Profile Evaluation

[mudigal]

Hi All,

I just cleared my GMAT yesterday and got 640 (50 in Quant and 27 in Verbal), though I was expecting around 700 (34-35 in Verbal) . I need help in deciding if this score is sufficient or is it really necessary to take the GMAT again.

School: Graduated Engineering, Information Science and Engineering, in 2003 in India.
Work Experience:
1. Talisma Corp - 2003-2006 (3 years) : An Indian CRM start-up, worked as a Software Development Engineer
2. Intuit Inc - 2006 till date (5 years) : Designation : Senior Software Engineer and Innovation Catalyst -

Emerging markets research on small businesses
Me along with 2 of my colleagues at Intuit started studying the Indian market to analyse on what Intuit Product to launch here. After 3 month of market research and experiments with Point-Of-Sale, we actually customized the existing QuickBooks POS and even deployed it at few customers' place in 2007. Then in 2011 for 3 months talked to 300+ small business owners and have proposed a new product for them which handles complexities with money in money out.


Emerging markets research in the bottom of the pyramid
we analyzed the opportunity for other Intuit Products, we pushed ourselves to "put more money in farmers' pocket". I involved myself in understanding the ecosystem of the farmers and their pain points...After talking to 100+ farmers across India and understanding the ecosystem and their pain points, we started a new service, a simple SMS based market place, to make sure they make more money on their produce. After few iterations we nailed the pain that farmers face and now we have more than 250K farmers actively receiving our messages. I am now managing the relationship with the 3rd party advertisers and the companies who are trying to use our platform to brand their products.

Gist
Domain Expertise in ecosystem for Bottom of Pyramid in Emerging Markets!
Domain expertise in the domain of small businesses in the emerging markets : Having spoken to around 300 small businesses.
Domain expertise in the domain of consumers in the emerging markets.

I also won Scott Cook (our founderer) Innovation Award in 2009 for the same. Overall I have a great experience in what it takes to identify, build and launch a successful product for the Bottom Of Pyramid in Emerging Markets.


ExtraCurricular Activities:
1. Led more than 50+ treks. Major one 18 day long 3000Kms 10 people(2 girls) bike riding to Ladakh and achieving the highest motorable/non-motorable road in the whole world (Marsimek La - 19000 ft above sea level).
2. Won photography competitions in Intuit and Talisma as well. My photographs of vandalism in Bangalore during Dr.Rajkumar's (a great icon) demise has been published in magazines and had spread like wildfire. Interested in Wild-Life photography and have thousands of wild life photos shot including Tigers

Awards and Honours:
1. Couple of Patents
2. Scott Cook Innovation Award
3. Intuit Nominated me for Ted Young Innovator Award in India

Academics:
Average 73% in Engineering
Won 4 State-level/National-level Programming contests
Placed on day one and was the highest salaried placement in college (one of the top 5 in Nation India) then.

Future Goals: Want to get into Strategy Consulting for emerging markets after my MBA

[Stacey Oyler]

Hi Mudigal,

Your profile is really interesting, however, you don't mention any schools. Where do you wish to apply? This will help me determine if you should consider retaking the GMAT.

Thanks,

Stacey

[mudigal]

Hi Stacey,

I am planning for London Business School, Stanford, MIT Sloan, Harvard, Wharton and Kellogs!

Please, let me know what I need to do now to get into these. And also how much should I score in GMAT if I have to retake it? Will my age and experience be a negative factor? (I completed 29)

Thanks

[Stacey Oyler]

Hi,

Thanks for the additional information. While I think you do have a lot of great strengths, you do fall into a very large applicant pool with typical GMAT scores around 720+. Additionally, the average GMAT score at all the schools on your list is 715+, thus I really do think you should retake the exam. The GMAT, while not the only criteria for admission, is important, and you'll may have a difficult time convincing an adcom to admit you over someone else with a similar profile and a score above 700. The good news is that you have time. You got started early (since applications don't even start coming out until next month), so hopefully you can retake the test in July or August and still have time to apply in round 1.

Lastly, should you decide not to retake the GMAT, I would encourage you to rethink your school selection.

Regards,

Stacey