MBA Crystal Ball

Hi,

Just score above 700 on the GMAT and gain some more work experience before applying. Given IIM Calcutta's strengths in Finance, it should be a great career move for you. Who knows you might land up with a big i-bank or advisory firm.

Interviews - just know why you want to do an MBA, and how your background coupled with an MBA will help you achieve your career goals. that should be enough! you should also be able to demonstrate your personal and professional accomplishments to the interviewing panel.

avik09 wrote:Hi,
I am a chartered Accountant and having more than 5.5 years of experience.
I have worked in manufacturing sector for 4 years and currently working in education services industry as a part of corporate finance team.
I would like to know the following
1. What GMAT score will enhance my chance of getting selected?
2. What i should keep in my mind at the time of interview to get selected?

Thanks for the clarification

Greetings,

This is my maiden post in this forum. The reason I'm writing over here is to receive your valuable suggestion/advice and to strategize my vision in achieving my aspiration of doing Ex MBA.
Let me brief about my background. I'm B.Tech from NIT (Metallurgy) with overall close to 69% marks. Since then I'm into IT industry and my professional experience is similar to any ordinary IT professional. Presently I'm having 6.5 years of experience into IT. I started my career with an mnc IT service provider (Dell Services) and after 3 years I moved to Infosys and then presently associated with the technology captive unit of a global bank for the last 1.5 years. For all these years I have worked on the technology part of the banking domain.

Now I'm planning to go for an ex-MBA next year as all the deadlines are over for this year and I still don't have a gmat score. I am planning to take up gmat in a couple of months time. Now considering the fact that next year while I'll be applying for the PGPex with almost 7.5 years of work-ex and a decent gmat score, can you please suggest how strong will be my candidature to get an invitation for the course? Can you please also suggest with this profile of mine if I should target some other courses in different colleges? Last question, with my work profile what gmat score can make sure about getting a call from IIMC for PGPex (please be lenient on this )

Arindam -

Your's should be a good profile to get into PGPEx. Please try to get a good GMAT score (atleast 700+) as the average GMAT score for current batch is 717.

Also, focus on writing good essays that draws extensively from what you have achieved in your professional career and how an MBA (leveraging that experience) will help you in your post-MBA career aspirations. But as the first step, I would recommend you to focus on GMAT and then determine your application strategy. Hope that helps!

Thanks
IIMCPGPEX

Hi,

I’m interested in PGPex MBA programme from IIM- C. Would just brief you up regarding my profile so as to provide you of a fair idea of my capabilities/ strength areas.

Profile:

Class X – 84.6%
Class XII – 84.4%; ranked amongst top 0.1% of students appeared for the C.B.S.E. Accountancy exam
B.com – 79%
Also, completed professional studies I.e. CFA (ICFAI), MS- Finance (ICFAI) & M.com

Work experience:

Worked in the investment banking team of Citigroup with investment bankers across the globe on M&A deals involving the preparation of pitch books, financial statement analysis etc.
Duration- 1 year

Currently working in the Research & consulting team of CARE Ratings (one of India’s leading rating agency) with the job profile involving the foll:
• Tracking sectors in the infrastructure & service segment such as Retail, Shipping, Education, Ports etc
• Working on consulting assignments such as market sizing, feasibility studies, competitive analysis etc
Duration – 5 years

Career goal:
Work with a globally reputed consulting organisation such as Mckinsey, BCG, Bain etc. or in the corporate strategy / project finance team of any reputed Indian conglomerate such as TATA, Birla etc.

Q) With an overall experience of appx. 6 yrs and the profile as detailed above, how are my chances of making it to IIMC PGPex?

Q) What should be the GMAT score should I target

Q) How are the placements for this programme at IIMC? Does the entire batch get placed every year? Through hearsay the placements for this programme are not guaranteed by IIMC as such 15-20% of the batch size every year (excluding those company sponsored employees returning to their erstwhile employers) do not find on campus placements.

Q) Since almost 90% of the batch for this programme hails from IT background, is there any focus as far as placements for students from Finance background is concerned? If you can detail the names of few companies recruiting for the financial services domain (especially consulting / strategy) wuld be great


Would be really great to know of your perspectives in light of the questions above.

Hi Sir,

Its very obvious that the course in discussion is for 5+ years experience people but I am an IT professional with 2.7 yrs of experience. Due to sum reason I am not able to take up 2 yrs full time MBA so when I came across the 1 yr MBA option i thought of giving it a try . But my experience doesn't satisfy the eligibility criteria. Can you please help me with some suggestion on how to proceed further as on long run i need a Management degree to strengthen my position and value add to the work i do.
Please help me with your kind advice.

Hi Sneha and Vishal,

IIM Calcutta is hosting an event in 5 cities for aspiring students. Please see the link below.

http://programslive.iimcal.ac.in/pgpexplain

This event is tomorrow. I suspect, if you can make it. Even if you are not able to attend the event, you can find a lot of details by searching online or contacting the students.

IIM Cal is now calling candidates for PGPEX 2014-2015. Please see the link below.

http://programslive.iimcal.ac.in/admission-schedule

Thanks

Personal -
Gender : Female
GMAT1 : 650(Q45,V35)
GMAT2 : 710(Q49,V38)
Nationality : Indian

Academics -
Class 10 : 89%
Class 12 : 95%
B.E(Mechanical) & M.Sc(Mathematics) : 7.81/10
Graduate from BITS Pilani, Pilani campus

Work experience -
First job : SUN Microsystems for 1.5 yrs as Member Technical Staff
Second job : ORACLE India for 6+ yrs now as Project Lead
Total work ex : 8 yrs

Professional achievements -
Lead a team of 3 people
Received many client appreciations
Developed many new features with high quality independently
Part of many major product releases

Other activities -
Performed couple of dance shows at office and in the city and won awards.
Part of couple of volunteer activities at office
Chief event organizer in the team

Expectation after MBA -
Product management/Consulting

Will be applying this year to bschools.
Looking for suggestions on what Indian/Asian schools I can apply to.
Following are what I can think of:

ISB
IIM B
IIM C
NUS
NTU
INSEAD (Singapore)

Can someone please evaluate my profile and provide views/comments if/how I can secure an admission into IIM C?

Thanks much.

Hai Shiv.

I am a Chartered Accountant and i have decided to do a Management Programs preferably one Year Executive MBA at IIMs

X Std - 95%
XII Std - 92.5%
CA - 52%
M.Com - 62% (Distance Learning)

Experience: 3.5 yrs in Oil and Gas Sector PSU

Could you pls suggest how much Score in GMAT may fetch me an Admission in IIMA and what is your suggestion on purusing this course by CA.

Hi Ashish,

I am Vikrant based at Muscat in Oman as Sales Manager. I have a total of 10 years of work ex (7 years in Oman - automobiles) and my current package is around 20 lakhs pa.However in terms of career I cant grow much with my current employer and earnings also tend to get stabilize in this range.I am
considering PGPex as an option for career shift to consulting in auto domain.Plz advise