Profile evaluation

[vikash babuk716]

Hi

Hi Team,

Please find my profile details, I would like to know my chances of getting into top 20 schools come the fall of 2016. Also I would like to know what should be my target GMAT score for these schools according to my work experience and the career path that I am interested in.

Education: Integrated Dual degree IIT-BHU(2011)-6.7/10.
X-92%
XII-92%
GMAT:670(Q:50, V:29, AWA:5.5).
Work experience: Business Analyst in capital markets with 4 years(By June 2015) experience in Business, management and technology consulting. Subject matter expert in equity, equity derivatives and currency derivatives market segments. Also worked on commodities and commodity derivatives but not as extensively. Primary skills include requirements gathering, business analysis, working on sales pitches to customers and delivery of products to the stakeholders. I have worked primarily with stock exchanges and investment banks as a business consultant. I have been a lead of a team for 2 years so far. Other skills include extensive knowledge in development of testing frameworks and delivery of these frameworks. 1.5 years of experience in working directly with customers(1 year domestic and 6 months of international experience), I am expecting this to increase by the fall of 2016. I also have working knowledge of trade life cycle(front, middle and back office) and prime brokerage.

Professional and academic achievements: Gold star(given to employees with exceptional performance over a period of two years, in general 0.5% of the company in a year), Team order of merit to the team I led(given to the best team over a period of 6 months in the delivery center- chosen among approximately 80 teams), multiple quarterly and monthly awards for performance. I have received the CV Ramanujan district award for mathematical excellence, top ranker awards in school.

Sport and cultural achievements at college: Volley ball-Gold medal, silver medal at the college annual festival, 3rd place in the skit at the college annual cultural festival, winner of inter year, inter hostel and various other tournaments in college, won several sporting accolades in office. I have won sports, debate, elocution and quiz competitions in school and inter school competitions.

Organizing events at work and during college: I was an active member of the annual college sports festival organizing team during my time at IIT-BHU, I have organized table tennis and cricket tournaments at work. I have participated and organized events at the office along with an NGO for various social activities like teaching, painting and helping the kids. I have been captain of cricket and volley ball teams at my school.

Career path: I have strong experience in capital markets so according to me the stream that would best suit my experience would be finance - investment banking, stock exchanges and private equity, specifically in finance. Since I have a worked as consultant so far, I am not against doing consulting in the future but my reason for doing MBA is to get into more of a finance role rather than a consultant i.e: that is to have an inside and in depth knowledge of these aforementioned functions of the finance world.

I will get very good recommendations from the senior most people of my company(SVP, VP) hopefully that ticks at least one box but there is one box which kind of sucks real bad the great 6.7.

I am 26 now and I still think I have another year before the MBA and I also believe I can improve my operational skills still.

I hope this is not long as it took me quite some time to write this down. Appreciate your help on this.

Thanks and regards
Vikash

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi Vikash,

Thanks for posting and sharing. Your work experience sounds solid and you certainly have demonstrated quantitative, analytical and financial skills, and having some team-lead experience, as well as receiving the recognition you have, is a plus. You also have a variety of extracurricular involvements you can draw from. On the down side yes your grades sound on the lower end... making the GMAT potentially even MORE vital.

I do think an above-average GMAT would help greatly in terms of getting into top 20 schools (and partially mitigating your undergrad performance)..... in terms of 'what to aim for', tough to say as I would say aim as high as you can!! ;) Right?! But if you look at average scores at top schools, the very top tier often average 710-730. Others in the say approx 8-20 ranking may have averages more like 680-710. So it depends a bit on what you are aiming for, the higher the better for sure! I suggest considering a GMAT prep course or tutor, it is usually worth the investment if it helps you get into a better program. Good luck and keep us posted!