Thanks AskgoISB and ThinkAdmit for your valuable suggestions

Hi,
Please help me in evaluating my profile

Gmat: 710 (Q50/V 36)

Academics: Topper all through secondary school, 96.7% in +1 and +2. 79% in B.E.
WOrk Ex: 4yrs 10 months of work ex in ITeS in Telecom and Finance domain. 3 months of onsite client experience. Currently rated among top 4% employees of a major MNC this year. Have several client appreciations.
Extra curricular:
- Setup Home tutoring and consulting business at an age of 21, ran this for about 4 years while I was in college. Owing to my strong academics, I was an in demand tutor for various competititve exams in the locality. Got jobs to several students who were interested in teaching. The best EAMCET rank under my guidance was 967. Changed my business strategies several times to increase my profit.
- Worked as a coree comittee of placement coordinators while in college for 2 years.
- Was a house captain and vice captain at school for 2 consecutive years. (basically have leadership experience to show since school).
- Imp: Handled family business since I was 16 years of age and continue to do the same. Family has Poultry trading, farming and retailing business. Knows in and out of poultry business.
- Communication SPOC of a social activity that my company does every year. Executed a training program for the unemployed students in the city, gathering was about 250 students.
- Owns a tech website.
- Won several extempore, debate and essay writing competition at school in both hindi and english.

class 10 - 88.4 %
calss 11-12 - 96.7%
BE - 78.4% (this was when i was running by tutoring business hence the low scores )

Please comment as to what should be my two best qualities I should project for ISB admission.
And yes, I aim to become a senior manager at IT Consulting.

Hi Najeeb,

Your profile looks decent and well balanced. In your essays try to highlight your learnings of both technology and finance. Try to take one reco from client or onsite manager to focus on the onsite experience.

Your ventures can be used to highlight your entrepreneurial mindset and ability to take initiatives.
Placement committee thing can bring out team work.

So, use these elements well and you can reach the interview table.

Cheers
goISB Team

najeeb775 wrote:Hi,
Please help me in evaluating my profile

Gmat: 710 (Q50/V 36)

Academics: Topper all through secondary school, 96.7% in +1 and +2. 79% in B.E.
WOrk Ex: 4yrs 10 months of work ex in ITeS in Telecom and Finance domain. 3 months of onsite client experience. Currently rated among top 4% employees of a major MNC this year. Have several client appreciations.
Extra curricular:
- Setup Home tutoring and consulting business at an age of 21, ran this for about 4 years while I was in college. Owing to my strong academics, I was an in demand tutor for various competititve exams in the locality. Got jobs to several students who were interested in teaching. The best EAMCET rank under my guidance was 967. Changed my business strategies several times to increase my profit.
- Worked as a coree comittee of placement coordinators while in college for 2 years.
- Was a house captain and vice captain at school for 2 consecutive years. (basically have leadership experience to show since school).
- Imp: Handled family business since I was 16 years of age and continue to do the same. Family has Poultry trading, farming and retailing business. Knows in and out of poultry business.
- Communication SPOC of a social activity that my company does every year. Executed a training program for the unemployed students in the city, gathering was about 250 students.
- Owns a tech website.
- Won several extempore, debate and essay writing competition at school in both hindi and english.

class 10 - 88.4 %
calss 11-12 - 96.7%
BE - 78.4% (this was when i was running by tutoring business hence the low scores )

Please comment as to what should be my two best qualities I should project for ISB admission.
And yes, I aim to become a senior manager at IT Consulting.

Hi Najeeb,

Let us dissect your profile and look at all elements in isolation.

Your acads rock in high school. If you have been a topper in 12th, it is awesome and can compensate to some extent for the perceived average GMAT of 710. Usually engineers from IT are the most competitive of all, so you might need a higher GMAT as a point of differentiation but evaluating overall acads performance, with a proper reasoning for your low undergrad, acad rating can be placed at just above average at best.

