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Hi Jon,

It would be really helpful if you could evaluate my profile and provide your feedback. Thanks in advance for the help that you are doing.

Nationality: Indian
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Designation: Team Lead / Senior Software Engineer with a reputed middle east airlines
Role: Technical Lead and A.I. Software Engineering Manager

GMAT score: 580 (Q37, V36, IR 7, AWA - 5.5)

Undergraduate Degree: Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication - from 'Vellore Institute of Technology' - Ranked above some of the IITs and NITs

Year of Graduation: 2006

CGPA: 8.65 / 10 (4-year aggregate)

Class 12th: 95.83% (Tamil Nadu State Board)

Class 10th: 89.90% (Matriculation Board - Tamil Nadu)

Work Experience: 8+ years of solid work experience with companies like Hewlett-Packard, Cognizant. I will be having 9 years of experience if at all I am joining in Sep 2015.

Experience/Personal Attributes/Leadership Qualities:

I started working with Cognizant after my graduation as a campus recruit and worked for major US Bank - 'Bank of New York Mellon' and after that worked for a major health care client 'IMS Health' where I was a senior developer and consistently got good rating in all the appraisal cycles and I was awarded close to 2000+ 'wah' points for my active contribution to the online technical committee which acted as a platform for employees to discuss technical stuffs.

After that I moved to HP where I was a 'Module Lead' and worked for 'Department of Motor Vehicle - Michigan' where in we automated the core functionalities of DMV and after that because of my eagerness to gain global exposure I moved to Dubai to work for a reputed middle eastern Airline.

Initially I started working as a contractor, through CSC (Computer Science Corporation) and later I was offered full-time position with a company, which is a very reputed middle east airline in UAE and currently working as a 'Team Lead' managing all the technical aspects of 2 projects which are worth over 30 Million Dirhams combined and also played the role of Software Engineering Manager for some time during the transition time.

I am the company recognized 'First-Responder' and 'First-Aider' accredited by 'American Heart Association' also an active member of contingency response group and emergency response group.

I am a pro badminton player and represented 'IT Department' in Inter-Company Badminton tournaments and also a 'Plate Winner' in the Intra-Company tournament and also represented HP during the corporate tournament in Chennai, India.

Also I am an active member of the technology committee in the company and I always try to keep myself updated with latest technology and trends in the global market.
Being associated with the company for the past 3.5 years gave me some incredible work exposure as I got the unique opportunity to work with different people from different nationalities and different ethnic groups, as our company represents close to 160+ nationalities and the next big thing is going to happen for sure in Dubai. I think I started boasting about myself a lot and to cut it short, I do have some good work experience which I believe will add more value to my profile.

In college:

After scoring a 99% in core subjects (Physics, Chemistry and Maths) in my 12th standard, I was able to get into VIT (Vellore Institute of Technology), one of the reputed colleges in South India and consistently being ranked above some of the IITs and NITs. I participated and organised department level symposium and collected sponsorship for the event and also participated in the technical symposium with some unique projects. My passion for Badminton started during my school days and I played for some of the college events as well.

I also completed a very crucial project which was very critical and a tough one to do at that time and managed a team of 4 students and we got 'Outstanding' rating for the final year project.

Short-Term and Long Term Goal:

If I continue in my current Organization, I will be able to grow to a level of a Manager in another 3 years' time, which according to me is not quite great in the current trend and hence my short term goal post MBA would be a 'Program Manager' or a 'Vice President - IT Delivery' in companies such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook or even better to come back to my current company as a VP ?.

In long term, I want to be the CEO of a 'Billion Dollar Company'. But the recent trend of developing a product and selling that to tech giants made my goal to change to CEO of a 'Multi-Billion Dollar Company' before the age of 45! and I am sure that I will be able to make this happen.

My aim and dream is to get into 'Tepper School of Business' and the reason for that is the current CEO of Cognizant, Francisco D'Souza, who made a long-lasting impression in me and I simply wanted to follow his footsteps and he is an alumni of Tepper.

I have also read your article on 'INDIAN APPLICANTS AND THE GMAT - SHOULD YOU RETAKE?' and yes, I am also going to ask you the same question as to whether I have to retake GMAT? I do understand that my score is below par for the schools that I am looking for, but the mammoth task of retaking GMAT is making me sick!

If I am applying with the current score, what are the colleges that you suggest and by any chance can I get into Tepper?

What do you think my chances are?