MBA Crystal Ball

Hello Amit,

Below I have mentioned my profile details.

Total Work Ex: 5 Years.
Education: Bachelors in Business Administration & PUC Commerce

Work Experience Details:

Oracle India
Dept: Order Management - Global Finance Information Center. Sept 2008 - Dec 2010.

- Joined as Analyst, in 1.5 years promoted as Senior Analyst.
- Started with entering orders for first 6 months, later moved to handle complex and high value deals.
- When Oracle acquired Sun, Oracle management initiated a large internal project to integrate Sun into Oracle Business Model. I was a key member of Sun Integration project to transition Sun business to Oracle India.
- Exposure in handling complex / stressful scenarios, due to high order average >2$ <10$ Million.
- During my stint at Oracle, I was part of many internal process improvement projects such as Quality & Productivity.


Herman Miller (Jan 2011 to Present)

- Joined as Contracts Coordinator. Transitioned the Sale Operations team from US to India.
- Later was moved to Product Database, as the team was growing so they picked me as the key resource to manage this transitions and in future lead this team.

Overall my 5 years of work experience is in Outsourcing Industry. I worked for Shared Services Center of Herman Miller & Oracle. Industries Worked so far: Product Software & Manufacturing.

Now, with depth experience of working in Shared Service Center / Outsourcing Industry, I want to shift my career as Consultant in this domain. My preference would be in Advising Clients on Outsourcing Business.

Request you to evaluate my profile and suggest future strategy. Which companies should I target? Is it possible to break into consulting without an MBA?

Thanks Amit!

Arun

Hello Amit,

Today I got this thread while googling...and I feel this is really helpful for people like me who are thinking of career change but have many questions before I take decision.

Below are my profile details:
Total Work Ex: 13.5 years
Education: BE in Electrical

Work Ex Details:
I have worked from developer to management level. Currently working as Sr manager in one of the Top IT organization.

Most of my experience is in BFSI. Have also worked in other domains briefly. Breakup is
Banking - almost 2 years
Finance - almost 2 years
Insurance - 3.5 years
Other domains like travel is very minimal.

Currently in Social media for almost 3 years where I am supporting sales teams.

Due to personal constraints, I need some independent job. So planning to move towards consulting.

However, I have few questions:
1. Would I be picked up considering no single domain exp and no MBA?
2. Which area of consulting should I focus for? I am techno manager however have worked more on project and program manager roles
3. Would there be extensive traveling?
4. Would there be option of working for limited hrs (eg part time) if possible

Hi Amit,

I am recent MBA graduate(2013 batch) from a non IIM but top 15 b-school. I wanted a career in consulting but due to slowdown not many consulting companies turned up at campus. The ones who did were not with their usual profiles.
So i joined a prominent Indian conglomerate as a corporate management trainee and now i am looking after one of their verticals where I am reporting directly to business head. Its a rotational role where i get exposure across different functions. In last six months i have got exposure in marketing, sales, procurement departments.
Its a business strategy oriented role where one gets to for on business problems and produce results.
Now i want to move to management/strategic consulting. But i am not sure how to build my profile and what should essentially be in my resume so that i can make a cut into big consulting firms.
I need your guidance regarding that.
My profile is as follows:
Graduation- B.E (I.T)
Work ex - Around 2 yrs of pre MBA work ex in Telecom software domain
Post Grad - PGDM from non IIM b school(Top 15) in Marketing & Finance
Now working as a corporate management trainee in a manufacturing industry.
Decent academics and extra curricular activites.

It would be really helpful if you can provide some help in this context.

Regards
Mohit

Hi Amit,

I have mentioned my profile below. It will be of great help if you can evaluate my profile and let me know whether it is a fit for strategy and financial consulting or if any other areas of management consulting will be a good fit for me.

Academic Details:

B.E. - Information Technology
Jadavpur University - Kolkata (2007 passout)


MBA (Finance)
VGSoM - IIT Kharagpur (2013 passout)

Work Experience:

Pricewaterhouse Coopers (2007-2010)
Oracle Applications Functional Consultant

IBM India (2010-2011)
Oracle Applications Functional Consultant

Deloitte Consulting (Current Job)
Oracle Applications Functional Consultant

Thanks and Regards
Sohini Banerjee

Dear Amit

I am interested in pursuing a career in Management Consulting. I am not able to find avenues to get into such roles. An assessment of my profile by you will be helpful.

