Hi Gil. Please help with my profile evaluation:

Age: 32
Gender: Male
Nationality: Indian

Education:
Engineer in Computer Science
GPA: 4
GMAT: 680 Q47, V37

Work Experience:
10 years at an IT services firm as an IT Business Transformation Consultant
Dedicated work with single client, a Swiss Fortune 500 company
Worked across multiple geographies with local clients from South America, Europe, East Asia

Extracurriculars:
Regular Quizzing
Occasional corporate social responsibility activities

Schools:
1. IIM A
2. IIM B
3. IIM C
4. ISB
5. NUS/Said

After MBA, I want to move into General Strategy/Management Consulting with boutique firms.

Do you think i should retake the test and aim for a 720+ for my choice of schools.

Thanks

Hi ARINGO Team,

My name is Miran and I would like to request a quick look at my profile to see if I'm a good candidate for an MBA.

I recently took the GRE and scored a 162 and 161 for verbal and quant, with a 5 in the writing section.

I did my Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering at the National University of Singapore, but graduated with a low GPA of 2.76/5.

Since graduating in 2016, I've been working as a project engineer in a large multinational engineering and construction firm, where I have steadily taken on more leadership roles.

In my first project, I was entrusted with the care of six key project critical documents, tasked with coordinating several high-level channels of communication, and managed a large contractor to a safe, timely, and under-budget completion.

In my second project, I was tasked with coordinating the implementation of a novel cloud-based engineering environment, which required constant work with the Thai office, the cloud vendor, and the client.

I am currently on my third project, where I have successfully implemented a different cloud-based construction mobility software, which included the development of procedures, training of personnel, and coordination with stakeholders of all levels of authority (up to project director levels). Presently, I am leading a team of 10 persons from the various Engineering, Construction Supervision, Contractor, and client teams. This sub-project requires me to control costs, prepare schedules, coordinate permitting, and also do engineering work. I have also conducted field supervision works.

I have taken and achieved my Project Management Professional certification, and am planning to take other project management courses to Keep improving myself.

I'm terms of extra curriculars, I started my college football team, and am one of the organisers of the Singapore Poetry Slam, the longest running local spoken word event in Singapore.

I was wanting to apply to places like Cass, Manchester, maybe LBS or Imperial?

Please take a look and let me know what you might think of my candidature chances.

I have fairly strong referee letters, from my project manager and a regional VP, which I believe should help.

For additional information, I am a Chinese male Singaporean, 30 years old with 4 years working experience in mid-level management.

I have some questions, if I may:

1) An honest opinion and review of my profile
2) What can I do to improve my case
3) Which UK business schools should i be looking at?

Please take a look and let me know


Posted from my mobile device

Hi Arlingo Team,

Would love a profile evaluation.

Age: 28
Gender: Male
Nationality: Pakistani

Education: Bachelors in Business from top ranked University in Pakistan, 3.06 GPA
GMAT (Online): 700 (Q44, V41, IR7)


Work Experience: 6 years of work experience in investment planning, strategy and sales/business development at an MNC energy major. Have been responsible for guiding investment decisions with an outlay of $7 Mln USD and developing the new country strategy. Have led teams and worked (virtually) across geographical boundaries.

Extra curriculars: Parliamentary Debate and Model UN, during undergrad. Gained international exposure and leadership experience through attending conferences all over the world. Also served as President of the university's own Model UN Conference.

Community: Fundraising for a prominent NGO that works on education for the underprivileged. Also serve as a pro-bono consultant on business strategy to a local start up focused on organic waste.

Post MBA Goals: Transition into consultancy, preferably with in the energy space. Plan to work with diverse clients (Energy Majors, Public Utilities, Renewables and Gov/Regulators) in developed markets on energy transition before returning home to within Pakistan's growing energy landscape.

Schools (in order of preference): LBS, HEC, Judge, Said

Hi Shimri and Gerorgia!
Happy Holidays! I hope you're doing well!

At the outset, I would like to thank you for all your help to the community(I think the profile eval page on the aringo website is awsome!).

