INSEAD Profile Evaluation - Tools for B-School Profile Evaluation

Hello himanshunandarshi,

Thank you for sharing. Your GMAT and academics look good. As INSEAD has an average work experience of over 5 years, you are slightly on the younger end of the spectrum.

That said, it's great that you have included results and focused on leadership when summarizing your current role. These kinds of details will be key when developing your MBA resume.

Since you are coming from a family business, you may have to work a little harder to prove yourself to the admissions committee since they have a harder time evaluating how good your work truly was. Thus, you will need to demonstrate that you have gained strong leadership skills that make you a strong candidate.

Personal MBA Coach works with a lot of family business applicants each year and would be happy to discuss our service offerings and how we can help set you up for success. Do not hesitate to reach out to scott@personalmbacoach.com to further discuss your candidacy.

Best,
Personal MBA Coach

Hello,

I am Marco! Would someone be kind enough to evaluate my profile?

BACKGROUND: Croatian male, 31 y old

COLLEGE SHORTLIST: Insead (Singapore -> CEIBS/Wharton)

CAREER GOALS: Operations and project management at an international setting. Consulting is also of interest.

EDUCATION AND EXTRA-CURRICULAR:
• BACHELOR'S – 2008 – 2013 (3 years long), Food Technology - Croatian 4/5, 80 %, Summa Cum Laude

o Some sites say 3.2 when converted to GPA, others like scholaro weighted calculator say US 3.35 – 3.56 GPA (Most common, ECTS)
o Positive trend. Started the year with 3.1/5, second year was 4.17/5, and third 4.58/5. Mathematics 1 & 2 and physics 1 during first year had a D grade.
o Family and financial related issues which pulled me away from college and resulted in a 2 year longer bachelor's. Worked 1 year on a farm to financially support college.

o 2010 – 2012 President of Faculty Student Council, member of Faculty Council, Editorial Board of Student Newspaper, Committee for Quality Monitoring and Assurance in Higher Education, and stand-in for University Student Council. Major achievement, significantly increased first pass percentage of Organic Chemistry course (THE course on first year) by modifying curriculum (was below 2 %, don't recall the improved %).
o Publication - Optimisation of supercritical CO2 extraction of grape seed oil using response surface methodology
o Croatia/Slovenia – International scientific-sports competition of students of technical-technological faculties (2nd out of 31 scientific presentations)
o 2011 participated in ˝The Science Festival˝ event that aims to bring science closer to the public

• MASTER'S – 2013 – 2015, Food Engineering (2 years long) - Croatian 4.75/5, 95.34 %, Summa Cum Laude (2nd best in class)

o US 3.86 – 3.87 GPA
o Won University's ERASMUS+ scholarship and was supposed to go Turkey for a 3 month exchange, however declined because I had a job offer that I accepted
o Applied mathematics C grade and mathematical modeling A grade
o 2014 – 2015 worked as a call center agent in a global company to support college

GMAT and TOEFL - Aiming >720 and >105

WORK EXPERIENCE AND LEADERSHIP
SUMMARY
66 months in 4 different countries – After Croatia I went abroad and did a rotational program in a multinational company that I still work for today. Germany, Switzerland and USA were all part of the rotation. Received two promotions in three years. Leadership – leading a team of 90 comprised of 4 direct report Supervisors, 6 Team Leaders and around 80 production employees. Interacted with wonderful people from different backgrounds and nationalities.

