Saturday, May 07, 2005

Career Goals

After lot of soul searching and thinking process that started more than two years back, my career goals are still at best vague. Things have become clearer, but the more questions I try and answer, more the difficulty I find in answering them and it seems like I am running around in circles. So in this post I am logically trying to evaluate where I am coming from and where I am headed, and hope that experienced bloggers and applicants comment on my goals.

I have been with an IT services company (Indian with >30,000 employess, >$ 1 billion in revenues) for the past 3 years and have worked as a software engineer. I am currently playing the role of Technical Analyst at client location and have had some Team lead experience for past 1-1.5 years. My domain exposure has always been with banking and financial services field, which in conjunction with Information Technology are my primary fields of Interest.

Post MBA, I have been looking at a management role that combines both these e.g. IT program manager for financial services working in either Finance or IT Company. All this while I have felt that this wouldn't truly give me an opportunity to do all I wanted in terms of involvement with Business and strategy.
So I explored further, putting my interest i.e. Information technology, Finance and strategy together with my skills Analytical, communication skills, some basic management and leadership ability (that I have displayed in work and extra-curricular activities) with solution oriented approach and good understanding of Financial services business, I found that a management consultancy position might be a better option. This would give me an opportunity to work in wide variety of projects and put in my cross functional skills (I am a mechanical engineer) IT and finance knowledge, utilize my analytical skills to help senior management take Business and strategic decisions. This is something that I would really enjoy doing and feel that I have the ability to take up such a role.

By working in such a role, over the years I would have gained substantial knowledge, skills and experience to move into a senior management position in a firm and take up a true leadership position. My ultimate objective being to lead an organization to achieve something significant, bringing it growth and respect and also contributing back to society in both personal and professional capacity.

Having said this I am not sure
1. If I could move to a management consultancy position post MBA. Would I get a job of my liking?
2. If B-schools would consider my application?
3. If my story and purpose seems logical enough?
4. How others approach this situation and move into role and work that I am interested in doing?

2 Comments:

sorebrek said...

Anand, That is a fantastic exercise in soul-searching, which btw happens to be the first step in the right direction. I'm an applicant for this fall, so take my comments with a grain of salt:
I'm assuming you're shooting for a US or European school.
>>1. If I could move to a management consultancy position post MBA. Would I get a job of my liking?
If you want to go work for an MC, you shouldn't have much trouble with that. Just figure out which schools fit you best and apply accordingly. While the big names have several MC recruits, the number of applicants competing for these jobs are also high. So it is really a yield thing. I suspect the best yield for MC jobs is somewhere near the lower half of the top 10 schools. I could be wrong, but if you also factor in 'better school, tougher competition', I might just be right.

>>2. If B-schools would consider my application?
I think you have a fair shot. However remember that you belong to perhaps the most competitive of applicant pools. See my post on this: http://holymba.blogspot.com

>>3. If my story and purpose seems logical enough?
Your story does add up. You may need to flesh it out with specific examples.


>>4. How others approach this situation and move into role and work that I am interested in doing?
A lot of people I know have made the transition and quite successfully.

Ashutosh Deo said...

Hey Anand,
Nice Post. I am in my final year of Computer engg, Mumbai University, waiting to enter the IT industry next year. I am also thinking about doing a MBA after a few years of experience. You really inspired me to do some soul searching and to improve my thinking process even more.

Ashutosh.

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