Sneha Gupta
Tell us about how you went about choosing Schools
GMAT: 720
Education:
-
BE
(Manufacturing), COE Chennai, GPA 9.2/10,
-
Master's
in Manufacturing Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4.7/5)
Work Experience: 6 years (3 years with KPMG, 3 years with Fincare Small
Finance Bank, a start-up)
Post MBA Industry of Interest: Impact
space, especially products to spur growth of women micro entrepreneurs
Interview Calls: Berkeley Haas, INSEAD
Admit: INSEAD
When and why did you first consider
getting a global MBA?
I
first felt I need an MBA while at my first job at KPMG Advisory and a global
one from a top school since I had experienced pedagogy in the US and loved the
exposure/challenges.
However,
when I initially thought of doing an MBA, I saw it more as a
"necessary" tool to maximize growth since I had taken up a career in
consulting/business and that's the "path" most engineers in
consulting followed.
Most
of my leadership discovery actually happened at the start-up. Here's where
leadership, management and implementation challenges got real for me. Despite
the pressures, I thoroughly enjoyed the sense of ownership in setting up
business/functions from scratch and making them successful. It was
helpful that I had a really close friend (who herself had been at a start-up
before going to HBS for her MBA) who I discussed my experiences/challenges
with. She in turn helped me understand how her MBA helped her gain perspective
on some of these challenges. This helped me understand the MBA and reflect
on my purpose for an MBA a lot better.
GMAT Prep, Reaction/thoughts after score
I
was right in the middle of our bank's launch when I was preparing for the GMAT.
I decided to get some weekend classes in Bangalore but really it all boils down
to the amount of practice you can do. I did the official guides and official
prep mocks (it's difficult to put a time frame since it was on and off prep
over 2-3 months). I was not initially happy with the score since I was scoring
higher in the mocks. But I decided to go with it since I was hard pressed for
time, especially with the intensity of work at our start-up bank.
PS:
I found Sentence Correction really tricky during the actual exam
Your experience of the MBA application
process. - Did anything surprise you?
Broadly,
two things surprised me during the application process-
1.
I
definitely underestimated the time. The MBA process is a lot about self
awareness and reflection. MBA questions not only challenge you on your
motivation but also challenge you to explain yourself within really stringent
word limits. I believe it takes a lot of clarity on your internal motivation
and goals to express yourself within the space allowed. This process of gaining
clarity was gradual and I felt I was getting sharper on my story after every
application I submitted (4 in total).
2.
Another
thing that surprised me was how difficult it was to answer the "Why
MBA?" question. I found this especially challenging since my post MBA goal
is to continue to build and run products (as I do at my company currently)
except at a larger scale/greater impact where I'm leading a company's growth
journey.
Tell us about how you went about choosing Schools
Since
I enjoyed setting up our bank's first digital product business, I realized I
wanted to explore entrepreneurship. I'm excited about creating access to
opportunity- I joined the start-up bank because of its vision to improve
financial inclusion using technology and I was lucky to work on a digital
product that made opening a bank account completely online, independent of
geography or time.
I
used the dual lens of impact (social impact) and entrepreneurship and applied
to schools that scored high on both. I also decided that I would apply to the
top most programmes only otherwise it did not make much sense.
Interview
experience and thoughts
I
made the cut for 2 interviews, Berkeley/Haas and Insead
1. Haas
interview experience:
This was my first interview and I had just under a week to prepare. I remember
feeling stressed since I realized how having a discussion would be so different
from writing thoughts down. I did one mock which helped a lot. The interview
was on skype and though it was formal, the interviewer (a recent Haas graduate)
made me feel comfortable. I was conscious that I had to be crisp on my answers
(not go more than 2 mins on any question). While many questions were standard,
why Haas, why MBA, Challenging situation etc. a few were unique and I’d advice
you to study what makes you unique and how you’ve dealt with challenging
situations.
2. Insead
interview experience:
This was really different from Haas in that you do not really know what to
expect. All I gathered was that it's very important to know the answer to
"Why INSEAD?" very well. INSEAD (just like Haas) cares a lot about
cultural fit and diversity.
You
have to schedule interviews with 2 alums.
The
interviews are fairly conversational. The alums also share what courses they
liked and how they managed during their time at INSEAD during the chat.
My
first interviewer dug quite deep on my product and bank's business model (I
answered but I did not expect a deep dive into the business :)) and what I do
to reach out to customers, how do I reach different segments, etc. Other
questions she asked- Why INSEAD? Why MBA and not just start-up (since I said
want to set myself up for an entrepreneurial journey ultimately)?
My
second interviewer was passionate about responsible business and he
straight-away jumped into Why INSEAD? Why MBA? If not MBA, then what? - All my
answers were aligned with my purpose and he liked the "purpose based
approach". After this, we had a fairly relaxed conversation on his
journey.
Summary
for preparation-
1.
Be clear on your story- I took a milestone based approach- key career
shifts/moments and prepared myself on explaining the shifts well
2.
Think of some key examples - tough person/leader to work with and how did you
cope? Challenge and how did you cope? - Think of just few examples to use in a
variety of contexts and focus on presenting in a structured way- "The
problem, what you did?, result".
Insead
experience and what all you did
While
INSEAD was an intense application process, I really enjoyed the process since a
lot of questions focus on "who you are as a person- strengths and
weaknesses", "biggest failure and proudest achievement and how these
impacted my relationships with people around me"- I felt these questions
were very direct. Since I was 3 applications old by then, I had good clarity
which held me in good stead in writing the essays.
Some
of the additional things I did for this application-
1.
Recommendations are important to INSEAD and just like the essay the questions
are direct - Do you see her as a future leader? Why?; Describe your
relationship with the candidate and how she added value to you?, etc.- this is
the general drift. I reconnected with my recommenders and worked with them on
some of these questions to ensure the reco is crisp and sharp.
2.
What will be your next steps if you continue to work at your current company-
This is a question INSEAD asks to perhaps gauge your vision as a leader. Tied
all activities I plan to a vision I hold for digital banking.
3.
Wrote an extra essay explaining my motivation for starting up. Tied this to the
research of a professor at INSEAD whose work I really found interesting (she
actually works on addressing root causes that hold vulnerable groups back and I
found a research paper where she did such a study on women micro/rural
entrepreneurs in India- the segment I'm passionate to create opportunities
for)
Any advice for future applicants
regarding the application process?
I
guess I have given most of the insights above :)
But
broadly-
1.
Enjoy the process. The journey is challenging but also therapeutic- process
leads to a lot of self awareness which is really good to have, irrespective of
the result of applying. Focus on asking yourself "Why?" for every
line/motivation you jot down.
2.
Personalize but customize to schools as much as possible - research/network
(whatever works for you to get a flavour)
3.
Why MBA and Why the school are important questions- harder than they seem at
the outset. So be hard on these questions to make sure there is utmost
clarity.
4.
Get help of a mentor/guide who truly believes in you. Sumeet’s mentorship in my
process was a key reason for my success.
For more tips on this or other topics
or to get regular updates on new articles, write to me:
sumeet [underscore] verlekar [at the
rate] berkeley [dot] edu
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