DETAILS

Production Manager – promotion, 17 months and counting
• Leading a team of 90 comprised of 4 direct report Supervisors, 6 Team Leaders and around 80 production employees
• Achieved 20 % higher volume throughput with an 8 % efficiency increase, all with half of qualified personnel because of the pandemic sheltering in place. It was truly a highlight of team's contribution and leadership
Production Supervisor – promotion from the International Graduate Program, USA, Bay Area, San Leandro, 15 months
• Led a team of 10 to 40, led various projects
• Won a company award in 2019 among 500+ employees – Annual employee award for employees who have demonstrated exceptional work in one of six categories (Passion award)
International Graduate Program – International Operations, 18 months, Food CPG, Global 1000
• USA, Bay Area, San Leandro, 6 months
o Led a team of 10 to 15, learned supervisor duties
• Switzerland, Zurich, 6 months
o 4 months as Research & Development Engineer. Led a project and defined staging time requirements for various ingredients to improve product quality
o 1 month as Quality Assurance Technician
o 3 weeks spent in Accounting gaining insight into BOMs, routings, COGS
• Germany, Aachen, 6 months
o Spent time on production floor learning general technology from A to Z, and interacting with operators. Gained insight in capacity planning, detail scheduling and packaging development process
Assistant Shift Production Manager – Croatia, 16 months
• Led a team of 15 and co-led the implementation of a batch activated carbon decolorization project that improved throughput by 2 %

LANGUAGES
• Croatian – native
• English – currently C1
• German – B1, improved during my time in Germany and Switzerland
• Spanish – A2, have been learning since I came to the Bay Area
• Japanese – was close to JLPT N5, studied in 2016 before moving to Germany so I would need a major refresher if I want to present this. I have a penpal from Japan that I interacted with.
• Chinese – currently studying

OTHER
• Traveling (15 countries, 3 continents), learning languages, playing guitar, reading books (quite a bookworm)
• Unfortunately no volunteering experience

I am going through college math edX courses to prove that I have quantitative skills because I don't think GMAT alone will justify lower math grades and bachelor's GPA. I am also thinking about Berkeley Extenstion program, namely calculus and math for management. My college is relatively unknown.

I appreciate the feedback!

Hi Marco (@mbijuk),

thanks for sharing your profile.

I like what I see and I think there is a lot in your favor. Clearly, you'll have no issues showing that you meet the International Motivation admissions criterion. And I like how your career has been evolving to include more responsibility and people management. Therefore, it should be relatively easy to show that you also meet the Leadership Potential criterion.

As for Academic Capacity, if you do get a 720+ at GMAT with balanced Q and V scores (both above 70th-75th percentile), I would not worry much about your math grades during college. Also, when it comes to INSEAD (and EU schools in general), don't worry about converting your college to GPA. This is not necessary.

The Ability to Contribute criterion can be met in many ways. So, I wouldn't worry much about your lack of volunteering experience. For US schools, it would be a different story, but for EU schools in general, it is not that important (especially, for some nationalities where volunteering experience is not that common). Here, just focus on showing traits such as teamwork, coaching and mentoring skills... and show them that you have an interesting and active life outside work (i.e. life is not only work for you) and that you will be excited to share your interests with your classmates.

So, again, overall, I am feeling positive about your profile. May I ask you a few questions, though?

a. When are you planning to apply?
b. When are you turning 32?
c. Have you scheduled your GMAT test yet?

As you may know, the typical age range for INSEAD's class goes from 26 to 32. Though I work with plenty of successful applicants outside this range, if possible, I would apply sooner than later.

Just one last remark, when it comes to the application, it would be better to be more concise in your goals, i.e. it is always recommended to not say A or B. So, in your application, I would stick to either Operations and Project Management or Consulting, but not both. Unless one is short-term and the other long-term.

I hope this helps. Feel free to email me your CV at alex@arleeconsulting.com. I would love to take a look in more detail at your career path and accomplishments.

Thank you very much.

Warm regards
Alex

Hi Everyone,

Vipul here, Requesting profile evaluation. Apologies in advance for the long post, trying to cover as much information as I can.

