ISB Profile Evaluation - Tools for B-School Profile Evaluation

I am planning to apply for ISB for the 2022 intake. Kindly please review my profile.

Academics:
Gender - Female
Age- 24
10th - 95%
12th- 79%
Engineering (Computer Science) - 65%
Work Ex- 3.5 yrs. (Digital Marketing)
GRE Score - 326

Brief about me –
I am an average student academically. But I have been showcasing leadership qualities since my schooling. I have actively taken part in various events and have won awards for that.

In work I have always stepped up and taken up responsibilities whenever there is no resource. I also always researched and gone out of my comfort zone and learn things that were not restricted to my roles and responsibilities.

Rewards and Achievements (At Work)–
- Outstanding and innovative performance for the year
- Most insightful for analyzing and visualizing data using tools

(Academics and Extracurricular)
- Co-Ordinator and organizer of college fests/events
- Entrepreneurship Leader for the e-cell of the college, representing my college in various inter college workshops. Mentoring students who have great idea and letting their ideas reach new level and sponsors
- Head girl at school
- Won at various extracurricular activities (like drama, street play, volley ball)
- Team leader of scouts and guide and also awarded Rajya Puraskar

Volunteering-
- Was part of a NGO that mentors under-resourced and bright school girls by providing them resources to achieve their dream ( till Mar 2021 as I quit that organization and joined a new company)
- Conducted drive for employment in my college encouraging under privileged unemployed women of the village to become bread earners

Post MBA goals: Consulting

What I am looking for right now?

- Profile evaluation for ISB
- How to create a strong profile

Hey raghav29, I'm from Ghaziabad too and preparing for GMAT for my second MBA. I am MBA from SIBM Pune with >10 yrs of work ex. I'm halfway through the preparation and targeting GMAT this year. Would love to exchange knowledge and explore synergy. Let's connect. I'm reachable at <<talkto.gauravbansal@gmail.com>>

Hello, please evaluate my profile:

Age: 24y/o, F

Work experience: 3 years
1 year editorial at a publishing house.
2 years in a Big 4 marketing agency (current).
I manage a team of 5-7 people and have had decent client interaction.
Worked with 3 prominent Indian clients.
Receieved a promotion in terms of responsibilty but my designation hasn't officially changed yet.
Project won an award in an international competition.

Education: BMM equivalent from a well-known private uni.
Undergrad: 3.4/4 CGPA
Extra curriculars: EIC of college magazine, 1 paper published, led teams in mentorship and orientation programs.

Grade 12: 38/45 IB (88%)
Grade 10: 92%
Extra curriculars: Student body leader, ranked in both board exams, district level sports, editor of school magazine and newsletter.

GRE: Not taken yet, aiming for a 320+

Have done stints with an NGO, an international clothing company, and a sustainable fashion house as an intern. All link to my post-MBA goals of working at the intersection of sustainablility and the fashion/beauty/lifestyle industries.

Planning to apply in round 2. What are my chances?

Hello Priyan25

ISB will evaluate your profile on primarily four factors-
1. Academics- past scores are decent, GRE is close to average of the school. No deal breaker here. But since there's no spike either, this will not be a deal clincher either.
2. Work experience- while you are a computer graduate, the actual work is in digital marketing, which could become a potential strength. However, much more information is needed around your work experience, what organisations have you worked in and what has been your impact, contribution, career progress etc.
3. Diversity- for a computer engineer, diversity takes a hit anyway. Work experience, if presented well, could help offset that potentially. Extracurricular look dated, most school/university level activities don't play much weight (unless stellar). NGO experience could be useful though.
4. Career goals- most important piece of the admissions puzzle. While I understand you want to get into consulting, make sure this is a well researched and realistic goal, as most people have this particular goal. Why does it excite you, how will you be successful in making this transition and where do you want it to lead to in the long term. Also in some way your past career decisions must link to the overall career goals narrative, for example your recent career move, the thought behind it and why you want to move into an MBA so soon into a new job.

