ISB applicants - Ask GyanOne!!

Hi NamGup

Thanks for posting and welcome to the GyanOne thread. Here is our advice:
- Overall, you are working for a top brand, in a business relevant domain (banking tech), and have Master's education. Your academic performance is decent as well, and you have won some awards at work. These are all good positives going for you.
- On the other side, you come from an over-represented pool (IT), your ECA are weak (from the ISB perspective), and most of your ECA/social activities are more on a personal basis (they still count, but ISB may not consider them heavyweight stuff). You will have to overcome these factors through a strong application, and should schedule enough time to work on it in advance of the R1 deadline for 2019.
- You also have over 8 years of experience, and are on the edge of the level that ISB starts to look at as a lot of experience. This does not mean you can't get in, but just 4% of ISB's class this year had 8+ years of experience. It is possible to compensate for these factors through strong ECA, differentiated work-ex, and a high GMAT. As the former two factors cannot be influenced in the short term, you should focus on a high GMAT score - in your case, a 700+ (of course, the higher than that the better).
- Your career goals seem to be in sync broadly.
- In sum, try and use this time to work hard on the GMAT, so you are done with it by the June-July timeframe, and have time to focus on your app.

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.

No problem Pradeep. A career goals discussion is always a long one, and involves multiple factors. Also, pursue the MBA to achieve your goals - not the other way round. As of now, please focus on the GMAT, and once you are done, get in touch with us directly (referencing this thread) as we will require much more information to discuss on that aspect at that point. If any other queries, or anything here still not clear, feel free to come back on this thread any time.

ISB has announced the deadlines for applications to its flagship PGP program for 2019-20.

Round 1 deadline: 15 Sep 2019
Application fee for regular/EEO applicants: INR 5,000
Application fee for reapplicants: INR 2,500

Round 2 deadline: 1 Dec 2019
Application fee for regular/EEO applicants: INR 7,500
Application fee for reapplicants: INR 2,500

Round 3 deadline: 1 Jan 2020
Application fee for regular/EEO applicants: INR 10,000
Application fee for reapplicants: INR 5,000

Notes on key changes:
- Applying in a later round now attracts a higher application fee for first-time applicants (and reapplicants as well in R3)
- ISB has stuck to its pattern of having three deadlines from last year. While these deadlines were announced mid-way last year, they are there upfront this year.
- While ISB maintains that the chances of admission are the same across rounds (this was clearly not the case last year, when a new R3 was announced in a hurry), full tuition waivers are only available to applicants putting in their applications in R1. 50% of all merit and need-based waivers too are available only in R1.

The essay topics are yet to be announced, but are expected shortly.

Hi ,

I gave my GMAT last week and scored a 640(Q44,V34,IR 5,AWA 4). I have a work experience of 11 years in India in IT companies - Mahindra and Capgemini . I am primarily interested in MBA from India (IIMs / ISB/XLRI/S P Jain) . I am not sure of my chances with this score and would really appreciate if you could give me your insights.

10th CBSE -94%
12th CBSE -83%
Engineering from MIT,Manipal- 3.2/4

Have worked in the telecom and banking domain and also worked in a government sector project for Delhi Police

Hi swarniverma

- Your GMAT at 640 will be too low for the IIMs and ISB. In addition, you have 11+ years of experience, which is on the higher side for ISB. You can still look at IIMA/B/C, but after you increase your GMAT score by at least 40 points. This score increase is also important as your undergrad GPA is about average.
- IIM L/IIM I/XLRI GMP/SP Jain PGPM are options for you at this score.
- The nature of your work ex is fine. No worries there. With a decent application you can leverage it well.

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.

Hi Gyanone,

My name is Aditya. Kindly evaluate my profile. I will be looking to apply for the first rounds of ISB and a few other B-Schools.

B.Tech - IIT Gandhinagar (7.95/10)
XII - 79.17 (top 1%ile in Maharashtra Board)
X - CGPA 10/10

I have yet to appear for the GMAT, and am planning to give it mid-August. Targeting a score of atleast 730+.