Nationality - Indian
Age - 27 years
Gmat - 750 (Q49/V44), this score is as per 2mocks that I've given

Educational Background

Bachelors - Engineering from MAIT, IP University, Delhi.
Grade - 74% (topper was 85%)

Masters - MBA in International Business from IIFT Delhi (top 10 bschool in India)
Grade - 3.21 CGPA

Work Experience - total 48 months
From oldest to the most recent one
1. Leading pvt Indian Bank (24 months) - Relationship Manager - Worked in the small and medium enterprise division where I managed a book size of INR 8 Billion for the Bank. Customers were mostly Indian enterprises but some had global presence. My work involved managing their customer relation and analysing their financial health year on year. Basis my recommendations the bank continued/enhanced business with these customers. Also use to advise customers on which financial product would be best suit their needs. Visited Vietnam for 2 weeks to monitor the progress of a customer's project which was funded by the bank. Had an auto promotion from management trainee to manager on end of my one year probation period. Was awarded a employee of the month twice (among 500+ employees)

2. Leading global recruitment consulting firm, listed on London stock exchange (9 months) - worked as a consultant in the digital and analytics space. Advised customers from multiple industries regarding c-level hiring in the digital and data science field. Regularly interacted with C-level execs to understand the skills prevalent on the market. Also interacted with Indians working in various geography to understand the trends in data science and analytics in various geographies. Helped in hiring the head of data science for a company HQ in Netherlands.

3. India's leading online travel agent, listed on NASDAQ - (15 months and currently working)
Key Account manager for the B2b travel management product. Handling 100+ customers with a business size of INR 800 million annually. Advise customers on travel policy implementation and automation in their organization. Was able to convert first big government organization as our client. Was able to grow business yoy b/w Feb 2020 and Feb 2021 despite the impact of covid on travel. Was awarded the promising new employee award. 3 monthly awards and one CBO recognition award.
Also apart from my regular KPI,I've developed an automated travel dashboard and savings dashboards which has helped all the other account managers as well in improving business within their respective portfolio.

Social Work - as part of the MBA curriculum, did a 1 month internship with an NGO that worked for people with disabilities, developed a presentation for them to attract donations.

Other Work - I was a registered expert on a leading global online tutoring platform. I tutored more than 300 students from countries like US, UK, UAE on topics like economics, operation management and Microsoft Excel. Did this work for close to 3 years (during my MBA and my days with the Indian Bank). Was able to fund the 2nd year fees of MBA through this.

Other interests - Gaming, Cycling and travelling (6 countries)

Why MBA - while my first MBA has given me the opportunity to work with leading organizations on the sales/relationship development domain, I've realised that B2b selling is very consultative in nature. Understanding the customer requirement, analysing the business/operational model and then suggesting the relevant product/service. This has given mean exposure to an aspect of consulting which is focused at solving a problem in a very specific domain (finance, recruiting and now travel/commute). I want to broaden this perspective by working on larger problems which would have a strategic impact on the client's organization. Also a global scale would further broaden the perspective of, hence a global MBA

Career goal - move into consulting MBB

Target schools - specifically targeting 1 year/shorter programs so - INSEAD, Oxford, Cambridge, HEC and also LBS as an exception

Planning to apply for the class of 2023.

Posted from my mobile device

vipul921:

You have a terrific profile. Your work experience appears solid. There are a few things I would consider/work on for your profile:

(1) Make sure you ace the GMAT. A 750 is terrific as long as you can achieve the same score as your mock exams.

(2) Address the reason for a second MBA head-on. That is usually a handicap as many MBA programs look negatively upon candidates with a Masters in Business of some sort.

(3) Come up with a much better career goal. You really want to avoid talking about going to an MBB firm. That is a very hackneyed type of path regardless of whether you pursue it. You also need a big career goal for your application essays. These programs want to see grand ambition that comes with a well thought out plan.

(4) Explain this tutoring gig you had for three years. Did you really tutor 300 students? That would be 100 a year on average. Was it group tutoring? Throwing out a big number like that would raise eyebrows, so make sure it's all crystal clear in how you address it in your application.

Good luck!

