Sameer,
Thanks for reaching out to us. Here is a quick summary of your profile:
GMAT score: It's good enough and your efforts will be more useful in crafting a stellar application.
GPA: It's a concern. Is there a story to tell? What was the reason for below average performance? Any other activities where you excelled during this time?
CFA: Excellent. It shows that you know what you want in life. Make sure that your post MBA career goals tie in perfectly. Besides CFA books, do you have any portfolio management experience?
Work experience: Good.
School choice: Duke, Darden, UNC, McCombs are reachable. Stern too. Others might be stretch but I would definitely pick atleast two for a shot. Add UCLA to the mix.
Every individual is unique but candidates fail to bring it forth in their applications. Focus on what made you go the CFA path and how that ties to your career goals. Also highlight other activities besides work which differentiates you from run of the mill profile.
Hope this helps and feel free to contact us for free initial consultation.
Best,
Priya
deathgod wrote:
Hi
Thanks a lot for all the work you are doing here.
It would be great if you can evaluate my profile:
Indian, Male Age-27
GMAT
710 (49 QA, 35 VA) AWA 5.0
Academics
B. Tech, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad (6.93/10) – 2003 -2007
CFA Level 3 Candidate
Technical certifications from IBM & Sun Microsystems
Professional Experience
Full Time from July, 2007. Will be around 5 years in August 2012.
December 2008 – Present – Business Analyst
December 2008 – July 2007 Software Engineer
Business Analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland (December 2008 – Present)
Functional Areas – Corporate Markets
Highlights
• Managed business software requirements for 3 projects, totaling to £ 25 million.
• One of the youngest B.A at RBS. Skip level promotion from Software Associate to BA.
• Assessed & Reformed organizational processes through a Work-Out initiative, leading to savings of £ 200,000.
• Estimated & formulated business cases for various corporate transformation programmes. These transformation programmes were introduced as an aftermath of global financial crisis in 2008.
• Led a team of software developers to deliver a critical solution for automation of account opening process targeted at Business & Commercial customers.
• Established and fostered relationships with various business and technology stakeholders. First to be selected out of my team in India to work on-site with business stakeholders in London & Wimbledon.
• Imparted domain based trainings to software developers and project managers.
Software developer at Sapient Corporation (July 2007 – December 2008)
Functional Areas – Retail Banking & Telecom Billing
Highlights
• Led a work stream during the training project.
• Designed and developed software components for an online broadband provisioning system for a large telecom client.
• Raised Rs. 200,000 for young students as part of charity drive at Sapient Corp.
Personal Life
Born and brought up in a small town, not a lot was expected of me. I come from a traditional family with business background where the usual expectation is to enter the family business. By breaking the mould, I have set an example for children of my family to follow their instincts and interests.
Short-term & Long-term Goals
Short-term
Want to move to the front office (customer facing) job in portfolio management. Having done my share of software coding and business requirement analysis, I feel a front office or customer facing job will provide me the needed knowledge required to produce new software for the portfolio management domain.
Long-term
I want to set-up my own company which will focus on development of new and innovative software’s for portfolio management. I want to start with products targeted at corporate customers and then extend these to retail customers. I wish to provide low-cost portfolio management services to mass consumers for e.g. the growing middle-class in India.
Target Schools
R1 - Booth , Columbia , Duke, Darden & Kenan Flager
R2 - Wharton , Kellogg ,Ross , NYU Stern & McCombs
R3 - None
I havent decided on the non-US schools but I am primarily considering ISB , NUS and INSEAD.
Will be very beneficial if you can respond to my following queries:
1. How do you evaluate my profile? ( My goal is to get in any of the top 15 colleges. Primary focus is on school which is good in finance)
2. My GPA is pretty low ( 6.93/10). How is this compared to applicants from a similar background. Is my GPA insufficient or a negative point?
3. Is my GMAT score weak? How much is the benefit of retaking the GMAT given that I may increase my score from 20-30 points only.
4. Is my selection of schools too ambitious? Which schools would you suggest as the top priority?
5. What areas should I concentrate in my profile to make it strong? What are the corresponding weaknesses that you see in my profile?
Thanks a lot for your time and help.
Regards
Sameer