ISB Profile Evaluation - Tools for B-School Profile Evaluation

Hello vinay0018

Though there is no magic number- considering your typical IT Male profile, I would recommend a 710+.
Staying above the average score of the school helps.
However, other things in your profile will also dictate what score works for you. For instance, the international exposure helps but no information on other strengths of your work ex such as career progression, achievements.
Additionally elements such as strong extracurricular activities make your profile diverse, help you stand out and give the school more reasons to admit you.
Lastly, well thought out career goals that are realistic and fit your profile and that of the school can also make you a good addition to the class.
Unfortunately, there is no information regarding this and if you are really strong in these areas a lower score might get you in. The vice versa is true as well- if you are extremely weak in these areas even a 750 will not be enough.
You may want to read here on all the areas you need to work in your profile and here on career goals.

Best
Varun Sharma
+919137133507
MBAkarma.com
GMAT Score Predictor
info@mbakarma.com

With 8 (when you will apply) years of IT workex, you will be in the competitive and overcrowded field of IIT(Indian IT male), hence anything less than 710 would hurt your chances, unless you can showcase some solid extra curricular to cover up the GMAT gap in your profile.

The other aspects that Indian b schools have been looking at is the diversity; ISB had an explicit essay this year over the same topic, hence you will need to showcase something different to stand out from the crowd. International experience is fine but you will have many folks with similar profile and more international work-ex.

Even at IIMs , which were traditionally know to take IT folks in bulk, have started taking more diverse profile.
IT folks still will be in majority , 20% (of overall batch) or so as compared to other industries, but for those 20% the number of applicants will also be relatively higher.

Good luck.

Posted from my mobile device

Thankyou for the valuable replies everyone. I have noted each and every point and would work towards it. Thanks again!

Hello,
Could someone please help evaluate my profile and suggest what I can improve on before I submit my application.
Applying during R3
Education: Master’s in Computer Aided Manufacturing (branch of Mechanical Engineering), NIT Warangal, 8.85
Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineer - Osmania University, India 74.5%
Current Role: Lead Engineer
Work Ex: total of 6 years with General Electric.
1. 4 years in Switch gear industry:
• Owned the design and testing of the new product
• Travelled to the manufacturing facility in Mexico to set-up manufacturing line for the new product. Educate the teams on the assembly steps and procedures
• New product launched in 2016 generated $4M annually and increased GE’s market share by 3 points
2. 2 years in GE Aviation (present role):
• Switched industries from Switch gear to Aviation and profile from Product Design to Product + Digital
• Identified issues with the engine services shop in South Asia. As a program lead, led the team to build a digital platform that will aid the shop in taking informed decision based on data rather than perceptions. This is helping the shop save around $1M annually.
• Working with leadership on scaling this platform to other global shops.
• Filed 2 patents & 1 trade secret. 4 more patents in pipeline to be filed

Post MBA Goals:
I am presently working on the technical aspects of project management and would like to learn more about the financial aspects such as learning how to read P&L statements, how mergers & acquisitions work. I feel learning these through an MBA, which has a diverse student group, will bring in another dimension to the learning experience.
GMAT: 640(45Q+34V), 5.0 – AWA, 7-IR
Thank You in advance for your perusal of my profile.

Kind Regards

Hello Saisaripella

Yours is a mixed bag.
Professional experience looks strong, especially the patents in your name can help (try to tell a personal story behind these).
Past grades are decent too. Improve upon the bullet points mentioned below by converting these into strong stories.
Coming to the weaknesses- career goals narrative seems weak. You wish to learn more about mergers and acquisitions, but why? How does it tie with you past? More importantly, how does it tie with the long term vision of your career? How does it tie in with the role that you wish to work in post PGP from ISB. Career goals must be clear and realistic. Currently none of the information is present here.
No extracurricular activities have been mentioned either- these are a good way to add diversity to your profile and help you stand out from the competition.
Lastly, GMAT score is very low- probably a deal breaker considering the lack of extracurricular, weak career goals, and Round 3 (which will be much more selective than the earlier rounds).
Moreover, with just 5 days to go for the application, if you have not started on the essays, you may not be able to do justice to the written application.
A friendly advice would be to retake the GMAT and focus on applying next year- this will give you time to improve your profile and work on the application.

Best
Varun Sharma
+919137133507
MBAkarma.com
GMAT Score Predictor
info@mbakarma.com

Hello tejyr,

Apologies for the delay in responding to you but we hope this finds you in time still.

As you have not shared enough details pertaining to your role, skill-set, and achievements, a detailed profile evaluation is difficult. That said, from the perspective of the GRE, your score is on the lower side of the average. In case you choose to apply with this score, you will need to show a spike in the other aspects of your profile. Else, a retake is highly recommended.

Should you have any follow-up questions, feel free to reach out.

All the best!

Hello abhas1992,

On the face of it, your profile appears to be a good fit. As already mentioned above, you will definitely work on your GRE score.

Thanks.

All the best!

Hi Pranati05,

We went through your profile details in a separate post.

You do belong to the most overrepresented applicant pool; moreover, the GMAT score is a bit below the average at ISB.