Hi all,

Here is my profile

Nationality: Indian
Age: 28
Undergrads: B.E Civil Engineering from university in India, 2.4 GPA
Masters: Computers and Information system from American University 3.1 GPA
Work Ex: 4 years experience as ITSM consultant including 3 years of international experience. Expert in automating workflows using different technologies.
Currently working as Team Lead at Guardian Life Insurance
GRE: 326
Goal: To get into the startups and Private equity
Reco Letters: Can arrange letters from my Director and managers in the US.

Let me know if I can provide any other information

Hi, kindly review my profile:

Indian / Male / 29 years

Graduation: Chemical Engineering (CGPA: 7.28 / 10, Harcourt Butler Technological Institute - mid-rank engineering college)
Post Graduation Diploma In Management: (CGPA: 7.05 /10, Indian Institute of Management Raipur; one of the top 15 business schools in India)

Work Experience: (Total 48 months till date)

30 months: Worked with a national Oil Marketing Company (a Fortune 500 company) in the Corporate Strategy and Planning team.

13 months: Worked in the CEO's office as a Program Manager at a cloud kitchen Start-up (this company is part of a group that owns two mobility based unicorn start-ups in India)

Currently working as a Program Manager to the CMO at the largest chain of Departmental stores in India.

Preparing for GMAT and targeting 700+

Target Schools: INSEAD, LBS, Booth

I am especially concerned as I do not have any international experience.

Hi, kindly review my profile:

Indian / Male / 29 years

Graduation: Chemical Engineering (CGPA: 7.28 / 10, Harcourt Butler Technological Institute; mid-rank engineering college)
Post Graduation Diploma In Management: (CGPA: 7.05 /10, Indian Institute of Management Raipur; one of the top 15 business schools in India)

Work Experience: (Total 48 months till date)

30 months: Worked with a national Oil Marketing Company (a Fortune 500 company) in the Corporate Strategy and Planning team.

13 months: Worked in the CEO's office as a Program Manager at a cloud kitchen Start-up (this company is part of a group that owns two mobility based unicorn start-ups in India)

Currently working as a Program Manager to the CMO at the largest chain of Departmental stores in India.

Preparing for GMAT and targeting 700+

Target Schools: INSEAD, LBS, Booth

I am especially concerned as I do not have any international experience.

Hi, I wanted a profile evaluation for myself:

Indian / Male / 29 years

Graduation: Chemical Engineering (CGPA: 7.28 / 10, Harcourt Butler Technological Institute)
Post Graduation Diploma In Management: (CGPA: 7.05 /10, Indian Institute of Management Raipur; one of the top 15 business schools in India)

Work Experience: (Total 48 months till date)

30 months: Worked with a national Oil Marketing Company (a Fortune 500 company) in the Corporate Strategy and Planning team.

13 months: Worked in the CEO's office as a Program Manager at a cloud kitchen Start-up (this company is part of a group that owns two mobility based unicorn start-ups in India)

Currently working as a Program Manager to the CMO at the largest chain of Departmental stores in India.

Preparing for GMAT and targeting 700+

Target Schools: INSEAD, LBS, Booth

I am especially concerned as I do not have any international experience.

Hello, kindly review my profile. Would appreciate any guidance and pointers.
Background:
Indian Female (Engineer + MBA)
Age 31
GMAT : Not yet taken, aiming 700+

Education:
MBA - Marketing from Top 10 Bschool in India (Dean's List)
Bachelor of Computer Engg (Mid-ranked University in India - Top 10%ile of the class)

Work Experience: Total 7.5
Current Job(4 years) - Fortune 50 Company (Tech)
Role #2 (Current Role) : Part of the CEO's office, responsible for the sales culture transformation and landing the global sales strategy and programs in India unit. Partnering very closely with the global team and India leadership team on overall fiscal strategy, planning and innovation initiatives.

Role #1 (3.5 yrs): Account Executive for large financial services and retail customers based in India, selling to the C-Suite. Handling a portfolio of 10mn USD and consistently delivering sales targets and quotas.

Promoted twice in 4 years

Job #1 (3.5 years): Large IT MNC (Fortune 500). Pre-MBA role
Application Development and Maintenance for one of the UK government's largest departments. Lived and worked in the UK for 1 year in a client facing, consulting role during this tenure.

