How far does the GMAT follow you after a top school?

Question

Howdy all,

I recently graduated with two degrees and three majors (two were honors majors as well) from a top public school and have a job at a top 3 consulting firm. So far everything seems to be falling in place to go to an ultra-elite in a few years. My question is "how long does the GMAT follow a job candidate?"

I remember when looking for a full-time job last year that some employers still asked for SAT scores (as well as score breakdown) and while my score was good, my quant kept me from applying to a NY hedge fund (needed a 750+). 

I received a 730 on my GMAT a couple of days ago, scoring Q45 (77%) and V46 (99%). Although that might be a good enough score to get into a top school with my resume, I am worried that my quant score might haunt me if I decide to look at PE/Hedge Funds/some Banks as they get to choose from the top of the top of the top. My math was at the lower end of my Princeton Review online practice tests and I am wondering what y'all thought about retaking the test.

Important enough to retake? Not worry about it and be happy with my score? What do you think?

Thanks for all the help, you guys are great,

D

Dtark · Answer

No one has any idea nor input?

Hjort · Answer

If you've spent this long thinking about it already, I would consider simply posting a higher score and clearing the issue.

Dtark · Answer

Yes, that would clear the issue but it misses the point. 
 
There is still a valid question here that I think deserves to be explored. The GMAT doesn't just get you into business school, it becomes part of your resume. How far does the GMAT follow you? 

Does it keep people out of some top jobs or is two years with stellar grades at a top-tier business school enough to clean the slate?

tedFitz · Answer

It follows you to the grave. You should really consider retaking the exam to bump up that quant score.

Hjort · Answer

Sorry, I did not understand that you were interesting in exploring this issue further. Like most test scores/academic grades, the value of the GMAT decays pretty rapidly. During and immediately after business school, the GMAT has value, especially if grades are suppressed in your MBA program. For the initial job it has value for the highly selective, mass application fields such as finance and consulting. After that the first few years, its value would be largely depleted and reliance would be placed on your post-MBA record.

How far does the GMAT follow you after a top school?

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