S.P Jain (SPJIMR in full or SP as it is usually referred to) is one of the most underrated business schools in the country. One of the highlights of the S.P.Jain admissions process is that applicants have to choose their specialization at the time of application. While this might be tough for freshers who do not have enough information and self-awareness to choose a specialization, it is a boon for applicants with work experience.
Specialization Matters
The biggest advantage of such a process is during placements. The placement team will ensure that for each specialization there are enough recruiters coming on board during the placements. For example, for a person with 3-4 years of work experience in the operations sector, S.P.Jain will be a much better option than maybe even the IIMs since there will be recruiters coming down specifically to hire people with such a profile. At an IIM the placements committee does not have the responsibility to specifically find 60 niche operations jobs.
The college also enjoys having a huge locational-advantage with Mumbai being the financial capital of the country as a well as the city where the most sought after Marketing recruiters such as HUL are headquartered.
Profile-based Calls & Score-Based Calls
S.P.Jain also has two different routes through which it gives out calls after you fill in the application form, the deadline for the same is 23-November.
Profile-based Call: The first is an interview call based purely on your profile — your profile should be in line with the specialization you apply for and what recruiters hiring for that specialization look for. This shortlist is out even without a test score. Once the CAT/GMAT results are out you need to meet the criteria given in the table below.
| Qualifying Criteria | CAT 2020 | GMAT 01 Jan 2018 – 31 Dec 2020 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Qualifying Criteria | 85 percentile | 85 percentile | |
| Sectional Qualifying Criteria | 75 percentile | 75 percentile |
Score-based Call: This shortlist is released after the CAT scores are out and based purely on your CAT scores.
This goes on to show that if you get a profile-based call, you will need a lower percentile to get an interview call than if you get a score-based call.
How To Fill The S.P.Jain Application Form
A great profile needs to rank highly on the following parameters:
- Academic track record
- Co-curricular & extra-curricular track record
- Profile-specialization match
So a lot depends on making a good application that reflects each of these. We will look at a screenshot of how each component of the online application looks and then discuss the best way to go about filling it.
Academic Achievements
Academic achievements primarily relate to such achievements as standing in the top performers in your class at various levels, X, XII, Graduation Year or in an exam such as the NTSC or JEE or Math Olympiad.
How does one go about filling this part?
Make a list of all academic achievements. Rank order them not in chronological order but in terms of
- Level of achievement or position you secured
- Level of competition or perceived toughness – NTSC, Olympiads, AIEEE, JEE
- The scale of the achievement – school, city, state, district national
In case you do not have 3 academic achievements then list co-curricular achievements such as paper-presentations, journal publications or anything that is related to your academics.
Describe in less than 50 words: Try to be as brief as possible if the achievement is something that can be easily understood. Use the remaining space to describe how this is something that you have been consistently good at. For example, you have only one top 1-5 in terms of academic achievement but you have always been driven to do well academically. Add that part in the description — throughout your education, you have stood in the top 10% (do not write 10%, calculate your position) of your class etc.
Add anything that puts your achievement into perspective — the only person from your town/village/school/institution to achieve this, the number of participants etc.
Versatility
For the versatility section please make a list of all your areas of interest that fall out of the curricular and co-curricular category.
Do not approach it from the perspective of what evaluators might find attractive but rather look at the level of interest/achievement you have in that area. For example, if dancing is your biggest passion/interest then rank it first. Do not rush to rank social-service activities first.
If you have certificates and achievements great, but even if you do not, you can still go ahead and fill up three areas as long as you have a strong interest and have done more than your peers.
For example, if reading is a major passion, you will not have any certificates to show for the same! But use the description space to present how much you like reading — favourite genres, favourite authors, reading since age so and so, read so many books a month etc. Any genre is fine as long as it has some international/intellectual significance. For example, fantasy, science-fiction, historical fiction, all are fine. Just ensure that you do not cite Chetan Bhagat :-).
The same applies to any other area of interest that does not correspond with certificates. Applicants from this part of the world (TN & AP), please do not write watching movies since everyone does it. If you watch world cinema or any specific genre of movies a lot, are knowledgeable and can hold a conversation about the same then you can go ahead and mention movies.
Since this deals with versatility ensure that you choose three different areas. If you have participated in CSR activities at your workplace or volunteered for NGOs please include that as well.
Most importantly, when it comes to extracurriculars (not to be confused with interests), please understand that it is not a case of what you have done but what you have accomplished. So participation in various events is just that participation, no points for that, did you win anything is the question.
Again this does not apply to interest such as theatre or plays. For example, I will cite theatre or dramatics as an area of interest and cite that I have played major parts in plays right from my early schooling to college and PG, the high-point being a performing XYZ play directed by ABC etc.
Overall Versatility Rating: Rate yourself based on the diversity of things you have participated in and the level of interest across areas.
Responsibility Shouldered
The two sections, personal and professional are clearly demarcated.
In the personal section, include any activity where you took or were given the responsibility. They can be
- on-going or long-duration responsibilities such as helping you brother/sister in his/her education or guiding him/her throughout, taking up some household responsibility owing to a family situation (working parents), or
- specific short-duration responsibilities such as arranging the wedding of a sibling or family member etc or having to help out your parent in a specific task etc.
In the professional section include responsibilities that you undertook that were not part of your KRAs or job description. They can be can be
- handling responsibilities higher than your designation due to the absence of manpower
- special projects/initiatives that you undertook or were given to you
- organizing events at your workplace
In both cases use the description to put in perspective
- the scale/importance of responsibility,
- the role you played and
- the quality of the outcome
Programme Details
This is possibly one of the most important aspects of applying to S.P.Jain — choosing the right specialization.
How does one go about this? The first question is whether you are applying with work experience or applying as a fresher.
Work-experience candidates should apply to the area in with the reason “relevant work-experience”. This has to be the first preference.
If you are applying with IT work-experience, unless you can really connect the nature of your work with another specialization, choose Information Management (IM). In previous years, applicants whose profiles did not match with the specialization they applied to have been reassigned to a different specialization! DO NOT make your first preference based on “special interest in this area”, make that your second preference.
In many cases, you might not find your profile relevant to any other area apart from the one in which you have work-ex. In this case, choose any of the areas as a second preference citing special interest in this area.
Freshers should apply only to Marketing or Finance.
Operations and IM both attract recruiters who are looking at people with relevant work-ex. The batches of both streams usually have an average work-ex of at least 2 years.
If your job profile involves being part of the design, procurement, production, quality control, maintenance, or logistics — anything that is part of the entire process of manufacturing and delivering a product or service (not IT products or services) — you can apply to Operations.
Mechanical engineering freshers also do not stand a chance of getting an Operations shortlist since management roles in Operations cannot be given to a fresher, recruiters look for candidates with hard-core ops work-ex.
The same thing applies to CSE/IT freshers applying to IM. Post an IM degree you will be handling business roles in IT and there is no way you can take these roles up without having been part of a software product/services projects.
Non-engineering freshers such as Commerce, Economics or BBA graduates can apply to Finance. You can choose a second area as Marketing based on “done specialized courses in this area” or “special interest in this area”.
The reverse holds true for Engineering freshers, Marketing first and Finance next.
Please note that for Finance you will be competing with people who have “graduated in related area” such as the backgrounds mentioned above and CA. So do not mention it as your first preference unless you are really serious about it and are sure that despite your profile not being relevant you will get a shortlist through a stellar CAT score.
A safer option is to apply to Marketing (since recruiters in this sector look for freshers) based on “special interest in this area” and Operations/Finance as a second preference under “done specialized courses in this area” or “special interest in this area”, whichever is relevant.
If you are mentioning Special Area Of Interest, you have to provide an explanation in 50 words.
Use this space to mention
- why you like this specialization and how your skills or traits are aligned to the same and
- the things you have done informally that demonstrate your special interest in this area.