Extra curriculars - Social internship in an education-related NGO for a month. Content Manager for a travel blog . CSR lead for Delivery Unit (500+ employees) in Job #1

Post MBA Goal - Product Strategy/Consulting

Target Schools: INSEAD, LBS, Said, Judge, M7

Hi Abhi3492,

Thanks for sharing your profile and MBA aspirations.

My name is Priyanka, Client Manager at ARINGO.

You have a very interesting profile! From what I can see:

Academics – Your GPA looks fine. The schools will be interested to know the reasons behind the second MBA.

Work Experience/GMAT –The experience of working in different companies- Oil Marketing, Start-Up, and Departmental Store is indeed good. You need to make an impactful resume quantifying the results, leadership skills, promotions, etc. While, not having an international experience weakens the case a bit but if you have worked with International teams/clients – it can compensate for that. Also, a high GMAT score can be further strengthen your profile .

Extracurricular activities/Volunteer Work – Schools look for a well-rounded profile. We would love to know about your interests and hobbies. Any volunteer work?

School list –INSEAD, LBS, and Booth: We would be able to give you better insights into the list once we have clarity on your career goals and GMAT score. Meanwhile, we suggest watching our video on INSEAD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_JZhG7vO_s&t=4776s.

All in all, sounds like you have a good profile! If you send me your CV and other info, once you are done with the GMAT on PRIYANKAK@ARINGO.com, I would love to connect you with our CEO who will be happy to help further with a detailed review and perhaps work together on some amazing apps.

All the best.

Abhi3492:

You have excellent work experience. I would really not worry about not having international experience. That's a bonus and not at all a requirement. Also, international experience can take on many forms. It can include travel, volunteer work, family-related endeavors, etc. It doesn't have to just be work experience.

You really need that 700+ and, for someone with your background, a 730+. That's just the nature of coming from a competitive demographic.

What about extracurricular activities or community leadership? Do you have any you can bring to the table?

I am slightly concerned that your post-graduation diploma in management might have some duplication with the MBA curriculum. Make sure you preemptively address that somewhere in your essays.

What are you trying to achieve post-MBA? Do you have good recommenders? These are all important factors in determining your odds.

Hi Nobody7,

Thank you for sharing your profile. Your profile looks good on the surface. The average GMAT score for your target schools is between710-730, however, it is lower for said and judge (690-720), and being an Indian applicant, I suggest you try to push your score to 730+ to maximize your chances for INSEAD, LBS, and M7 schools. On the work front, I see you have been in different kinds of industries which, if exhibited aptly to adcoms, can put you in a great spot. You'll need to demonstrate your contributions and career progressions, as well as how you stand out in the pool. Your role in your current company appears to be intriguing, particularly the part where you get to work in different functions such as strategy, planning, and innovation. You must have had a significant influence on this organization. Your prior experiences, too, demonstrate a solid career trajectory and amazing professional experiences.

Your ECs sound good, including examples of leadership. If you're creating content now also, I'm sure you'll find something fascinating to talk about in your apps. Talking about it will make your application more appealing. The majority of your professional experience should be covered on your CV, therefore you should have something more fascinating to talk about in your applications to actually bring a living person in the apps, and that is what sets YOU apart. You may want to read an article on how to maximize your chances for fall deadlines, you will get some insights.

Your post-MBA goals make sense. However, you will need to go into more detail, connect the dots with your previous work experience, and explain how an MBA from a specific school will help you fill gaps in your profile and achieve your goals. To convey a strong narrative, try to bring the right motivations for these goals. You will need to give plausible reasons for pursuing a second MBA.

If you need more direction/guidance over any aspect of your application and have any specific concerns, you can ask us on the forum Ask MBA & Beyond.

