Profile evaluation - Indian IT Male - 720 (Q-51, V-35)

[vikasbinani]

Hi,
Kindly evaluate my profile for an MBA program.
I am 32 years or age, have about 8 years of IT industry experience focused towards the Media and Entertainment sector.
Academic Qualifications: B.Tech, IIT. CGPA - 5.69/10 (I know it is below average)
Question : How much does the undergrad CGPA weigh after 8 years of experience?
GMAT Score - 720 (Quant - 51, Verbal - 35) AWA - 4.0, IR - 6.0
Question: Is there a need to rectify my skewed score? If yes, how can I achieve it? Should I re-write the GMAT again? Or can a good TOEFL score suffice?
Work Experience - 8 years in IT Industry as of today. Out of the 8 years, the last 7 years have been in the same organization, which is focused towards IT solutions for Media and Entertainment companies in the US, UK, and India. Working in this industry, I have gained good domain expertise in areas of broadcast, online, and publishing media. I have gained valuable insights in advertisement sales as well as intellectual property rights management. I have handled multiple roles - Project/Product manager, business analyst, team leader, and individual contributor and have successfully been able to multi-task among these. I have handled team sizes varying from 6-10 members who were not only spread across India and US but also spread across functions (development, quality assurance, database admins, etc.). I had 5 onsite visits (cumulatively account for about 15 months) to the US primarily to interact with the clients and project stakeholders to understand business and have gained perspective. I have worked with the company's strategic team to generate new business ideas as well as helped the sales team by preparing client demonstrations. I have developed project road maps, identified risks, and created their contingency plans. For the past few months, I have been involved in a part-time entrepreneurial role as a co-founder of an IT company and acting as a CTO (I don't take a salary for this.).
Questions:
1. Does experience in one specific domain help me stand out as a diverse candidate in a vast pool of applicants? Or is it just looked upon as any other IT candidate?
2. Does working in a part-time entrepreneurial role (while having a full-time paid job) looked upon as bad ethics? I do not violate any code of ethics of my company - I do not share their intellectual properties nor do I work in the same domain or with my organization's clients.
Major Achievements at Work/Outside:
1. Work
a. Over the past 7 years, I have had 4 promotions in my organization and have always been rated in the top 5%.
b. As one of the first few people in the organization, I have been involved in the company's growth. I have been actively involved in recruiting talent, and have introduced new processes and techniques to attract the best. I have taken various initiatives in the organization to increase employee satisfaction.
c. I designed and initiated a cross-functional training program in the organization to expand knowledge base and improved talent utilization.
d. Because of my strong domain understanding and fast learning capability, I have been looked upon by the management as the point person to lead any new business initiative.
e. I have always challenged the status-quo and thus have been able to persuade the management to improve organizational processes.
2. Outside
a. During undergrad studies, I was heavily involved in extra-curricular activities. I had no background in Music and learned it on my own during my first year. I was elected as the Music representative in my second year - conducted more than 20 music events in that year, participated in more than 30 music events over a span of 4 years.
b. I was also an active member of Dance and Dramatics club - participated in more than 20 club events over a span of 4 years.
c. Won various awards for outstanding contribution in cultural activities.
d. Secured a national top 1% in National Graduate Physics Examination, 2000.
e. Completed 3 MBA level MOOC courses from coursera in the past 6 months.
f. I have helped my wife in 2-3 business ideas - unfortunately none of them worked.
Questions:
1. I have not had much extra-curricular activities recently. How much do recent extra-curricular activities matter?
2. How much does helping in family business matter? I don't have any documents to prove that because I was always in the hind sight.
3. How much does doing online courses matter? Does it help the adcom in judging my current academic ability?

Career Goals:
Post MBA, I want to take up the role of a Product Manager in a Media technology company like Google or Facebook. I want to leverage my experience and want to be able to come up with innovative ideas that change the media-tech landscape. As a product manager, I want to be able to make strategic decisions.
Last year, I applied to ISB, IIM exec programs, and a couple of US 2-yr MBA programs. Unfortunately got dinged everywhere. Looking at my experience and age, I think that a 1 year MBA program suits my profile. Your feedback is most welcome. I would like to know what exactly is missing. Do you think that a professional certification like PMP will be beneficial in securing my future goal post MBA? I read in lot of places that roles offered post 1 yr MBA is mostly aligned with past work experience.
Please also suggest me the schools that I should apply to.

Looking forward for your detailed feedback.

[Jon@Admissionado]

I thank you for your very very long and detailed post, which will only help me help you!

So first thing I should say: In a certain way your profile is screaming out to me "EMBA!". You have good leadership, a lot of work experience, are older, and have good promotions, and all these things added together really do make for an EMBA. Another advantage is that EMBAs tend to put a bigger emphasis on work experience rather than school or GMAT, so it is easier to overcome the obstacle of your grades.

Your GMAT is fantastic! Just congratulate yourself and move on. And if anyone tells you to retake when you have a 720 in hand, don't listen!

I see that you are focused on one year programs, and you can you apply to many of those (there are about a dozen good ones in the US, a few more excellent ones in Europe), but I would also suggest you consider EMBA programs, as they have what I think is a nice advantage of fit - people who attend will be of similar age, with similar experience, and it may be easier personally and professionally to make friends and partners, etc. Plus you no longer h ave the disadvantage of "being a bit old"

To answer your specific questions in your post:
1. Does experience in one specific domain help me stand out as a diverse candidate in a vast pool of applicants? Or is it just looked upon as any other IT candidate?

This is neither an advantage or a disadvantage. You have the experience you have. And plenty of IT people get into the best schools. Worry more about how you are going to show the schools that you are one of the BEST IT people out there!.

2. Does working in a part-time entrepreneurial role (while having a full-time paid job) looked upon as bad ethics? I do not violate any code of ethics of my company - I do not share their intellectual properties nor do I work in the same domain or with my organization's clients.

Not at all. This will look fantastic, especially if you have concrete results that are impressive.

Then in your second series of questions:
1. I have not had much extra-curricular activities recently. How much do recent extra-curricular activities matter?
It matters. But at this point, you have to just see how you can make best of what you already have, rather than worrying about what you do not.

2. How much does helping in family business matter? I don't have any documents to prove that because I was always in the hind sight.
Dont worry about proof. They will believe you, because you will tell the truth. It can be effective, but really only if the family business is mid size to large, or if you led some really impressive improvements.

3. How much does doing online courses matter? Does it help the adcom in judging my current academic ability?
Sometimes it can help. It's a case by case thing. In your case, I'm not sure that it is all that helpful, given that you left school soooooo long ago, and that you have a very good GMAT score. (which already does what it can to "make up" for your GPA)

So, first tell me your thoughts about EMBA, and tell me a little bit about what schools you are looking into and why, and we can discuss further about which schools to choose.

You are also very welcome to send a message to us, and set up a meeting with a consultant to chat with someone live. It may be more efficient: https://admissionado.com/mba/free-consultation/

All the best,
JF