To conclude, definite strengths in the profile, but work needed on filling the blanks that I have raised.

Best
Varun
MBAkarma.com



Posted from my mobile device

Hello Mbahopeful286

If you can get a 325+, the chances are pretty strong.
Work experience is very diverse and other extracurricular experiences make it even more so. Profiles like yours are under represented and will help you stand out.
Career goals is something you'll have to work on in terms of showcasing how you feel ISB will be the right place to reach these goals.

Best
Varun
MBAkarma.com


Posted from my mobile device

Hi Mbahopeful286,

Thank you for sharing your profile. Your work experience is diverse, which would have helped you get the experience of different functions in the company. You should explain in more detail about it and how it has developed leadership qualities in you. Your work experience is less than the average required, so you will need to create an impactful story and bring out the instant, which will help you to stand out from the other applicants in the pool. Your ECs seem good, you can talk about your interest in fashion/beauty/lifestyle and link it with your post-mba goals. All these will help you to bring diversity to your profile. Try to push your GRE score to 330+ to maximize your chances.

Overall a good profile, but I’m not able to see the impact right now. ISB places a high value on impact and leadership, and you must reflect this in your applications. If you’d like, we are happy to hop on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and further chances to b-school. Feel free to book a free session with us as per your convenience.

Cheers!
Neha Hadke
Profile Analyst & Community Manager, MBA and Beyond
Testimonials
Email: neha@mbaandbeyond.com

Hi Veterans,
I have posted profile evaluation request few months back but GMAT score wasn't available and profile needed to be cleared a bit. I am looking forward to join ISB,IIM BLACKI, may be not Kozhikode. GMAT score is 680 v34 q48. Honestly, its going to be very difficult to score more than this because i get very less time after work hours, so re take might not be an option. Please rate my chance of getting ISB , IIM ABC on scale of 10.

10th -88.8% (merit certificate in maths from CBSE for being in top 0.1 percentile)
12th -79.8%
Grad-B.tech civil from cochin university (NBA tier1 college), passed with ~76% percent distinction. College topper in last semester, overall rank was 5.

Age -28

Work exp-Will be 6 years this sept end, with TCS Financial services. I have 2+ years of exp in South Africa at Banking Client location. Currently in RSA handling operations of 9 countries. Not as project leader or managerial role. Have done few projects single handedly. I look into both business and IT sides of banking. I am technically sound in both retail banking and tech side of our product. I am basically product specialist. My work profile includes training new joinees on Banking and technical platforms, supporting day to day business of customers, managing technical infrastructure of client, collaborating with banking regulatory bodies and upgrading banks services on basis of their requirements, collaborating with different supporting teams of Bank, enhancing reach and functionalities of product. I had single handedly created 2 factorial authentication system for 7 African markets, allowing very secure access to Banking application, saving few million dollars. Every single customer was in direct contact with me. I had also single handedly created Nigeria Automated payment system for Nigeria, its very similar to IMPS of India. I was in core team which took online/net banking of payments to African subsidiaries of my client Bank. During first covid wave lockdown, i was one of two tech team members, who were authorised to work in office, other one was my manager. I have had multiple client and team appreciations. I have had early promotion despite being Civil engineering grad, and during the time when long term foreign deputation was on paper.

E.C/Awards
1) Few in organisation performance awards. Special intiatives, star of month, contribution to org. awards etc.
2) I worked over 2 years post graduation with NGO Zomato Feeding India (its recognised by UN as well as Queen of England). Feeding India Gurgaon didn't even exist when i applied for it, i was one of first members for Gurgaon chapter. After coming to South Africa, have taken responsiblity of taking medical expense of one premature baby per month, born in India via UNICEF.
3) I am recognized by both Education evaluation and IT skills evaluating bodies in South Africa
4) I also had responsiblities of Fire and Safety Marshal of my TCS office building.- Don't have any documentation though.
5) I have done in house (organisation funded) "Project management" certification.
6) I had created a fb group for helping new joinees of a TCS branch. The strength of group stands at 2000+ members.
7) I organize mobile game events for Pokemon go in different suburbs of johannesburg. Its a very routine affair (once, twice a month atleast).
8) I used to participate in National Magic conferences, I have couple of certifications from these. Simply said i am ex-magician.
9) I was placecom member for engineering divison of my university.


