ISB Profile Evaluation - Tools for B-School Profile Evaluation

Hi karthik001surya,
Your target GMAT is in the good range considering the level of experience you have. Could you share your post MBA goals and add more color on the work-ex? You should highlight your passion for cricket and link it to the initiatives such as ISL at the school.

Cheers,
Manan

Hi karthik001surya

Good academics so far. Sound work experience too. A score of 710-720 should be good for your profile. Though, please remember that a higher GMAT improves your profile, even though it may not directly guarantee an admission.

Therefore, the higher the better.

Hi All

Reapplicant from R2 of last year ( I didn't get an interview call) I am planning to apply for R1 this year, Please evaluate my profile

Age:25

Work Experience: 4 years as of March 2021
GMAT: 660 (QA 48, VA31)

Working for a SAAS unicorn company for the past 3.5 years

2017-2019 - Worked as a Product Consultant ( Sales Engineer) with a small stint abroad
2019- Present - Working as a Business analyst in the Revenue Operations team ( CRO's Office) of the same company

I have both customer-facing & internal stakeholder facing experience ( External customers were mostly CIO's & CTO's of companies of all sizes, most of my internal stakeholders are VP's and Directors), I would like to get into Management Consulting as it requires skillsets from both of my previous roles.

Educational Background:
10th - Matriculation - 93.8%
12th - TN State Board - 95.9%
UG - BE Mechanical Engineering - 8.7/10

Awards & Extracurriculars:
Good ratings within the company
Won a few awards for good performance
Was a working partner of a student-run cafe in College ( I was part of the marketing & Finance Team)
Worked on company-wide initiatives as part of the CRO's team
Involved in the decision making and the implementation of many company-wide strategies

Thanks

Profile Evaluation Request:
10th - 92
12th - 84
College - B.Tech from NIT Bhopal (7.38)
GMAT - 660

Work Exp - 56 months by March 2021 ( 1.5 years MNC, 1yr Family business, 2 yrs and continuing Startup Founder )

Extra curriculum -
Volunteered for 2 years (on weekends) for a NGO during college. Numerous stories of leadership and team management.

Sports -
District level cricketer. Also represented the university at national level sports fests.

Could someone please evaluate the profile? Thank you.

Hello KaramveerBakshi,

You EC are strong and your academics are ok too. However, you may want to increase your GMAT score by at least 30 points about to become more competitive.

Your entrepreneurship experience will help you but I get no understanding of the kind of work you have done in these 56 months. I would also need to understand the kind of impact and growth you have created at work.

Also, I will need to know your poat-MBA goals to comment further.




Posted from my mobile device

Hello RUCHIPCONSULTING. Thanks for the prompt reply. I'll submit a more detailed account. Anything else you'll need?
Appreciate the help!

Hi JK2808,

Your profile seems great and ISB is one great school when it comes to consulting. Let’s see first the parameters on which ISB evaluates potential candidates. They are:

1. Academic Excellence
2. Impact
3. Diversity
4. Clear career goals

I see elements of 1,2 & 4 in your profile. Your acads are really solid but I would suggest you retake GMAT as 660 is quite lower than the ISB average (at least target 700+). Your work experience seems great and it’s rather interesting that you have experiences of both sides and that too, high profile. Your achievements give a glimpse of a strong career, especially that you are involved in the decision making of the company’s strategies. This can help bring out stories of ‘leadership’ and ‘impact’ on applications. Also, your post-MBA goals are in alignment with your prior career. I would like to know more details of your extracurriculars since ISB stresses greatly on this as they want to know you beyond your work.

As you are a reapplicant, I would suggest you dig deeper into what went wrong the last time and what improvements you have done in your profile since the last application. What’s going to matter most in your application is how you connect the experiential dots and build a great story. If you’d like we are happy to hop on a call sometime this week to discuss your chances further. You can always visit our site ‘MBA and Beyond’ and schedule a call with us.

Cheers!
Kashish Garg
Community Manager, MBA and Beyond

Hello @KarqmVeer,
Remember to talk about your achievements at work along with the industry and kmtyle of work you have done. Also, do you have any involvement with community after college?

Hi RUCHIPCONSULTING. Please find a detailed description of my profile here:

Academics:

1. 10th - 92%
2. 12th - 84%
3. Graduation - 7.38/10 (B.Tech from NIT Bhopal)
4. GMAT - 660 (May 2018)

Extra-Curriculars:

Volunteer Work

I’ve worked for Make A Difference (MAD) for 2 years. 1st year as a volunteer and 2nd year as a core team member.
My role as a volunteer was to teach less privileged children and as a core team member was to look after center operations and act as a bridge between central authorities and MAD.
We organized various events and camps which I was actively a part of.

Sports

I’ve been a district level cricketer and represented my district at U-15s. At the college level, I’ve represented my university for 4 years.