You might have done a lot of things for which you have no certificates to show —
- say organizing events in your college and firm or working unpaid for an event management for Marketing
- following stock-markets or investing on your own keenly for finance
- in both fields, you can mention the books that you have read to improve your knowledge of the same
The last part of the form is the work-experience details, the filling up of which should be pretty straightforward.
Also, freshers — internships DO NOT COUNT as work experience, whether it is done before or after college; work-experience needs to be full-time, paid, work. Start-ups can be counted as work-experience provided you have registered the firm and have proof of the same. Work experience in the family business also needs to be supported by salary slips.
Will I get a call from S.P.Jain?
If you look at the comments thread for this post you will see that there is a deluge of queries.
It is understandable. Everyone would be jumping at the chance to get a call at 85 and they just want to know if they can get a call.
Here is a simple way to figure out if you will get a call.
Profile Alignment + Exceptional Academic Profile (90,90,80) + ECAs + CAT
Percentile of 85 = Profile-Based Call
Profile Alignment + Decent Academic Profile + CAT Percentile of 96-97 = Score-based Call
When you apply you are applying to have a shot at both calls.
Both calls are given out after the CAT score is out. So you qualify for either one or the other.
Each of the parameters above is mutually exclusive.
You need to score points on each count.
First Milestone — Profile-Specialization Alignment
Please understand that profiles are not evaluated independently of the specialization you have applied to.
Most aspirants think that profile-based calls evaluate the quality of your academics, extracurriculars, and work-ex in isolation. Wrong.
The question is never — do you have a good profile.
It is always — do you have a good profile for Marketing, Finance, Operations or IM.
So if you are planning to apply to specializations without following the guidelines above then you are taking a risk and you can rest assured that in all likelihood you will not get a call. This profile alignment applies to both score-based and profile based calls.
SPJIMR puts out the summary profiles of all the candidates who are part of the current batch. We took an exhaustive look at it and this is what we found:
MARKETING: 25 percent freshers, mixed educational background
FINANCE: 25 percent freshers, only 1 engineer
OPERATIONS: Only 1 fresher (city-topper in graduation), average work-ex of 2.5 years, 50% mechanical engineers
IM: No Freshers, only 2 students with less than 24 months of work-ex, all candidates had IT/Tech work-ex
Second Milestone — Academics
If you have more than one — X, XII or Graduation — less than 80 then a profile-based call is well-nigh ruled out.
Please understand that since they are giving out calls at 85 percentile, they will expect you to have the academic capability to handle a rigorous 2-year MBA program. The only way for them to check this is your past Academic profile.
You might have a 90 or 10 CGPA in your X, a 75 or 7.5 in your Grad, both of which are great, but if your XII marks are less than 80 due to your IIT attempt, then there is no way that with two 70s you can get a call unless you some insane spike in your work-ex or extracurriculars.
Most institutes now rate the profiles quantitatively so that there is not subjectivity involved — points for crossing particular slabs.
If X Marks have 10 points, then they are divided into slabs
- 90 and above – 10 points
- 85-90 – 8 points
- 80-85 – 7 points
The above slabs are just representative.
So it is not that they are thinking — Oh, this candidate has grad marks below 80 but he has great work-ex let us walk into the sunset and debate his candidature.
You score or drop points based on the slabs and if you drop three points then it is tough to make it up elsewhere there are always enough people who tick the top-tier of all slabs and checkboxes.
Third Milestone — Extracurriculars
Extracurriculars kick in only after you have cleared the other two milestones. Given India’s population, you know that there would be enough people who clear the first two. This is where a good extracurriculars or versatility comes into the picture.
A good extra-curricular profile can be one that has a major achievement in one area — state/national-level sports, concert-level musician/dancer or any other achievement that clearly puts you in the top percentiles in that area — and one more interest which can be minor.
Another kind of profile can be one that has a lot of width — sports, music, social work, leadership — average achievements in one or two areas and minor in others.
I have had the odd student — an engineer with good academics and a big brand work-ex — who got a call for Finance but have not seen a single case where they eventually cleared even the first Group Interview. They themselves felt that the peer group they were sitting with was in a different league as far their knowledge and profile-match for Finance went. The same students made it to IIM-B and other big schools but could not clear the first Group Interview of SPJIMR.
So before commenting and asking me whether your profile is good, please do a sanity check above.
If you clear all the milestones your profile will be competitive.
But does it guarantee a call, it depends on the quality of the other applications.
For Finance, for example, you will be competing with candidates with two 90s and an 80 and a big brand Commerce college plus a CA/CPT/IPCC plus big brand work-ex plus social work and other extracurriculars.
What if I DO NOT want to apply to the specialization my profile is aligned with?
Well very often, especially for those with IT work-ex, the whole point of an MBA is to escape IT and rediscovering one’s real passion:
- Marketing — owing to an extroverted personality that puts people at ease or above-average exceptional communication skills or something that tells you that you will be great at making ads
- Operations — Mechanical Engineers, usually
- Finance — it is either straightforward – the money and glamour associated with Finance as projected through Wall Street and Wolf of Wall Street, a fascination with stock markets knowing a thing or two about it and maybe having invested your own or someone else’s buck or two, a fascination with stock markets knowing nothing about it or a reason that is still inscrutable like the nature of God
So whatever your reason, if you want to change your domain — do not apply to SPJIMR. Both recruitments and admissions are aligned to profiles.
Does this mean that your MBA dreams are sealed?
Not really.
All other b-schools give you more leeway in that you are not asked about your choice of specializations in the application and in the interviews but only your reasons for an MBA in general.
What sort of profiles get calls
The whole idea of a profile-based call is to give calls out to exceptional profiles even if the CAT percentile is quite low.
From past data, it is very clear that they look at exceptional academic profiles first and then they look at other aspects of the profile. This is but understandable since the MBA is an academically rigorous course, so if they are letting you are a much lower level of CAT score, you need to have a much higher level of academic profiles.
Think of it this way, they have a certain weight for X, XII, Grad, and CAT Score. If your X, II, Grad are so good that you will get very high marks for those, a lower CAT Score will suffice.
What is a good academic profile?
A 90/90/80 is par for a SPJIMR profile-based call.
It is pretty tough to get a profile-based call with lower marks than these, unless you have some crazy national level achievements or a professional degree such as a CA or CFA that is very relevant for a Finance specialization.
A rejection for a profile-based call is not a rejection of your profile
Do not take my comments about whether you will get a profile-based call or not as a referendum on the quality of your profile for MBA applications in general and become despondent!
Also, do not take rejection from SPJIMR for a profile-based call as a rejection of your profile. SPJIMR will give you a score-based call, even after rejecting you for a profile-based call if you score above 96-97 percentile!
Another thing, I do not blog for a living, I am the Chief Learning Officer for IMS and do this out of my interest over and above my daily responsibilities. Why am telling you this? So that you don’t get jittery if you do not receive an immediate reply and post — Sir, please reply sir comments 🙂 You will usually get a reply anywhere within a minute to 36 hours depending on my schedule.
This has already been a super-long post. Hope I have covered most of the stuff needed to fill the form and give you a fair idea of whether you will get a call.
I would like you to post a comment only if you feel that you have a query that the post does not answer and please do not post a query without mentioning which specialisation you want to apply to.
I can easily make out if someone has only skimmed through the post and dumped their profile in the comments looking for a quick-fix and would not bother to reply, you might as well read the post again and improve your RC skills 🙂
The CAT Writer 
Hello Sir,
I got profile-based call from SPJIMR last year but I was not able to make it. Can I write same answers as I wrote in my previous application. Considering I did not add any extra curricular achievements previous year and also my answer for my specialization remains same.
Thank you.
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Hi Vaishnavi,
Yeah, if it is not broken then there is no need to fix it.
All the best!
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Sir,
I am currently working in the Petroleum manufacturing sector, but I am not involved in Supply chain per se, I am involved in projects that are required for operations as I am Civil Engineer.
I want to change my profile but it’s not happening @my current job. Hence was looking forward to a specialization in Operations and Supply Chain. I have a decent profile and my other doubts have been cleared by your exhaustive post and comments.
