INSEAD PROFILE EVALUATION THREAD: Post all Profile Eval Requests Here!

Hello BK94 hope this finds you well!

Stellar profile, congratulations

What strikes me most is your growth mindset and how you have steadily transformed your career from supply chain to financial planning to asset management. I applaud you for being so agile in looking for appropriate opportunities. You are the profile that schools like LBS and INSEAD hope will continue to receive applications from even in the late rounds. So I highly encourage you to apply when you feel you are most prepared.

I would like to comment on your concern regarding leadership.
Not having direct control over some stakeholders/employees in the company, and yet pushing the agenda forward by indirectly influencing those people through your stakeholder management skills is the kind of leadership that business schools look for in strong applicants. You may not have been managing a team directly, but what's more impressive would be to know how you influence teams, senior management, and diverse group of stakeholders through your management skills. Talk candidly about how you helped resolve conflicts, motivated teams to expedite projects, convinced people in power to consider your inputs in taking decisions, and generated profits or value for your company through your stellar performance.

You may demonstrate compassionate leadership through stories and iron will to mobilize needy sectors post-MBA at a later point in life leveraging your prior experience and your increased business acumen. Be conscientious about your goals.

Your MBA resume, if done right can exhibit your leadership capabilities as well. Your résumé will serve as an aide-memoire when you write your essay. In your resume bullets, recall accomplishments in each role, breakthroughs, and changes and infliction points at each stage of your career to demonstrate your leadership potential.

Best wishes
_________________

Background

27 Year old Korean-American working and living in South Korea for last 2+ years.
Native English Speaker
Practical Knowledge of Korean (From 0 knowledge 2 years ago. Still studying to be better)
Basic Spanish (4 years in college/high school)
Have lived in 4 countries and visited over 60 in my lifetime. Very much consider myself a global citizen.
Two letters of recommendation from Two Harvard MBA grads. One served as a Korean Ambassador to foreign country. The other the leader of trade delegations to US. Both service in Deputy Minister roles in Korean govt.

Education & GMAT

Bachelors of Finance from Virginia Commonwealth University (technically tier 1 but very much non target) in USA.
3.5 Major GPA, 3.4 cumulative.
Deans List a total of 8 times.
Founding member, Vice President, Philanthropy Chairman (x2) of Fraternity. Organized multiple events that raised multiple thousands for charity.
2 summer study abroad programs in Korea at Top Universities.
GMAT: 710

Experience

2 college Internships (1 in USA, 1 in Korea. Both in roles involving current industry of procurement)

Job 1: Warehouse Worker / Logistics Manager / Market Manager @ Strategic Marketing Company (USA)

Started in college moving boxes for rent money, promoted within 3 months to Logistics Manager. Six months later running the entire market (in this case a US State). Responsible for high end promotional and luxury events. Handled all day to day, operational, administrative activities required for the company to have a presence in market. Oversaw year-over-year event increase by 300% and increase in staff size from 3 to 40 personnel. Was aged 22-23 at the time and average age of peers in comparative roles was 30-40. Doing this essentially full time while attending university. Quit upon graduation because of concerns COVID-19 would have on business outlook.

Job 2: Brief 3 month stint at US Federal Contracting Company as a Business Process Analyst. Resigned for two reasons : COVID-19 significantly destabilizing business and receive an offer to partner with old associate running a Tech/Consulting Startup

Job 3: Partner @ Tech/Consulting Startup (USA)

Partner at consulting/tech startup that is still active to this day. Specifically servicing clients in the Federal contracting space by providing custom and high level technical solutions in relation to ERP systems. Utilized tools such as excel, python, sql, xrp to automate and optimize business processes for customers. Extremely client facing. Responsible for all accounting, payroll, invoicing for company and also procured, distributed, reconciled $100,000 of COVID-10 relief funding. In my year at this company we brought in over $250,000 in consulting revenue. In late 2020 I gave up my equity and ....

