Hi
I am a retail professional with 12 years of experience out of which last 7 years have been as a Business Head Position. I am currently managing a business of US$1.5 Million and a team of 250 employees. The business I manage have been rated as the best format in the country.
I have done my graduation in production engineering with 3.5 GPA. My GMAT score is 690 with 6.0 on AWA. I am planning to pursue a full time MBA from a reputed university. I am not very stringent on the country but want to ensure that I manage a job after my MBA to ensure that I am able to justify the opportunity cost of doing an MBA. Considering my high experience I would prefer a one year MBA program. I am looking at General Management, Sales & marketing or International business as my preferred majors and post MBA a career in Retail, Consumer Products or Consulting Industry.
I am writing this post because after I started shortlisting the schools, a number of consultants suggested that Most top schools (especially in US) will not be keen on giving me an admit since they will find it difficult to place me at senior level( considering my 12 years senior level experience) after an MBA. Also my past experience is not specialized ( i.e. not finance or IT) makes me unsuitable in many countries since many large corporates would prefer MBA's with local experience in retail or Sales and marketing industry. The problem with other countries specially Europe is that it is very difficult to get a work VIsa post an MBA in addition to the two problems I stated earlier.

MBA is a very expensive course and I have worked very hard to save money in the last four years to pursue my course. Now I would definitely not like to waste my hard earned money on a degree which will not give me commensurate benefits (though I always wanted to do an MBA, my choice of engineering stream was also influenced by my wish to do an MBA).
Hence would like suggestion from people with non IT or Finance past experience pursuing or planning an MBA from top universities to kindly guide me.
I apologies if you find the post too long.
Thanks.

Read Best schools for international students' placement http://www.find-mba.com/board/41143

HI

Thanks for your reply. All the schools you have mentioned in the list are out of US. Could you please throw some light on US schools.

Also could you please give me some more details about my non IT and non Finance background. Will it impact my future chances of admission in top schools and getting a job thereafter.

Thanks.

HI

Thanks for your reply. All the schools you have mentioned in the list are out of US. Could you please throw some light on US schools.

Also could you please give me some more details about my non IT and non Finance background. Will it impact my future chances of admission in top schools and getting a job thereafter.

Thanks.

You don't mention what your goals are, but if you are interested in staying in retail, maybe look at this list:

http://find-mba.com/lists/top-business-school-by-speciality/top-business-schools-for-a-career-in-retail-and-consumer-goods

Some non-US schools there, like Oxford, Schulich, Insead, and CUHK.

I'm not sure if your impressions about US schools are accurate. Why don't you contact the schools you are interested in, tell them about yourself, and ask? They'll usually be frank about your admissions chances.

Do you have any suggestions for schools in the U.S. that are good for somebody with a background in retail?

In general, targeting MBA programs will have more to do with your career goals than your background. What is it you want to do with your MBA? If you want to continue in the retail sector, there are a number of US schools on that list that I linked to: Wisconsin, Purdue, and Minnesota - Carlson, for example. But if you wanted to switch out of the retail sector, that's another story.

Of course, your chances of getting into a full-time MBA program like one of these will also depend on other factors: your GMAT score, etc.

My GMAT score is 600. I do not want to stay in the retail sector, but maybe switch into finance or project management. Do you have any suggestions for what schools I should apply to? Do I need a better GMAT score?