Having said the above, a set of well-crafted essays could provide you some sort of a chance at bagging an interview call.

The video below will help you approach the essays:



Should you feel the need for a detailed discussion, please feel free to reach out.

All the best!

Hi vinay0018,

In the absence of relevant details pertaining to your responsibilities, skill-set, and achievements, we are unable to undertake a detailed profile evaluation.

However, you must definitely look at a 710+; the higher the better!

Having said the above, the GMAT, though, an important component, is only one part of the applications puzzle; you will also need to put forth a set of essays that not only demonstrate your abilities but also showcase a logical sync between your existing experience and your career goals.

The following video may help:



In case you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

All the best!

Can someone please help me with profile evaluation?

GMAT - 680
10th - 92%
12th - 96%
Undergrad - 6 CGPA with Masters in Mathematics at BITS Pilani (high number of C's and D's on the transcripts)

Experience : 5.5 years YTD

Worked at 2 startups till date, joining as an early member at both of them. Worked in research consulting space and eventually had the opportunity to manage global VC clients and Fortune 500 CIOs. At the first startup, I hired and managed a team of 8 analysts to manage the clients deliverables and team development. Was a core member of a micro-fund where I was responsible for diligence and competitor analysis of 10+ startups across several industries - analysis carried out for investment purposes.

Also, was the core team member to build an Angel syndicate from scratch and grew it to 4000+ network across India.

Joining as an early member at the second startup, was responsible at hiring an analyst team, setting up the product roadmap and collaborate with the technology team to don the hat of a product manager for the development of the SaaS platform. Released several industry reports on several technologies. One of them was released by IT Minister of Karnataka, Priyank Kharge at Bangalore Tech Summit event. Till date, I was responsible for generating $600k+ in revenue from Healthcare clients.

Awards / accolades : Several promotions and core-member roles in the first startup, but it was not a 'recognizing/awarding' culture. Won several accolades as the team member of month / quarter for my contributions to the fast growth and development of the organization and the SaaS product in the 2nd startup.

Career goals:

Management consultant role would fit well provided my experience in understanding both the innovative startup solutions and business challenges that various Fortune companies are facing currently. I envision to start out as a generalist, but eventually develop an industry expertise in verticals like Education and Healthcare. In the long-term my ambition is to join an impact initiative in the education space or start one myself. Before that, would like to get the relevant industry exposure to develop my understanding of these verticals.

Extracurriculars:

- Volleyball team member and captain in final year during undergrad at BITS Pilani
- Cultural secretary of a regional association on campus. Was responsible for organizing 2 major cultural events of the association.
- Several performances as a Violinist during schooling and undergrad
- Coordination of a Creative Activities Club. Was responsible for managing team projects, organizing events during cultural fests on campus and fund management for the club activities.
- Active member of the BITS Sparks committee where I helped in the fundraising activities of several campus based projects

Why ISB ?

The ecosystem is growing leaps and bounds in India. It would be exciting to witness this growth and be part of it first-hand rather than go away abroad to earn $$. So staying back in India, taking a shot at working in the consulting industry : as business problem solving, market research, evidence based corporate strategy and long working hours have been the norm for the past 5 years.

Thank you very much for your time!
S

Hi guys,

It will be great if someone can evaluate my profile and let me know what GMAT score should I target to bag a call from ISB.

10th(CBSE)- 83%
12th(CBSE)- 78%
Computer Science Engineering(Calicut University Kerala)- 69%
Completed Business Leadership Programme with ICICI(MBA banking and finance)- CGPA of 7.0 (an elite programme with ICICI bankLtd)

Work Experience Total - 6.5 years+ (I am aiming for ISB 2020 batch i.e.2019-2020)
1. Infosys,Mangalore- Systems Engineer- 3 years

Here I worked in Core JAVA projects.

2. ICICI Bank Ltd, Mumbai-
a. 2016-2018(Commercial Banking): Worked as Account Manager for Big corporates like Marico, many gems and jewellery units. My client base included many SME clients. Also I led many New Client Acquisitions for my unit.
b. 2018-present:I am working in Operational risk profile as a Risk analyst with various groups mapped under me for Risk evaluation. Also I played a Key role in driving a software induction for my group within ICICI.

Achievements:Acknowleded for Highest Advance Tax collection across Mumbai.
Co-curricular- Plenty and plenty of award for various events,Debates,dramatics,including University level award and State level beauty pageant(won subtitle ),
Volunteering: Worked as Placements officer with Make a Difference,Mangalore

Age:30 (I will be 31 by the time I apply for 2019-20)- Just to add, I am a proud mom of 19 month old baby.

Thanks in advance!

Hello Midhila

A lot going for you. Work profile and extracurricular activities look good and different- will help you stand out.
Not sure how you plan to apply to 2019-20 batch if you have not taken the GMAT yet as the deadline for R3 is 15 Jan.
If you are planning to apply to 2020-21, I would recommend taking the GMAT by May/Jun latest and then focusing your efforts on the written application.
The information presented is limited and suggesting a score purely on a few bullet points is not possible. However, based on this limited info, I believe a 700+ will do justice to you.
No mention of career goals here and that is a major factor in assessing chances and fit with the school.
You may want to read here to know what works in a strong profile and here on career goals.