Moved to South Korea in pursuit of closer alignment with my native culture. Before leaving set up my own consulting company incorporated in U.S

Job 4: Owner Small Business (Seoul / Global)
Leverage connections and niche industry knowledge to secure contracts working with Korean start ups to billion-dollar global companies. Work in close partnership with Korean consulting company in similar industry to keep pipeline full. What I do is help Korean companies engage with global procurement markets (think UN, MDB's, US federal govt, etc...). Work is extremely forward facing with regular engagements with c-level executives, and foreign companies. Specializing in data driven research, deliverable presentation, and formal recommendations regarding pricing structure, market entry and strategic partnerships to stakeholders. Job has required significant travel and interactions with people from many different countries. Have generated about $300,000 in revenue. Recently wrote and won a proposal to supply a US State govt. for a contract with an estimated value of $75 million. Am pivoting in the commercial market private labeling products from China and selling on Amazon in USA.
Been doing this for almost 3 years now.


Key Concerns

Work Experience: Never really have worked at a larger company and have a very non traditoinally working history. Don't really plan to go down the traditional route after graduaition and prefer to focus on my own business / build my family business

Language: I am still gradually building up my secondary langauge skills and do not consider myself to be business proficient. Considering I am Korean ethnically, I am concerned how this may appear in an interview with an in-country alumni when I am not fluent in my mother language.

Education: I went to a Top-100 University in the United States. Coming from a non-target with only slightly above average grades, I am worried my academic background will hold me back.

Outlook:

I think I have a few things going for me that me an attractive candidate for an institution like INSEAD. My international background, achievements as an entrepreneur, being two major ones.

Not sure if this changes anything but once I receive my MBA, I am slated as the successor for my family business, which is a multi-million dollar enterprise.

Curious to know any thoughts.

Hi jkbloo hope this finds you well

There are many aspects of your profile that the INSEAD adcom would look upon very favorably, including your large family business. Business schools love applicants who are destined for great opportunities and success
Your growing up at the intersection of two cultures certainly adds another layer of interest to your profile.
Not all students at INSEAD come from target feeder universities, so do not worry about that aspect.

Remember that your professional background and growth trajectory is the most critical part on which B-schools will evaluate you, so make sure you present this well in your INSEAD essays. It is also essential to describe your motivations for taking on a variety of career opportunities and demonstrate your growth mindset in light of the leadership position you hope to acquire after the MBA.

As an entrepreneur in your most recent stint, you should focus on demonstrating A) the Scale (think growth rate) of your business and the impact, B) a solid plan for the future, whether in your family business or your own business, and how INSEAD would help you build the network and your brand. As a new generation in the family business, you can also present your ideas by citing your fresh and unconventional approach to business (as opposed to the traditional ones followed currently) as your motivation for pursuing the MBA before taking a leadership position in your family business. The INSEAD application has plenty of room to talk about all things interesting. So, make the best use of it.

Your recommendations are sorted. But I must emphasize more how networking with the school and speaking with the alums can help you ace the admissions process.

As for your concerns about language, do not worry because proficiency in a second language is not a criterion on the INSEAD evaluation form that your interviewer will fill out after the interview. Moving out of your comfort zone to learn a 2nd language shows a growth mindset and looks good on your application. Your move to Korea already speaks volumes about your willingness to pursue global business ambitions.

Best regards
_________________

Hi jkbloo,

your profile looks very familiar. I believe I evaluated it a few months ago.

Since Aanchal has done a great job at evaluating your profile, I'll be brief.

I am an INSEAD alum and former Director and Head of HR of Samsung Electronics Mexico. I can kind of relate to you. I'm Spanish-Korean (Spanish dad - Korean mom) and, prior to INSEAD, I was far from being fluent in Korean. I also moved quite a bit and came from no-name companies.

