Case Study of our latest client who fell in trap of pseudo consultant last year
Having burnt his pocket after spending Rs. 2.5 lakhs on consulting process last year, he had lost trust in the consulting process. He told us that “My last consultant was a complete scam. He was really money grubbing and his positioning did not help me get into any business school. He lacked the intellect and maturity to understand my profile. His essay answer inputs were verbose full of flowery language with minimal rationale. It was a waste of $4,000”
An unhappy customer, for sure Vishal worked with a major MBA admissions consultant and came away believing he was ripped off. He’s not alone. What complicates a good match between an applicant and a consultant is the fact that most of the consultants lack necessary knowledge and expertise to guide applicants. Most consultants out there aren’t qualified to give you advice about your career. A huge majority of the ‘advisors’ (read pseudo advisors) have never gone to a top school. Despite having good achievements and proven leadership skills, Vishal’s profile was wrongly projected to top ranked programs. The damage done last year was incorrigible as wrongly projected profile had jeopardized his chances for next year as well.
This year when he took Skill Maestro consulting services we guided his application with our 10 step approach. The first step was to sit together and understand his profile, ambitions and story of why MBA? After attending first few sessions, Vishal not only realized his real rational for doing MBA but also regained his lost enthusiasm of pursuing MBA from a top notch schools. We put lot of emphasis on STAR method when it comes to writing essay answers. Within each essay response we cogently talked about situation, task, action and results. Rather than enlisting 20 different achievements we talked about two most important achievements, which were aligned with school’s program philosophy. The productive consulting sessions helped him to chart out long term ambitions, which are logically connected to his past work experience. The fool proof consulting landed him interview calls from all the targeted schools.
Sandeep Panjwani, chief mentor and consultant at Skill Maestro, who has also been part of admission committee in past brings the first hand insights of what Adcom people are looking in candidates. He says that schools want to admit candidates who have great intellectual capacity, demonstrated impact, leadership capabilities, interpersonal skills, and other qualities shown in differing areas of his or her life. These dimensions are Professional, Community, and Personal.
Selecting the right admission consulting firm and the right person isn’t easy. So what one should learn from Vishal’s experience. You should consider these questions before choosing a consultant.
Happy and elated Vishal called me in the middle of night to tell about his MBA admit in IE Spain(Ranked 13th Globally) with 20,000 Euros scholarship. This year under Skill Maestro consulting he selectively applied to 5 top ranked schools and got admit from IE. Rosy as it may seem now but Vishal’s journey to top ranked MBA program was fraught with plethora of hurdles. Even after having 8 years of work experience with a stellar 740 GMAT score, Vishal was not able to get single admits last year, not even from tier 2 ranked MBA programs. Vishal’s nightmare started after choosing a local consultant who touted himself to be best in trade and also claimed of handling several top B School applications. Our first meeting with Vishal was jaundiced with his cynicism stemming from his last bad experience with pseudo consultant.
An unhappy customer, for sure Vishal worked with a major MBA admissions consultant and came away believing he was ripped off. He’s not alone. What complicates a good match between an applicant and a consultant is the fact that most of the consultants lack necessary knowledge and expertise to guide applicants. Most consultants out there aren’t qualified to give you advice about your career. A huge majority of the ‘advisors’ (read pseudo advisors) have never gone to a top school. Despite having good achievements and proven leadership skills, Vishal’s profile was wrongly projected to top ranked programs. The damage done last year was incorrigible as wrongly projected profile had jeopardized his chances for next year as well.
This year when he took Skill Maestro consulting services we guided his application with our 10 step approach. The first step was to sit together and understand his profile, ambitions and story of why MBA? After attending first few sessions, Vishal not only realized his real rational for doing MBA but also regained his lost enthusiasm of pursuing MBA from a top notch schools. We put lot of emphasis on STAR method when it comes to writing essay answers. Within each essay response we cogently talked about situation, task, action and results. Rather than enlisting 20 different achievements we talked about two most important achievements, which were aligned with school’s program philosophy. The productive consulting sessions helped him to chart out long term ambitions, which are logically connected to his past work experience. The fool proof consulting landed him interview calls from all the targeted schools.
Sandeep Panjwani, chief mentor and consultant at Skill Maestro, who has also been part of admission committee in past brings the first hand insights of what Adcom people are looking in candidates. He says that schools want to admit candidates who have great intellectual capacity, demonstrated impact, leadership capabilities, interpersonal skills, and other qualities shown in differing areas of his or her life. These dimensions are Professional, Community, and Personal.
Selecting the right admission consulting firm and the right person isn’t easy. So what one should learn from Vishal’s experience. You should consider these questions before choosing a consultant.
Are they providing superficial answers and MBA advice or do they immerse themselves into your world?
Guiding principles for those in the hunt for a good consultant:
- Are they doing by the book and giving your standard template answers or do they really know more than you do about the MBA industry and what Admission committees (Adcoms) are looking for?
- Have they been successful in the real world out there (academically and professionally) or is this just bookish knowledge that they are passing on to you?
- Are their testimonials genuine and honest? Cooking up and pasting flattering feedback on websites is pretty easy.
- How many of their candidates are willing to reveal their identities and not be ashamed of being associated with this team?
Guiding principles for those in the hunt for a good consultant:
- You should start by vetting the admissions consultant. Find out who started the company, what is his/her role, how are consultants hired, trained, and what is the background/experience of the consultants?
- Find out who you would be working with and what their success track record is.
- Stay away from the “fly by night” entities that make outlandish promises or have ethical flags (writing application essays, recommendations, etc)
- Research different consulting firms to see which ones would be the best fit. Every firm is different in its approach, culture, focus. Some focus on strategy, some on essay editing/writing and others on both.
- Have a preliminary call with the firms you are considering and assess the quality of the feedback they provide you (this can give you a clue to the quality of work they do)
- Getting a referral from a friend or trusted colleague can be a good starting point so ask people in your network if they have any experience with the firms you are considering
- Be clear on what you need. Have a realistic picture of what kind of candidate you are.
| About Skill Maestro
At Skill Maestro, We guide prospective students about the entire application process as well as suitable universities as per their profile/test scores. We have consulted dozens of prospective students for MIS across the globe. We have a physical presence in Indore where we also help students prepare for GRE, GMAT & SAT
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| About the Author
Pankaj has been consulting on the MBA application process / Study abroad opportunities since 2009. He is chief mentor and consultant at Skill Maestro, a GMAT prep and MBA admissions consulting company launched in 2009 and has since helped thousands of clients gain admission to the most selective business schools in the world, many with merit scholarships. He has been conducting seminars and webinars for various professionals to help them realize their potential for Top B-Schools. Being 97 percentile scorer (Top 3%) in GMAT, Pankaj has strong grasp on the exam structure and his comprehensive study material has helped thousands of candidates to score high in GMAT. His expertise in delivering flawless, scholarship oriented essays makes him most sought after admission consultants in India
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