BTech Electronics and Communication from one of the NITs
2 years of IT experience
MBA in Petroleum and Energy Management
2.5 years in Sales and Marketing in a Oil Marketing Company (PSU)with excellent track record in this company

I want to understand the prerequisites of getting into Management Consulting roles. Is my profile suited for such roles?Having marketing experience in a PSU is viewed in a negative light in the industry as per my understanding. Will this be a hurdle for me? Moreover I have a preference to handle roles related to Energy field. Which are the companies handling such projects? Your reply will be appreciated

Thanks for posting this, i think it can be pretty useful, my folks keep on getting on my back to get an MBA... Frankly I am not so sure, the 2008 global crisis had a lot of MBA´s involved... the side effects of this crash are still present in some countries and frankly I don´t think that the BRICS (Brasil, Russia, China, India and S Africa) are that invulnerable... plus in countries like Brasil, Russia and China social unrest and public protests have become a common landscape to the country. Who takes most of the decisions that end up affecting the policies of these countries? mostly if not all... guys with MBA´s from private and Ivy League Business Schools.

I congratulate you on going forward being an MBA drop out... so many influential leaders of our time are college dropouts (Jobs, Zuckemberg, Branson etc.)... so the question is... will an MBA make one more of the herd? is that what I aspire to be?

Anyway... back to the topic subject... and sorry guys for the rant... what management consultant jobs would you recommend? I am specialised in energy and marketing consultancy... so all recommendations are welcome,

Have a nice day guys,

Ravi.

Hello Amit,

I hope you are doing well.Based on my background,I am trying to figure out the most logical short term goals for a career in Management Consulting post MBA from US (top 25-30 schools). My profile is as follows:

B.Tech Computer Science(72%) from a govt. university (non-IIT)
GMAT - 710

Work ex -
1.5 yrs : Software Testing in a top MNC . Worked for a Canadian client in Service Delivery Domain.

3.5 years : B2B Marketing & Sales in our startup (family owned, less than 10 employees). We are an authorized partner for a big American diversified power management company.I work in multiple roles such as leads generation, field sales, inbound and outbound marketing, logistics, decision making etc I have come across companies of different sizes and types.We have clients in Manufacturing, Hospitality, IT, Automotive, Printing etc.

In the long term, i will return to our business.

Total work ex by Fall 2015 : 5 years

I would love to continue in B2B Marketing, but feel that Consulting would be an ideal plan B and help me to learn about the best business practices, get greater exposure to different industries and improve my ability to solve complex business problems.

In case i have to take up Consulting post-MBA,could you please elaborate on the types of consulting and companies i might realistically be able to get into. Also, would Strategy Consulting be possible for me ?

Firstly, great to be on this site where I landed by sheer luck during one of my sojourns on the web ! The topics herein are very very relevant to some of the questions I have and so here I am !


I am an HR professional with overall 16 years of work experience. I am a graduate civil engineer (1997 batch) from VJTI,Mumbai and spent the first 7 years in an engineering consulting company with the Tatas. I moved into HR at this firm and ever since worked in HR. I moved to an IT major and an ITES Startup after my stint with Tata. I also picked up PGDM through distance learning from Symbiosis when I moved in HR.

My overall experience can be summed up in two phases - the engineering phase and the HR phase. Phase 1 was mainly engineering design of steel structures using FEM packages or the plain excel-based design templates. By the time I left, I was reviewing , approving designs and training staff on design features.

The HR Phase began with managing end to end HR for a business unit within the company. It involved all HR processes - hiring, onboarding, performance management, engagement management , exit management etc - core HR operational experience. I also ran the campus hiring program for the company and hired GETs from IITS and NITs for two consecutive years. I got certified in the Tata Business Excellence Model and authored the company's application (HR section) and also was part of the internal auditing team for TBEM.

In my next job, I was an HR business partner for one of the businesses in the IT outsouring business and managed a spa of about 2500 employees pan India. Key deliverables were performance management ( scorecard development, tracking, evaluation, normalization, compensation increases etc), engagement ( surveys roll out, action planning for improvement etc), retention (tracking attrition, interventions to reduce attrition etc).
My next assignment was to set up the companys delivery center in Srilanka and i was responsible for setting up the division right from talent projection and acquistion, policy formation, compensation planning and definition, oversee the center after setting up.

I returned to India in 2012 and joined an ITES company and joined the corporate HR team. In my roll I managed 3 businesses in BFS as HR partner apart from my corporate responsibilities viz. Policy Formulation, Engagement Survey Design and Program roll ut, Performance Management Design, Competency Framework Design, HR MIS and Analytics, HR Consultant for other companies in the group etc.

I now want to move on to a role in HR consulting. I realize that I am much happier doing project based work than a regular job which involves a lot of transaction. I have always tried to fit in projects to give me the satisfaction and now would like to move into it full time.

I have taken a break from full time work and would like to focus my energies on freelancing on projects and eventually joining a fulltime position in a Hr consulting firm.

I request your assistance in the following ways :
1) A profile evaluation and fitment for the nature of work I wish to do.
2) Feedback on what skills I may need to acquire.
3) Advice on how to get a break in the consulting space.

Warm Regards
Nero

Hello

I am a mechanical design engineer with a construction firm with 4+ years of experience. what are my chances to get into a consulting job and how will this career shift work for me since my background is all technical.