Before INSEAD, I was working in NYC for a small telecommunications company and did my MBA precisely with the intention to transition to Korea and reconnect with my roots while working for one of the biggest Korean firms. Fortunately, I got the Samsung offer to join the Global Strategy Group (GSG) in Seoul after graduation and, after a few years in Korea, I was transferred to Mexico (not something I pursued, but that's a long story).

After this intro, I am going to address directly your concerns.

a. Work Experience: I do not see this as a concern as long as you are able to articulate your story properly. The most important thing is to show that you have been advancing in your career with each move so, if you're able to show this, you should be fine. Plus, experience as an entrepreneur is highly valued and is an excellent source of stories for your essays.

b. Language: I wouldn't be that concerned either. I personally know plenty of admits who didn't meet the entry language requirement. Their native language was English and they had beginner level in one or two other languages (but very beginner). Considering that Korean is a very tough language to learn and that you have made a big effort to learn it, I don't think INSEAD will penalize you if your Korean is not truly business level. Furthermore, the requirement is to have at least a B1 ("practical") level, and you can certify it months after admission. You can take a look at INSEAD's language policy here:

https://www.insead.edu/sites/default/fi ... f_2020.pdf

As for the interviews, in my experience working with INSEAD applicants living in Korea and as an admissions interviewer myself while in Korea, chances are that your interviewers (at least one) will be non-Korean (and probably also from the Samsung GSG). And even if one of them is Korean, as long as you're very open about Korean not being your native language, you'll be fine. They'll for sure conduct the interview in English.

c. Education: This is the least of my concerns. INSEAD (and EU programs in general) is not obsessed over big university/school names and GPA. Moreover, you have a 710 GMAT score, which clearly shows your academic capacity.

Overall, I am feeling positive about your chances to get accepted to INSEAD. But it would be great if you could share your resume with me. Feel free to email it to me directly at alex@arleeconsulting.com.

I am quite experienced working with Korean applicants and applicants living in Korea, so if you require any assistance, I'll be more than happy to assist you.

Warm regards
Alex



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Hey jkbloo,

Thanks for sharing a detailed profile.

Your profile looks good on the surface. To begin with, 710 is a decent score when coupled with an overall well defined profile. Your GPA also aligns with your scores and settles well.

Your extensive work experience will be the major highlight of your profile. You have clearly defined your roles and responsibilities in various job profiles, ensure to adequately highlight it to the AdComs. The prime focus should be
1. Your startup experience
2. Your own small business which you escalated. (75 million$)

Speaking about these will help you start an interesting conversation with the AdComs. I can clearly see a good career trajectory. You have been at various leading positions and thus I assume it must speak about some great leadership and mentorship experiences. Also, you must highlight your contributions in the work, the initiatives you took, and the impact they had on the organization. . Big names in your resume won’t matter, if you are able to communicate your experience correctly and strongly, it is pretty much sorted. All in all you have a great work experience.

You haven’t mentioned your EC’s, they play an important role in an application and also help add diversity to a profile. Try highlighting some non traditional activities and social responsibilities on your part. You can even speak about any hobby you're doing and passionate about. ECs expose your dynamic personality, and AdComs get to know the different aspects of your personality.

Now about your post-MBA goals, there are very few people who really have the clear, unique motivations behind pursuing an MBA and you seem one among them. I can clearly resonate your goals to your prior journey and can locate the experiences to inspire these goals. But, make sure you specify how INSEAD can help fill gaps in your profile and lead you to your life goals. Also, it is worth mentioning the importance of Letters of Recommendations, I am happy seeing it sorted. Meanwhile, you may also want to read our article on How to get into INSEAD, to get a better understanding, . We have helped many applicants to get into INSEAD, and one of them was an applicant from Hong Kong. She got into INSEAD with 650 GMAT .

All in all you have an amazing profile and stand a great chance at Insead. If you’d like, we are happy to get on a call with you sometime this week to discuss your profile in length and further chances at INSEAD. Feel free to schedule a free profile evaluation call with us at your convenience.