Work Experience:

56 months (By March 2021)

1.Axtria Inc. (July 2016 - September 2017 ): Worked for 1.25 years as an analyst first and then as an associate. Got 1 promotion in 1 year. All technical work with some experience of client-side work.

2.Family Business (October 2017 - August 2018): We have a paint manufacturing business. Worked for almost a year there. Was responsible to look after the day to day operations. Learned the whole manufacturing process and assisted my father in day-to-day operations.

3.Startup Founder (October 2018 - Present): Have founded a startup and have been working on that for almost 2 years. Handled everything from product development to strategy to operations and finance. Lead teams at almost all times, conducted interviews and handled all aspects even legal.


Post-MBA

I’m looking into strategy roles. I recently have started liking design as well. That being said, I’ll always take the entrepreneur road. Want to establish myself in the sports domain. So I am always on the lookout for something that connects Sports and Business/Management.

Also. I’ll try appearing for the GMAT again.

Let me know if this helps!
Thank you for looking into this.

Karamveer Bakshi

Hello KaramveerBakshi,

Your EC are good but a little outdated though you can and should talk about these in your essays and interview too. Is there any particular activity you have pursued post-college?
Again, I have no understanding of what your business is in, but definitely I believe you will have no dearth of leadership, initiative examples from your experience.

Make sure you position yourself strategically in your essays. Also, do re-take GMAT. Again, I do not find any clarity or coherence in your post-MBA goals. For the purpose of the application, this can be brainstormed later, but I would want you to be clear how, and if, an MBA can help you. Remember, an MBA is a lot of commitment both in terms of time and money.
P.S.: There is one whole essay on goals in ISB.
Hope this helps.

Hi JK2808

For starters, you should begin with introspecting what went wrong last year as it would not make sense to apply with the same essays and exactly same profile. Here's what we recommend:

- To begin with, we recommend that you give GMAT another try. 660 will definitely impact your chances. Please try and push it as close to 700 as possible and higher, if you can. If you feel GMAT is not your cup of tea, (we know it happens!) then please work extra hard on your essays to make up for a lower score.
- You definitely have an exciting profile - therefore the question is, are you portraying it correctly? Are you able to showcase your strengths and skills and make them stand apart in a crowd? Also are you able to link them to your post MBA goals, ie Consulting?
- In terms of extracurriculars, highlight hobbies and interests that you pursue currently. The ones from college would be too far in the past and may not add the necessary flavor to your profile.

Reach out for a conversation if you need help.

Hi

Kindly evaluate my profile .

GMAT 690 (Q49 , V34)

10th - 9.6/10 CGPA

12th - 97.4%

B.Tech (Mechanical) - 7.32 CGPA NIT Surat

Work Ex - 4 years as on today .
Schneider Electric - Joined as GET and worked for 2.5 years as Quality Assurance Engineer. Been a part of multiple process improvement projects , new product launches, audits etc . Managed a team of 14 operators and 2 Junior Engineers.

Flextronics Technologies - 1.5 years - Switch from Plant to Corporate . Role change from Quality to Supply Chain. Responsible for Global Return Merchandise Authorization and Vendor Return Authorization , Inventory Forecasting and Inventory Control

Certified Six Sigma Green Belt from ISI Delhi
Certified IMS Internal Auditor ISO 9001:2015 ; ISO 14001:2015

Extra-Curricular : Head of Publicity and Informals committees in NIT Surat's Cultural Fest in 2015 & 2016 respectively.
Part of Nirvana (A student chapter of NIT Surat working for the underprivileged children residing within the college campus)

Hi kgattem, you have many things working for you: very decent acads, NIT Surat, great brands as employers, and your work experience in your core domain on Mechanical engineering. GMAT score is slightly below average, but I don't believe it is a show-stopper at all, considering the overall positives in your profile.

I do not get a sense of your future aspirations (post MBA goals), but I would think they should be centered around your experience in Operations and educational background as a Mechanical Engineer. ISB does offer a specialization in Operations, which should further give a strong theoretical rigor to your existing experience in Operations.

Hi JK2808, I am afraid that your low GMAT score would have played a significant role in your non-selection last year. To not let History repeat, I would earnestly suggest that you consider the option of improving your GMAT score, even if it results in your application in R2.

You're on the right track karthik001surya. A score of 710+ would indeed be a score that would give us warm comfy feeling:).

Good luck with your GMAT!

Hi HimadriPal, a career transition from food industry to consulting & strategy roles, might be a hard sell. Even if you do mention consulting & strategy roles, I would suggest that you explicitly clarify that you are looking at roles in strategy, in food related businesses (Swiggy, Zomato and the likes).

Perhaps your goals need bit more brainstorming.

Congratulations sarthaknash90, you are one of the handful Engineers, who have been successful at making the transition from Engineering to Finance (many want to, but only few are able to).

Your overall profile looks very decent to me and career goals also seem to be aligned with your professional experiences so far.

So, make sure you craft a great application and (most importantly) back it up with a decent GMAT score (700+), and you should be all set!