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curiousfox
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Profile Review 11 Jul 2026, 07:17
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I'm 25F and aiming for Co'29. Currently started prepping for GMAT.

Scores look like: 10th - 9.6 CGPA 12th - 92% Graduation - 8.56/10. Had a year back due to covid emergency.
Work ex - approx 2.5 years

Had always worked in early stage startups in marketing but the stints have been short due to layoffs. Mostly under a year.

I took a break in december and joined a company in March but had a layoff again in just 2.5 months. So if I remove this short exp from CV, it shows a total gap of 6+ months.

Apart from that for non academics
  1. Have been freelancing since college days, worked with 40+ clients
  2. Had created a course of mine enrolling 30 students and 2 lacs in revenue
  3. Tried building my marketing agency but failed.
  4. Travel and trekking buff and trying to get certifications around adventure sports like surfing and paragliding.
  5. LinkedIn Top voice 2024
  6. Worked with 25+ founders on their personal brand
  7. Was a state level athlete in school.

My aim with MBA is to build a pedigree for myself and move into a stronger role in marketing domain

Questions - What do I do in the mean time to build a strong profile?
Is career gap and year back at college going to be a problem?
I've started preparing very recently - Should I even target for Co'28?
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Archit3110
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Concentration: Sustainability, Marketing
GMAT Focus 1: 545 Q79 V79 DI73
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WE:Marketing (Energy)
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Profile Review 13 Jul 2026, 09:14
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target gmat score at least 645.. all the best with applications & exam..
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kingbucky
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Profile Review 13 Jul 2026, 11:38
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Your side hustles—freelancing, course creation, and even the failed agency—show amazing entrepreneurial grit. Don't stress about the COVID year back; AdComs are very understanding of 2020 disruptions. However, the short job stints are a concern. Don't hide the recent 2.5-month role; use it to highlight startup volatility and explain exactly why you need an MBA to transition into a stable corporate marketing path.

Your main priority now is securing a full-time marketing role and staying put for at least a year. Because you need to build continuous work history and crush the GMAT, targeting Co'29 is much smarter than rushing for Co'28. Let a high GMAT score anchor your profile while you gain stable experience.
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AdarshSambare
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Profile Review 15 Jul 2026, 20:42
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I agree with both Archit3110 and kingbucky.

You already have a strong profile. At this stage, what will make the biggest difference is working with someone who can help present your experiences in a way that aligns with what ISB is looking for.

For now, your top priority should be getting a strong GMAT score.
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MBAGuide
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Profile Review 15 Jul 2026, 22:37
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curiousfox

You need to understand which segment of your profile could carry the weight of your application(atleast more than the other segments). In your case, that would be your 2.5 years of marketing experience in early-stage startups, and you have told us nothing about that, so there really isn't much I can guide you with. You should focus on what you learned during those 2.5 years, how you progressed, and what impact you had on your employers' outcomes. I am also wondering what is common among the kinds of startups you have joined, given the high incidence of layoffs. The adcoms would be concerned.
There are lots of dots to connect, and even then, the story may fall short at this stage. I strongly suggest you try to move into a more stable pre-MBA function or a profile adjacent to marketing, for example, sales or business dev, so that you build quality experience and gain first-hand understanding of the market forces in whichever field you work. Then show some success around your work and leverage that to pitch your candidacy to a good MBA program and target quality marketing roles in the future.
Feel free to speak personally should you want a discussion on your odds with more specific inputs.

Best wishes
Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD MBA alumna, former INSEAD MBA admissions interviewer)
Founder, MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aanchal-sahni-83b00819/ |WEBSITE: https://mbaguideconsulting.com/| Message(WA): +91 9971200927| email- [email protected]­


curiousfox
I'm 25F and aiming for Co'29. Currently started prepping for GMAT.

Scores look like: 10th - 9.6 CGPA 12th - 92% Graduation - 8.56/10. Had a year back due to covid emergency.
Work ex - approx 2.5 years

Had always worked in early stage startups in marketing but the stints have been short due to layoffs. Mostly under a year.

I took a break in december and joined a company in March but had a layoff again in just 2.5 months. So if I remove this short exp from CV, it shows a total gap of 6+ months.

Apart from that for non academics
  1. Have been freelancing since college days, worked with 40+ clients
  2. Had created a course of mine enrolling 30 students and 2 lacs in revenue
  3. Tried building my marketing agency but failed.
  4. Travel and trekking buff and trying to get certifications around adventure sports like surfing and paragliding.
  5. LinkedIn Top voice 2024
  6. Worked with 25+ founders on their personal brand
  7. Was a state level athlete in school.

My aim with MBA is to build a pedigree for myself and move into a stronger role in marketing domain

Questions - What do I do in the mean time to build a strong profile?
Is career gap and year back at college going to be a problem?
I've started preparing very recently - Should I even target for Co'28?
Show more
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GyanOne
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Profile Review 21 Aug 2026, 03:07
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Hi curiousfox,
Thanks for posting. Here is our assessment:

Working with 40+ clients and 25+ founders as a freelancer while also building a course that generated revenue is the strongest thing in this post, and the risk is that it reads as scattered activity rather than a coherent marketing career unless the essays connect those experiences into a single ownership story.

- The layoffs are a real concern, though the more pressing issue is that multiple sub-year stints can look like thin professional traction to a reader who doesn't know the early-stage startup context. The fix is to tell it as a story of cumulative client and business impact rather than a list of employers.

- A year back due to Covid and a 6-month gap after December are both explainable, but they need to be addressed directly and briefly in the optional essay. Admissions readers have seen both; what makes them small is a confident, factual account with no over-explanation.

- At 2.5 years of work experience, Co'28 is a stretch. Most top programs expect four to five years by matriculation, so Co'29 at roughly four to four-and-a-half years is already the earlier end of a realistic window. The time between now and then is where the freelancing and founder work either builds into something concrete or stays a footnote.

- The GMAT prep timeline matters here: a strong score doesn't rescue a thin experience story, but a weak one adds a second problem to manage. Get a baseline score soon so you know what you're working with before setting a round target.

The freelance and entrepreneurial work is genuinely differentiated in this pool; the task now is making sure it adds up to a career argument, not just a list of interesting things done young.

Hope this helps. Feel free to come back with more queries as needed. Contact us directly – submit a query here.
Quote:
I'm 25F and aiming for Co'29. Currently started prepping for GMAT.

Scores look like: 10th - 9.6 CGPA 12th - 92% Graduation - 8.56/10. Had a year back due to covid emergency.
Work ex - approx 2.5 years

Had always worked in early stage startups in marketing but the stints have been short due to layoffs. Mostly under a year.

I took a break in december and joined a company in March but had a layoff again in just 2.5 months. So if I remove this short exp from CV, it shows a total gap of 6+ months.

Apart from that for non academics
  1. Have been freelancing since college days, worked with 40+ clients
  2. Had created a course of mine enrolling 30 students and 2 lacs in revenue
  3. Tried building my marketing agency but failed.
  4. Travel and trekking buff and trying to get certifications around adventure sports like surfing and paragliding.
  5. LinkedIn Top voice 2024
  6. Worked with 25+ founders on their personal brand
  7. Was a state level athlete in school.

My aim with MBA is to build a pedigree for myself and move into a stronger role in marketing domain

Questions - What do I do in the mean time to build a strong profile?
Is career gap and year back at college going to be a problem?
I've started preparing very recently - Should I even target for Co'28?
Show more
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