Common Post MBA Goals: How to package your story around it?- Let’s hear from the Alumns of Top business schools! Join us for a free session.

Cheers!
Neha Hadke
Strategy Manager
MBA and Beyond
Testimonials
Meet our Panel of Consultants.
Email: neha@mbaandbeyond.com



_________________

Hey jkbloo,

When applying to universities abroad, there are several key factors to keep in mind, including your academic background, work experience, extracurricular activities, and specific accomplishments. These factors should be quantified and presented in a clear and concise manner to increase your chances of acceptance.

Specifically, for MBA programs, work experience is highly valued and a minimum of 3–4 years is typically required. Additionally, a GMAT score of at least 680 or 690 is often required for top business schools.

However, it is important to remember that the GMAT or GRE score is only one aspect of the application, and other factors such as essays, the SOP, and the LOR also play a significant role. To maximize your chances of acceptance, all aspects of your application should be tailored to showcase your strengths and achievements.

If you would like, we can help you with essays and SOPs and other application processes.

We have helped over 5000 students get admitted into their dream schools.
If you would like we can set up a free consulting session with you at your convenience

You can set up a Free consulting session with our experts through the link provided:
BOOK YOUR FREE SESSION

In this FREE call, you will be getting:

a). Deep Profile Evaluation: Strengths and Weaknesses

b). Ideal Target Schools for your Profile

c). Timeline for your Applications

d). 3X Admit Chances
_______
Abhyank Srinet
Founder and Head Consultant at MiM Essay

97% Success Rate | 5000+ Admits in Top Schools | 5 Million Euros in Scholarships

Hello all,

Thanks for taking out time to go through my profile. Appreciate your time and effort!

1. Demographic: 28/M/Indian
2. Education Qualification
- Undergraduate: Bachelor in Business Administration from Symbiosis international university, Pune
-GPA- 3.0/4.0 (Cleared insurance regulatory exams and became a personal financial advisor. Did a business of INR 2 million and focused more on outside activities)
- Completed all levels of CFA and a CFA charterholder
- Graduate level 3-month course from Cornell university in leadership essential completed (Paid course during Covid)

3. GRE
- 320

4. Work Experience
- Overall (by the time of matriculation): 83 months
- Organization: PwC and EY
- Industry: Consulting
- Current Role: Consultant (By the time of enrollment - Assistant manager)

Goal summary during Undergrad - Move into M&A Consulting. However, it was practically difficult to enter into consulting in 2015 (UG - Graduation year) without an MBA. Hence, pursued CFA and eventually transitioned to the PwC Deals strategy.

Job 1 - Risk advisory
• Defined and benchmarked policies, standard operating procedures, and risk control matrices for the largest private
bank in India; client satisfaction with work led to an additional business that doubled total project revenue. (Received a team award)
• Concurrent audit: Spearheaded two concurrent audit projects of two banks parallelly, identified gaps in process of import
– export and returns filed by banks to governmental authorities resulting in annualized savings in penalties of US $100K

Job 2: Deal strategy and operations (M&A Consulting)
• Due diligence: Worked on over 8 DDs across various industries with a total value of $800M. Collaborated with teams across client and PwC (Tax, IT) and delivered key analytical output to global PE funds. (DD - Operational, HR and Financial DD)

• Merger integration: Co-led merger integration for multiple listed and private companies end to end. Developed presentations and conducted workshops with CXO groups, defined integration strategy, and monitored the performance of those activities along with defined synergies
(Selected engagements:
- Largest FS NBFC merger domestic (Deal value - $20B, worked with the CXO group directly for 12 months.
- Carve out the management of the largest pharmaceutical companies and worked with the UK counterparts as part of the global strategy (Deal value - $13B).
- Carve out the management of a service industry and worked with the US, UK, and German counterparts and led the entire carve-out management.

