The music industry is highly lucrative and insanely competitive. It takes more than musical talent to be successful. Many who are unfamiliar with the industry, underestimate the complexity of launching and successfully running a band. It comes with all the challenges of managing a regular business.
Berklee trained Achyuth Jaigopal started ‘When Chai Met Toast’ along with his friends. The venture gained international popularity, thanks to their unique sound, soulful lyrics and talented band-members.
His decision to take a sabbatical and get an MBA after a music career was not easy. And neither was his MBA application journey.
The big question – how does someone with zero corporate experience compete with other conventional applicants?
But his approach earned him admits from two highly-respected business schools in Europe – INSEAD and Cambridge. Both offered him significant scholarships, making the decision tougher.
How I got into Cambridge and INSEAD with scholarship
Top MBA after music career
by Achyuth Jaigopal
I was born in the coastal city of Kochi in Kerala. My parents are architects who founded their own practice championing sustainable architecture when such concepts were unheard of in the country.
Some of my earliest memories are accompanying them to distant project sites, sharing meals with blue-collar workforce, and understanding the tenets of teamwork.
My grandfather was a priest turned entrepreneur, and is credited with introducing chapati to Kerala during World War 1.
Having such an upbringing, being a contrarian was probably in my genes, and this laid the foundations for some unconventional decisions I took.
The first of these decisions was at 16, when I decided to pursue my 11th and 12th grades at the Green School in Bali, Indonesia. When I stepped foot in the school on a vacation in 2012, I was bowled over! Open classrooms built entirely out of bamboo. Completely green surroundings. A vortex generating hydroelectric power.
I sent in my essays outlining my motivation to join the school and secured an admit. The 2 years in Bali were life-changing for me. There, I met my most influential mentor and established my first band with members from 6 different countries.
For an Enterprise class, I organized, marketed, and performed concerts to raise funds for nonprofits.
I was also very much involved in extracurriculars, leading the school’s music ensembles and taking part in sports tournaments.
My academic and extracurricular accomplishments along with my sustainability initiatives won me a full-ride scholarship for my senior year.
How I got into music
My music career happened by chance. I was quite proficient in guitar from a young age and had taken lessons from when I was 8 years old.
However, pursuing music as a profession was always a distant dream.
After graduating from the Green School, I got admits at both the Southern California Institute of Architecture and the Berklee College of Music.
Uncertain at the time regarding which field interested me more, I took a gap year.
That year, I came across an audition for the Raghu Dixit Project, one of the biggest folk music groups in the country. I cleared the audition and was presented with an opportunity of a lifetime at 18.
I deferred college and began touring with the band as the lead guitarist, performing at some of the most prestigious venues including the Sydney Opera House and Glastonbury Festival.
Undergrad experience
Berklee offers an online Bachelor of Professional Studies degree. I chose a major called Interdisciplinary Music Studies, which allows students to customize and pick courses on topics like music business, performance and production.
As part of the degree, I also did a summer study abroad at Berklee Valencia, which was a great campus experience in a beautiful city.
My first startup
Fortunately or unfortunately, I have never worked a regular 9-5 in my life.
In 2015, I collaborated with a few good friends to write original songs for a TV show.
We gave ourselves the name ‘When Chai Met Toast (WCMT)’.
Our unique sound turned a few heads. One of our tracks ‘Beautiful World’ became quite popular on release and we were suddenly generating a buzz in the music circles.
I stepped down from the Raghu Dixit Project in 2016 to pursue my UG education and devote more time to this new venture.
The decision to pursue the degree online was to have flexibility in schedule to give WCMT a chance to grow and also leverage the momentum I had gathered as a performer.
Until 2020, my role in WCMT was limited to the creative aspects. From late 2020, I took on a business role as well, co-managing the band.
We have grown our listenership to over a million people worldwide, and have done multiple international tours across North America, the UK, Europe, Australia and Asia.
Which brings me to the question, why MBA? My initial motivation to pursue an MBA had little do with my music career. During COVID, my parents’ organization was going through a rough patch.
They were also in a legal battle for a project in which they were hard done by a client. I started GMAT prep to take a more active role in the family business along with my music career.
My post-MBA aspirations have evolved to be more entrepreneurial. Towards this, I have come to realize the need to add business perspectives to my creative and real world experiences.
Moreover, spending a year in an academic atmosphere surrounding myself with and learning alongside the brightest minds from different sectors is something I’ve always wanted to do.
GMAT prep experience
Having been away from a quant heavy academic atmosphere for a while, the GMAT was quite challenging. Fortunately, I did my prep during the COVID time, which was a lean period for live shows.
I took the exam on my birthday in 2021, and got a score of 680. I was happy with the score at that time, because it was around the average for most programmes I was considering.
I did not do a retake because I was confident that my profile and experiences were fairly unique and could help me stand out.
However, when I first applied to Cambridge Judge Business School and Imperial College Business School in 2023, I got rejections from both.
I felt defeated and questioned whether my score was good enough, and whether top MBA programmes would find merit in my profile.
I knew my story was unique and decided to give the application a second shot in 2024. That’s when I came across Crystal Ball and MG, who helped give structure to my story.
From the MBA MAP to brainstorming calls, he helped me develop my pitch, and gave me immense confidence in my abilities.
I realized all the mistakes I had made in my self application. Having had no guidance in the process, I missed out on several key aspects in the process like reaching out to alumni to understand the school better, highlighting transferable skills, having clear post-MBA goals and several more.
