Profile Evaluation

[AbhishekM995]

Hi

Could you please evaluate my profile:
GMAT : 690
CGPA : 3.8 (4th in class) (In senior school was 1st ;) )
Work Ex:
1 yr part-time as business analyst with a mid-size Indian firm based in NCR
3 years as senior analyst with Accenture Consulting
(1 year International experience in Germany, France and Netherland working with a top German Bank for product market assessment and product development, resulting in sale of more than 8 million policies for bank and turnaround in retail segment)

Community Work: Currently participate in Accenture's NGO initiatives and former member of P&G NGO initiative

Extra-curricular - Certification from NSE- India's stock exchange. Also, started private fund by collecting $100k at age of 16, continuing it till age of 21 and yielding 12% return inspite of 2008 markets crash. Eventually gave up this private venture after picking job.

I want to specialize in finance and working with banking client has more concretized my decision.
Target schools:
NUS, Cambridge Judge, London Business School, HKUST Business School - Hong Kong

I know that GMAT won't help me with either INSEAD or any top US School but could you please help me with some schools that are within my reach with GMAT of 690 (open to Asian, US and European schools)?
Also since I am inclined to Finance, is Master in Finance a good option from any top school ?

[mbamissionjenK]

Hello,

Thanks for posting! So let's see... from what I can gather here, you have the following strengths:

-GPA
-solid experience as analyst at Accenture
-international experience

And the following challenges:

-GMAT slightly below average at some of the schools mentioned
-not sure of other extracurriculars/interests/passions/community involvement at all
-not sure how you'd characterize your leadership skills/experience
-your goals could be clarified and defined further by time of applications


And the following unknowns of course:
-essays
-recs
-interviews

Sounds like you are still debating what the best degree and path is for you. My recommendation is to focus on what job/s and what your career path may look like in the next 3, 5, 10 years... and then ask yourself what degree will MOST help with that vision. If still unsure, make a point to talk with some others in the types of jobs you are interested in; even potentially with HR or hiring managers that may be able to shed some light on it for you.

If MBA is the path you choose, your school list is not unreasonable; just know that it is quite competitive, so your essays/recs/interview can make a decent impact at the end of the day, as those are the places you are truly showing what you'll bring to the class and why you need that degree.

Good luck!