Request for Profile Evaluation - 8 years Experience

[Aurion]

Dear Experts,

I would like to request you to evaluate my profile : -

Demographic: Age 31, Male, from India

Academics : - Bachelor in Electrical Engineering with 64%.

Work Experience: 8 years of rich engineering and Business Development experience for a Major Industrial Automation company. Worked with some of the major Oil companies (e.g. Shell, BP) at some remote places like Prudhoe Bay (North Pole, Alaska), Middle East, Australia etc.

Certifications and Awards : - Six Sigma Green Belt, Won various awards from my employers for Business Development in US, Australia and Middle East.

GMAT: 640 on third time (49Q/28V). I was able to score around 680 to 690 in Mocks (in real Test environment), but performed poorly on actual GMAT each time. I don't want to retake GMAT, but if i have to, I shall retake.

Extracurricular Activities: Play Bass Guitar (was part of a Rock band back in College days), Trekking and hiking (recently completed 54km Great Walk in Australia), Scuba and Cooking

Co-owner of a Restaurant (along with my wife). Started the restaurant only 3 months back.

Have been involved with an NGO in North East India (since 2000) that works for the conservation and preservation of Rainforest and Wildlife in the foothills of Himalayas.

Target Schools : -
1) Kellogs
2) ISB Hydrabad
3) INSEAD
4) INSEAD
5) NUS

Could you please review and let me know if i should retake the GMAT again ?

Thanks and Appreciate.

Cheers.

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there,

Thanks for posting. You have some pros and some weaker areas to your profile. One of the biggest challenges is that you are part of quite a competitive applicant group (male Indian engineers), and it can be tough to stand out from that crowd, who also tend to have very strong GMAT scores by the way. Emphasizing the business development aspects will benefit you, and I'm not sure if you have had much leadership experience but that would help. The restaurant experience and NGO are potentially interesting. But with your grades and GMAT, and the limited info I have here, I would say your school list is pretty ambitious. You may wish to look at options with average GMAT scores more in the 600-680 range for better chances. In terms of re-taking, I can understand once you've taken it 3 times, you may not be interested in trying once more and that is understandable. Yes a higher score would help, but it's up to you. It is true that now cancellations are not reported so you could give it a shot and see but again, that's a lot of GMAT . Some might consider the GRE as an alternative. Lots to think about, good luck with your decisions!