste of success as my scores always fell short of desired cut-offs. As a little consolation, I was shortlisted for interviews of a few Tier-2 B-schools. However, my misery continued because I could not get a single admit letter from any B-school I had interviewed with.

So in 20XX, after X unsuccessful attempts, not only was I nowhere close to getting an MBA seat, but I had also not been able to focus well on my job which put my career in jeopardy as I constantly fared average during my performance appraisals. Fearing yet another disappointment, I could not muster up the courage to resume studies and did not appear for any entrance exams since, until this year.

Although I failed, I learnt a lot about what had gone wrong and how I could have dealt with it.

Dedication – I learnt that I was not devoted enough to the goal, as I was constantly worried about failure and often wondered if I should focus on my job than on studies. This fear of failure put a roadblock in my mind, which affected my preparations. As a learning, I decided to go for another attempt at MBA only after reaching a stable stage financially and career-wise. The result is that I have been able to focus on MBA preparation without over-worrying about career.

Planning – I realized I was not studying in a systematic manner, focusing more on my strengths and trusting on destiny for weaker topics. Also, I was not paying attention to practice tests for analyzing my weaknesses. This time though, I planned my studies well, took several mock tests to improve on the weaker sections, and also thoroughly analyzed my scores in the mock tests. The result was that in the GMAT exam, I not only scored well in the quantitative and verbal sections, but also obtained full marks in IR and AWA sections (8 and 6 respectively).

Lack of plan-B – I did not have a plan-B in case of not getting selected in my desired school. This left me in similar situation every year for X consecutive years and I had to start all over again every year. The learning is that I have applied to multiple schools along with IIMA. This has not only helped me to get a real interview practice, but also kept my dream of MBA alive even if I don’t make it to IIMA, since I already have an acceptance from another school.

IIMA PGPX Essay 1 : Describe a situation where your professional ethics were challenged and how you came to terms with the situation. What did you learn from this? (500 words)

This is an instance that tested my honesty and taught me several lessons.

I have been working as company's employee engagement partner for the past X years, conducting various XYZ events for the company.

In 20xx, the management decided to celebrate the XYZ in India. I led the team that took the responsibility of organizing various fun and technical events for the employees. I also oversaw purchase of various gift items to be awarded to employees as prizes. We purchased a few spare gifts, to cover for any last minute surprises or defective pieces.

After the event got over successfully, we were left with the spare gifts. At this time a few members of the team suggested that we distribute some of the remaining gifts among ourselves as a reward for our hard work. While I had no doubts on the efforts we had put, sneaking something that belonged to the company did not seem right to me. The management had shown complete trust on our team, so nobody would have got to know even if we had kept the gifts for ourselves. Yet, doing so would have been wrong because we were merely handlers of company property, not the owners. I politely but firmly refused to side with them. With a little prodding I was able to convince them that the appreciation from happy employees is the true reward than any physical gifts. They agreed with me, bringing me immense satisfaction of not having to break my values and giving me a reason to walk tall.

The learnings from this situation have been enlightening in more than one ways. Primarily, I learnt that in order to follow the right path, taking a leadership position is essential. People often know what the right thing is, but may not always be willing to lead. However, if a leader is showing the way, then they will happily stand with you.

Secondly, I learnt that merely taking a stand may not be enough. It is necessary that you convince the opposing party because what may look obvious to you may not be as easily visible to them. In this case, the dissenting members thought since we would not get any reward from the management anyway, this might be the only way to get some prize for their hard work. I convinced them that organizing good events can help us win the best team of the year award at the company's annual rewards ceremony.

Lastly, it is important that you do not burn all your bridges with the other party, as your paths may cross again in future. I had been working with this team for close to 2 years and wanted no bad blood between us, as we had a long list of events lined up to organize in coming days. I kept my composure while explaining to them leaving no animosity between us.

These lessons have helped me during many events that I organized later.

ISB Essay 2 : Describe your short and long term career plans. How does the PGP fit in with those? (300 words max)

During my 11 year stint in IT industry, I have taken on multiple challenges head-on and learned something new after each success and failure alike. While these opportunities have taught me a lot from technical perspective, I feel stuck in an overly technical role with limited exposure to management aspects. I wish to gain broader view of industry and market which can enable me to become business partner for customers, not just technology implementer. This is where an MBA fits in, enabling me to hone my management skills with new perspectives and ensuring that I am ready for next phase of my career.

