Hello Atul.

Thanks for mentoring aspirants on this forum.!

I am 24 years of age and BE, CSE from a non-IIT , but regionally good institute in India. My GPA is also quite ok and i stand in top 20 of the class list.Currently i work in Top Fortune 500 IT company in India, Bangalore and of what-ever we get of flat hierarchies, i have tried to be a leader.I have around 3 years of what-i-call-good work experience. I have had a lot of international exposure too. So in summary i am just another run-of-the-mill guy.

I plan to work for some more years, may be a year of two and plan to get to a B School. Long term - I am pretty sure that i want to be a part of Product Marketing Team and in developing strategies related to that.

I am currently looking at LBS, INSEAD and IMD (pretty much non US Schools). I did my research trying to analyze my situation by reading forums on the web. There are some of the problems I am facing right now...and i was wondering if you could help me with those...

1. Demographics: I really dont think that i stand out distinctly from a demographic profile point of view. Technically there would be thousands of students who would have a good GPA a GOOD Gmat, a Fortune 500 and experience in software. My extracurriculars were good in school, but they are nothing that will make an impression.How much of extracurricular is really really important...And should this be related to what i want to do, like product marketing and brand building??? I have seen ppl inanely going and working for a NGO just for the purpose of getting through...and putting community work in their resumes. I cant do that sicne it doesnt motivate me...Should i stop that and start doing it....

2. Undergrad School : My BE is not from a REC and IIT. Its from a regional university (gujarat University), but has the topmost CE Rankings in Gujarat. How much is this going to hurt me. I am pretty sure i can crack GMAT.I dont want to sound overconfident ...but with
work i know its not impossible to get a good score.

What i am trying to do, is to plan ahead to get to a B School. I know LBS minimum looks at 4-5 years of work ex...and so does other schools..hence i have some time..to fit the bill, if i dont right and if i can.I really need pointers on how to do that....

Thanks again

Abhishek

Hi,

Appreciate your thought process. Here are some pointers to the issues you raise in your query.

Demographically, the biggest disadvantage you face is that you are from an IT back-ground. While a non-IIT background puts a lot of us at a disadvantage, this is not to say that non-IITians dont make it to big B-Schools. It only means our applications need to be a bit better. As for extra-curriculars-if extra-curriculars were linked to what you want to do, they would hardly be extra-curriculars!! As for some people inanely taking up social work, there is nothing wrong in it. What schools are seeking is whether you actually went out of your way to do something for the community. There are several things you can do in half a Sunday and that is good enough. What matters is not necessarily raising money or caring for the aged. It could be as interesting as becoming an active member of organisations like the Steam Railway Society of India (it exists in Delhi). So choose what interests you as a hobby and find something around it.

As I stress regularly, what matters is an overall application package. You have to make the B-school realise that your under-grad school is good and you did well. There are several ways to do this-indicate a public ranking of the school, any global affiliations that the school may have. the selection process, etc.

As for the GMAT, remember you are competing with the Indian applicant pool which typically has a higher than average GMAT.

Keep working on your work ex. What matters is the brand and your job responsibility.

Hope this answers your query. Wish you the very best in your academic endeavours.

Atul Monga