We did not get much info about your work-ex. Based on what you have mentioned it is pretty average because as said earlier, you belong to the most competitive pool of applicants and to differentiate in this area, you need to highlight the subjective factors such as analytical skills, decision making, initiative, leadership skills and team skills. We can have a detailed discussion around that.

Coming to the most interesting portion of your profile: poultry and home tutoring business experience. With a proper reasoning to take up each of them, try to highlight the business level knowledge of each activity. Why you took those up, what you learnt and how you applied strategies to expand your business. This is very interesting and you should definitely highlight these stories.

You did not mention your career goals. Your goals and the need of an MBA is very important and make sure you give that enough thought and form a coherent story to prepare a perfect app. Feel free to call us if you need to discuss.

aditya_bitsg wrote:I am an aspirant for ISB class of 2012.

I gave my GMAT(first attempt) on 25th aug 2011 and scored 700 (Q50 V34), AWA 5.5.


My profile goes like this :


1. 10th - 84% (2003), 12th(2005) - 81%, Mechanical engg from BITS Pilani Goa campus(2005-2009) with CGPA 8.13
2. Work Ex of 2yrs (till June 2011 end) as a mechanical design engineer for transformers with Crompton Greaves Ltd . Work ex of 3 months with BHEL as Sales & Service engineer for turbines.
3. Best Graduate Trainee during 1st yr of my job with Crompton Greaves and have 4 individual Patents in the transformers field.
4. National Level Lawn tennis Player till age of 17 , Ranked India No.2 in U-14 School Nationals and now coach some kids during my free time
5. Event Manager of National level Robotics Competition in my college
6. Organizing committee member of National Level Sports Festival held in college.
7. Member of Public Relations Committee of my college.
8. Founder member of Festival celebrating body of my college
9. ESPN-STAR Sports Champion of my town during school days.
10.Won a few Debating Competitions and got best all rounder award during school times.
11.Merit cum need need scholarship holder(25% of fees in BITS)
12.Affiliated with an NGO which takes on different governmental projects.

Could you please guide some of my querries regarding my recommendation and essay :

1. ISB permits us to get a recommendation from a colleague or an ex colleague.If i get a recommendation from my ex colleague would it leave any bad impact on my application? Most of the applicants i come across get their recos from their company managers only.

2. I have switched my company recently and now i am working in a different department all together
(from engineering design to purchase ) as i wanted to learn different functions of a business unit.
Should i give this clarification in one of my career goal essay ??

Hi Aditya,

Here are the replies to your queries:

1. Recommendation from ex-colleague will not leave a bad impression as long as your ex-colleague is in a position to comment on your leadership skills and is able to asses you/your career progression as compared to other peers. This is usually best done my managers, but take it from a colleague only if manager is not accessible.

2. This is not something unusual for which you are required to give a clarification. This is a career move that you made by choice. But if this move is in line with your career goals, you should DEFINITELY mention it in your career goals essay as this will show that you are aware of your career path, with or without an MBA. A strong plus.

ThinkAdmit wrote:

aditya_bitsg wrote:I am an aspirant for ISB class of 2012.

My real concern is my average GMAT score . I suppose my profile is on the better side but if it would suffice with my current GMAT score . Can i have an opinion from your side please ?

Hi Aditya,

You have a great profile. Look, GMAT score is only an indicator of your academic performance. A CGPA of 8.13 will do that job. On top of that the BITS Pilani brand name will be helpful. Moreover, 700 GMAT score, though a little lower than ISB's average, is not bad. It's actually good. The average of 714 at ISB is made by calculating just that... the average.

Focus on other high points of your life... Don't have much details about your work-ex but make sure you focus on leadership potential while writing your essays. With 2 years of experience, any school would like to see whether you have leadership "potential". This can be shown by displaying different qualities of a leader like taking initiatives, decision making, people management, etc.

Your extra curricular is rocking, especially heavy on sports. This should go into the essays: what you have achieved and how you are currently pursuing it and why. Show that passion in your essays.