Over 2-3 months, I worked with MG on multiple essay revisions. He gave me the right inputs and highlighted aspects of my profile which I otherwise would have overlooked.
The result? I got interview invites from all 3 programmes that I applied for – INSEAD, Cambridge Judge and Oxford Said.
My top concerns
My biggest concern was how adcoms would interpret my profile and background. It could have gone both ways for me.
A possibility was that they could have looked at my unconventional career path, modest GMAT and educational qualifications as being incompetent for an intense MBA programme. Or they could find my journey extremely special and entrepreneurial.
I’m glad the latter happened the second time around. MG helped me build a strong narrative on why I would make a great candidate for the schools I applied to.
So much so that Cambridge Judge Business School, one of my top choices, even awarded a £40000 scholarship for Professional Impact!
Why my first attempt at MBA admissions failed
The first time around I had no clear strategy. Looking back, my essays were very high level and did not highlight specific examples.
While writing my essays, I was unsure of which stories to choose. I also did not do as much introspection as I should have.
The limited guidance I got was from my family and friends, but they did not have any significant experience with the process either.
How I changed my application strategy
One of my colleagues had mentioned attempting my reapplication with the help of a consultant, but I was initially skeptical.
However, I did some online research and stumbled upon MBA Crystal Ball (MCB) on a GMAT Club forum.
I went through the MCB website and was instantly impressed by the wealth of information, interesting anecdotes, and inspiring stories of candidates who secured admits in their dream schools.
My intuition led me to emailing them, and there was no looking back.
Review of my MBA consultant
I worked closely with Manish Gupta (MG) for my applications.
The email response time from MG was at most times quicker than a Zepto order!
The feedback he gave me was at times blunt, but this always pushed me to do better.
From the onset, I was clear about what I wanted from a consultant. To anyone looking to hire the services of MCB or any consultant for that matter – do not expect them to do all the work for you.
Ultimately it’s about you, your motivation, experiences and aspirations.
However, MCB will guide you and help extract the best out of you. And give your story structure and cohesion. I found the feedback MG gave extremely motivating to make my essays better.
An ‘aha’ moment was reaching out to alums from my dream schools. This process not only gave me a better understanding of the different MBA programmes, but also resulted in high caliber friends in different parts of the world.
For example, an INSEAD alumnus that I had reached out to happened to be a fan of our music, and even came to attend our show in New York during his exchange in Wharton!
An Oxford student gave me a campus tour when I visited the UK.
The MBA MAP helped me map out my plan
The MBA MAP process was the start of my application process this year.
MG asked me to prepare 3-4 different post-MBA pitches, which he then grilled me on, taking the role of the adcom. The whole process helped me gain clarity in school shortlisting and developing my essays.
After the MAP process, I was clear about my pitch, the strengths and weaknesses in my profile, and how to portray my story in the best way to get my dream admit.
I was ready to go back with a new application strategy
After receiving my MAP report, I narrowed down my college shortlist to 4 – Cambridge Judge, INSEAD, Oxford and ESADE.
I chose Cambridge and Oxford because of my affinity to the UK; I especially admire the professionalism of the media and tech industry there.
Cambridge was always a top choice because of the additional emphasis on entrepreneurship, proximity to Silicon Fen and hands-on learning opportunities.
At that point, INSEAD was more of an outside shot. ESADE was my fourth choice for its entrepreneurship focus.
MBA interview experience
All my interviews were pretty smooth. Cambridge was the shortest and most straightforward. The Oxford interview involved a little more grilling, and the interviewer seemed slightly skeptical.
For INSEAD, I had 2 in-person alumni interviews. These were informal (happened at cafes) and conversational. I really enjoyed these interactions.
My Cambridge admit came the very next day after my interview. The scholarship of £40K followed. I was thrilled!
Oxford and INSEAD took longer, about 2-3 weeks after my interview to announce final decisions. I got an admit at INSEAD and a rejection from Oxford.
Overall, I was very happy because both my top choices had converted!
Where I am going
After the generous £40K financial aid I received from Cambridge which covers more than half of the tuition fee, my decision was made much easier.
I am very excited about spending a year in the historic city, working on my entrepreneurial ideas, experiencing the collegiate system and interacting with professionals from around the world.
Interestingly, a few days later, INSEAD also offered €20,000 in scholarship. This was as unexpected as the admit.
But this wasn’t going to change my decision. So ignoring what the international b-school rankings say, Cambridge beats INSEAD for me. Ultimately, it’s all about fit!
In hindsight…
I think my unconventional career path and entrepreneurial mindset differentiated me from other applicants.
For anyone with a performing arts background, I would advise to view your non-traditional background as a strength and not a disadvantage.
MBA programs value diversity, and it’s about convincing them that you will be a good fit.
For this, a consultant like MCB makes a huge difference to help build your application in a professional way.
The other advice is not to restrict yourself from giving a shot at your dream school even if there might be factors holding you back like your GMAT score.
European B-schools especially value the overall package, so if you have an interesting story or career trajectory, that could be as valuable as an elite test score.
Connect with us if you’d like to write your MBA success story and think you could use some professional help with your applications: info@mbacrystalball.com
Here’s another applicant’s story from an unconventional background.
– Second MBA from INSEAD with scholarship vs MIT SCM Masters