I am looking to apply to MBA programs in the upcoming application cycle(in R1 of 20201) and would be extremely grateful if you could help me with a profile eval to assess my chances in schools like ISB, Ross, Stern, Foster, UT Austin, Tepper and Fuqua (Please do let me know of any other programs that you feel would be a good fit for me. I havent explored too many non US schools ). I planned on applying this year but a few had to postpone due to a few personal circumstances at home.

<<removed>>


I would be grateful if you could also help me with the following queries,

1. Your overall assessment of the profile
2. Would you recommend that I take the GMAT over the GRE? (I struggle with SC. Learning new words and logically plugging them in based on meaning comes more naturally to me). What should be my target test score?
3. Things are shaky at work. Teams are being laid off heavily and mine has been affected too. A consultation process is underway. The economy hasn't picked up and securing PM roles for folks without a PM-experience in the resume is getting very hard. Consequently, I might have to switch jobs in a similar role by March/April, leaving me with very little time for applications next year. I have the following questions in this regard

A: Will this negatively affect my chances or do you see the ad-com's being more sympathetic to my situation?

B: Would a switch back to Retail Org be perceived negatively? I really liked working there and wouldn't mind going back, even if in the worst case an MBA doesn't materialize for some reason. Securing an LOR from Retail Org(or any new organization) might be a little difficult due to the limited time I would be present in the organization. This has me extremely worried

My apologies for the inconvenience caused by inundating you with so many queries. I would greatly appreciate your thought on this

Thank you in advance
Sincerely

Hi elPatron434

Thanks for sharing your profile and MBA aspirations
As you know, my name is Shimri Winters, I head the strategy here at ARINGO and an LBS alumnus.

From what I can see:

Academics – you have a very good undergraduate and your GPA sounds quite good for computer science which is a tough degree to get a high GPA in. Regarding the fact that you were ill and missed some classes? I would only mention this in schools that specifically ask, if you feel your academics represent your ability. Should you mention this in others? I need to see your entire application to decide if to mention this in the optional essay or not, but my initial gut feeling is not to mention this and focus on positive things

School wish list – I really like your school wish list! Obviously, Stern is harder to get into vs. Foster but all in all, a well-balanced and realistic list! I really think you have a chance if you write great apps!

Extracurricular activities – I love both your hobbies and very happy to see you have some volunteering too

Work Experience –So, you have worked for two great big companies – fantastic and I hope you have a lot of juice and interesting stories for the essays! Actually, I am sure you do 😊 international teams, projects worth 10s of millions, team members underperforming, etc. GREAT!

Your career goals sound very realistic product manager in big tech giant for example (Foster is in Seattle – home of Amazon, Microsoft, etc.)

To answer your questions:
1. profile assessment see above
2. Schools are indifferent to GRE or GMAT. Take the test that fits you the best, and the one you feel you can score the highest score.
3. yes, leaving your job in April will have a negative effect, but if you can find something else fast, then we can show it was a promotion or “upgrade” to a better position. The quicker it happens (the further from R1) the better. Switching back to retail org will not have a negative impact if the position is more senior than the one you left.

All in all, sounds like you have a solid profile. GRE/GMAT – do your best. Work-wise, the most important thing is to stay employed, and if you feel you will be losing your job soon, find something else 😊
And obviously, feel free to reach out directly around May when we start the Round1 applications…

So for now, try to improve GRE / GMAT and let's chat in a few months? Happy to help further with a detailed review and perhaps work together on some amazing apps if you send me your CV and any other info to Shimriw@ARINGO.com

GOOD LUCK!

Hi Forum,

I took my GMAT and scored 650. I applied in R2 of ISB. I am a 25 yo Female IT. Extra curricular: Theatre, Sudoku GWR second round, Astronomy blogger, NGO Volunteer.