Which other schools are you applying to? And you didn't mention your career goals?

Hi, I am sorry but last time i could not reply to you questions as to what are my career goals and which schools i am applying to ?

Actually it may sound a bit complex but one of my college mentor advised me to learn about different functions of a business unit so it will help me in taking up the more challenging leadership roles during the latter stage of my career.So for first 7-8 years i plan to be learning about different departments.

Till now I have worked as process Engineer Trainee ( Internship ) in a power plant , then in International marketing department ( Internship, but i was given full responsibility and hence learned a lot ) , then as a design engineer ( 2yrs, filed 4 patents for improvement of technology) , and currently as a Purchase Engineer ( 6 months ) . All 4 functions have been in the Power sector only ( from Power Generation , to power distribution and utilization)

After MBA i intend to work in strategic planning and business development in the Energy and Power unit only .

I have a doubt whether such rapid change of departments will be ok to show in my career goal essay and whether i shall be able to convince the Admission office that ISB is the ladder which i require to complete my cycle of functions and then take up the leadership role.

As to the second question i intend to apply only to three schools this year which are Tuck , Ross and ISB

Hi,

I have a rather strange situation. I am applying to ISB cycle 2. My reco provider is from Verizon and unfortunately he can't send out an email from his official email id to give the reco. I spoke with the ISB team and they said offline reco is possible.

I have heard that offline reco is not advisable, do you think that is correct? What are the drawbacks of submitting an offline reco? Please suggest if you can think of an alternative.

Appreciate your help and response
Thank you!

aditya_bitsg wrote:

Hi, I am sorry but last time i could not reply to you questions as to what are my career goals and which schools i am applying to ?

Actually it may sound a bit complex but one of my college mentor advised me to learn about different functions of a business unit so it will help me in taking up the more challenging leadership roles during the latter stage of my career.So for first 7-8 years i plan to be learning about different departments.

Till now I have worked as process Engineer Trainee ( Internship ) in a power plant , then in International marketing department ( Internship, but i was given full responsibility and hence learned a lot ) , then as a design engineer ( 2yrs, filed 4 patents for improvement of technology) , and currently as a Purchase Engineer ( 6 months ) . All 4 functions have been in the Power sector only ( from Power Generation , to power distribution and utilization)

After MBA i intend to work in strategic planning and business development in the Energy and Power unit only .

I have a doubt whether such rapid change of departments will be ok to show in my career goal essay and whether i shall be able to convince the Admission office that ISB is the ladder which i require to complete my cycle of functions and then take up the leadership role.

As to the second question i intend to apply only to three schools this year which are Tuck , Ross and ISB

Hi Aditya,

In that case, all inter-department moves will be justified coz if you want to move to strategic planning in Energy, you have the domain knowledge and you will have the experience of working in various departments to get an overall picture to understand the impact on business. Now just justify the need of an MBA and you will be set. If this is the right justification what you have in mind, do not worry about explaining it. No one faces in issue to convince on something that they truly believe in.

najeeb775 wrote:Hi,

I have a rather strange situation. I am applying to ISB cycle 2. My reco provider is from Verizon and unfortunately he can't send out an email from his official email id to give the reco. I spoke with the ISB team and they said offline reco is possible.

I have heard that offline reco is not advisable, do you think that is correct? What are the drawbacks of submitting an offline reco? Please suggest if you can think of an alternative.

Appreciate your help and response
Thank you!

Hi Najeeb,

There is no drawback of submitting an offline reco as long as the school accepts it. ISB has made a provision for offline reco. That clearly states ISB has no objection. So do not worry about hearsay. Go ahead and apply.

najeeb775 wrote:Hi,

I have a rather strange situation. I am applying to ISB cycle 2. My reco provider is from Verizon and unfortunately he can't send out an email from his official email id to give the reco. I spoke with the ISB team and they said offline reco is possible.