Can you please revert if I should apply for Marketing first(but don’t have much ECAs to back up) or Operations and Supply Chain.
Please help!
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Hi Prateek,
Given your work-ex, you should apply to Operations, your current profile will be relevant and signed to the same.
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
I am a civil engineer currently working in L&T Ltd. since almost 2 years. I have secured 94% marks in class Xth , 93% in class XIIth , but i have managed to secure only 76& in my B.Tech .Can I qualify for a profile based call also? What specialization should i apply so that it aligns with my work experience?
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Hello sir,
I’d like you to look into my profile and guide me about the options I have for profile – based calls.
Acads:
10th – 95%
12th – 61% (I had some very serious medical conditions for 1.5 yr. proves of which can be presented if necessary).
Grad – 67% (till sem 5) (sub – English literature)
Co- curricular
1. 3rd position in Ranchi district powerlifting
championship.
2. Winner of Jharkhand level state powerlifting
championship, in my weight category.
3. Qualified for nationals. (Event got cancelled due to the pandemic)
Extra activities.
1. Have been associated with a NGO since long, which mainly works for underprivileged kids.
2. Been an active member of organising committee in university.
Kindly help me target b-schools according to this profile.
Thank you.
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Hi Gunh,
It will be tough for you to get a profile-based call from SP given your academic profile.
Aa far as the other schools go, you should apply to schools based on your expected percentile, since that plays is a bigger role in getting a call from schools apart from the IIMs and SP.
All the best!
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Check
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Hello,
This is a very insightful post. I hope you can help me out by evaluating my profile (25, male):
Education
10th – 90%
12th – 65% (Science stream)
Undergrad – 70%; B.Sc. in Hospitality & Hotel Administration from IHM Mumbai (Oldest and top-ranked hospitality education institute in the country)
Work experience: 5 years (60 months)
1. Account Executive at Booking(dot)com (NASDAQ: BKNG; Fortune500): Managing supplier accounts in the assigned region, involves consultative selling, relationship management and improving product adoption. I’ve led region & country-level projects for improving the quality of listings on the website [33 months]
2. Business Development Executive at Cleartrip(dot)com (Online travel agency): Job role & responsibilities are the same as above. Awarded for ‘Exemplary Performance’. [27 months]
Certifications
Fundamentals of Digital Marketing (Google)
Business Fundamentals: Marketing Strategy
Project Management (Udemy)
GMAT: 680; CAT: To be attempted
P.S. I have been shortlisted for interviews for the 1-year program at SPJIMR but I’ve decided to go for the PGDM program.
Thanks in advance 🙂
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Hi Archit,
As detailed out very clearly in my post, profile-based called is next to impossible without stellar academics.
If you cross 96-percentile, you will get a score-based call but conversion will not be easy since they are known to segregate students for their different programs, so it is very likely that they will try to persuade you to join the 1-year program and not the 2-year one, since your profile will be an outlier in the 2-year program.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Thank you for this detailed insight.
I would be grateful if you would help analyse my profile :
10th: 89% ICSE
12th: 82% Commerce, CBSE
Graduation: B. Des from National Institute of Fashion Technology,
8.5 CGPA
Work Ex : Fresher
Achievements :
1) Secured second position in an all India Logo Design Competition, organised by the SportsAuthority of Andhra Pradesh for their new project.
2) Selected among top ten students, for the ORION KSID Innovation Awards, conducted by Kerala State Institute of Design.
3) Worked with 50 national award winning artists to make a live painting for the Bihar Government.
4) Inter College product design competition winner.
Kindly help me target B-Schools with this profile.
Thank you in advance!
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Also, industry internship opportunity with Dr. Rebecca Reubens, World Bamboo Ambassador of India.
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Hi Ananya,
For SP profile-based call you can apply to Marketing you stand a decent chance.
For the rest, you have to apply to schools based on your expected percentile.
All the best!
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Highlights of my profile:-
My Academics are Xth – 87% (Gold Medalist), XIIth – 78% & Grad: – 8.41 (B.Tech Electrical) (All-State Board), Post Graduate Diploma in Banking & Finance – 84.4% (Manipal Academy)
35 Months work-ex in Public Sector Bank as Credit Manager. Currently, I’m heading a portfolio of Sub 100 Cr. I have few certifications like JAIIB, Moody’s Certificate in Commercial Credit. Also, I’m interested in Finance.
I just wanna know if I stand any chances for Finance Shortlist either Profile or Scored Based since last year I scored 97%ile and didn’t fetch any.
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Hi Abhinay,
If you did not get a call last time then the chances of you getting a call this time around might be high, the only factor can be more work-ex getting you a few more points.
I suggest not applying but not counting on SP, and looking at other schools as well and also taking the CFA at some stage, it can become a hygiene factor on non-Fin edu background resumes at all top schools.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
I am an Electronics engineer, currently working as a data analyst with a total of 3.5 years of experience (2 years in Deloitte as an analyst and 1.5 years in an ed-tech startup – toppr – as a data analyst). My academic summary – 94.31%-87.33%-8.03/10 (10th-12th-gradCGPA). Based on my profile, I feel IM would be my best shot, and hence I am planning to put it as my first preference.
However, I am confused as to what should I put as my second preference – marketing or operations. I have some experience in both fields and also, both the fields interest me. Hence, the confusion!
While working with Deloitte consultancy, I had got the opportunity to work with a pipe manufacturing client and got some exposure towards supply chain management. While working as a data analyst in toppr, I got an opportunity to work in marketing department and got exposed to offline, digital and brand marketing.
Kindly guide me as to what I should put my second preference in the form as.
Thanks in advace!
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Also, I have won some recognition & awards while working with my current company. Which area can I mention that?
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Hi Himanshi,
Given your profile, I feel SPJIMR is not the best option for you. Your work-ex is diverse and can be useful for both Ops firms as well as Marketing firms. You should target general management programs that will help you have multiple specializations and mote importantly have a shot at firms across different domains.
If you want to apply for SP, I think your work-ex is not hard-core IT/Tech, so unless you are passionate about do not apply to IM first.
Apply to Marketing first, since the data analyst profile can come in really handy for marketing, a lot of my students from analytics firms such as Latent View and MuSigma were able to crack SP-Marketing. You can apply to IM next.
Overall, your profile is competitive for a profile-based call.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Request if you can analyze my profile and chances of getting a profile based call:
Xth: 88.61% (SSC)
XII : 89.23% (HSC)
Graduation (B.com) : 78.95% from R. A Podar
CA – in 1st Attempt at all levels.
Work Experience: over 2 years experience in deal advisory – Merger and Acquisitions – tax with KPMG. (if articleship experience is also included then over 5 years experience). Further, promoted on fast track basis within 6 months of qualifying as a CA after receiving double promotion on qualification.)
I wish to apply for Finance.
Let me know your views.
Thanking in advance.!
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Hi Harsheet,
Your profile is near-perfect for Finance and you should get a call in all probability.
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Request if you can analyze my profile and getting a chance for profile based call:
10th: 81.16%(SSC) top 1% of our UT
12th:80.31% Science PCM (HSC) top 1% of our UT
Graduation: Engineering CSE with 7.45 CGPA
Work-Ex: None
Cocurricular: 4 times national badminton player
2 times inter university badminton champion
selected to represent in All India University games( Couldn’t participate for medical issues)
and many awards in badminton field.
Presented a startup idea at IIT-Bombay tech fest(Eureka).
My 1st preference is Marketing as a fresher. My 2nd preference is Finance. Is there any chance for me to get into Finance
Let me know your views,
Thanking in advance!
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Hi Meet,
For Marketing your profile will be competitive, though by no means a sure-shot.
Chances for Finance are next to none — nothing in the background to compete.
