INSEAD Profile Evaluation - Tools for B-School Profile Evaluation

Hi,

I would like to get expert opinion for my profile evaluation and gauge my chances of getting into INSEAD. I am applying for Jan-21 intake.

Please refer my details below:

Name: D. Sushil Kumar
Citizenship: India
Age: 33 years
Total work experience: 12 Years 7 months.
GMAT score: 710 (Q48, V39)

Education Details:
Class 10th Score: 85 %
Class 12th Score: 90%
Undergrad (2003-2007): B-Tech in mechanical engineering from National institute of technology, Warangal (NITW)- Tier 1 institute.
CGPA: 7.3 out of 10.

Work experience:

1. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (India's leading automobile manufacturer): June 2007- Dec 2012
Department: Research and development
Position: Deputy manager ( Promoted twice in 5 years)
Role: Managing product life cycle and carrying out digital simulations.

2. Bajaj Auto Ltd ( World's third largest motorcycle manufacturer) : Dec 2012- current
Department: Research and development
Position: Manager (Promoted once in 4 years)
Role: Leading digital mockup group (team of 5). Responsible for vehicle integration and all digital simulations related to vehicle assembly, ergonomics & service.

International exposure:

1. On the Job training at Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan (Sep 2008 - Nov 2008)
2. Training at Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan(Oct 2010 - Mar 2011). Also underwent language and cultural training under Japan's AOTS program.

Extracurricular activities:

1. Secured 149th position at All India Level English Proficiency during 1998-99.
2. Volunteer - Help Age India, for the cause and care of the elderly.
3. Was an active member of e-Parivartan, a CSR initiative at Maruti (Taught 30 underprivileged kids)
4. History enthusiast.
5. Participated in online multiplayer gaming events.

Languages Known: English, Hindi, Telugu & Japanese (beginner)

Recommendations: Secured excellent recos from GM in current organization and DGM in previous organization.

Post MBA goal: Would like to make a career shift and work in product planning and strategy group of a major automotive OEM.

Question: I know that my 12+ years of work experience is a concern. I would like to know how big of a concern is it?

Hi all,

Could I please have an evaluation of my profile - would be greatly appreciated.

UK Citizen/Resident in Portugal
GMAT 750 v42 q50
GPA - 62% (UK)/3.4 (US Conversion) BSc Economics
Total Work Experience - 3 Years 3 Months

Work Experience

US Investment Bank - Equities Summer Analyst (3 Months) - London
- Created custom IOI model which saved equity trading desk 40 hours a week.

UK Fintech Start Up - Operations Associate (4 Months) - London
- Managed loan book of £20,000,000.
- Jointly defined growth strategy with COO resulting in closure of £2,500,000 of funding.

Portuguese/Spanish Proptech Start Up - Sales Strategy Manager (2 Years) - Lisbon
- Led team of 12 reporting directly to CEO, grew ARR from $100,000 to $1,000,000.
- Led expansion from Lisbon to entire Portuguese market over 2 year period.

Portuguese AI Translation Scale Up - Revenue Operations Manager (6 Months) - Lisbon
- Worked directly with CRO to provide reporting for board.
- Managed CRM (Salesforce).
- Delivered forecasting model that was selected by the Board to plan for the year ahead.
- Overhauled commission payment system to reduce errors, saving $100,000 over the year.

Extracurricular Activities
- Managed successful Airbnb business, revenue of €30,000 per annum, rating of 4.7/5
- Football, playing regular 5-a-side matches.
- Skiing, organising annual trip.
- Volunteer at Cancer Research UK.
- Carried out research project at UK Hospital into eating and nutrition habits.

Languages: English (Native), Portuguese (B1), French (A2)

Currently working full time on the Airbnb Business in order to save for MBA, will this be a problem? Will have one recommendation from most recent employer and one from a mentor (C-Level at PE Firm).

Hello everyone,

Requesting for a profile evaluation for Insead class of 2022. I'll be applying in Fall 2020.

I'm from India, and studied in a CBSE-affiliated school.
- Grade 10: 10 /10 GPA
- Grade 12: Science (Physics, Chemistry, Math) + Economics - scored 96.75% best of 4 subjects and 95.5% in all 5 combined
- Received multiple 'Meritorious Awards' in school as well as a (small) scholarship (that was the the only one our school gave out )
- Also received 'Certificate of Merit' every year in school from Grade 5 to Grade 12 (might not matter that much because it was so long ago but just mentioning it here because of reasons you'll see below)
- Completed my 3 year undergraduate in BA Economics Honors from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University. Scored in Top 10% - 87.5% at the end of the program with first distinction.
- I also attended a one month summer school at London School of Economics (LSE) in Strategic Management - great experience studying with students from so many different backgrounds!