Best
Varun Sharma
+919137133507
MBAkarma.com
GMAT Score Predictor
info@mbakarma.com

Hi,
I have completed my B.E. (Instrumentation and Control) in 2011 (Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT), University of Pune).
I worked for Honeywell for 7.1 years. Now, I took a break and started working (part time) for eCommerce company. I am planning to take my GMAT in next 6 months though I already took GRE.

*Honeywell : Engineer; Engineering, Project Management, Commercial Estimation, Business Process Excellence Auditor and Team Management for global projects.
Awards : 3 awards, and 12 customer appreciations

*eCommerce Company : Business Consultant; Operations, and Marketing.

B.E. : 68.04%
12th : 67.80%
10th : 59.20%
GRE : 330
AWA : 5

Certifications : Six Sigma Certification, Indian Red Cross Society Certification, Six Sigma Program Management Certification, Project Management Professional Certification and doing Certified Management Accounting (IMA - US) Certification.

Awards : CSR Hero of the year (Honeywell), Best Autonomous Robot in India (ROBOCON).

Extra Curricular activities (since 2011):
1. Vice Curator of Global Shapers Community and initiative of World Economic Forum leading 6 social impactful projects and team of 25 volunteers at the city. Working on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
2. Working with City Municipal Corporation for Citizen Satisfaction survey (city level HDI-Human Development Index).
3. CSR committee member at Honeywell : Handled 5 projects from Education Environment and Health sector.

Could you please let me know, what are chances of getting into ISB?

AJITKUMAR1990,

In case your GRE score is STILL valid, and if you can draft a high impact application, I will recommend you to apply to ISB this year only in R3 i.e 5 days from now.

As an ISB alum, and having assisted applicants in their admission journeys for the last 3 years, I feel you have a good shot at making it to ISB this year itself with your credentials and scores.

Please feel free to reach out to me at +919701215544 in case you want to discuss further.

Cheers
Arijit

Hi,
I am targetting ISB, Hyderabad, and I'm from India. Kindly evaluate my profile and suggest me of any improvements.

Education:
10th std score: 88%
12th std score: 93.2%
Graduation grade point : 81.83% equal to 8.61 grade point
Work Experience:
1) software developer (Oracle) - 30months - June 2016 to Present

Internships (because I wanted a hands on experience before trying to get into MBA)
All internships are part-time along with my full time job at Oracle.
1)Business development manager at a startup (8 months)
2)Digital marketing intern(1 month)
3)Marketing intern(2 months)
4) Full time research intern (6 months) during B.Tech in DRDO

Achievements:
1. Two research papers published during internship at DRDO ( one in IEEE and one in a leading journal)

Extra curriculars:
1.Google ad words certified
2.VP, public relations at Toastmaster in Office
3.Started an online technical magazine during college
4. Assistant editor of the Official Newsletter of the University for 2 years
5.Organised many events and tech-fests, workshops during college leading teams of 5-50 people at a time, also seeing footfall of nearly 5000
6. Actively involved in multiple volunteering activies in office CSR
7. A couple of my poems have been published online

What are my chances of getting into ISB?
What should be my GMAT score?
How should I improve my profile?
Thank You so much for reading all this!!

Hello sal37

The outline of your profile looks solid- work ex, past acads, extracurricular all look balanced.
Assuming you are applying next year, you will also have years of work ex in the sweet spot for ISB.
Unfortunately, career goals have not been mentioned and that makes the profile evaluation incomplete.
A 700+ in your specific case could serve you well though.
You may want to read here on what factors to focus on in your written application and here to add to your research on career goals.

Best
Varun Sharma
+919137133507
MBAkarma.com
GMAT Score Predictor
info@mbakarma.com

Hi All,
Would appreciate a profile evaluation. Targeting R1 next year.

Background and nationality: Indian Female

Undergrad Information: B.Tech - ECE. Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University(MSIT). CGPA: 8.9(one of the toppers of my stream)

GMAT: 760

Work experience and leadership : 4.5 years at present in a techno-functional role. Working as a Senior Software Engineer in Infosys Ltd serving domestic and international banks. Have worked with private, public sector and international banks, all at client site. Currently heading all clients in Africa and Sri Lanka region (about 2 years of international work ex). Regarded as a domain expert and have worked as a team lead in multiple project implementations.

Awards: Top Performer in the Entry Level Training, Most Promising Joinee Award, Listed as Infosys Pride Factor, Awarded by multiple clients for contribution to the project.
Was the head of Self-Governance Team in Infosys for a year.

Community and others : Associated with Leaders for Tomorrow and part of their project – Igniting Young Minds to provide life skills to the disadvantaged; Member of Help Age India in higher secondary for care of disadvantaged elderly.
Recently Joined Toastmasters. Awarded as Best Table Topic Speaker in the guest meeting. Event Head of Technical Fest in college ensuring a footfall of more than 2500 people in the event. Member of the organization committee of Infosys Finacle Fever’15.

Post MBA goals: Investment Banking, Consulting.

Thank you for your help.