Name: Mohana Shyam
B-school Name: Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
When it comes to the MBA application process, many students face the dilemma of selecting the right stories and presenting them in the appropriate structure. One of our students, Mohana Shyam, also had a similar predicament before joining us at CrackVerbal.
This is the story of how Mohana went on to achieve his dream of securing admissions at ISB with the help of the right mentors at CrackVerbal, who helped him structure his application essays.
If you have also faced a similar dilemma on choosing the right stories for your MBA application, you should read this blog to find out how Mohana overcame his obstacles and achieved his dream.
“Hi, I am Mohana”
Mohana Shyam held a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, and after his education, he joined various pharmaceutical companies across functions like sales and marketing. Having worked with many multinational companies, he started his venture two years back, which focuses on marketing and sales of pharma products related to urology and nephrology.
Since his college days, Mohana harbored a dream of pursuing an MBA. He had received several Indian B-school interview calls, but since he also got a job opportunity with a leading pharmaceutical company, he decided to gain work experience and then pursue an MBA from top Indian B-schools like ISBs and IIMs.
For the next seven to eight years, Mohana continued to work as he had financial commitments. However, when he started his venture, he realized that he had various criteria to fulfill as an entrepreneur and that’s when the thought of pursuing an MBA resurrected again.
“It is because I realized that there were a lot of different things that I had to do, and I knew for certain that an MBA would help me become a better entrepreneur.”
Thankfully for Mohana, his venture was doing well. He was concrete on deciding to pursue a part-time MBA to continue working on his company and parallelly complete his MBA education. He started speaking to his seniors to understand the process of how an MBA would help him in his venture. He then realized that he needed focused and expert help to crack the GMAT exam and gain admission to a prominent Indian business school.
“As an entrepreneur, I had to find the right program.”
When it came to his research to find the right program, Mohana started attending all the info sessions of different business schools. He decided to zero in on IIM Bangalore’s PGP-EM and ISB’s PGP Pro program because they were catering to the specific needs that he had in his mind regarding his venture’s future.
During these sessions, he realized the importance of essays in the application process. Being in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector, Mohana had many stories to share where he had touched several lives through his work. But he quickly realized that he was unable to structure his stories correctly.
“I found CrackVerbal at the right time.”
Thankfully Mohana came to know about CrackVerbal when he was struggling with his essays. He was also in touch with several ISB alumni who had recommended him to CrackVerbal. Hearing much positive review, Mohana decided to attend an info session by our GMAT expert & MBA Mentor, Arun Jagannathan, and Srikant Singh and was extremely impressed.
“I did not see such kind of elaboration and in-depth information on the B-school application process at any other place.”
It was then that Mohana realized that he had found the right match with CrackVerbal.
“My mentor had more faith in me than myself.”
Mohana credits his mentor, Ajay Sir, for his success. He mentioned that excellent mentors are incredibly crucial. They have seen so many profiles and have gone through so many stories, which help them understand what will work and what will not work with the special admissions team.
“Mentor for me is someone who structures down responses.”
He also stressed that his mentor helped him make his own stories more appealing by selecting essential parts and discarding what is not required.
Even when it came to the interview process, Mohana’s mentors Ajay and Shreeleena helped him understand how the interview process works, which helped him gain more confidence in his preparation. On the interview day, Mohana faced two interviewers, and in that entire duration of 40 minutes, Mohana felt both stressed and excited.
Mohana was not so confident about his performance. But when he spoke to his mentors, both stressed how strong his candidature was, based on the application essays he had submitted.
“Regarding my research, I attended a lot of info sessions.”
Mohana stressed the importance of info sessions as they help aspirants get a clear idea about the program details and the type of rigor that is expected. He also mentioned that they were platforms for him to meet and interact with the alumni, which also contributed to understanding how the program will help him in his venture.
“I would advise people to start early.”
Speaking about his own experience, Mohana said,
“I started very late, and my mentor Ajay helped me a lot in structuring my application.”
Mohana also mentioned how he and his mentor would also have late-night calls until he received the clarity he wanted. Jokingly, he also added that he submitted the application just two hours before the deadline.
He felt that had he started the process sooner, he could have applied to many more B-schools.
Mohana’s journey is nothing short of inspiring. From his self-study days to choosing CrackVerbal to help him in his MBA application essays, he achieved his goal of securing an admission at ISB. We hope his story also helped you remain steadfast on your path.
If you would like to hear his story that he shared with us, do check out this video:
If you need help with your MBA applications, crafting your MBA Application stories or your MBA interview preparation, feel free to contact us.
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