Post MBA, I see myself in a leadership role of a multinational IT firm where I would offer business consulting combined with technical solutions to important players in ABC domain industry. I would use learnings from 6 years of handling technical and functional challenges for a ABC domain customer in this direction.

In the long term, I see myself in a VP or director’s role, developing global strategic plans and driving the implementation that includes business development and technology modernization. I intend to provide thought leadership and industry knowledge by analyzing the market dynamics and recommending solutions to pertinent business challenges. These goals require cross functional understanding of business, and I would like to combine my know-how from IT sector with ISB learnings.

PGP provides such tremendous diversity in its cohort that hundreds of mid-career professionals have transformed into global business leaders using this peer network, and this forms crux of how I intend to use PGP to achieve my goals. A diverse crowd from all spheres of life will ensure that I unlearn and learn at the same time. The various professional clubs and frequent alumni interactions will help me leverage my versatility with a 360-degree overview.

ISB Essay 1 : If we were to admit just one more candidate to the Postgraduate Programme (PGP) at the ISB, why should it be you? (400 words max)

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today. – H Jackson Brown Jr.

Spending more than a decade in the IT industry has made me a versatile IT professional and my achievement rewards speak volumes about it. I grabbed the opportunity to directly work at the customer premises in XYZ barely 8 months into my first job, and to mentor and organize the offshore team after my return to India 4 months later. I showed an early display of leadership when I led a 6-member project before completing 3 years of experience, and later worked at customer premises in ABC in the capacity of an Analyst, Designer, Developer and Tester, all combined. This way I not only saved costs for my company, but also impressed the customers with my multitasking skills. The project was customer’s first involvement with my company in the embedded systems domain, and my stint ensured that the company won another 0.2 million $ project from the same customer.

In my current company, I had 3 designations in just 4.5 years. I played a key role in scaling up the team size from an initial 8 to a peak size of 60+, by taking interviews, mentoring development team and helping management in re-structuring the team. I served as the development coordinator, handling the technical and general coordination work with my onsite counterparts and customers. Through my business trips to several countries I have learnt cross cultural communication, which is a vital competency in any international business. My current position has given me proficiency in setting up and managing fairly big global teams.

As an official employee engagement partner of my company, I have conducted external events such as campus connects, job fairs and recruitment drives, and internal events such as fitness challenge, technical paper contests, corporate quiz and software conclaves for 3000+ employees of the company. I led the celebrations for company’s XX event in India in 20xx, organizing various technical & fun events and managing finances of the program. This role has allowed me to frequently interact with the company leadership for several strategic initiatives and demonstrate my large scale organizational skills.

I believe I offer a unique value proposition to the class by offering my technical expertise, organizational skills and leadership qualities. My urge to learn from the diverse peer group to prepare myself for a better tomorrow makes me a right fit for ISB.

SP Jain PGPM Profile Sheet Question : Please mention any International Work Experience in your profile along with the details for the same.

                                                  (in not more than 300 words)

Fortunately I have received multiple opportunities to travel abroad for work and experience the work culture there from my own eyes.

The most recent international work experience for me was when I travelled to XYZ in 2015. I have travelled to XYZ a few times before(2010, 2011, 2013), but this visit was different because this time I went there for pure business understanding rather than technical assignments as was the case in earlier visits. This visit also gave me confidence to shift my role from technology to business analysis. My earlier visits were equally fruitful for the technical work that was expected of my role. In all these visits, which lasted a total of 5 to 6 months, I learnt some of the important qualities of XYZ colleagues, such as adhering to meeting times or following deadlines, taking ownership of one’s work without need of supervisor’s push, and most importantly high number of women in the workforce (almost 50%).

Prior to that, I travelled to ABC from my previous employer in 2009. In this assignment, being the only person representing my project, I performed the role of analyst, developer, tester, documenter and held important business discussions with customer. This assignment, lasting about 7-8 months, taught me to perform in all roles that an employee at my role can be asked to do. Here I learnt several important attributes of ABCian work culture, such as informal style of communication in the workplace yet high commitment to work, socializing between colleagues, and their multicultural ethos which make it easy for outsider to gel.

I have been using the learnings from my all international deputations into my daily work and plan to continue doing so.

SP Jain PGPM Profile Sheet Question : Give a detailed description of the roles, responsibilities and achievements at your current /last place of employment.

