Hi! I'm preparing for GMAT and took my first official GMAT pratice test and got 615. I'm quite overwhelmed with all the information about GMAT preparation, admissions and schools. I want to get some clarity on where does my profile stand and what should be my target score. I'm targetting 715+ score(99th %ile). Reasons are mentioned in the laster part of this post.
GMAT First Mock: 615 (Q84 V82 DI76)
About me
Indian, Engineer, Male
UG Details
University: Sathyabama University, Chennai
Degree: B.E. Electronics and Communication (Graduated in Jul 2019)
CGPA: 7.48 / 10
Work Experience
Full time (in Data Engineering Team(Data Science Allied field))
- Senior Data Engineer at a Fintech unicorn (Jul 2022 - Mar 2024) (Promotion)
- Data Engineer 2 at a Fintech unicorn (Jul 2022 - Mar 2024)
- Senior Engineer in a Indian IT services working with American Hotel Chain (jan 2022 - Jul 2022) (Promotion)
- Engineer in a Indian IT services working with American Hotel Chain (jan 2020 - Dec 2021)
Extra curricular activities
Volunteered with a NGO as a teaching assistant for a Year where I used to teach kids in vernacular medium from understaffed govt aided schools. This is where i want to have an impact, since, I'm from a family where I'm the first person who graduated and during my schooling, I don't have any guidance and I want to provide guidance to these kids to shape their futre. but no proof of working since i'm not able to download certificate from their portal.
Post MBA Goals
- Global exposure
- Product roles
Preferred MBA Programs
I am at a very early stage in my school research. Ideally I would prefer a shorter, full time program. Post MBA I want to work in product.
I have worked extensively with international folks in my first role. In my second role in Fintech Startup, I worked to build a couple of products(2 precisely) in the field of credit risk underwriting. One using Mechine learning to evalute risk of corporate company that seek credit and other project that uses GenAI to help credit underwriters to go through details of a company quickly by creating summary of Companies that seek credit. I handled all the data engineering work of these projects all alone. I used to work with higher management and product managers of the startup to shape these products and I think these experiences should supplement my post MBA goal of global exposure quite well. Also i got promoted twice in these 4.5 years of experience.
Similarly, I think I will be able to define my motivations for Product roles well with my career trajectory so far.
I know that my GMAT Score should be in the top percentile as I'm a part of the over represented pool and to suppliment my undergrad GPA and stand out in my pool I'm targetting 715+(99 %ile). Any suggestions on my target score are appreiated.
Some specific questions
- How to shortlist schools based on my targetted GMAT score and work experience? I don't quite understand how to deal with my demographic disadvantage.
Any suggestions, comments, questions are welcome.
Thank you if you took the time to go through my post.