Work Ex. - 24 months as of now

Product Manager for an internal Telecom Analytics Platform developed in house at Jio. Developed several spatial analytics features, managing cross-functional (design, Dev, QA, release) and interacting with network and business teams, gathering requirements and managing the end-to-end process, from ideation to delivery to training. Also possess experience of interacting with CXOs and Leadership teams at Jio.

Achievements (Work)

Fast-track promotion to Deputy Manager
Top Rating for two consecutive years, awarded to the top 5%ile of employees in the department.
Tangible achievements include developing solutions to plan the deployment of heterogeneous network solutions, resulting in a total CapEx saving of X INR.
Applied for 3 patents in the field of spatial analytics in the telecom domain.

B.Tech - IIT Gandhinagar - 7.95/10

Was a co-founder and director of a startup, a content marketplace, incubated on campus. Handled multiple responsibilities, as part of the founding team, including product, operations, editorial and writer onboarding.

Headed content writing internships for college students pan-india, mentoring around 100 students over three editions.

Extra-curriculars include being part of the Football Team at IIT Gandhinagar for four years, a black belt in Martial Arts.

Co-curriculars include clearing the Regional Mathematics Olympiad (RMO) from Maharashtra State.


Short Term Goals -
Consulting Roles in Strategy Or Technology. I'm attracted to the grind and exposure offered by a top consulting role, the connections built and soft-skills gained.

Long term goals -
Leverage my consulting and past product management experience to build agile high-performance guerrilla product teams within large organizations or early stage funded startups looking to disrupt.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi adityaganesh24

Thanks for posting. Here is our assessment:
- Your academics, work (analytics is always well regarded), ECA, and core work have all been quite impressive and with known brands. The IIT tag helps as well, though it is not quite the same as the older IITs (but still will be very helpful). If you can achieve a 730+ (or even a 700+), you should be well positioned for ISB.
- The issue here is in your goals. While your short term goal is feasible, the long-term is not in sync with the short-term one. Understood, you want to use analytics and tech to help early-stage startups. This is more of a product role and not a good sync with consulting. Can easily be tweaked a bit to make it more responsive.
- Would also suggest that unless you expand your school set to consider other schools apart from ISB too, as your profile is good.
- As of now, the immediate target is the GMAT. ISB has announced its deadlines already, so make you take the GMAT in the next couple of months.
- Also go through Indian IT Male MBA Applicants as they will help you, though we understand you are a telecom/analytics professional and not a typical IT applicant.

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.

Hello Gyanone,

It would be great if someone can help in evaluating my profile and suggest what GMAT score should I aim for and chances for me in R1 for ISB.

Male 27

Academics:-
10th : 85%
12th: 90%
BTech - Mechanical Engg - 9.0/10 CGPA - Tier1 College

Work Ex :-
Total Exp : 5 Yrs
Industry : Automotive - Passenger Cars
Company : European Giant
Role : Product Development for Passenger vehicles
Involved in PD for Multiple Project in Germany, Italy, Russia, China, South Korea
Also worked for 4 Indian Vehicles
predominantly Engineering Activity with Managing Projects, Training Juniors and Lead a small Team of 4

Post MBA Goals :- Consulting

What should be my safe score for GMAT and What are the chances of getting through ISB for Round 1 this year (2020 Intake)?

Thanks.

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Hi Team GyanOne,

Can you please evaluate my profile and help me with some points to strengthen my candidature

Male, 27 yrs

Education:12th Standard:93.4%
BE Chemical:CGPA 7.8: Tier 1 College

WorkEx: Senior Developer at Oracle
Total Experience 4 yrs

GMAT Score:740(Quant.50:Verbal.40:IR.8:AWA5)

Achievement at work: Have won Hackathon, Youngest Certified Scrum Master in the team, Have lead multiple Projects and head a team of 4 developers.

Extra Curriculars: Badminton state level player in School time,Head of Techincal Fest in College , Have volunteered with Teach for India for 1 year. Have helped a few Non Profits developing their websites.

