Profile Evaluation | GMAT 720, 8yrs WE, Indian IT Male

[Dienekes]

Hi there,

I am planning to apply to few of the top B-schools this year and seeking an evaluation of my profile as well as your inputs on the questions I have to help me understand whether my target schools are a realistic idea.

Background and Future goals summary:
• Indian/Male/30 years
• GMAT: 720 (Q49, V38, IR7, AWA awaited)
• Work experience: 8 years (in Jan’15), all with Accenture LLP in its software/IT services group
• Education: Bachelor of Technology (major in IT) | 2002-2006 | From an average (non-IIT) but large Indian university in India | GPA – 3/4 (WES iGPA)
• Post-MBA goal: To get into Product management and business strategy development

Additional key points:

Regarding work experience –
• Working in US from last 3.5 years as a Project/Team Lead on an onshore opportunity with a Fortune 100 financial client. Prior to that worked from India (offshore), again for other Fortune 100 clients.
• My experience in US with the current client has been of an integral role towards growing a recently acquired start-up to a next-generation payments platform.
• In my current role I have had lot of avenues to demonstrate my leadership skills including team management (of teams ranging between 5-25 people), client partnership management and software development leadership, reporting directly to client director.
• Received regular outstanding feedback from both Accenture and client leadership, including client directors and VPs.
• Have won a lot of performance awards and recognition during my entire tenure.
• Completed a corporate technical certification program affiliated to MIT.
• Ranked in the top 5% of entry level engineers in the technical training assessment at the country level (out of 3000-5000 employees).

Regarding LORs –
• Will be able to obtain extensive (from leadership, teamwork and management standpoint) and excellent recommendations from few of the key people I have worked with in the current project. These will include a client director who is now a VP at another firm and a Senior Manager at Accenture who now runs his own IT consulting company.

Regarding Education –
• Out of my 4 years of undergraduate program, last 2 years have a WES iGPA of 3.5-4/4 and while calculating the overall marks, the university takes weighted average with most emphasis on the latter years. Overall GPA – 3/4.

Regarding Extra-curricular and Social responsibilities –
• Weakest area.
• Avid runner, training for my first marathon.
• Not much active contribution in community development other than couple of prior volunteer activities at blind schools in India.
• Otherwise, mainly comprises of regular financial contributions to NGOs, Wikipedia and local communities.

Regarding MBA goals –
• Targeting full-time programs at (in order of interest): Kellogg (R2), Sloan (R2), INSEAD (R1-Jan’16 session), Tuck (R1), Fuqua (R1/R2), Ross (R2) and Tepper (R2).

Additional questions besides profile review –
1. I am a little concerned about my GMAT score, although it's above or stays in line with the average GMAT scores of my target schools, I still feel coming from a competitive pool that it might weaken my case. Could you please provide your thoughts on that and whether I should aim for a retake to increase it before most of the school’s R2 deadlines?
2. Which areas in my profile do you consider weak for my target schools?
3. How much of a role do the LORs play in the overall application, as I am definitely looking at them and my leadership experiences in the essays to help make my application stand-out?
4. Considering my years of experience and plans to switch functions (from tech to business), I am not planning to apply to schools where that might be difficult. On those lines, can you please suggest any other b-schools where I can be competitive based on my profile?

Your help, guidance and inputs will be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks for your time!

[praroopv]

Buddy, I have similar profile. Also wondering if is competitive

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there,

Thanks for posting. Overall you have a lot in common with a lot of applicants (Indian IT male interested in product management); but a few things to help you stand out from that group, including the leadership opportunities you've described; the international experience is a small plus; good recognition and promotion from you've described; and Accenture of course is a reputable company to have established your career at.

Overall it's a good mix of schools, though as you probably know your odds are better at the Ross/Fuqua/Tepper end of the list than the higher end.

To your questions:

1. I am a little concerned about my GMAT score, although it's above or stays in line with the average GMAT scores of my target schools, I still feel coming from a competitive pool that it might weaken my case. Could you please provide your thoughts on that and whether I should aim for a retake to increase it before most of the school’s R2 deadlines?

[The GMAT actually does not concern me. I mean if you've say done 750+ on a practice test and feel it's easily within reach, sure, can give it another shot. But 720 is right up there and I think your bigger challenge is just differentiating from other similar applicants and showing something about you that schools don't want to 'miss', to put it one way... so you can probably work more on your essays to get that across and share more about what makes you who you are.]


2. Which areas in my profile do you consider weak for my target schools?

[As mentioned, the challenge of differentiating... not as much a 'weakness' as just that there are SO many strong applicants out there... strong applicants get turned away everyday; so showing something about you that you'll contribute to the class and making a really strong case for why the MBA, and why each school is an amazing fit for you.... will be crucial. As you assessed, community involvement and extracurricular activities are on the weaker side, and your college not being IIT. Also with 8 years of experience (9 when you start?) you want to ensure the adcomm that you know what you are getting into with the MBA and that this is definitely the right path for you, and that NOW is the right time for you in your career, etc.]

3. How much of a role do the LORs play in the overall application, as I am definitely looking at them and my leadership experiences in the essays to help make my application stand-out?

[Many times they (LOR) make less impact because they are fairly average... BUT if really strong, they can really help!]


4. Considering my years of experience and plans to switch functions (from tech to business), I am not planning to apply to schools where that might be difficult. On those lines, can you please suggest any other b-schools where I can be competitive based on my profile?

[Generally I'd look at schools in the 15-25-ish range... so could research Anderson; Johnson; Kenan-Flagler; Emory; Kelley; etc just for more info.]

Good luck to you!