                                                 (in not more than 300 words)

I currently work at India office of XYZ, as ABC. XYZ is an IT products and services company based out of PQR, employing about 15,000 people. My responsibilities include Business Analysis, Functional Understanding, and Customer Interactions etc. I also additionally look after Design Discussions, Technical Definition, and Sanity Testing etc. I manage a team of 5-6 people and am responsible for assigning them work and delivery of their work to customer. I have undergone 3 designation changes in little less than 6 years that I have been with XYZ.

Talking about my achievements, I have been given the Company’s ‘Employee of the quarter’ award – twice, once for “Leadership, Commitment, and Dedication” and another one for “Generating Ideas for Increasing Revenue”, in 2011-12 and 2013-14 respectively. Only a handful of about 2000 employees have received the award twice, making it special for me. I was also one of the 2 member team representing my project in front of jury members for the contest ‘Best project of the Year’ in 2013-14, and instrumental in clinching the title eventually.

However, the biggest achievement in terms of personal satisfaction is being part of the LMN team that is chosen by management to represent the company at different external and internal forums. The LMNs are chosen after a rigorous screening that includes essay writing, group discussions, and recommendations from past and present supervisors. We have been arranging several promotional campaigns, college campus connects, job fairs, recruitment drives etc. Also I led the celebratory events for company’s xx year anniversary in India in 20yy, conducting several events, quizzes, and distributing souvenirs for employees. I have received several accolades from management, including the India Head and HR Head of the company.

SP Jain PGPM Profile Sheet Question : Explain a situation when you were a part of a team where the group process and/or intended outcome failed. What was your role, how did you contribute to the process or outcome, and what did you learn?

(Answer in not more than 200 words)

Ok, disclaimer. This is not the ideal answer that I would have liked myself to write. But this was my first application :), so do take it with pinch of salt.

While working in the role of an acting project manager for an ongoing project, there was a partial failure in software delivered to customer.

The original project manager was away due to a personal emergency and I had to step in until he was back. Despite not being involved from beginning, I worked hard with the team to complete unfinished work. The test cases were prepared when project was in design phase, and relevant ones updated during implementation when there were minor requirement changes. Somehow this was not done for a couple of test cases, and we failed to realize this. Hence despite our belief that we have done foolproof testing, the application failed when customer tested it, and was not pleased with our efforts.

Though this delivery was partial one, customer was hoping highly from it and this failure caused a few escalations in my senior management, prompting me to explain the situation to them and promise the customer of no more failures. 

The experience taught me importance of being thorough with complete scope of the requirements, and not always relying on others to do so. This failure also ensured we did not repeat our mistakes in future deliveries.

SP Jain PGPM Profile Sheet Question : How have your professional experience shaped your current competencies?

Since I work in a multicultural corporate environment, the needs of such work culture have shaped my current competencies, a few of them being cross cultural communication, ownership of work, and adaptability.

My current work involves regular interactions with customers, management and my own teammates which involves extensive cross cultural communication. Since my customers and management belong to Nordic region, their comfort level with English language is not necessarily at par with Indians. Hence it becomes extremely important to talk in slow yet steady, and short yet meaningful statements. For written communication, concise statements are preferred to verbose elaborate details. It has taken me significant efforts to become good at how the receiver will perceive a communication, and I was given an initial responsibility of overseeing the communication of new/junior members of the team with customers.

Another aspect of such work culture which helped me was a sense of ownership. In Nordic cultures, when a person is handed over a task, it is expected that he/she will perform that task independently without a needless follow-up from supervisor. Manager is accountable for the task but he may not be necessarily responsible for employee’s work. I tried to learnt this quality and have been using in my daily work, so often tasks assigned to me or my team are done independently or within the team but managers do not directly control the way of work. This gives me sense of freedom and surely gives the supervisors time to focus on other important tasks. Self-ownership goes a long way in organizing yourself without need of a push.

An additional skill I learnt in my previous organization and which continues to guide me even today, is adaptability. The organization was known for quick and cost-effective solutions to customer. This meant that the dates promised to customer for delivery had to be adhered to, even if it meant stretching beyond regular working hours. Moreover, at times same person had to perform multiple roles, such as development, documentation, testing etc. Hence it was very important to be flexible in my approach to work, making me an adaptable person so that project does not suffer. Today when I promise my customer of something, I ensure that timelines are maintained and the team is able to adapt itself to each other’s needs.