Post mba - product Management

What are my chances.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi team ARINGO,

Hope you're all doing well. Huge thanks in advance for reviewing my profile! Might be a little late since admissions have started but I'm considering applying to MBA programs in Europe (in particular the non-English speaking countries) matriculating this fall. I just took my GMAT 3 days ago so I only have the unofficial score for now, though I hear it is usually accurate.

Female, 33, Singaporean
BA in History, National University of Singapore (Second Upper)
BA in International Liberal Studies, Waseda University, Japan

GMAT
Unofficial 710 Q44 V44

Work Experience
7 years at an American tech MNC in Singapore. Switched through various individual contributor roles with the most recent and longest (~3 years) managing regional fraud, risk and compliance dealing with customer data privacy. No promotions since I usually sought lateral jumps to different roles (with pay rise etc) within a year in one role. Held leadership roles during college and prior, but no direct people management experience in the workplace as I wasn't interested enough to pursue that.
Currently not employed as I'd previously left with the intention to take a year to travel and explore Europe and possible job opportunities thereon, but, you know, 2020 was not a good year for that.

Hobbies
Sports (both team sports and individual sports like squash); travelling; exploring food, culture, and languages.

Goal
To work in Europe. Ideally in a smaller company/startup/scaleup with a meaningful product. Considering industries like fintech and/or functions like product management, both of which I think will be hard for me to get into currently (non-EU + prior industry experience and roles on paper not related to these two aspects), hence considering MBA as a bridge.
And the secondary (or maybe primary goal?) for the curious kid in me: learn a non-English European language.

List of Schools (that I sent my GMAT to, but open to others)
- Esade
- IESE
- Rotterdam
- SDA Bocconi
- Copenhagen Business School
I was actually very interested in BI in Norway, but their admission requirements for Business MSc requires prior undergraduate courses and/or degree related to business, finance, etc, which I don't possess. I even emailed them asking if it were possible to take some bridging or prep courses, but their response was pretty much a non-answer.
Those around me usually enrol in Judge or INSEAD, but I'm not interested in business consulting nor the cutthroat suit-and-tie culture. Countries of particular interest to me are Norway, all Northern Europe (the societal values espoused), Spain (Spanish would be a gateway to so many other languages and cultures), Italy (the food!), but open to others too.

Questions:
• Any comments/feedback on my profile above?
• Would currently not being employed adversely impact my admission chances? I recall some schools like Tallinn Tech actually indicate a strong preference for applicants who are currently employed.
• I get the sense Aringo might specialise more in the US side but if there are any other schools I should consider, please feel free to share.

A million thanks for reading through this!

ARINGO

Hi Priyanka, thanks for the super quick response!

I don't really know what the GPA equivalent is since NUS follows the British grading system, but I had a score of 4.14/5 with Second Class Upper Honours, whereas Waseda seems to have a different grading system. There are grades for each course, and I attained about half As and half A+'s, but the transcript indicates the school does not rank.

I've done some volunteering previously at food kitchen, overseas volunteer activities during college etc but it's not sustained. I prefer helping friends or acquaintances out, although I don't do it for the advertisement so I will leave these out from my CV. For example, I've helped proofread websites in English, did DIY renovations for 4 months, coached my junior team for 2-3 years after graduation but stopped after work and travel demands piled up, etc.

You are right, I don't particularly have a clear career trajectory or goal and my resume will reflect that too. So far, I've pursued subsequent roles usually by considering what skills I wanted to attain or what challenges I wanted to tackle, and my listed career goals also follow that vein. This is probably somewhat unlike most MBA applicants heh. That said, I had some exposure to pseudo product management in my previous role, as I took an additional responsibility of driving the development of an internal data analytics platform even as I was managing risk and compliance day-to-day. That was what got me interested in product management. As for fintech, I noticed most of fraud roles available were in the finance industry, but fintech is more appealing to me than traditional finance since I believe finance should be disrupted to increase accessibility.

Thanks again for the thorough feedback! Much appreciated. Right now I should get cracking on applications and when I've done that, I'll consider the free consultation from Aringo since it's probably easier to help someone when they've at least taken some steps themselves, eh?