Interning in a Supply Chain based role made me realize I would like to work in this field rather than core Mechanical. When I was doing Mech-based projects, I enjoyed them but I knew that I wouldn’t want to do them for the rest of my life. I like a bit more managerial roles where I get to interact with people. You might already know that CAD has an application in the real world, Masters courses are also like that. Since I knew I wanted to work in Supply Chain I was choosing my courses in that direction like supply chain optimization, data analysis. I was thinking along the lines of how I could optimize processes in that field.

In my 4-1, I was doing my PS at Credit Suisse. I was still thinking of doing an MBA and was in the mood to give GMAT. I realized to get into a proper university abroad (for an MBA) you need at least 3-4 yrs of work ex, unlike CAT. That was when I wanted to do MS because there were no good opportunities for a Mech fresh grad student in India. I always wanted to be in the core field even after pursuing MBA. Since we did not have many companies for manufacturing coming for placements, that’s when I was sure that I needed to do a Masters.

I started my preparation for GRE in late October. I had a month (December) to get all my LORs and university list sorted. I went on to ask my seniors from mechanical for advice on a masters. I was clear that I wanted to do a masters in an industry-based domain. I did not want to delve into a research role. I just got to speak to 2 professors and I got 4 LORs from only one of them and the other professor refused to give me LORs as he already gave LORs to quite a few students by then. Rest I had to figure out from internships etc. that’s the reason I could apply only to 5 universities making it 15 LORs (Each university required you to have 3 LOR’s). I had to go backward from professor (to count how many LORs I have) to university (to which and how many universities I can apply) in the sense that I had to figure out the number of LORs I could get and then apply to universities accordingly. Best piece of advice, make sure that you give enough time to get your LORs, SOP and resume ready and request for LORs from professor or anyone whom you wish to take, “AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE.”

I first applied on their portal for over 8 months. But when I didn’t get any reply, I started contacting the HR recruiters via LinkedIn. There is this process that an HR person works with a certain team, so if a person you know has been hired for a specific team, the person who hired him/her would be taking care of that team. So once I knew the right HR person, I contacted him. If he/she likes your resume you have a chance of getting hired. I would definitely suggest you to have experience on SQL, VBA and tableau. These tools will help you a lot if you are planning on pursuing MS in Industrial Engineering.

Joining Capgemini had two advantages. The first being not having a year of gap in my resume and the latter being able to learn some coding skills which would give me an added advantage over my peers who are mostly from core backgrounds. The training offered at Capgemini is quite good to hone or develop our coding skills if you are from a non-IT background.

Capgemini interviews were mostly on SQL and VBA, luckily I had acquired these skills in my internship in Credit Suisse during my PS II in 4-1. I had some coding experience in Python and R. I had also tried applying to companies in the core manufacturing field that do not come on campus but it was pretty tough getting a job off-campus during my time.

My job started in mid to late September, I was trained for 3 months, I got deployed into a project post that. The training phase was just like college where we were expected to learn stuff like java, HTML, CSS. There were assignments on a bi-weekly basis where they used to ask us to build web pages on the basis of what they taught. I worked for just 1 month and then I resigned. It was great for someone who wants to enter an IT role from a non-coding background.

The main reason I did my ps-2 in a Finance company was because I was curious about the Finance world. I was always intrigued by bonds, shares and the stock market. After working in Credit Suisse, I felt that I am not going to be a good fit in that world and did not want to pursue my career in the Finance world and came back to the Mechanical domain.

I would really love to go back to Tesla again and then do my MBA. I would like to be in any core IE team or work in any Supply Chain department.

Do internships before you do Masters as it will give you clarity and a better picture of what you are stepping into. When at your place, I was as confused as you are; regarding which field I should pursue. I recommend doing as many internships as you can. Try covering all fields that you find interesting. If you are clear with what you want to do not worry about the overall ranking of the university as long as it does well in the department which you want to pursue.