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
I am a Chartered Accountant with 3 years of experience in Audit field. My score are as follows (10th 88%, 12th 87% and Ty Bcom 72 from IDOL.Have stood 1st Rank in Jr College (certificate available). Have stood second rank in my school but don’t have a certificate for that, how should i put it or should I not put it as I don’t have a certificate to corroborate the same. Also I have cleared my CA in my very first attempt, can it be called academic achievement as there are many students who pass CA in the very first attempt. Other than this I work for a NGO since last one year. What is the chance of getting a profile based call from SP Jain.
Thanks,
Azhar
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Hi Azhar,
You can put the academic achievement in your school despite having no certificate. The cleared CA in the first attempt will be common and hence you can let it be.
Your profile is competitive enough for a call, given the 3-year work-ex, I would not say it is a certainty though.
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
10th – 93%
12th – 91%
Bcom (Podar college) – 69%
CA – 61% (First attempt at all levels)
CFA – Level 1 & level 2 completed.
Work ex (in finance field) – 10 months
Last year I failed to secure a profile based call for finance. Just wanted to know from you what could be the reasons ? Is 69% in Bcom such a big obstacle that they are ignoring the CA & CFA part?
And moreover, last year I had no work ex, so will these 10 months of work ex help this year?
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Hi Mohit,
Well, the thing is that the competition you will be facing will have great marks in CA as well! There will be many Commerce and Eco students from Delhi (and Calcutta) who have a CA as well as grad marks above 75. So they will score the same as you on all counts and score a few more marks on the Grad front.
The work-ex will help but not much since it is under 12 months, it depends on the other applicants as well, I would say it is borderline, even last year, you would not have missed out by much.
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
Xth(ICSE)- 92%
XIIth(HSC)- 81%
B.E(IT)- 77%
Academic Achievements –
1. I have been in the top 3 of my department in my college in 3 out of 8 semesters.
2. I was the vice captain of my house in my school.
ECA
1. I have been part of a social service/NGO for the past 6 years. The work covered under this spans over 3 months in a year.
2. I have stood 5th in a triathlon(500m swimming, 11 km cycling and 21 km running) which had about 300 participants.
Personal Responsibility
1. I helped a friend with the sales and marketing of his fitness band startup for 2 months.
Professional Responsibility
1. I was involved in 2-3 recruitment drives due to shortage of manpower.
I also have a side business/venture of my own but I do it as I was interested in doing something along with work. It is not a registered or an official company. It involves the renting of books like a library. Should I be mentioning this under any category and if yes, under which one? Please do guide me.
Specialization : IM
Any suggestions regarding if I should mention or remove something or if I have added something under the wrong criteria and what do you think are the odds of getting shortlisted?
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I have a work ex of 25 months as a software developer as of today spanning over 2 companies.
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Hi Neeraj,
You have a profile that is competitive for IM and thus strong chances to get a call.
The Vice-Captain thing is not academic achievement, it can be added as a PoR in professional responsibility.
You can add your venture details as part of persona responsibility since it is not a registered firm.
All the best!
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Thank you so much sir for the inputs and the clarification. Will keep all of this in mind while filling up the form.
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Hello Sir,
Request if you can analyze my profile and chances of getting a profile based call
10th Std (ICSE)- 93%
12th Std (NM College)- 92%
Graduation- (Bcom NM College)- 81.25%
Professional Degree- CA (All Levels in First Attempt)
CFA Level 1 completed
Work Exp- 9.5 months from EY in Forensic & Integrity Services
I wish to apply for Finance.
Let me know your views. Further, should I mention about awards which I have received in my workplace like KUDOS?
Thanking in advance !
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Hi Tanisha,
You have an extremely competitive profile for Fin and I will be surprised if you do not get a call!
You can mention work-ex awards in the professional achievements sections.
All the best!
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Hi Tony Sir,
I want to apply to Finance Course in SJIMR. I filled form halfway and read your article. Now I am a little jittery about getting a profile based score. My only concern is that my intention to choose Finance specialization is a mix of three reasons- Have some background knowledge through finance(where I choose Financial Economics in my 3rd year of graduation), my job profile has a small part of basic valuations(Comparative Method, Residual Method and sometimes DCF Method), and third is, interest in the subject. So you see I don’t have a specific degree or work-ex in finance. Also in my UG, my scores dipped.
I want to share my profile in a crisp (after writing I found, I have written too much which is contradictive to word ‘crisp’, but still can I request you to give 5 min read) way and if you see that I can get a call for Finance Course.
Academic Background –
10th Class – 10 CGPA
12th Class – 93.5%
UG – BA(H) Economics [Delhi Univesity,SGTB Khalsa College, North Campus] – 63.5%(took financial economics in final year)
PG – MA in Energy Economics(took Energy Modelling and Energy Derivatives Market in the Second Year) – 9.0 CGPA
Work Ex- 22 months(including Oct’20)
Working with Jones Lang LaSalle, a Fortune 500, as a City Analyst – Research and Consulting.
Positions of Responsibility:
11th Class – Vice Discipile Captan
12th Class – Head Boy
1st UG – Student Coordinator in Economics Club (Only position available for 2 students from 1st year) Bagged one of the highest Sponsorship for the Economic Fest.
2nd UG – General Secretary in Economics Club and Eastern Music Coordinator in Music Club
3rd UG – Lost President Election but still worked relentlessly for the club without any position and was awarded Special Mention certificate(first time is ever given to anyone)
PG – Formed my own Economic Club in college and held few events under the banner.
Extra-Curricular
1. Completed a six-year-long, certification(called – Prabhakar Level) in Indian Percussion Instrument – Tabla. Had a band in UG, Delhi named – ‘Delhi -7’. Currently, occasionally play in cafes of Pune during weekends.
2. A state Level Basketball Player. Continued in UG at the intra-college level.
Professional Responsibility:
My KRA in job majorly includes keeping our data-driven product upright along with authoring some white papers derived from data insights. But I went a step ahead to do business development for my team and bagged, in my first year, a consulting project from the top residential developer of Pune – Kumar Properties, in the upper range of our price band and delivered the study single-handed.
Why Finance course:
I have always had an interest in finance, and while working in JLL with real estate investment firm on different studies, I wish to join that community but with a good amount of formal finance training. Hence, I look to do an MBA in Finance, to join one of leading real estate investment firms like Blackstone, GIC, Brookfield etc. Being from JLL, a leader in Real Estate Consulting, my exposure and knowledge are quite strong of real estate, just finance part needs to be sorted.
Please suggest if it’s possible to get a call in the desired field. If not, then what should be done in profile for next year, if no other CDC layered B-school is cracked this year. I am quite clear, I want to do an MBA only in Finance and from CDC B-School.
Thanks for patiently reading my so long comment!
Writing below my some thoughts, as every day we don’t get to reach to you.
Personally, your blogs are a feast to read, I already implemented MR blog techniques in my day to day life which has helped in the job to hone skills. I was a poor reader, but preparing for CAT and reading you RC and CR blogs actually have improved my writing skills, even in my professional writings. And I have no words to say after attending your lecture on re-learning maths. I was struggler in Quants, but today much more confident person when I see questions(especially algebra). If I say what you have done to me in a few words is that you have changed me from studying anything to learning it. It’s a win-win situation for me today after months for preparation, irrespective of what result is there in Jan. Thank You, Sir!
Regards
Abhay Mohan Bembey
A keen learner
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Hi Abhay,
You have a pretty good profile overall and you should apply to Fin citing relevant education since Economics is a relevant precursor to an MBA in Fin!
As you know Fin is crazily competitive so a call is no guaranteed but as I said, your profile is competitive enough to throw your hat into the ring.
The only thing you can and should do to build a career in Fin — a CFA.
That is the only way you can compete for almost all Fin jobs on campus.
Really glad to hear that you found most of the sessions and the blog useful.
One always writes with the knowledge (and hope) that there are sharp ones who might not be asking doubts in the webinars or commenting on the posts but are making the most of them. Especially happy with the changes you have experienced in your Quant prep and the fact that you are enjoying the learning process.
All the best!
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Thanks for the guidance sir,
My profile acads brief is below
10th-10CGPA
12th-84.2%
UG(BBA-Fresher-Final year)-71.6% till second year end.
