Hi,
Been a silent member of this forum and thread for a long time. Now, the time has finally come to post my profile
Location - India
GMAT - 740 (Q50,V40), AWA-4.5, IR-8
TOEFL - 108 (R-28, L-28, S-24, W-28)
UG - CGPA of 8.01 (on a scale of 10, with class highest being 8.7) from a National Institute of Technology, India
WE - 40+ months experience in a Fortune500 financial services company as S/W professional. Got various awards and appreciations. Hoping the recommenders to highlight the differences from other candidates. Job description includes everything as Extreme Programming approach is followed in the project. The project serves 300+ financial institutions in the US. Also completed certifications such as MCTS(technical), CUES(Domain) etc.
Extra Curricular -
1. 3 times Lawn Tennis district champion and 7 time State-level tennis player
2. Trophies from various tournaments in Badminton and Table Tennis as well. Fan of outdoor games.
3. Represented college in Inter-University Lawn Tennis tournament
4. Head of LAN Gaming tournament in college, the biggest event of a National Level cultural fest
5. Runner-up in a corporate level tournament
Various other participations and awards in school and college.
Other Achievements -
1. National Talent Search Examination scholar, one of the most respected and rigorous scholarship offered by Govt. of India
2. Headboy and House Captain in school
3. Fecilitated by the Education Minister for securing 92.6% marks in 10th standard. Was also the dirtrict topper for the same.
Also won various quizzes and debates in school
Colleges:
I am looking at schools like U of M Ross, Univ of Chicago Booth, Duke Fuqua, MIT Sloan, HBS (i think this is way out of my league) etc. Basically, looking for schools on east coast.
I have got some concerns which are as follows:
1. Is my TOEFL score enough for top schools. The speaking section wnet bad because i could not finish in time for a couple of questions.
2. Will it be very difficult for me to enter industry like Automotive with work-ex like mine. I am doing MBA mostly for the purpose of changing career path.
3. I know i am in a very competitive demographic, but the combination of domain (financial) and tech (S/W developer) is not that common and considered quite lucrative. Do you think highlighting the domain will work to my benefit, or the dreadful technical monotony catch up!!
It'll be great if you could help me in clearing out my concerns. I am in early stages of application for Round 2, and hopefully your feedback will help in shaping up a strong application.
Thanks!!