Hi Amit,
I am a SAP functional consultant ith 5 yrs of experience.
I having a question whether I am eligible to shift to Management.
I am pasting my CV below.
Can you suggest me.

SAP Production Planning & Control/Project Structures Functional Consultant
Kuntamukkala Naga Mallika



Objective: To establish myself as a successful PP & PS CONSULTANT in area of IT Consultancy, ERP in a professional and challenging environment.
Professional Summary
Experienced SAP PP & PS Consultant with over 5.1 years of IT and Industry experience. Implementation experience, besides extensive background in production support and testing of SAP PP & PS modules.
 Experience in Configuration, unit testing, Integration testing, Documentation, Data Conversion/Migration, End user Support and Training.
 Hands on experience in gathering business requirements, business process analysis, GAP analysis.
 Provide Go-Live and Post-Go-Live support and perform production support consultant role.
 Experience in Discrete Manufacturing.
 Experience in configuration of PP/PS module.
 Implemented MTS, MTO different SAP projects assignments.
 Having implementation experience of Discrete Manufacturing.
 PP-CO integration
Executive Profile
 Good exposure in SAP-PP/PS.
 Exposure in Production Planning.
 Interaction with client to meet their requirement.
 Good communication skills and good Team player.
 Knowledge in SAP PM
Job Title History
 Working as SAP-PP Functional Consultant in Tech Mahindra, Hyderabad from Sep 2013
to till date.
 Worked as SAP-PP Functional Consultant in Genpact, Hyderabad from May 2012 to Sep
2013.
 Worked as SAP-PP/PS Functional Consultant in LARSEN & TOUBRO LIMITED, (Heavy
Engineering Division), Visakhapatnam from Jan 2008 to Dec 2010.

Technical Summary
 SAP-PP/PS/PM
Educational Summary
 M.E in CAD/CAM (2007) from Andhra University with 73.4%.
 B.E in Production Engineering from Andhra University with 65.65%.
 Intermediate (MPC) from Board of Intermediate, AP with 80.2%.
 CBSE from Central Board of Secondary Education with 61%.

Professional Experience

Tech Mahindra
Project : GE Oil & Gas
Role : Senior Analyst
Project Duration : Dec 2013 to Feb 2014.
Job Responsibilities:
 SAP PP
 Handling of SLA’s and resolving on time.
 Fixing of the Design requests.
 Implementing configuration /code changes as per business requirement.
 Testing the configuration /code changes in development and transporting the requests to Quality and testing in Quality.
 Finally transporting the requests to Production and testing.
 Working with technical team for code changes as per the business requirement.

Genpact India
Project : GE Industrial Solutions
Role : Senior Associate Consultant
Project Duration : May 2012 to Sep 2013.

Job Responsibilities:
 Study of Legacy System and Preparation of Blueprint - As-Is Versus To-Be Processes. Creation of Functional specifications for the ABAP developments, Creation of Data Collection Templates, Educating the Data Collectors on the Data Collection Templates Functional testing and finding the Gaps.
 Design of Test Scripts for Unit Testing & SIT.
 Performed Unit Testing & System Integration Testing.
 Onsite experience for 3 months for performing SIT.

SAP PP Module:

 Configuring the SAP PP module for functionality of master data like Material Masters, Bill of Materials, Work Centers, Routings, Demand Management, MRP and Shop floor control.
 Configuring the SAP PP module for functionality of master data like Material Masters, Bill of Materials, Work Centers, and Routings. Configured the SAP Demand Management, MRP and Shop floor control.
 Involved in the development of Functional and Technical Specifications.
 Modification or doing enhancement in the current system thereby meeting the user requirement by coordinating with Application development team.
 Preparation of Test Scripts in MRP, Production Planning, Capacity Planning, SOP and Master Data.

Larsen &Toubro (L&T)
Project : Advanced Technological Vessel
Client : Ship Building Centre, Indian Navy, Dockyard
Role : Functional Consultant
Project Duration : Jan 2008 to Dec 2010.

Job Responsibilities:
SAP PP Module:
 Roll-out implementation of PP Module.
 Conducted workshops and designed the solution for the Advanced Technological Vessel project which included the Analyzed Present Business process, SAP Process Flow, Configurations, Master data, Transaction, MRP, GAP analysis.
 Configured the SAP Demand Management, MRP, and Shop floor control.
 Involved in the development of functional and Technical Specifications.
 Modification or doing enhancement in the current system thereby meeting the user requirement by coordinating with Application development team.


SAP PS Module:
 Developed Standard/Template WBS, Networks & Project Profile, Coding Mask.
 Creating Milestones and assigning them to WBS Elements and Activities.
 Created Project Sales Orders using Assembly Order Processing.
 Handled Planning Functions like Date Scheduling, Resource Planning, Material Planning, Cost Planning and Revenue Planning.
 Creating & Implementing Test Scenarios for SAP PS module

Reagards,
Mallika