Should I fill the SPJIMR(Finance) Profile based application this year or later?
What all certifications/courses/elements should I add in my profile for gaining chances of a call.?
Should I do my CFA before applying for an MBA or should i rather do CFA program while in an MBA Bschool?.
Will the CFA help in MBA Application/Profile based calls?
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Hi Sir,
Yes I have full time work ex of 2 years as a software developer.
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Hello Sir,
Kindly review my profile and please let me know if i get a chance for profile based calls.
Academic Background –
1. Class X – 87%
2. Class XII – 94%
3. B.Tech – 88.4% (ECE)
Work Ex – 2 months(Including October,2020) in the field of Telecom Industry.
Position of Responsibilty –
1. Manager of my College Fest
2.Captain of Cricket College Team.
ECA –
I have been part of a social service/NGO for the past 2 years.
I have successfully managed a lot of events in my college.
Achievements –
1.Successfully Published two papers in different reputed associations.
2. Third School Topper in Class XII Board.
Also i have a good amount of Certificates of Udemy and Coursera for different courses which i have done in my college days.
My First Preference is “IM” and my second preference is “Operations”. For Both the fields i have given “Special Interest in Area” Option and wrote a pretty decent answer.
Is there a chance to get a profile based call?
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Hi Swapnil,
You have a good profile and your chances of getting a call are pretty good.
But there is one rectification that is needed in your app.
You work has to and will fall either into one of the fields — Ops or IM — if it is technical and purely back-end it should be IM, if it is customer operations then it has to be operations.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Thank you so much Sir for your advice. My job is purely technical and backend, so I am choosing IM as first preference and operations as second one.
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Can you describe what you do?
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We have our focus on the Creating a networking system, procuring the instruments and devices for that and connecting the Fiber backbone, after which we have to initialise the network, test it and make it ready for use.
In this totally versatile, robust and effective communication system, initially we as Trainee Engineers are provided with resources to undestand it’s functioning, understand each small part of it, after which we might be appointed to work solely on the part which we find interesting. It’s a vast project with hundreds of small sections which provides us with vast opportunities and scope for gaining experience.
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If you like Ops over IM then you can pitch this for Ops as well since Ops starts from R&D, moves to design, Procurement, manufacturing, quality control, logistics and then returns.
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Yes Sir definitely I can use this for ops too. But the main catch here is that i have done a lot of coding and learnt Android App Development in my college days. I am very good in problem solving. Also i have gained a lot of skills and certificates of this. So this is my main reason why i am choosing my first preference as IM
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Cool, not an issue, go ahead and apply to IM!
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Hi Sir,
I am Civil engineer, currently working as a Design Engineer with a total of 2 years of experience in Dar al handasah (MNC). My academic summary – 88.7%-85.5%-8.22/10 (10th-12th-gradCGPA). Based on my profile, I feel operations would be my best shot, and hence I am planning to put it as my first preference.
However, I am confused as to what should I put as my second preference – marketing or IM.
While working in dar, I got the opportunity to work with international clients and i worked on some major infrastructure projects in middle east involving multidisciplinary teams.
Position of responsibility-
1. I was volunteer and coordinator of college technical festival for 2years
2. I was a part of managing committee of college social club(Spandan) for 2yrs. I have successfully managed various events such as blood donations camps, village camp, and old age home visits etc.
ECA-
I have interest in Pencil sketching I was part of Art and craft club for III semester and I have sketched for college exhibition.
Achievements –
1. Won competition in paper presentation on green theme at college technical fest.
2. Certificate for best student in civil engineering mechanics in 1st year of my college.
Kindly guide me as to what I should put my second preference in the form and please review my profile.
Thanks in advance!
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Hi Greeshma,
You have quite a good profile and stand a pretty good chance of getting a call.
About your second preference unless you were part of teams developing the software, choose Marketing, you can always weave your story around it. IM is for people with hard-core ITes/Tech work-ex, Marketing is for those who have had client-facing and analytics experience.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hi Tony Sir,
Graduation – 82.68%
Higher Secondary – 88.86%
10th – 84.74% (I.C.S.E)
I am an Electronics and Instrumentation Engineer. I worked with Cognizant Technology Solutions as a QlikSense Developer, however, my focus area was Data Analytics. I had to lead various meetings and face clients on a weekly basis. We were responsible for providing reports of the day to day working of the client organization. I wanted to apply to IM, however, after reading the exhaustive post, I’m confused if I should apply to IM or Marketing. I have great interpersonal and communication skills.
Academic:
Stood first in Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering Department for three consecutive semesters during graduation. Throughout the course of graduation, stood in top 3 of department and in top 7 of entire college.
Gandhi Peace Foundation, Madras – Awarded the first prize in All India Essay writing competition – 2010
Presented Papers in various esteemed universities (Osmania University and JNTUH University) and won second prize in a paper presented during my fourth year out of one hundred and seventy two entries.
Was an active participant in IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) throughout graduation.
Position of responsibility:
Due of unfortunate layoffs in my previous organization, a team of five was reduced to a team of two. We were responsible for providing various analytics for divisions (each having a head count of 300 plus associates). The whole responsibility of delivering the KPIs fell on our shoulders. We had to work on weekends as well and all our hardwork paid off when were awarded the “Under Dog” team in the department.
Volunteered and headed CSR division of Cognizant’s Outreach. Went over to orphanages and taught to young girls math. Currently working for a Delhi Based NGO called “Strong She” in the Graphics and Marketing Division”.
Established the first Department specific fest ‘Exietec’ during Graduation. Acted as Vice President of the Club henceforth.
Was an EmCee for Annual Review Discord at workplace.
Other activities:
Organised various fun activities each week like baking, poster making at CTS.
Working as a Marketing Co-coordinator for Delhi based NGO – Strong She
Worked in Marketing Division of Ciencia (College Fest). Did canvassing to highlight the events of college to various other colleges.
Currently undertaking a course, “Marketing Analytics” on Coursera by University of Virginia.
Worked as an intern at Shine Projects.
Kindly guide me as to what I should put my second preference in the form and please review my profile.
Thanks in advance!
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Hi Komal,
You have a pretty competitive profile for SPJIMR.
Since you have work-ex in Data Analytics, relevant certifications and a strong interest in it, choose Marketing as your first preference and cite relevant work-ex as the reason. You can apply to IM citing the same. Let them decide which one fits the bill better.
All the best!
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Greetings Sir,
Hope you are safe and doing well.
I am an engineering graduate from Nirma University, Ahmedabad with 13 months of Sales Experience with BYJU’s. I want to pursue my MBA in marketing. I am not sure whether I should apply to SPJIMR considering that I am only scoring in the 85 to 92%tile range in the SimCATs as of now. Below mentioned are the details of my profile. Please help me out in taking the call and also a few comments on my overall profile, please.
–X-9.6/10
–XII-87.2%
–Grad-7.9/10
–13 months of sales experience at BYJU’s
–I have been the Director-General of the students club “I.S.T.E.” at my university.
–I have also done a marketing and event management internship.
–I have been a volunteer at an NGO and also a member of the Nirma VolunTeaching Movement.
–I have played for my university Cricket team and I am a very passionate cricket fan.
Also, a big fan of your blog, sir.
Thanking you in advance.
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Hi Daksh,
I guess the passion for cricket and the interest in my blog are linked!
The work-ex you have makes it very relevant SPJIMR since few applicants have direct sales experience.
I think your profile is competitive enough for you to throw your hat into the ring.
An average percentile of 88 on SimCAT means that you stand to score around 92 in the CAT (just halve the difference between SimCAT percentile and 100 and add it your SimCAT percentile).