Hobbies.
1) Playing mobile game namely Pokemon go.
2) Mermaid Swimming.
3) Fire Arm Gunshooting.
4) Have finished two marathons.
5) Currently busy learning guitar.


Post MBA goal- Would very much like to work in management consulting, reason- i tend to grasp things very fast and consecutively hate to do repetitive work. Management consulting, given short duration projects it has, very much suits me. Other wise i will be happy to work in big tech firms.

Your reading and evaluation was very much appreciated.

Hi ,
I would appreciate a sincere evaluation of my profile for ISB PGP 22-23 batch.

Academics:
10th- ICSE (2013): 85%
Diploma- Mechanical Engg (2016): 70%
BE- Mechanical Engg (2019): 8.21CGPA

Work experience : 2 years
Company: SYSTRA
Job title: Engineer-Mechanical
Job role: MEP- Design Specialist
My job responsibilities include design of Water supply, drainage, firefighting, HVAC, ventilation & other mechanical systems for metro projects.

Projects worked on-
Mumbai Ahmedabad High Speed Rail,
Delhi-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System,
Chennai Metro Rail Limited- Phase 2,
Bangalore Metro Reach 5

Internships:
Tata Motors Limited, Jamshedpur (6 months)
Federal-Mogul Powertrain (2months)

Extra curriculars
1. Core Member- VIRSA The Punjabi Festival, Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala
2. Executive Member- Spiritual scientists' Alliance, TIET Patiala
3. PR Head- Project Mushroomed by Enactus, TIET Patiala

I am appearing GMAT in August.
Expecting a 690+score.
Request you to evaluate and put forth my chances of getting an admission at ISB.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi Experts,

Could you please evaluate my profile for R1 / R2.

1. Demographics - 28, Indian, Female

2. Educational Qualification:
- Under-Graduation: BTech (Mechanical Engineering) from KIIT University, Bhubaneswar GPA: 7.39/10
- 12th CBSE 74%
- 10th CBSE 8.8/10 CGPA

3. GMAT: N/A (Yet to take GMAT by July-end, targeting 700 to 720)
- Suggest a safe score range, considering to manage getting scholarships.

4. Work Experience (Total 5 years) – India

- Techno-functional Consulting Experience (2.9 years) in a Partner company for SAP Ariba
o Vertical: Business Network Integrations for Buyers across the European Continent.
o Positions:
 Senior Consultant (Promotion within 21 months)
 Consultant
o Recognitions:
 Piloting the senior job—role prospects for my company with SAP Ariba, new spectrum of service-partnership. Only-one in company to have been selected for the feat.
 For Outstanding Performance by the Client company. Received Company and Client Appreciations for the several projects.
 Appointed as Subject Matter Expert for team of 12 members by Client.
 Worked and accomplished over 180 Integrations over a span of 20 months successfully.

- Techno-functional Consulting Experience (2 years) in a small company for SAP MM
o Vertical: SAP Material Management module
o Position: Associate Consultant

- International Exposure:
o Worked primarily and secondarily with all the European Clients. The crux of the situation is that Physical location was India but work-wise strictly International.
o The intra-company and intercompany cross-functional teams across my company, along with that of clients’ and the project-stakeholders’, were spread throughout the European continent.
o Clientele and projects spanned across United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and France.

- Industrial Internship: Cummins India Limited, Pune
o Project: Shipment-Process Optimization under the Supply Chain Management stream.
o Designed like a mini-ERP for the firm. It was critically acclaimed by supervisors.
o Later, it qualified as a Six-Sigma project. Also, implemented real-time in the firm.

