Requesting Profile Eval

[hunk_in_hell]

Hello and thanks for taking time to evaluate my profile. Lets get down to business :)

Name: Arjun Sarode, 24 years, Male.
GMAT Score: 690 (Q47, V38)
GMAT Attempt #: 1
Highest Qualification Attained: M. Tech. Specialization - Information Technology.
Post Qualification full time experience so far: 2 years. (3 years before fall '11)
Currently Serving as: Head of Marketing Division in a mid-sized IT company based in Indore, M.P., India.
Targeting schools: Top 30.

1. Professional Background
I have been working with a mid sized web and software development company based in Indore for two years now. I am currently serving as the head of sales and marketing division within my company and report directly to the Managing Director. My current profile as the head of marketing includes generating and following new business leads on the web, creating new business opportunities for offshore web, software and mobile application development projects and tapping on various niche sectors to identify and convert customers for many of our in-house web products that we offer as Software as a service (SaaS).

A little background information: I started working in the stated company as an intern about 6 years ago (in 2004), when I was in second year of undergrad college. During my first stint (when the company was relatively small), I worked as a software developer, trying my hands on various technologies like Java and Microsoft's .NET. I worked independently on a couple of web projects - many of them are still working and enjoy a decent share of visitors even today. I worked for a period of 20 months till late 2005. Though my designation remained that of an intern (because of our university policies), I was looking after a few important web projects independently by the time I left.

I joined back after I finished M. Tech. as a Project Manager. I was recruited on Campus by a well-known IT company at the highest package among my batchmates. I renegotiated with the current company for a better profile and a relatively heavier pay. The campus recruiting company was great, but it was essentially a process based company and would have clearly ignored the skills that I had picked during my internship. The current company did give me an opportunity to capitalize on those skills and offered me a shot as a Project Manager (against Software Engineer in the previous company), which I took.

Here's a brief time-line of my professional experience so far:
* June 2008: Joined current company as a Project Manager and began managing web development project on developers' end.
* June 2009: Co-Founded an internet start-up on the SaaS model with the technical director of the company. The product is based on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and is quite popular with various SEO consultants across the world.
* July 2009: Promoted to become the Internet Product Manager. Was now looking after three other products of the company. Revamped all of them and ran a very successful promotional campaign.
* November 2009: Started consulting company's clients on various web projects. My role as a Project Manager remained, but the scope shifted from handling matters within the company to dealing with clients, analyzing their requirements, conceptualizing their vision and ultimately delivering what they were looking for.
* April 2010: Was promoted to become the head of the Marketing Division of my company. I now head a team of Business Development Executives, while continuing my role as an IT consultant and Product Manager.
* If all goes well, I think there's a decent shot for me to land an executive position in the next one year.

2. Academic Background
1. Undergrad and grad school: International Institute of Professional Studies, DAVV, Indore, M.P. Batch of M. Tech, 2008.

After class XII, I took the DAVV CET (which is a hugely popular test in Northern and central India) and secured admission in the coveted Integrated M. Tech (IT) program of 5 years. The said exam is taken by around 25,000 students every year for about 90 seats - 60 MCA, 30 MTech - in the offing. The M. Tech seats usually fill up within rank 100.

The M. Tech program is an exhaustive 11 semester program covering about 60 courses throughout. Its hugely popular with students and IT companies - thoroughly enjoying ~100% placement record.

My acads began at a low note for the first 3 semesters but I caught up in the later semesters, consistently performing better than I did in the past. For the entire 5 years, my GPA graph had been on the rise, while I kept myself involved with learning new technologies and working on projects at the company where I was interning. My final CGPA for the entire program was just above 8.00 over 10 - which meant I graduated with a distinction. Also, I scored GPAs of 10 twice, including for the best project in my batch.

As noted above, I was selected on campus by one of top 5 providers of IT services in India at a package higher than any other company that came for campus recruitment offered.

Like in school, I was actively involved in extra-curricular activities in college. I participated in the Annual Event - Xpress!ons twice and won a couple of prizes. I was the Class Representative of my class for four consecutive years from 2004 till the end of the program. I also represented my class in the placement committee.