I have heard that offline reco is not advisable, do you think that is correct? What are the drawbacks of submitting an offline reco? Please suggest if you can think of an alternative.

Appreciate your help and response
Thank you!

Hi Najeeb,

ISB just requires you to give a valid reason for opting for an offline reco. Just make sure you put a logical response there. Else there is no issue with offline reco.

Cheers
goISB Team

Hi,
I got a 640 on gmat(q-47 ,v-32).I am an indian with a non-IT background. I have been working with a water treatment company for the past 1.5 yrs. I have a good list of extra curricular activities i have been an organizer for my college technical event, Manager for 3 more events. I am thinking of applying to ISB 2014 intake What are my chances.? And what should i do to improve my CV

siddhu80 wrote:Hi,
I got a 640 on gmat(q-47 ,v-32).I am an indian with a non-IT background. I have been working with a water treatment company for the past 1.5 yrs. I have a good list of extra curricular activities i have been an organizer for my college technical event, Manager for 3 more events. I am thinking of applying to ISB 2014 intake What are my chances.? And what should i do to improve my CV

Hi siddhu80,

Really appreciate the fact that you are thinking well in advance and preparing yourself for it. While it may be immature to comment on your profile at this stage because many good things can happen in the coming years and you can do wonders with self improvement.

the first thing that you should do now is retake your GMAT. 640 is a low score. You have a diverse experience. Take leadership roles (that is, show leadership potential by taking initiatives, manage teams, give ideas and implement, motivate your team, etc). You do not want GMAT to play a spoilt sport in this case.

All the best

Hi,

I intend to apply for ISB R1. Pls evaluate my profile.

GMAT:
Score - 740 (Quant - 49 : Verbal - 41 )
AWA - 4.5

Work Experience:
- 3.5 yrs as SAP consultant in IBM India.
- Temporarily played team-lead role.

Academics:
10th - 88% (ICSE)
12th - 66% (CBSE)
B.E - 70% (Mechanical Engineering from RV College of Engineering Bangalore)

Extra-curriculars:
- Organised fests in College.
- Played cricket for school.
- Sports enthusiast;play tennis, squash and badminton.
- Participated in marathon in Bangalore and stood among the top 30%.
- Enthusiastically done Yoga and Reiki.

Aspiration post MBA - To get into Consulting.

Also, pls let me know how to add more weight to my profile.

Thanks

Hi,
I would highly appreciate if you can evaluate my profile.

Applying for 2013
Post MBA career in Management consulting
GMAT (1 attempt) 720(Q 50 V 38)
Experience 4 years(by Aug 2012)
>1yr6months in software consulting in US, Major client one of the big four investment firm)
>2yr and 6 months in India, in process consultation and quality assurace.(six sigma certified)( Worked for a European Telecom Giant and currently working for a software consultancy in quality assurace and delivery excellence, requiring leadership responsibilities)

Reco::Both my previous managers who have applauded my leadership skills and assured a reco focusing on the those qualities.

Education:
MS in Electrical Engineering (Top 30 US university) GPA 3.4/4.0(quite few analytical courses)
Undergrad:(Electrical Engineering) 72%
XII : 91%( State rank 24)(JEE rank top 500)

Interest:
Keen interest in films and film studies. Also learning scriptwriting(I have wrote couple, but don't know how to show proof), Although I have a plan for couple of short movies, but don't when can I finally land them(was tied up with GMAT). One of the members in my US university film society. We used to screen films for graduate students on each Friday.
Also I'm a voracious reader.

Non profit involvement:
Associated(fundraising) with one NGO since 2006, almost the same time it started( can get reco from the president if required),
Involved with ASHA( New Jersey chapter 2006-2008), Now involved with ASHA Delhi chapter(since 2011).Also recently planning to volunteer for an orphanage(an initiative from my workplace).

Achivements:
Captained school football team for 4 consecutive years. I still write about football analysis for a online magazine.
Seminar secretary for Electrical Engineer Society.
State award for topping in literature in +2.