5. Extra-Curriculars:
- Academic:
o Participated in the SAE India BAJA’ 14 (ATV Manufacturing Contest)
 Provided assistance for powertrain transmission systems in BAJA SAE Team KIIT.
 Managed the Planning, DFMEA, Project-management, costing and marketing-aspect.
o Designed and created prototype of a Solar Car, in collaboration of team.
o Participated in various workshop like prototype-creation of RC Aircrafts.

- Non-Academic:
o Awarded the SPECIAL MENTIONS award at the OEC Model United Nations, 2014. Earlier, participated in the KIIT MUN 2014 as the delegate of Myanmar in the UNGA SPECPOL.
o Volunteered teaching Mathematics at the KISS (KIIT’s Initiative for the welfare and development of Tribal children)
o Coordinator at the Mechanical Annual Fest YANTRIKI, 2015. Earlier, entertained audience in YANTRIKI, 2013.
o Also, had the privilege to entertain the Governor of State with a performance.

6. Interests and Hobbies:
- Oil-Painting and sketching, Reading and currently, exploring writing-blogs and also an amateur bird-watcher.

7. Post MBA Goals:
- Primary - Want to transition from Technical-Consulting Role to the Management Consulting and Strategy roles.
- Intermediate and Long-term – Progress into core leadership roles. Eventually, into the senior leadership and pivotal roles.

8. Questions-
a. Is my profile good enough to be considered? Reasonable?
b. What are the other areas of improvement? What are the major weaknesses in the profile?
c. What should be my application essay strategy and who should be an ideal candidate for a LOR?

Posted from my mobile device

Hi SagarJaiswal,

Thanks for sharing your profile. Its not prudent to measure the chances on the scale of 10.

Lets look at it objectively, the GMAT score of 680 is only slightly less than the average GMAT score of the colleges -ISB, IIMABC. The average score in these colleges lie between 685 to 710 and vary every year. So it can be safely assumed that around 30-40% candidates studying in these colleges have GMAT score equal to or less than 680.

Moreover, GMAT score don't constitute more than 40% of the overall evaluation criteria in most of the colleges. So the question is - whether your profile is good enough? And, more importantly, can you package your profile in a way that it stands out?

Given your good academics, rich work experience and long list of extra curriculars, creating a strong application will not be a very tough task.

Hope this helps. Best wishes. Contact us for detailed chat!

Hello SagarJaiswal

Let us break down the profile into its basic elements.

Academics

Past scores are decent. GMAT score is below average. Considering your IT Male background, this score will not help you stand out. Other areas will need to help compensate for this weakness.

Work Experience

While years is in the sweet spot, depth of work ex is more important. As mentioned above, you will have a lot of competition with similar profiles. International work ex will surely help. How you choose to present your career progress and achievements will be key to standing out.

Diversity

Extracurricular and Hobbies look quite interesting and unique and can potentially help you compensate for that lack of diversity otherwise due to the nature of work. How and which ones you choose to present will be important.

Career Goals

Make sure this is a well researched goal as majority mentions this as a goal (but most people do not have enough reasons to show how they will be successful in making this transition). 6 years of work ex might make this goal slightly tough (not a deal breaker).

In short, if there was a way to improve the score by at least 20 points, I would recommend you to go for it.
However, if not possible, there are definitely strengths in other areas which if used well can help you get an interview invite.

Best
Varun
MBAkarma.com

Hello gkamra

Past scores are decent and a 700+ GMAT will further strengthen your profile.
Work ex, while unique, is slightly on the lower side and it will be imperative you show enough measurable accomplishments/impact at work. Not sure how you have progressed in your career till now.
While work ex gives you some brownie points on diversity, extracurricular look a bit dated and see if you can find something more recent.
Lastly, no mention of career goals and will not be able to comment on the same. You will have to show clarity of thought on what you want to do post MBA (short term and long term) and why you are ready now.

You may want to read here on what factors work in a profile and here to add to your research on career goals.