2. High School: Campion School, Bhopal, M.P. Batch of 2003.

My academic track record hasn't been very glorious. I would consistently find myself among the "Average to Above Average" band of students while I was in school. But I had a keen interest in extra-curricular activities and I showed distinct leadership initiative by serving on official boards for four of my five years in Campion. More specific details below:

* % Marks in class XII (CBSE) : 61 (with PCM and Comp)
* % Marks in class X (CBSE) : 75
* was an NCC level 'C' cadet.
* had a keen interest in writing and extempore. Wrote many socially relevant articles which found place in prestigious newspapers and magazines like The Hindustan Times.
* was the editor of the School Magazine in 2001.
* was the runner up candidate in the School Captain election in 2002.

3. Personal Background
* Family: 2 persons - Self and Mother.
* Mother is working as an officer in a Central Public Sector Unit.
* Father was working as an officer in a nationalized Public sector bank. He passed away in 2005.


Targeted Schools:
I haven't really shortlisted any specific schools so far, but generally, I'm interested in applying for schools that are considered in the top 25-30 band. Personally, I would like to see myself at MIT Sloan - but given my less than mean/median score, I am a bit skeptical about my chances there. Still, a few schools/programs that I am considering for applying are:

* MIT Sloan - MBA
* MIT Sloan - MS in Management Studies
* Cornell
* INSEAD (F & S)
* Indian School of Business
* Northwestern - Kellogg
* Stanford GSB
* UCB - Haas
* Columbia Business School
* NYU - Stern
* CMU Tepper
* Harvard
* HEC Paris


Recommendations:
As I wrote above, I report to the Managing Director of the company which work for. He's a very nice gentleman and I think he would oblige if I request him to recommend myself.

I could also get a couple of my consulting clients based in USA, EU and Australia to recommend me.

I have also worked directly under the director of my grad school during my stint in the placement committee. I think I can persuade him to give me a LOR as well.

Questions:

1. How fair do you think my chances are for the schools mentioned above?
2. Should I take the GMAT again and aim for a 700+ score? My current GMAT score is actually just about what I was expecting. My scores in GMATPrep were 630, 690, 740 and 690 respectively. I also took Kaplan's tests but never scored above 600 in any of them.
3. Do you think my qualification and profile would offset my below average GMAT score and quantity of work experience?
4. Any other thoughts/pointers you may have for me?

[mbamission]

Hi Arjun,

Thanks for reaching out and providing us with your detailed background.

While I’m not familiar with some of the specifics of your Indian education credentials, my overall takeaway is you have some academic accomplishments you can speak to and are on a good trajectory at your job. You will likely be on the younger end of your applicant class, which is something you will have to overcome by explaining in your essays why now is the right time for you to get an MBA.

In terms of your questions:

1) Although you have a long list of schools, I suggest looking at more options in the 20-30 range (similar to CMU Tepper). Harvard, Stanford, Columbia and Kellogg are among the most competitive schools out there, and your GMAT and shorter work experience could work against you there.

2) If you want to focus more on top-20 schools, a 700+ GMAT score could definitely strengthen your candidacy. The schools only look at your top performance, so a lower score can’t hurt you.

3) In regards to your work experience, it sounds like you’ve had some early-career successes, but you will need to share stories of leadership, driving results, and managing conflict to help the admissions committees understand how you achieved those successes. As I’m sure you know, you are in a very competitive demographic profile, so differentiation is critical to your application.

4) From reading your profile description, one piece of advice is to make sure you can explain your candidacy at a high level, rather than getting caught in the details. For example, you don’t indicate what your post-MBA plans are, and schools will want to hear a clear link between your previous work and your future goals, as well as why their school is a good fit for those goals. Even with limited post-college experience, you’ll want to focus on this time period as much as possible to demonstrate accomplishments; schools tend to disregard college accomplishments, and definitely don’t give high school achievements much weight.

Best of luck,

Daniel Richards
http://www.mbamission.com

Read the mbaMission Insider's Guides (14 individual school titles)

Visit the mbaMission Blog

Follow mbaMission on Twitter