"The interview prep work and mock interviews with Faith Career helped a lot and also helped me achieve a 20% tuition scholarship." says ISB MBA candidate Kumar Vaibhav.
Vaibhav's story represents the victory that he sought to achieve. He worked with Faith Career's Co-Founder and within a matter of some weeks, he achieved what he wanted to - an offer letter from ISB. In addition to the offer letter, the ISB admissions committee also gave him a tuition scholarship!
Faith Career has a consistent record of helping our students bag scholarships. Read our alumnus Nikhil Bhonsle's story of receiving offer letters from 5 B-schools based in the UK and 25% scholarship from two schools, even after applying in the last round of admissions and without a GMAT score. Faith Career's Co-Founder Tanmay Singh helped him achieved this seemingly impossible task only within 4 months.
Hey Vaibhav! Thanks for joining us today and for agreeing to answer our questions for our audience and readers. Many congratulations for receiving an offer letter from ISB with 20% scholarship! We are excited for your journey & career.
#1) Vaibhav, can you please briefly tell us about your profile?
I have around 8 years of experience as a Project Manager in the IT industry. I have worked with various Fortune 500 clients as well as government clients. I consider myself lucky to have started my career as an Associate Project Manager right after undergraduate degree and my 8-year career span in the IT industry has been with MNC as well as various startups.
#2) Why did you choose to pursue the PGPpro program, instead of the flagship PGP, from the Indian School of Business (ISB) ?
I have 8 years of experience in Management and leadership, and my current CTC is already above the average CTC offered after graduating from major MBA colleges in India. Hence, I did not want to take a break from my professional career and spend time in college. However, I felt that in order to further develop my skill sets and learn the finer aspects of leadership, I needed an MBA degree. I had availability on weekends and I researched a couple of colleges and such programs are offered by NMIMS, Great Lakes (Chennai), IIMs, SP Jain, XLRI, MDI, ISB, and various other colleges. My research led me to shortlist IIM-B, IIM-K and ISB. I shortlisted ISB out of them as its FT ranking is above other two colleges and it’s a reputed academic institution which is known for providing outstanding quality of education. Also, I feel pursuing an MBA after gaining experience is more valuable than joining a college right after a bachelor’s degree.
The PGPpro program was recently initiated by ISB in 2016, and other colleges followed suit and launched similar programs. They also have a limited batch strength with the most active alumni group compared to the 400-500+ students in IIMs which ensures you get learning opportunities as well as attention. Prior to applying to the program, the admissions committee organized various Zoom sessions to educate the candidates about the course. This was quite helpful and even though the tuition fees is the highest among all colleges, the quality of education and the opportunities are immeasurable.
#3) Why did you choose to work with Faith Career as your mentor?
I chose Faith Career as my mentor as I knew a mentor from my school days and he was always a promising student.
I went through the glowing testimonials his mentees had written for him and on further speaking with him, he answered all my questions very well. Initially, I was not aware about the selection process but after my conversation with my mentor, he instilled confidence in me and I finalized him as my mentor.
#4) How was your experience with Faith Career while working on your application?
Working with Faith Career was nothing less than awesome. My mentor ensured that I thoroughly understood the essay topics and gave me pointers on how I can articulate my thoughts while writing the essay. There are some mentors who write a candidate’s essay themselves, but I feel if it is not something written by you, you’ll never be able to relate to it.
My mentor on the other hand, explained ISB essay topics and after I had written my version of the essays, he went through all the 3 drafts and marked the changes for me. This helped me during the interview preparation as it was my own words which I was speaking to the interviewer.
My mentor also helped me with the interview preparation which included 2 mocks and answered my multiple questions even late at night to quell my anxiety. The interview prep work and mock interviews with my mentor helped a lot and also helped me achieve a 20% tuition scholarship.
#5) How was the interview experience? What questions did the ISB panel ask you in the interview?
The interview experience was really good. I had 3 interviewers and a moderator on the remote session and the interview lasted for 25 mins. Even though the interview started 15 minutes late, I had already practised a few mock interview sessions with my mentor and I felt prepared and confident. The interviewers were warm and they gave me enough time to answer the questions. I was also able to crack a joke or two to lighten the mood and the overall experience was great.
Questions asked:
Tell us about yourself.
Tell us about the work that your organization does.
Since you are working in the cloud industry, do you feel performance or data privacy is important?
Why PGPpro at this time?
Why ISB?
Do you think you’ll be able to get the ROI from this course after investing so much money?
How much time usually does an organization take to achieve ROI?
Would you be able to dedicate time and efforts for this course?
If your manager and colleagues have to define you in three words, what would they be?
Since you are working from home, how do you motivate your team members?
How do you manage multiple stakeholders?
What would you bring to the table if you are selected?
#6) What are your career plans after pursuing the ISB PGPpro program?
During the ISB PGPpro program, my goal is to implement the learnings in my current organization and observe the results. I have chosen Marketing as my specialization and after the program finishes, my goal is to get into a senior Marketing role in a SaaS product-based company as I already have 8 years of experience in managing customers and working on pre-sales activities. The learnings from PGPpro and ISB's vast alumni network would be of huge help to help me grow in my role.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Vaibhav! We wish you well for your future endeavours!
Below are few more inspiring success stories from Faith Career ✨
Smriti Dhawan's journey from Ambedkar University to the London School of Economics (LSE) – https://www.faithcareer.org/post/smriti-s-stellar-journey-to-the-london-school-of-economics-and-political-science-lse
Nikhil Bhonsle's story of bagging MBA offers from 5 B-Schools in the UK with scholarship, without a GMAT score - https://www.faithcareer.org/post/5-mba-offer-letters-in-4-months-without-gmat
Yashashwat Srivastava’s MIM journey from IP University to the Schulich School of Business - https://www.faithcareer.org/post/yashashwat-s-mim-journey-to-the-schulich-school-of-business
Mimansha Dublish's MIM journey to ESCP Europe (ranked 5th for MIM in the world) - https://www.faithcareer.org/post/escp-mim-mimansha-s-story-of-perseverance-success
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