Profile evaluation - GMAT 645

Question

Hi,

I just gave GMAT focus with 645 (Q85 V80 DI80). I am in Indian engineer male. Have ~6 years of work experience and currently working as a associate product manager in the leading casual real money gaming companies in India.

Profile

College 
Education - Mechanical Engineer, Thapar Institute of engineering and technology, 2018 passout, 7.06 GPA. 
Extra curriculars -
 
 Was the captain of the Go kart team in college, led a team of 25. Had 2nd best acceleration in the final line up among 190 participating teams.  
 Won best design award (as a team) in national level electric car competition. 
 Won the best final year project among the whole batch. 
 Was chief editor of the economics club. 
 Got to be in the top 20 teams for a national level leadership olympiad.

Work experience 
 
 Maruti Suzuki India Limited (Jan'17 - Jun'17) - intern 
 Reliance Industries Limited (Jul'18 - Jul'19) - Mechanical Engineer 
 Tata 1mg (Sep'19 - Jan'21) - Business Analyst (Supply chain analytics) 
 BookThatStudio (Jan'21 - Dec'22) - Co-founder and CEO 
 Talocity.ai (Dec'22 - Jun'23) - Product Manager 
 Zupee (Jun'23 - Present) - Associate Product Manager, likely to be promoted to PM in 2 months.

Also, have been part of Jagriti Yatra, 2018, world's largest entrepreneurial journey. For startup, the business is still running, raised a grant of 4L INR from the gov and have done business over 30 lakhs INR till now, have some more numbers on suppliers and networks that might sound good. For each of the work experience, I have significant impact points barring the RIL stint.

Tech skills - SQL, Tableau

Community work 
 
 Pratigya Abhiyan NGO (college time) - taught students in local language, maths and science 
 Teach for India (pandemic) - did 2 three month stints with TFI, teaching kids on zoom (have official certificates for that) 
 Robin Hood Army (on and off since 2021) - Various drives and Initiatives

Outside work, I have been part of toastmasters, though the participation has been limited, but it's again on and off since Aug 2018 with none done in pandemic. I have done specializations on coursera, not sure if they'd be any relevant, in supply chain from Rutgers, Business financial modelling from Wharton and Software product management from Alberta.

I was targeting
- Harvard
- Stanford
- Wharton
- INSEAD

What are the chances? Can anyone help?

MG4MBACrystalBall · Answer

@ Nimish ,

A few thoughts on your profile evaluation and plans.
 
 The academic arc is alright given the Thapar pedgiree though the GPA will not be your friend. Together with the current score, things can be quite tough on this front. Given the timelines, a retake will be strongly recommended. Coursera/online course won't have much leverage here am afraid. 
 The professional profile looks quite interesting and the transition from a core engg role into PM one can make for a good overall pitch. The relatively short-lived and  frequent job changes  will need to be weaved into the right narrative. Some precedence can help - have peers/seniors from your teams been admitted to your target programs in the recent past? 
 The college extracurricular efforts sound on point. Post that, instead of focusing on the off/on bits, you may want to also leverage your ongoing startup efforts. Remember, impact/depth matters over quantity here. 
 For reasons mentioned  here , we don't speculate on school selection or chances. At a high level though, it would be good to broaden the list unless of course there is more which can be done over a more detailed discussion. For INSEAD, international experience helps a lot. Anything here?  
Let me know if this helps.

Archit3110 · Answer

Get in touch with adcom and existing students to see how aligned your post mba goals are with school you are interested in... score impress of 20 points is required as yours is GEM profile...

Posted from my mobile device

Nimishgoyal1302 · Answer

Hi  MG4MBACrystalBall

Thanks for the inputs.

- Retake is something I haven't yet given a strong thought on. Will surely consider.
- So, I was thinking of modelling my entire profile around entrepreneurship. As in the long run I intend to be associated with startups in some shape or form. Frequent job changes should be manageable I believe. One of my colleagues from Tata 1mg went to Wharton, a couple of my college friends went to Ross and Kellogg if that helps, though nothing much in common with the latter apart from the degree. For the 1mg colleague, we have a complete overlap of work ex and had some projects where we worked together, recommendation won't be a problem if required.
- One thing forgot to mention is that we were the founders of the go kart team of the college. So did all the setups from scratch. There are ongoing efforts in the startup that should fatten the chicken by the time applications are sent.
- No international experience as such.

admitStreet · Answer

Nimishgoyal1302 - some thoughts: 1. What are your plans immediately post-MBA i.e. target sector/ function/ geographies? Prioritizing B-schools becomes more structured starting with this. 2. Given the job switches, it'd be crucial to highlight the growth arc, presenting these as thoughtful moves whereby you picked up certain increased skillsets e.g. exposure to sectors, domains, tech/ business nuances etc. Linking these "transferable skills" to your career goals would then help present a strong narrative. The entrepreneurship angle can help too, but I'm assuming that's the long-term plan? 3. EC's present good talking points for essays. Aim to highlight through these activities your overall personality traits, and how you'd add value to the MBA class e.g. clubs (academic and social), career treks, etc. 4. Given the GPA and the competitive (Indian Engineer Male) cohort, a GMAT retake would help increase chances at these top B-schools. Hope this helps a bit. Regards, Arvind Founder, admitStreet | Schedule a free chat W: https://admitstreet.com | LinkedIn | E: consultingteam@admitstreet.com

AugustAcademy · Answer

Hi Nimish,

You've got a great profile - the professional journey is something that definitely seems interesting.  YOu have an interesting array of EC's as well - I would be interested to know more.

Your GMAT is below global average for HSW (and definitely below Indian average) - not saying you shouldn't apply. There're always occasions where adcom decisions surprise us on our initial expectations - it really depends on what stories you have (compared to what folks with similar qualifications don't have).

I would encourage you to apply to 2 or 3 of these programs, but definitely consider schools in the T15 calibre as well.  Reach out if you want to chat more.

Oh, and about INSEAD - INSEAD will need international experience, though your score should be ok.

Best,
Karthik

ExpertsGlobal · Answer

Hello  Nimishgoyal1302 ,

Hope this finds you well.

First things first, improving your GMAT score is going to be crucial; you belong to an overrepresented pool of Indian male applicants and your current GMAT score will not help you stand out. The good news is that you have time in hand; so, this is possible.

Once you have an improved score, a lot will depend on how you bring together all your experiences into a coherent narrative (you must explain the frequent job shifts in your Optional Essay as well) and link it up with your career goals; remember, the goals should be in sync with all that you have done so far; besides the short term goals should also sync with your long term goals; if you are looking to pursue entrepreneurship, having a very clear idea of what you intend to do (in the short-term and long-term) is important; if you do not have the clarity, it is best to avoid this route.

All in all, INSEAD will value your entrepreneurial bent of mind; however, improving your GMAT score before applying will be crucial; with regard to the other schools, you need to put forth a compelling story and back it up with a solid test score; our suggestion would be that you balance your risk out a bit and include a few US top ~20 schools as well (alongside the top ~5 European schools).

Should you wish to discuss your prsopects in greater detail, please feel free to get in touch with us for a profile evaluation session.

Hope this helps.

All the best!

Profile evaluation - GMAT 645

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