- Coming to GMAT, my score is 700 (Q48, V38, IR 8 and Essay still pending review but it went well so i'm hoping i should at least get a 5) - I am worried how this will fare in the grand scheme of things. I've been told this score is fine given my prior academic record, work ex, and the fact that i am not from an engineering background. Honestly, im not sure if it is helpful for me to study again and give the GMAT or work on my applications instead. This was a retake, and though i scored 730 in mocks, actual score ended up at 700.

Professional Background
- I work as a management consultant in a good consulting firm (it is more recognized in the US, and it's founders are professors at Kellogg so you'd know where I'm working if you know that ). I'll complete 4 years this July but i think work ex is counted up to matriculation, so 5 years (not sure about this)
- Received one promotion as of now and manage a team of 4-5 junior members. Worked extensively on quantitative data models, pricing strategies, demand estimations, opportunity assessments, mainly focused in the pharmaceutical industry.
- I've traveled for work within the country and to Thailand as well (one of our clients, a big pharma, was based out of Thailand)
- No other travel for work, but hoping for it this year once the corona scare dies down!
- All my project teams are cross cultural, cross country
- Recently have started getting involved in building up the "strategy consultants" track in my organization

Personal Experiences
- My family loves to travel, so I've been to 19 countries up till now (if you count The Vatican as a separate country!). Definitely aware of a lot of cultures
- Decent bit of volunteer work - teaching under privileged women and children
- Recently started guitar classes
- done some professional dance classes
- taken a course in Marketing Analytics from UVA Darden (Coursera, but this was spnsored by my company so i got the Darden certificate as well) and a course from Dale Carnegie on Effective client communications

Please let me know what you think, or in case any other information will be helpful?

Hi pcbw,

thank you for your post.

Overall, you have a strong profile with potential for admission to INSEAD. Your 750 GMAT score and your experience in Portugal will make it easy for you to show that you meet the Academic Capacity and International Motivation admissions criteria.

I'd like to know a bit more about your career path though.

a. I guess your first two experiences in London were internships, right?

b. How did the transition London->Lisbon happened?

c. Did you quit your job as Revenue Operations Manager primarily to focus on your Airbnb business? Or otherwise, what happened?

d. So far, how long have you been working on your Airbnb business? Do you plan to focus on this business until you start your MBA?

If you have an updated resume, feel free to share it with me (alex@arleeconsulting.com) for a more detailed assessment.

Also, what are your career goals? Why do you need an MBA? What intake and round are you targeting?

Thank you very much.

Warm regards
Alex

Hi everyone!

Would really appreciate some input on my profile.

Profile
- Born and bred in Singapore (Chinese ethnicity)
- Female
- 4 years M&A experience (valuations/corporate finance/business restructuring) in Big 4 (think Deloitte, PwC, etc)
- Ranked as High Performer in recent performance review
- 4.05/5 undergrad GPA Accounting and Business Law Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
- 700 GMAT Q47 V38 IR4 AWA6
- Central bank scholarship holder, req to work in the finance sector in Singapore post-MBA
- References from Big 4 Corporate Finance Partner and Senior Manager
- Volunteering at YMCA (Vietnam, Myanmar trip), high school math tutoring part-time for 5 years
- Avid solo traveller and couchsurfing host (hosting travellers at my place)

Thank you!

Posted from my mobile device

Hi ShrutiShivnani1,

thank you for sharing such a detailed profile.

Yeah, I think I know which consulting company you're working at . Is your company going to sponsor your MBA? Otherwise, what are your career goals?

Your profile is strong, but your 700 GMAT score worries me a bit. As you may know, as an Indian applying to INSEAD, it is always recommended to score at least 730-740. So if possible, I would encourage you to retake it. After all, if you have been scoring ~730 in mocks, you probably won't need that much extra preparation.

Also, keep in mind that you'll be competing with other Indians with higher GMAT scores and extensive international experience (e.g. studying and working in different countries for several years). So, in order to make your profile more competitive and, since traveling for work in the upcoming months may be challenging (due to the coronavirus situation and all), increasing your GMAT score would be a worthwhile option.

In most cases, it is true that working on a strong application (i.e. resume, essays and LoRs) is more impactful than trying to get a few more extra points at GMAT. But, since there is still plenty of time until the Sep 2022 intake application opens up, I think you have time to increase your GMAT score while still putting together a strong application.

I hope this helps.

Thank you very much.

Warm regards
Alex

Thank you so much for such a quick response! Ideally, yes I’d want to get into the 730 ballpark. The only problem with me is I’ll take another 2-3 months to study because I feel too stressed before the exam (happened both times actually)! My immediate thought is to see what all essay questions etc are there across some of my target schools and maybe retake the GMAT later once I get a hang of all application resources in one place? Does that make sense?

Also another general question - do essay questions remain consistent across application cycles and years or so they change?