Best
Varun Sharma
+918452954888 (https://gmatclub.com/chat)
MBAkarma.com
info@mbakarma.com

Hello ManasiDp

Your profile seems to have no evident weakness.
Of course, with tech background, you will be facing a lot of competition.
A safe score would be above the average of the class (710+, higher the better).
Regarding LORs, there is a clear pecking order in terms of the right referees, starting from Best to Worst-
Client>Senior Management (only if they know you and can comment on your work)>Direct Supervisor>Senior Manager (Not supervisor) >Colleague>Juniors>Faculty>Friends>Vendors>Family.
The ones in Green can all be considered (based on the exact relationship) and the ones in Red must be avoided at All costs.
You check most boxes on the objective parameters (work ex, extracurricular, assuming you score a 710+), it is now up to the subjective art of storytelling and how you portray your candidature.

Best
Varun Sharma
+918452954888 (https://gmatclub.com/chat)
MBAkarma.com
info@mbakarma.com

Hi ,

Please review my profile for ISB.

Age at time of entry: 24 yr

GMAT Score: 700 [Quant:45 , Verbal:40, I.R:4 , AWA:5]

Educational Qualifications:

Graduation: Completed B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 with 8.1 GPA from VNRVJIET(Tier 2.5/3 college)
H.S.C: secured 90% from MPC stream from Telangana Board in 2015.
S.S.C: secured 10 GPA from CBSE in 2013.

Work Experience:
Working as a Solution Delivery Associate in Deloitte USI Risk Advisory for 2 years 1 month now(3 years at time of joining). Remediated risk for several Fortune 500 clients. International exposure collaborating somewhat regularly with colleagues from US on few projects. Couple of awards and led teams of 2-3 people unofficially in two projects.

Internships:
Manufacturing and testing divisions in BHEL and manufacturing division in Jayem Automotives(both predominantly observational in nature)

Extra Curricular:
Positions of Responsibility
1) Was the student head of English literary club in undergraduate, leading a team of 40 people
2) Helped organise TEDx event in college, involved with the event since its inception in 2015, leading teams of 5-10 people for 3 years.
3) Creative Head at a local organisation for different artistes including musicians, dancers, writers, etc, helped organise multiple events across the city over 4 years and led team of 5-10 people.
4) Chief Student Editor of annual college magazine, led teams of 5-6 people for 2 consecutive years.
5) Co founder of a political blog (now inactive, wrote 10 articles or so)
6) *Not sure if still relevant* Member of Student Quality Circle from 8th to 10th class, solved school centric issues and problems using industrial quality techniques, presented the same in national and state quality conferences.

Volunteering
1) Volunteered at Hyd Lit Fest, second largest Lit Fest in the country, for 3 years.
2) Volunteered to teach school students basic mathematics online during Covid pandemic on weekends for two months as a part of Deloitte initiative.

Languages: Fluent-English, Hindi. Bengali,
Basic-Italian(still learning), Telugu

Hobbies: Quizzing, Listening to podcasts, Reading history, TV shows

Post MBA Goals: Taking up an internal strategy role in a Fortune 500 organisation like Unilever
Second choice- Management consulting

Hello Ritabhash

Profile looks promising wrt to work and extracurricular.
A few observations- with 2 years of work experience, make sure you have compelling stories to tell about your career progression and achievements that can make you stand out from the competition that will likely have more years in the industry (and by virtue might have a little more impact to show). Not a deal breaker by any means, but something you'll have to focus on.
This will also then tie into your career goals, how your past experience has prepared you to make this transition successful and what missing gala will ISB al fill.
Needless to say, try for a higher GMAT.

Best
Varun
MBAkarma.com




Posted from my mobile device

Hello Experts,

Can you guys please help me evaluate my profile for ISB PGP batch 2022-2023

Academics:-

10th (AP State Board): 91%
12th (AP Board of Intermediate Education): 94.4%
Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering (Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur): 7.4/10.0 CGPA
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (University of Florida): 3.76/4.00 CGPA
GMAT - 730 (96th percentile), Q50 & V39 in the first attempt (Should I give it another shot?)