Over the next month, you should be able to maximise and push it to 96 and giving yourself the chance to get a score-based call.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Hope you are doing great. Just a request, if you can analyse my profile and chances of getting a profile based call
10th Std (ICSE)- 84%
12th Std (NM College)- 76%
Graduation- (Bcom NM College)- 80.60%
Professional Degree- B.Tech (CSE)
Work Exp- 3.5 Years of Work Experience. Working as the Marketing Manager for a firm named Foxrobe. I am currently heading a team of 7 people. Simultaneously, working as a Marketing Consultant for Bse2nse which is a Trading firm and Zappfresh which is a FMCG firm.
Co-curricular- Was part of the Dramatics society in college. Have won first prize in IBM Talent Hunt.
I wish to apply for Marketing.
Let me know your views. Further, should I mention about awards which I have received in my workplace?
Thanking in advance !
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Hi Varsha,
You have a decent profile for Marketing, your XII marks might be the only place you lose points, but you should take a shot and apply.
You should mention the awards in the professional achievements section.
What is puzzling in your profile is the double graduation — B-Tech and B.Com both?
All the best!
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Hello sir
Profile
10th – 95%
12th – 89.8%
B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) – 79%
Work ex (Oil and gas industry) – 16 months
1st Preference: Operations and Supply chains
2nd Preference: IM
First of all thank you for such a helpful post. Now, since with my background “Operations and supply chains” would be my first preference, I was just wondering can I select the option “Graduation in related area” in the application form being from Mechanical background? (My graduation course had operation research, optimization theory etc in curriculum so I figured)
Also for my other preference I was going for “IM” since I have interest in pursuing my career in Data analytics (I would have made it my first preference but it obviously isn’t going well with my background), I had done a few online courses related to business analytics as well. Do you think the thought process while I choose “IM” as my second preference is correct? (I have also done some “analytics” in my workplace as well since my HOD encouraged me to work in diverse areas.)
For the “versatility” section my three rows include (Reading detective fiction, Social work internship, and content development internship in order of my interest and application). Do you think I should rate myself “good” or above. (I feel I’m better than “good” but also feel like the entries don’t completely justify my “versatility”, since I have done a lot of co-curricular activities (mainly projects) that I don’t know if I can include in that section)
#On an unrelated note, your VARC approach helped a lot, so did your time to time cricket analogies 🙂 so thanks a lot for that. (Hope was still within the crease of insincere flattery)
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Hi Pranav,
You have a pretty competitive profile for Ops, this is is more or less what the median profile of those make it to Ops looks like.
Do not use graduation in related area but work-ex since that is the most important criteria for Ops. Else every mechanical engineer would have a shot!
You can apply to IM and write that you have done specialized courses in the area.
As far as the versatility goes it has nothing to do with your co-curricular dimension — all of those projects make a great pitch for an MS, not an MBA — it has to be about all of your ECAs and interests outside of studies. You should rate yourself on each thing separately — suppose you have read all the major detective fiction authors from Doyle, to Christie, to Alexander McCall Smith and can answer questions thrown at you — you should rate yourself above good; do that for every interest or hobby.
Glad to know that you found the VARC approaches useful; teaching works best through analogies and somehow cricket made perfect sense to me or rather it was not a conscious choice 🙂
All the best!
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Hi Tony Sir,
Hope you’re doing well.
This is the second time I am writing here. I took your advice last year as well and did receive profile-based call but unfortunately couldn’t clear the eligibility cut-off criteria of VA/RC, so didn’t make it.
Here are the details of my profile:
10th- 82.71% (aggregate of 7 subjects- ICSE board)
12th- 94.80% (Commerce with Maths- CBSE board)
Undergraduate- 83.67% (B.com Hons.- Delhi University- 2017 Graduate)
Academic Achievements:
1. Stood 2nd in college B.com Hons Batch 2014-2017.
2. Subject Topper in Accountancy class 12th, 2014.
3. Got a silver certificate in class 10th for securing 9 CGPA as per CBSE board, 2012.
4. Merit Certificate for Commerce Olympiad in class 12th, 2014.
5. Stood first Runner up in Science working model competition in class 10th, 2011.
Extra Curricular activities:
1. I like writing prose and poems, have participated in National Level Competitions and have been published at Instagram handle of Delhi Poetry Slam. Also, I have an Instagram page where I post my content.
2. Public Speaking, won first prize in Symposium class 12th.
3. Social Work- been associated with an NGO wherein I used to teach kids on weekends. Also, been a active member of various social campaigns on menstrual hygiene for young girls, imparting knowledge on various health hazards involved along with sharing my own video based experience.
Course Certifications:
1. Digital Marketing- Internshala (Online based)
2. Digital Marketing- DU certified- Offline based program (Pursuing)
Work Experience- 28 months of work experience in sales & marketing as of now . I started my career in 2017 with Concentrix where I was working in the Business Development cell of BMW India. I had a pre-sale based role there. After a tenure of 7 months, I joined a Start-up organization which is registered, where I was in the core sales and marketing team and had a front end role of direct sales. I had a role to promote Indian participation of small and medium sized enterprises in International Exhibitions. I have worked closely with with Government bodies like- MSME, CHEMEXCIL, ITPO, PHARMEXCIL, NSIC etc. Wherein, In the first step- I used to make proposals for them on why they should provide subsidy to these MSMEs for a particular exhibition abroad and why it a profitable avenue for Indian exports. Then, second step, was to reach out to these MSMEs on various platforms and persuade them to invest and participate. I have worked for various exhibitions in South Korea, Thailand and Japan. During my tenure I have been to various exhibitions in India (for marketing and network purposes) and I got an opportunity to represent my Company along with these Govt. Bogies (mentioned above) in South Korea twice. I was able to generate a revenue of about 25-30 lakhs for my company during a tenure of 12 months.
But unfortunately, due to Covid-19 situation and other financial constraints, the start-up company decided to down-size and I lost my job in December last year.
Now at present, I am working in the Sales & Marketing department only but with another start-up which is into Extended Reality. This is an enterprise sales role. I have a front-end role of dealing with big Clients like LnT, Honda, Maruti Suzuki, Titan, Elgi etc, where I have been working to derive digital transformation through AR-VR-MR technologies in these Industries for learning, development and maintenance purposes. I devise solution specific PPTs for these companies and pitch them on why they should adopt these technologies. Also, I have been closely working with government bodies like NSDC (National Skill Development Council) specifically with Healthcare Council, Council for PwD, Automotive and Life Sciences Skill Development Council. Here, I intent to introduce these technologies for blue collar workers so as to make learning easy and hazard-free for them.
Leadership: Roles of Responsibility:
1. During my tenure with the first start-up, in my last project with the company, I got an opportunity to represent my Company and India all alone in South Korea for the Exhibition named- Next Content Fair. There I took 18 companies from 5 different countries. I shouldered the responsibility all alone being the SPOC for all 18 Companies. It went really well and got a lot of appreciation from the delegates, organizers and my company.
2. In my present company, I have represented my company as a panelist in a discussion organized by NITI Aayog. Also, I have been a part of Stanford Seed Program from my company (only 15 people from the company are selected and 60 companies all over) which is specifically designed for future leaders. I have participated in various competitions under the same program to devise ideas and make my organization work better. Also, before this Covid-19 situation I used to visit various clients and pitch them my ideas on digital transformation in-person. Moreover, work experience for me up till now has been entirely Intrapreneurial based which is entirely ownership oriented.
I want to apply in the marketing Specialization.
Please advise me on two things:
1. SP Jain form gives an option to share details of only two work experiences but I have three and I want to share the last two. Can I do it without worrying about the chronology?
2. I am a bit confused about second choice of Specialization. I filled finance last year because of graduation in the same field. Should I do the same this year?
I have had a very patchy career graph after my graduation. During a tenure of 3 years, I have had a career gap (11 months), I have worked with 3 companies, lost a job over night, faced salary issues. But I have learnt A LOT, I have kept my department- Sales & Marketing constant, working in 6-7 different industries (Automobiles, Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, Metals, Content, Technology etc).
I don’t know how it would come across to Interview panelists, sitting on the other side of the table or whether I will be able to get a profile-based call again this year but I am certain that If I get an opportunity to be at the Interview, I will be able to explain and showcase my learnings.