Overall you have a good profile and had a shot at your targeted schools. What’s going to matter most in your application is how you connect the experiential dots and build a great story to stand out from other applicants in the pool. If you’d like, we are happy to hop on a call with you sometime this week to discuss to profile in length and further chances to b-school. Feel free to book a free session with us as per your convenience.

How to enhance your application and maximize your chances in Round 1 for fall intake

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

Hello Abhi3492,

It sounds like you have some strong management experience via your current and past professional roles. Given that your CGPA could be a bit higher, you will definitely want to exceed a 700 on the GMAT.

What are your post-MBA goals? While INSEAD, LBS, and Booth are great options, candidates are now applying to 5 to 8 schools on average, with many in the 6+ range. I recommend casting a wider net to maximize your chances of acceptance. If you are looking for guidance, school selection is one of the key components of Personal MBA Coach's comprehensive services.

As for your lack of international experience, I would be more concerned with extracurriculars. Do you have any strong extracurricular activities that you can include in your applications? These experiences help show that you are a well-rounded applicant and can be a great way to demonstrate leadership, too.

Do not hesitate to reach out to scott@personalmbacoach.com if you are looking for personalized support throughout the application process. We work with a lot of program managers, as well as a lot of folks from India, and would be happy to help you maximize your chances of success.

Best,
Personal MBA Coach

Hi experts,

Kindly share your evaluation of my profile for INSEAD

GMAT: 720
Years of Exp: 3
Undergrad : IIT Kharagpur GPA(8/10)
Gender: Male
Location: India

Work ex. I work as Manager Strategy and Projects with the MD's office of a Global Pharma Company. Leading key strategic initiatives like - building a business unit from ground up, leading key business transformation changes. Do I need to improve on my GMAT? please let me know. No international experience but have led projects with team members based out of foreign countries

Hi experts, request you to kindly provide your insights on my chances at INSEAD and/or help me provide an initial idea the colleges that would be suitable for me.

Indian Male- Age 25

Gmat score- 740

Qualifications-
12th class- 95%
Undergrad- Bcom Hons- Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Delhi University- GPA (3.7)
Certified Public Accountant (CPA) - A score of 85+ in all 4 exams

Work Ex- 4+ years at Deloitte USI

Notable achievements-
1. Received escalated promotion to a Senior position at Deloitte. Received a 60% increment in the last 2 years (the maximum bracket) and received accolades that only 2% of professionals around the world receive.
2. I operate out of Delhi, but I can say I have a international experience, since I primarily serve US clients and have spent the last 2 years working directly with the US team and performing client communications and other on site tasks virtually. (my US partner will sign one of my LORs)
3. I've been closely involved in the Audit innovation process at my firm and have spent the last year working directly with the US specialists in developing dashboards/audit solutions and finding future avenues to beat audit disruptions. I am the first and the only person at my level from India to have been selected for these programs.

Challenges-
1. I feel my biggest challenge is linking my work experience in audit to an MBA or my post MBA goals which circle around either Consulting or entrepreneurship.
2. I feel my college GPA is on the lower end, however I'm presuming my CPA qualification to somewhat nullify that effect.

Posted from my mobile device

Hi Abhiibansal,

Thank you for sharing. One thing to note is if your GPA was originally on a 10 point scale it is not recommended to convert it to a 4.0 scale, as this does not always translate exactly. Looking at your GMAT, a 740 should position you well for INSEAD.

Linking your current experience to your future goals can be challenging. This is why Personal MBA Coach works with clients closely to articulate their distinct story and fine-tune goals (visit our comprehensive services to learn more).

Since consulting and entrepreneurship are rather broad goals, you want to share how you will make your unique mark. Perhaps you intend to develop a specific area of expertise within the consulting industry or focus on a certain sector. We also encourage applicants to think deeper about improving a chosen field or company.

Feel free to send a note to scott@personalmbacoach.com to further discuss your application strategy and learn how we can help maximize your chances of success. Personal MBA Coach gives national Deloitte talks and we work with lots of Deloitte applicants every year!

Best,
Personal MBA Coach