Work Experience:-

Full-Time:-

1.) 34 months in total at Honda R&D Americas (Ohio, United States of America) as a Vehicle Test Engineer.

Internships:-

1.) 8 months at Tesla, Inc. (California, United States of America) as a Fastener Design and Validation Engineer.
2.) 3 months at Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited Research and Development (BHEL R&D Hyderabad, Telangana, India) as a Research Intern.
3.) 3 months at Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO Hyderabad, Telangana, India) as a Summer Intern.

I am a hardcore mechanical engineer with all of my professional experience in Research and Development roles. I have 42 months of international work experience in the United State of America. My work experience revolves around developing some of the world's most fascinating automobiles (Teslas, Hondas, and Acuras). During my time at Honda R&D Americas, I worked on developing vehicle body systems and validated component, system, and vehicle level strength and durability attributes for future Honda and Acura automobiles.
In layman terms, I basically made cars by collaborating with multiple engineering teams.

Awards & Extra-Curriculars:-

1.) Awarded a scholarship of 4500$ from the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida for my academic achievements.
2.) A Gold Medal and a silver medal in national level college sports festivals organized by Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, DAIICT, and Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, IITJ, respectively.
3.) Starting XI player on the college football team for 4 years and also represented IITJ in the 49th and 50th Inter IIT Sports Meet.
4.) Served as the Vice-Captain of the IITJ football team for a period of 1 year. Took complete responsibility for the strategy and operations of the football club during my tenure.
5.) Event lead for various football tournaments, including a national level college sports festival, during my undergraduate days.
6.) Served and lead an 8 member team as captain at the Honda R&D 2019 Futsal Tournament.
7.) Represented my school in inter-city quiz competitions and also have decent scores in several school-level national Olympiads.

Let me know my chances for ISB in particular and also other ways to improve my profile for having a good chance at the mentioned international schools below.
I am most concerned about outside of work experiences during my full-time job. Barely did anything in the past 3 years besides my 9-5 job (not so proud about it).

Target Schools:-
1.) India - ISB.
2.) US - MIT Sloan, Kellog.
3.) Europe - INSEAD, HEC Paris.
4.) Singapore - NUS.

Hi angrymechie,

Thank you for sharing your profile. There are some really interesting aspects to your profile. Starting with stats, you have a good undergrad GPA, undergrad universities, and a good GMAT score. I believe 730, coupled with your entire profile, will be competitive. You just need to focus on your apps now.

On the work front, I can see you have quality work experience. Here's where your personal essay or recommendation letter comes in. B-schools are searching for instances that demonstrate why you are the best choice among all applicants with comparable profiles to yours. You have big names in your CV, and I am assuming you must have some great stories of a ‘responsible’ leader. Your internship at Tesla, BHEL, and DRDO is going to make your profile more competitive if you narrate all these experiences impactfully. These are one of the major USPs in your profile. You can speak about the big projects you have handled and exhibit your potential. Many students with similar academic or work experience as yours apply for the same program. As a result, schools would prefer a student whose application stands out. So, before you apply, make sure your application includes examples of why you should be chosen. What distinguishes your profile? Everyone has their own set of skills; make sure yours stands out.

Talking about your ECs, you are passionate about playing football, I guess. ECs are all about bringing a different personality of yours beyond work. Your achievements are also good. You will need to be intentional in your application, something most candidates fail to accomplish despite having an excellent profile. Make sure you prepare your apps in alignment with the school values.

Overall you have a good profile and a shot at ISB and international b-schools. What are your post-mba goals? It will help to gauge your fit for the schools. You may want to read an article on how to frame practical post-MBA goals essays, you will get some insights. If you’d like, we are happy to hop on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and further chances to b-schools. Feel free to book a free session with us as per your convenience.

How to enhance your application and maximize your chances for fall intake

Cheers!
Shantanu Sharma
Founder and Admissions Consultant, MBA and Beyond
Testimonials
Email: shantanu@mbaandbeyond.com
What s app: +65-97158525