I would request your opinion on my profile and chances of getting a profile based call this year.
Thank you sir for your support and guidance with this question/answer forum every year.
This helps a lot.
Regards,
Tanvi Swami.
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Hi Tanvi,
Since you got a call last year you should get one this year as well. To answer your questions:
1. You should mention your last two firms since professional experiences are always mentioned in reverse chronological order.
2. The only other specialisation you can look at is Finance or Operations but you know that is purely an academic exercise, your profile is not aligned to either, so you can apply to either of them 🙂
As far as gaps, breaks and everything else is concerned, all that matters is this — the panel should think you will be a good candidate in a b-school, that an MBA degree will not be wasted on you and you need to communicate this not on paper but in person in the interview as you would very well know from last year’s GI experience. The only you should do is not focus on your candidature for Sales & Marketing as a whole and place the gap and job-loss at the centre unless you want to use it to make a clear and case about your strengths or learnings gained through that experience.
All the best!
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Thank you, sir for your response and for answering my questions. 🙂
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Highlights of my profile:-
Secured 9.0 cgpa in 10th (CBSE) , 82% in 12th CBSE (Commerce), Cleared CA last year. Having 1 work ex in Big4 audit firm (Process audits).
Have won business quiz competitions conducted by CA institute.
I just wanna know if I stand any chances for Finance Shortlist either Profile or Scored Based.
This is my first attempt to CAT
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Hi Ravi,
Your profile is competitive for Finance, so you can apply.
The score-based call has nothing to do with the profile if you cross 96 you will get a call.
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Does SPJIMR, or any of the Top B-Schools, value Entrepreneurial experience post Graduation?
Im a B.Com student (95,85,69::10th, 12th, Grad). After my graduation I founded my own startup manufacturing Automobile ancillaries. My business has grown and is functioning profitably for the past 3 years now.Coming from a Commerce background I was responsible for the marketing and business development related operations of the business. I wish to pursue my MBA in the same field.
Does my work experience hold the same value as that of another candidate with experience from say a Fortune500 listed company?
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Hi Simran,
All work -ex is work-ex as long as one has worked well and learnt stuff. There are no outright marks for the brand of college or firm in the admission process, the only thing that matters is how well you do in the interview. During campus placements, those with big brands on their resumes do get more shortlists but that does not mean that you do not have a chance of graduating with a great job.
What you need though is proof to substantiate your claims about the firm. So fill in the name of your firm and your designation and your salary if you are drawing one. Ensure that you have all supporting documents.
Your profile is competitive but not a sureshot, won’t hurt to throw your hat in the ring.
All the best!
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Apologies for the glitch, My name is Simran Kadri.
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Hello Sir,
Here are the details of my profile :
10th : 94.36 % (SSC Board)
12th : 90.92 % (HSC Board)
BTech : 7.96 CGPA (VJTI, Mumbai)
Work Experience : 1 year of work experience at Deloitte as an Analyst in the Consulting function as of now. During my tenure in Deloitte I have worked as a PMO analyst on a Project for about 5 months. Currently a part of the QA team on a Project in a manual testing role.
Leadership : Roles of Responsibility :
1. In my B.Tech 3rd year , I held a position of the Public Relations Head of the Alumina Association of my college. The role involved organizing various counselling / guidance events for the upcoming placement interviews by the alumina for the 3rd year college students during the year. Personally interacted with the Alumni of my college for participation in these events
2. Was a part of the Sponsorship team of the Technical Fest Committee in my B.Tech 2nd year. This role mostly involved talking to potential sponsors for the event.
Extra Curricular Activities :
1. Working as a Volunteer in an NGO since the last one year. The role involves teaching Street children on Weekends. Also managed to raise a decent amount of money in a fundraiser that is held every year for the kids associated with the NGO.
2. Cleared the German A1 level exam with 83/100 marks within a span of 2 months of learning the language. Also taught the same to a friend for a month, who also managed to clear the test with 78/100 marks under my sole guidance.
Please help me decide which specialization should I apply for. Given my work experience which is not specific to any area of Specialization applying for which area would be my best shot ?
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Hi Sir,
Hope you are doing well.
Following are the details of my profile:
X-95% (10 c.g.p.a)
XII-92.4%
B.E (Panjab University)- 85.4%
Work Experience:
14 months as of now at Infosys. I work as a developer as well as a data analyst.
Academic Achievements:
-Merit based Scholarship for excelling in academics for two years in college.
-Won first prize in inter-college robotics event held at Punjab University.
-Physics topper in class 12th in school.
-Merit based Scholarship in class 10th.
Extra-curricular:
-Represented Chandigarh at National Level Round of World’s Robotics Olympiad.
(Not sure whether to mention it in academics or extra-curricular as I have Electronics background but here I worked with mechanical and cse department.)
-Secretary of Entrepreneurship cell of college and organized 2 inter-college science exhibitions.
-Participated in Sneaker paining competition held at Punjab Engineering College(PEC) and have won several drawing and painting competitions at inter school level.(should I mention this?)
-Member of Marketing, technical and publicity team at annual college fest.
-3rd prize at inter-school Ad-a-Bag competition (Advertising an object) in class 11th.
(Do I need to have the respective certificates as well for the verification purposes?)
I am not sure whether I should go for IM or marketing as I want to explore both. Kindly let me know the specialization I should go for and if there is any chance of profile based call. I would be really grateful if you could help me with the points to be included and excluded in extra-curricular activities.
Thanks and Regards,
Kritika
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Hi Kritika,
Given your work-ex, IM would be a better fit, since you do not have great ECAs to make a pitch for Marketing. So unless you feel you are born for Marketing, it makes to apply to IM since SPJIMR with its specialization-based selection process is not really great for any sort of exploration.
You have a pretty strong chance of getting a profile-based call given your academic profile — apply to IM first and Marketing next.
I know everyone will be grateful if I edit their application for them, I feel that making a good resume based is a skill every professional and especially every prospective MBA should have — every applicant should know which ones to include and which ones to leave 🙂
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
I am commerce graduate (Bachelor of Management Studies) though I was a science student (PCM) in school. I cleared the IIT Mains examination and decided not to go ahead with it. Currently, I have 13 months of work-ex in the financial services industry.
Wanted to clarify if it is appropriate to mention about the JEE exam in my academic achievements as it does not align with my graduation stream and current employment.
Thanks and Regards,
Siddhi
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Hello Sir,
Request if you can analyze my profile and chances of getting a profile based call:
X: 93.2% (SSC)
XII : 88.9% (HSC)
Graduation (B.com) : 73.36%
Chartered accountant – 54.75% in CA final (Nov,2019)
Work Experience: 6 Months experience as a Risk advisory consultant at deloitte and 2 months of experience at a boutique tax firm. Further, I was involved in writing articles as a legal researcher and analyst – tax with a CA firm for 1 month (part time freelancer)
I wish to apply for Operations/Finance domain
Let me know your views.
Thanking in advance.!
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Hey Tony Sir,
It would mean the world to me if you could analyze my profile and my chances of getting a profile based call.
Academics:
10th Std (SSC)- 90.55%
12th Std (HSC)- 87.38%
Graduation- (Bcom H.R. College)- 77.03%
Post Graduation (M.Com Business Management H.R. College)- 74. 9% (Currently awaiting 4th Semester results)
Work Exp- 2.1 Years of Work Experience (as of the current month). I currently work in the Supply Chain department of Asian Paints. I’m working as a ‘Production Planner’ .(Basically involves planning and maintaining sufficient inventories across the country for some 350-400 SKUs).
Extra curriculars
– I was the Head for the ‘Creatives Dept.’ of a club during graduation
-Won the ‘General Leadership Award’ for my role in the mentioned Club. Secured runner up positions in a couple of other college-level events during fests (Are these worth mentioning? Also are schooling-level achievements worth mentioning?)
I wish to apply for Operations/Marketing.
Request you to please provide your valuable views on the same.
Thanks in advance !