5. Extracurricular during work:
- Assisted in developing a global learning website from scratch for 3000+ professionals across the globe. Worked with Japan, US, and UK teams in developing the content and subsequently designed wireframes for the website. Received official recognition and feedback from a senior partner (Deals leader).
- Led digital initiatives: Ledonboarding of 3rd party tools, end-to-end negotiation to compliance with the tool; Conducted training for overall 150-member group
- Led onboarding activities for new joiners

• Extracurricular and community support outside of work:
- Founded an ed-tech start-up: Developed a website to provide a hands-on tutorial to build mobile and web apps without coding; Devised and launched a go-to-market strategy across social media channels; Got selected for Shark tank India interview. [Had certain ideas in my undergrad but could not in the earlier years due to not having any coding skills. Fast forward 5 years, found multiple tools and decided to help out other folks who should have the opportunity to launch it in the market even if they don't know how to code]
- Citi APAC IB virtual internship
- CFA Practice Analysis Committee Volunteer: Reviewing current CFA program curriculum readings.
- Teach for India: Summer associate and campaign leader during undergrad
- United Nations: worked with NGO from the UK to help law enforcement find and help protect girls in Tanzania who are at risk of genital mutilation. [ During Covid was fortunate to have a job and wanted to help people as much as I could]
- Developed a website to provide resume reviews during covid for candidates who lost their job for free.

6. Post-MBA goals
- Having learned what leads to M&A for companies and implemented it in various aspects. I want to switch to more of a holistic role. Hence, would like to transition to strategy consulting

7. Target Colleges
- Insead J24
- LBS MBA
- NYU Tech
- IESE
- HEC
- Any other suggestions would be helpful

8. Red flags
- One year gap after job 1: Was not able to clear CFA level 3 while working in my first attempt. Hence, decided to take a break and complete it before transitioning to M&A consulting. [P.S. - Completed level 1 and level 2 in my first attempt while working full time in my job 1]
- Low GPA from an over-represented pool (3.0 out of 4.0)

9. Questions
- Not sure how to factor in my ed-tech start-up background in the overall application and used that as my strength. Happy to hear your thoughts
- What are the colleges that I can add to this list?
- How can I improve my profile?

Regards,
Sunny

Hi Sunny,

Great profile overall. Here are my recommendations:
1. Low GRE- try to retake. I don't know if you are planning to apply in the Spring intake? Given consulting goal, that will be a benefit, but as R1 deadline is just around the corner, you are going to be short on time. If you do retake, then apply latest by R2, without stretching it any further.
Actually, as you have a low GPA, you must retake the GRE/GMAT. Having low scores in both these areas is not going to help.
2. Work experience- good. INSEAD would seek your international experience/ exposure, which you haven't really mentioned here. So, you must show that you have worked with clients/teams in different countries and expanded your world view through this association.
3. ECAs - sound plenty. I like the fact that you have taken up initiatives at work and outside.
4. Edtech startup- a startup whether it failed or became successful, provides invaluable experience and b-schools are aware of that. So do not downplay it in your applications. If you are able to identify and capture a market need through your startup, then you sure have a story in hand.
5. 1 year gap- I would not be too concerned about this- however, you can explain it through an optional essay.
6. b-school selection- are you looking at only European programs? Also, why NYU Tech? If you with to get into consulting post MBA, then an endless list of US based MBA programs can help you get there. Applying to these necessitates a better GRE score.

Would be happy to chat over a call.
_________________

Hey Suns1994

Let me begin by mentioning that your profile is strong in terms of work experience and extracurricular activities. In fact, 83 months of work experience, with most of it in consulting at top firms (PwC and EY), and having held a variety of roles and responsibilities, including M&A consulting, gives a boost to your profile. You, being a CFA charter holder and having a 3 month certification from Cornell University, add brownie points to your profile. Additionally, you have a good track record of extracurricular activities, including founding an ed-tech startup, being part of a United Nations NGO, and conducting volunteer work with Teach for India and CFA.

