{"id":1307,"date":"2009-10-29T12:05:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-29T20:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=1307"},"modified":"2009-11-02T00:11:31","modified_gmt":"2009-11-02T08:11:31","slug":"the-gmat-jobs-and-admissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/the-gmat-jobs-and-admissions\/","title":{"rendered":"The GMAT, Jobs, and Admissions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>BusinessWeek<\/em> recently published an excellent article, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/bschools\/content\/oct2009\/bs20091019_412671.htm\">GMAT: The MBA Job Seeker's Best Friend, <\/a><br \/>\nexploring the impact of GMAT scores on post-MBA job prospects and the reality that some business school are encouraging accepted students to retake the GMAT to\u00a0improve\u00a0their chances of getting desired jobs.<\/p>\n<p>What is the role of GMAT scores in job recruiting. Recruiters\u00a0at certain elite strategy consulting firms and investment banks use the GMAT as an early-stage screening tool. BW makes clear that a high GMAT will not land a job offer, but a low GMAT could prevent you from getting that first interview at the most competitive banks and consulting firms. The article hints that 700 is the cut-off.<\/p>\n<p>Steve, author of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sgargiulo.wordpress.com\/about\/\">The 2012 MBA \u00a0Applicant<\/a> blog, shrewdly observes in \u00a0<a title=\"The GMAT is becoming more\u00a0important\" rel=\"bookmark\" href=\"https:\/\/sgargiulo.wordpress.com\/2009\/10\/20\/the-gmat-is-becoming-more-important\/\">The GMAT is becoming more\u00a0important<\/a> \"So this is a heads up to all those who plan on 'making it rain' for the rest of their lives\u2026you better have the GMAT score necessary to get into the club!\"<\/p>\n<p>He's so right. Firm reliance on the GMAT score as a screening mechanism has another consequence, not discussed in the article. Because admissions offices in our tough economy are weighing post-MBA employability more heavily, they want to admit applicants with realistic goals. If you have a 680 GMAT and say you want to work for Goldman or McKinsey, then you may be perceived as unrealistic -- particularly at programs with average GMATs at matriculation of over 700.<\/p>\n<p>I have spoken with many admissions directors who would reject otherwise\u00a0admissible\u00a0applicants whom they deemed unrealistic. Others view applicants with a mismatch between their GMAT score and their goals as candidates who hadn't done their homework and consequently are uninformed. In either case, the lack of information\/realism seemed more damaging than the GMAT score itself.<\/p>\n<p>When presenting your goals, be informed. Be real.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;font-family: Arial\"><em><span style=\"font-style: italic\"><span>By<\/span> <span>Linda<\/span> <span>Abraham<\/span>, founder and president of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accepted.com\/mba\" target=\"_blank\">Accepted.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BusinessWeek recently published an excellent article, GMAT: The MBA Job Seeker&#8217;s Best Friend, exploring the impact of GMAT scores on post-MBA job prospects and the reality that some business school&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11,3,4],"tags":[196,1894,19,75,39,332],"class_list":["post-1307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-mba","category-b-school-life","category-career-reviews","tag-emory-goizueta","tag-gmat","tag-investment-banking","tag-management-consulting","tag-mba-admissions","tag-mckinsey","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1307"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions\/1309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}