Posted from my mobile device

Hi ShrutiShivnani1,

yeah, it makes sense. GMAT can be very stressful, so it makes perfect sense to wait a bit and get back to it with a fresh mind while you do some research on your target schools.

To your question, essay questions remain the same across rounds for the same application cycle, but sometimes they change from one application cycle to the other (i.e. year to year).

In the case of INSEAD, essay questions have remained constant for quite some time now, so I wouldn't be surprised if they were still the same for the Sep 2022 intake application.

I hope this helps.

Thank you very much.

Warm regards
Alex

Hi Snehaaa,

thank you for sharing your profile.

Overall, I like your experience in R&D for the automobile sector and your international exposure in Japan.

My main concern would be the combination of your 710 GMAT score and your 12+ years of work experience. Typically, as an Indian applicant, you want to score at least 730-740. But considering that both your age and number of years of work experience are outside INSEAD's range, ideally, you want to score even higher.

Please, check out INSEAD's MBA'20D Class Profile here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/insead-mba-2 ... 14268.html

What is the possibility of a retake?

Also, INSEAD will expect more from you in terms of career progression and achievements than from a "younger" applicant. So make sure that your resume, essays and LoRs show a successful and rapid career progression and stress all your achievements.

Finally, INSEAD will also expect a very compelling reason as to why you're applying at this point in your career and how an MBA will fit into your career plans.

I hope this helps.

Thank you very much.

Warm regards
Alex

HI ShrutiShivnani1

Wow! First of all, amazing work on the profile there. And great that you already started thinking about your application for Sep 22. This gives you a lot of time to frame your story and an edge over others. And yes! work ex for you will be counted as 5 years.

You seem a little concerned about the international exposure bit. One thing I would like to clarify is that “working outside of your country being a necessity for INSEAD” IS A MYTH. Two of the candidates, who I recently worked with, had no experience working outside of their home country, but were able to pull off an amazing application, and made it to INSEAD

INSEAD evaluates your applications based on the following:
1. Ability to contribute
2. Leadership skills
3. International motivation (doesn’t mean that you have to be working outside of your country to prove this)
4. Academics

Hope my answer helps!
Cheers!
Shantanu Sharma, INSEAD MBA’17
Founder and MBA Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond
Schedule a free session
Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com
https://gmatclub.com/chat: +65-97158525
Call: +49-15212121641
Linkedin

Hi pinkpolkadots,

Great profile there! It’s great that you already have some clarity on the sector you want to get into after MBA. This will give you a good direction while working on your application.

INSEAD is a great choice if your post-MBA goal is Finance. Consulting and Finance are the 2 major sectors that absorb most from INSEAD. As per this year’s stats, Finance sector contributed to 21% of the post-MBA jobs https://intheknow.insead.edu/employment-statistics/. You could aim for getting an internship in the finance sector early on (if you are going for the Jan session) and work with Career Development Centre to get there.

Eventually, what’s going to set you apart is how well you connect the dots and portray your story to highlight the following in your application:
INSEAD evaluates your applications based on the following:
1. Ability to contribute
2. Leadership skills
3. International motivation
4. Academics

Btw, may I ask when are you planning to apply?

Cheers!
Shantanu Sharma, INSEAD MBA’17
Founder and MBA Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond
Schedule a free session
Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com
https://gmatclub.com/chat: +65-97158525
Call: +49-15212121641
Linkedin

Amazing! Thank you so much for taking out the time to reply here. Can you please also comment on my GMAT Scores? As an update, I got my GMAT AWA score back so re-iterating the score here - 700 (Q48, V38, IR 8, AWA 6).
Like I said, I’m slightly concerned about this. Very slightly though haha because a consultant told me that it should be fine give work ex + acad + female applicant. Also that INSEAD average is 708?
I’m confused if I should spend 2 more months trying to get 30 points more or just work on my essays




Posted from my mobile device

Hi pcbw


First of all, great work on your profile. It’s quite impressive.

I don’t see working on the Airbnb business as a problem, as long as you can justify your transition and explain how it contributes to your growth (just saying “I wanted to save for MBA” won’t be enough)

On a side note, Your entrepreneurial experience and the humanitarian work you have done would be useful in the application. It is the need of the hour and INSEAD is always scouting for candidates who want to use business to solve the world's most pressing problems.

May I ask you, what’s your post MBA goal? Because if it is something similar to what I am thinking right now, then it is going to be a bombastic story.

Shantanu Sharma, INSEAD MBA’17
Founder and MBA Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond
Schedule a free session
Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com
https://gmatclub.com/chat: +65-97158525
Call: +49-15212121641
Linkedin

Hi Snehaaa

First of all, it’s impressive that you are thinking of doing an MBA as the next step in your life.
I don’t see having 12+ years of experience as a hurdle if you want to go for INSEAD, as long as you can justify why you would want to for an MBA.