Your goal of transitioning to strategy consulting is clear and well-articulated, and it aligns well with your background and experience. The target schools are also well-chosen and are among the top business schools in the world.

One potential red flag is the one-year gap after job 1, but it can be explained by your need to complete CFA level 3 before transitioning to M&A consulting. The low GPA from an over-represented pool (3.0 out of 4.0) may also be a concern, but other qualifications, such as the CFA charterholder and work experience, will compensate for it.

In terms of how to factor in the ed-tech start-up background in the overall application, you should highlight how it showcases your entrepreneurial skills and ability to think outside the box by adding quantifications.

Other business schools that I would suggest you consider applying to are:

1. Stanford Graduate School of Business
2. Harvard Business School
3. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania
4. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University
5. MIT Sloan School of Management
6. Columbia Business School
7. Chicago Booth School of Business
8. University of Oxford Said Business School
9. Cambridge Judge Business School

If you would like, we can help you with essays and SOPs and other application processes.

We have helped over 5000 students get admit into their dream schools.
If you would like we can set up a free consulting session with you at your convenience

You can set up a FREE consulting session with our experts through the link provided:
BOOK YOUR FREE SESSION

In this FREE call, you will be getting:

a). Deep Profile Evaluation: Strengths and Weaknesses

b). Ideal Target Schools for your Profile

c). Timeline for your Applications

d). 3X Admit Chances
_______
Abhyank Srinet
Founder and Head Consultant at MiM Essay

97% Success Rate | 5000+ Admits in Top Schools | 5 Million Euros in Scholarships

Suns1994 hope this finds you well

Having M&A strategy experience is surely a top-tier kind of PRE MBA experience. CFA adds a lot of weight to your candidacy.
Schools such as INSEAD and LBS see a lot of pre-MBA consultants applying to the program and Big4 is a big feeder of this trend along with MBB and tier 2/boutique consulting firms. So, your competition will be fierce from within this cohort. You will have to execute your application well to stand out. Your professional recommendations will also need to be exemplary. You need to unpack your experiences and reconstruct your stories in a way that shows that working on high-impact projects has given you much more hands-on experience and opportunity to engage with leaders from the industry, more experiential maturity, and more capability to contextualize complex business problems than most MNC employees or consultants.

Demonstrating growth progression in your essays and resume will be exceptionally important so make sure the adcom can clearly see how you were awarded bigger and better responsibilities professionally as a result of impressive results and your leadership capabilities.

Especially highlight any international exposure which is an important criteria INSEAD evaluates applicants on.

Questions
- Not sure how to factor in my ed-tech start-up background in the overall application and used that as my strength. Happy to hear your thoughts.

Be honest about the motivation behind starting up in the ed tech space. What problem were you trying to solve? What impact did you create as a side- entrepreneur? Want to write an impressive strengths and weakness essay or a failure essay? Focus on the learnings from your startup. What could you have done differently? Recognizing your shortcomings as an entrepreneur shows that you are self-aware. This is a key characteristic of effective leaders.

- What are the colleges that I can add to this list?

Although a 320 on GRE is decent, you may consider a retake and aim for 330+ to target top-tier US programs. The European schools will be relatively accommodating given your strong finance subject base.
If applying to the US with this score, broaden the range of schools. Consider applying to Top 20 US programs.

- How can I improve my profile?

If targeting INSEAD Jan intake or HEC, there may not be enough time for you to further enhance your profile. It's best you focus on polishing your essays and applications while doing thorough due diligence on your goals strategy for each school on your list. This will be a relatively time-consuming task that would require you to network with the schools and alumni. Your goals are relatively vague at the moment. Consulting goals are generic, you would need to dive deeper into what really interests you. What kind of problems would you like to work on.

Best wishes
_________________