That means you will have 3 years of work experience at the time of matriculation - that's OK but not the perfect 5 years. As long as you have had a stand-out career with some achievements, promotions, and other elements that highlight you as a bright shooting start (can't pick that out of a 1-liner), I think it is safe to apply with just 3 years. Otherwise, would recommend trying to expand your profile as much as possible with any opportunity you can (e.g. international assignments, increased responsibility, facing customers or execs, etc) - these all add up!

Hey @elizamaharana,
A few observations and suggested actions:
Observation 1. Your choice of post MBA goal in Finance is unrelated to your pre-MBA industry. Applying with tenuous links between your pre-MBA & your post-MBA goals will make your application a lot more challenging.
Suggested Actions:
a. Widen your choice of schools to include safety schools in your basket.
b. Highlight your work accomplishments (across your entire application, LORs included) in a way that makes the AdCom more confident about your understanding of your post-MBA goals (underline if you have had any stints in the Finance/ investment side of things)
c. Spread your application in multiple rounds. Any admissions in your earlier rounds, will heavily weigh in your favour for admissions to higher ranked and more competitive schools (provided you are able to weave that in your application properly)

Observation 2. Your Career Goals taking a wild pivot pose significant challenges to your application.
Actions
a. Make sure to be a stellar candidate in every other aspect of the application, including, but not limited to your scores (GRE?GMAT), your ECs, Essays, LORs and more.
b. Esp for Fiannce goals such as VC & IB goals, it is ever more important to target high Quant scores (not saying that low verbal/ DI/ reasoning scores are ok, but high quant is absolutely essential). It would also be wise to get high scores (GRE- 330+ or GMAT 705+ for GSB, INSEAD & HEC) would put you in a comfortable range

Observation 3. For your target schools, your planned WE of 5 existing + another 2-3 years may make the challenges grow for you.
Actions:
a. Better for you to apply sooner than later. Now is actually a good time
b. If you are not among the ORM (Over represented demographics - e.g. Indian), your Low representation can be a positive for you. However, it is very important that you leverage this card to maximize your benefits.

Observation 4. Most applicants spend the LEAST amount of time in understanding the importance of their MBA schools for their entire career beyond the ranks published in a reputed publication. Choose your schools wisely.
Actions:
a. Don't just take the employment reports at face value. Go DEEPER; UNDERSTAND the percentage of employment outcomes from these schools that match your projected trajectories. Technically speaking, few of these reports (if at all) may put in data that’s false about employment outcomes. However, since you are betting your future career and life on your school, it is important for you to dig deeper, and choose your list of target schools wisely
b. Going to a slightly lower ranked school (assuming it still fits your career goals) with a high scholarship may sometimes be worth MUCH MORE than going to a top school with zero scholarship, not merely because of the financial aspect

Observation 5. In your question, you haven’t specified your college, its national standing, your CGPA, GMAT/GRE scores and such other data. AdComs from the Top ranked schools such as those that form your list, would also LIKE to see top college/ pedigree AND top percentile scores in those.
a. IF you have not had such colleges and/or scores, it may help to take up ancillary courses such as mba math or hbs core. More details about whether or not you should take these courses can be found on Stacy Blackman page (https://www.stacyblackman.com/hbs-core-hbx-or-mba-math/)


Hope that helps. Please submit your profile for a Free Assessment over a 1:1 call. https://theivyleagueedge.com/index.php/contactus/
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