To help you clear your doubts further, I’d like to share some facts with you.
28% of the class of 2019 was older than 31 and 22% of the class had more than 7 years of experience. https://intheknow.insead.edu/employment-statistics/

Honestly, in the end it’s going to be about why you feel MBA will help you in your career development further and how you project it in your application.

Hope my answer helps.

Cheers!
Shantanu Sharma, INSEAD MBA’17
Founder and MBA Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond
Schedule a free session
Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com
https://gmatclub.com/chat: +65-97158525
Call: +49-15212121641
Linkedin

Hello ShrutiShivnani1

Looking at "...profile evaluation for Insead class of 2022. I'll be applying in Fall 2020.", there is a little confusion on when do you want to apply. If you want to apply for the intake of 2022, then application will start next year and you should definitely try increasing your score by 10-20 points. Reason for 10-20 points is that with your work exp of 12+ years, you can share stronger leadership examples than the average applicant (my assumption here). But if you are planning to apply for 2021 intake then, looking at current scenario where GMAT centres are closed due to corona virus, you might not have the option of writing the exam again soon. Not trying to demotivate you but these are facts and there are many who are facing similar situation. INSEAD has started accepting applications without GMAT score. So in current scenario, focussing on application will make more sense for you.

Cheers!
Shantanu Sharma, INSEAD MBA’17
Founder and MBA Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond
Schedule a free session
Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com
https://gmatclub.com/chat: +65-97158525
Call: +49-15212121641
Linkedin

Hello! Sorry, think there’s some confusion. My work ex is 5 years and I’ll be applying in Fall 2020. That would be matriculation in Sep 2021 and graduation after 10 months.


[quote="MBAnBConsulting"]Hello ShrutiShivnani1

Looking at "...profile evaluation for Insead class of 2022. I'll be applying in Fall 2020.", there is a little confusion on when do you want to apply. If you want to apply for the intake of 2022, then application will start next year and you should definitely try increasing your score by 10-20 points. Reason for 10-20 points is that with your work exp of 12+ years, you can share stronger leadership examples than the average applicant (my assumption here). But if you are planning to apply for 2021 intake then, looking at current scenario where GMAT centres are closed due to corona virus, you might not have the option of writing the exam again soon. Not trying to demotivate you but these are facts and there are many who are facing similar situation. INSEAD has started accepting applications without GMAT score. So in current scenario, focussing on application will make more sense for you.

Cheers!
Shantanu Sharma, INSEAD MBA’17
Founder and MBA Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond
Schedule a free session
Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com
https://gmatclub.com/chat: +65-97158525
Call: +49-15212121641
Linkedin

[quote="ShrutiShivnani1"]Amazing! Thank you so much for taking out the time to reply here. Can you please also comment on my GMAT Scores? As an update, I got my GMAT AWA score back so re-iterating the score here - 700 (Q48, V38, IR 8, AWA 6).
Like I said, I’m slightly concerned about this. Very slightly though haha because a consultant told me that it should be fine give work ex + acad + female applicant. Also that INSEAD average is 708?
I’m confused if I should spend 2 more months trying to get 30 points more or just work on my essays


[quote="MBAnBConsulting"]HI ShrutiShivnani1

Wow! First of all, amazing work on the profile there. And great that you already started thinking about your application for Sep 22. This gives you a lot of time to frame your story and an edge over others. And yes! work ex for you will be counted as 5 years.

You seem a little concerned about the international exposure bit. One thing I would like to clarify is that “working outside of your country being a necessity for INSEAD” IS A MYTH. Two of the candidates, who I recently worked with, had no experience working outside of their home country, but were able to pull off an amazing application, and made it to INSEAD

INSEAD evaluates your applications based on the following:
1. Ability to contribute
2. Leadership skills
3. International motivation (doesn’t mean that you have to be working outside of your country to prove this)
4. Academics

Hope my answer helps!
Cheers
Shantanu Sharma, INSEAD MBA’17
Founder and MBA Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond
Schedule a free session
Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com
https://gmatclub.com/chat: +65-97158525
Call: +49-15212121641
[url=https://www.linkedin.com/in/shantanu-sharma-b7938431/]

Posted from my mobile device

Hello ShrutiShivnani1

Thanks for clarifying. Alright, indeed INSEAD's average is 708, but average for Indians is higher than that. 20-30 points more would help you a lot here, but it would depend on whether you have the option of writing the exam soon, a problem which lot of applicants are facing. So in the current scenario, as I mentioned earlier, it will make more sense to focus on application.

Cheers!
Shantanu Sharma, INSEAD MBA’17
Founder and MBA Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond
Schedule a free session
Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com
https://gmatclub.com/chat: +65-97158525
Call: +49-15212121641
Linkedin