Hi PG11

Thanks for posting. Happy to help. Here is our assessment:
- Your academics, ECA, and GMAT are all pretty solid - no problems there.
- The key challenge for you will be differentiating yourself in a very competitive IT applicant pool. As you know, IT applicants is the biggest category of applicants for ISB (and most other B-schools too). This becomes even more important this year, because in this year's essays ISB is asking for mid and long-term goals and the impact you want to make in that timeframe as well. Please provide more details on your work experience (the domain you work on, any onsite experience, team leadership etc)
- Also go through Indian IT Male MBA Applicants as they will help you.

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.

Hi niffler

Thanks for posting and welcome to the GyanOne thread. Request you to please also report your GMAT score (tentative, if not taken)

Hi Gyanone,

Thanks for the reply.
I am targeting around 720 in GMAT.
Kindly evaluate my profile.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi niffler

Thanks for the update. Here is our assessment:
- Your overall professional experience is excellent, and your academics are solid too. Someone like you would be in contention even with a 680 GMAT, though you should of course aim higher.
- You should certainly be looking at ISB R1 this year. Plan to get the GMAT done latest by mid-August (earlier if possible, to have more time for the app).
- ECA is something you have not mentioned here, but assuming that is fine as well. ISB is looking for diversity even in this year's essays (though they have not mentioned the word explicitly) and ECA will help there.

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed.

Hi, I work with Oracle India, I work on their Marketing Cloud Solution, I have helped Migrate Oracles' CRM Business to cloud and have lead a few important projects in the same domain. I am a certified scrum master and run my own scrum team of 5 developers and each of them has more experience in the field than I have. I had done my internship in Digital marketing Domain with Tesco where I was running a couple of accounts for them in the capacity of Digital marketing manager.
I don't have any onsite experience but have counterparts in NA and Canada with whom I work closely.

Hi PG11

- Your work experience is actually excellent, and you have the opportunity to really show some good work in the app, through the Marketing Cloud. What you are working on seems very similar to Salesforce's core product.
- More than Scrum, what will matter is leadership experience and expertise. Leading developers with more experience may not matter too much (is common).
- The Digital Marketing internship helps as well, by expertise, though ISB will not consider it as part of experience.
- On working with global colleagues, again, in today's world, most people do that, so not a differentiator.
- Apart from ISB, also look at IIMs (A/B/C) and NUS/NTU. They are all good options.

At this point, would advise you to put in a lot of good effort on your apps. For IT applicants, things are always a bit tricky. With good effort, you can make it. In case looking for professional help, don't hesitate to reach out.

Hi Gyanone,

I graduated from NIT Nagpur in 2017 and have a work experience of almost 24 months with a leading analytics firm as a consultant.

Profile is as follows-
X-94.5%
XII-85%
B.TECH-7.4 CGPA

Extra curriculars-

1. Won Tata crucible campus Quiz Nagpur region round in 2017
2. Was part of core committee of college's Cult Fest organising team
3. Was Departmental Representative for Academic Year 2017-2018
4. was promoted from Consultant to senior consultant with 18 months(The shortest possible time)

I am planning to give GMAT by mid-August of this year. What are the areas in my profile that I should strengthen and what should be the target GMAT score for ISB and SP Jain?

Hello Gyanone,

It would be great if someone can help in evaluating my profile and suggest what GMAT score should I aim for and chances for me in R1 for ISB also i have attempted GMAT before and will provide my score as well:

Male 26

Academics:-
10th : 78%
12th: 75% (Science with Computers)
Business Economics From Delhi University First Division

Work Ex :-
Total Exp : 6 years and 1 month as of 29th July 2019
2 years in a consulting firm working in Data Analyst
4 Years in an asset management/investment company as Data Analyst with one promotion and 2 years of team handling role.

18 months of Volunteering as well with Certificate

GMAT Score: 640

Post MBA Goals :- Consulting/Banking/Portfolio Management

What should be my safe score for GMAT and What are the chances of getting through ISB for Round 1 this year (2020 Intake) or should i apply with this score only.