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Hi Vicky,
Your profile is pretty decent for a shot at Ops, given the SCM work-ex and that too with AsPa, which is known for Ops).
To qualify my comments, I would say that if there are two rounds through which they decide whom to give a call to, the first is an outright no and the second is a discussion between all the relevant profiles, you will make the second round, it will then depend on the other applicants this year.
So go ahead, throw your hat into the ring!
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Thank you for this amazing post.
I have few queries concerning the form:
1. I was shortlisted last year based on my profile but couldn’t make it to the interview because of my CAT score. Do I go with the same details as the previous year since few things that I had written weren’t in line with what you have suggested in the blog post.
2. I have 2 year experience in marketing and am going with marketing as my first preference. Should I mention second preference as IM, since my interests lie with IM. But I hardly have any work experience in the domain. Moreover my degree is in Electrical discipline though I have done few courses on Data analytics but the proficiency level is not great.
Thank you,
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Hi Pratik,
If it worked last year then you can stick to the same, but if based on the post you feel some parts can be improved then do so.
You can mention your second preference as IM citing area of interest, chances of getting a call might be low but you lose nothing by applying.
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Bit unusual question here.
I am a diploma student, So while filling the academics section I have selected Diploma after 10th. Diploma students get direct admissions to second year in degree colleges. So which degree type should I select – options are 3 years(for which I was part of the program) or 4 years( which is actual course duration)
Further, while selecting 4 years or even 3 years, I have to necessarily input the semester grades for 1st and 2nd semester, which I don’t have(as I was admitted directly in the second year and semester 3 onwards)
Please suggest how should I proceed.
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Hi Basit,
You have enter the marks of your diploma as the marks if your first year of engg. There is a formula for the same.
All the best!
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Hi Tony Sir,
Following are the details of my profile.
Graduation – 9.1 cgpa (79.3%)
HSC Board maharashtra– 92.63%
10th SSC Board maharashtra– 95.64%
I am an Electronics Engineer . I am currently working as a Senior Engineer at L&T Defence and have a work ex of about 15 months till date. My work is mostly software based and includes designing UI for applications and working with the hardware at a protocol level. Thus it is a mix of Application Development and Embedded System Development for Land Air and Marine Defence systems like Rocket Launchers. I have worked in multiple projects.
Academic:
– Stood first in my school in the 10th SSC exams.
– Recipient of INSPIRE scholarship by Maharashtra govt for the top 1 percentile in HSC boards.
– I have presented and published a paper in an International conference in my second year of Engg.
In my final year I have a patent based on my final year project idea followed by a paper presented published in IEEE on the same.
Position of responsibility:
– was part of the dept events committee in my office responsible for arranging annual department picnic and engaging activities for festive occasions.
– was a active member of the decor committee in my college for 3 yrs.
Other activities and achievements:
– Cleared A1 level in German proficiency with 78/100
– Stood 51st in the state in the Intermediate drawing exams in school.
(are achievements earlier then 10th std worth mentioning??)
I’m confused if I should keep IM or Operations as my first preference?
Thanks in advance!
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Hi,
R&D and design are part of the whole manufacturing process and hence your profile falls under Ops.
IM deals with pure software and software services firms.
Unless you do not want Ops and prefer IM, apply to Ops first and IM next.
Your profile is great, you should get a call for sure.
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
Thankyou for the review.
I would prefer IM over Operations since I have worked on various projects during my engineering on machine learning, image processing and web development. These projects were completely software based. I have done a few courses from Coursera on the same.
I also have a inclination towards marketing since I am confident about my interaction with an audience and have good communication skills .
Which of the following preference would give me the best shot at a shortlist?
1. 1st – IM 2nd – Operations
2. 1st – Operations 2nd – IM
3. 1st – IM 2nd – Marketing
4. 1st – Operations 2nd – Marketing
Thanks in advance!
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Hi,
Your profile is related to two things IM and Ops. So ideally you should have these as your two preferences, the order can be based on your preference for one over the other.
If you want to apply to one of the above two as first preference and Marketing as a second preference you can since you have great academics and getting the first call will not be that difficult.
All the best!
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Dear Tony Sir,
First of all appreciate the way you have covered all aspects in the above blog. Second I would like you to go through my profile & analyze for yourself whether I fit in the criteria for Profile based call.
X-90%
XII-83%
B.E Mechanical ( Shivaji University) – 73%
Work Experience:
28 months as of now at KSB Pumps (German MNC Pump Manufacturer). Worked in 2 Different stints in Product Development (Operations Role) & now in Marketing Function as Business Dev Executive/Tech Sales Engineer.
Academic Achievements:
-Consistently among top 10 students in 4 years of Graduation.
-Represented my College at Inter College Events for Table Tennis.
-President of Mechanical Engineer Students Association during Graduation days.
Work/Career Achievements:
– Accuracy of BOM Preparation in Product Development Role was increased from 91 to 98%.
– Worked on one of Tender to prepare Technical Datasheet to help the Sales team grab an order of 10 Mio INR.
Hopeful of your reply.
Thanks,
Shantanu
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Hi Shantanu,
Your profile is competitive for both Ops and Marketing, and with decent chances of getting a call, so do apply to SPJIMR.
All the best!
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Hello Sir!
Glad to read all your comments on other posts one by one.
Sir, Please enlighten me as well if i am going for right specialization or not.
Acad Profile: 10 CGPA | 87% | 9.05 CGPA 10TH | 12TH | GRADUATION
Graduation: B.Tech In Electrical Engineering
Achievements:
School Level
1. Best Junior in Red-Cross Camp held by Indian Red Cross Society.
2. Got first position in few singing competitions in school.
3. Got first position in essay writing in my district.
4. Certificate for participating in few science seminars and exhibitions.
College Level
1. Worked for 4 years in college club which supports for poor children providing them free education.
2. Worked for 4 years in idea & innovation club which work on innovative projects and competitions.
3.Got first position in Paper presentation in college.
4. I was the technical lead of a team that won first prize in Inter college rocket competition conducted by SDNx.
5.Felicitated by Chief Minister of Odisha for winning the first position in Asia’s first inter college rocket competition.
6.Won “Pratistha Samman” by a socio cultural welfare organisation for contribution towards scientific innovation.
Work Experience:
16 months (till now) as Assistant Manager in Maruti Suzuki India Limited.(MSIL)
Work: Planning,Designing,Execution,Testing,Quality Checking,Commissioning of utility(electrical) projects for MSIL.
Specialization Preference
Preference 1: Operations & Supply chain management
Preference 2: Marketing
Kindly help me in choosing the specialization as per my background details. I will be the happiest to be guided by you.
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Hi Biswajit,
You have a pretty good profile for Operations and you should in all probability get a profile-based call (a couple of months more of work-ex would have given you some more points).
So yeah, go ahead and apply to Ops and Marketing.
All the best!
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Thank you so much sir for your valuable feedback.
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Hello Sir,
Thank you for this informative post.
I’d like you to look into my profile and guide me about my chances for a profile – based call.
Academic Summary:
10th – 93.5%
12th – 92.4%
Grad – 75.15% B.com
M.com- 70%
Work-experience:
I am an entrepreneur who runs an event planning and online gifting business for 4 years. This is a GST-registered company which has tie-ups with several venues in Mumbai for event-planning and also does retail and corporate gifting. Our clients include RIL (Antilia), with whom I have worked for 6 months for the 2 Ambani weddings.
I am inclined towards pursuing MBA in Marketing to grow my skills.
Is it true that they prefer candidates who have been working with big brand companies as opposed to entrepreneurs for profile-based calls?
Kindly help me target b-schools according to this profile. Thanks in Advance.
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Hi Krupa,
As far as SPJIMR goes, your profile is competitive for Marketing. The only catch if any might be your work-ex, which is slightly on the higher side.
The brand of the firm is not a factor as far as the shortlist goes, the quality of work-ex will be evaluated in the Interview process.
SPJIMR is known to push candidates to take up their other programs than their flagship program. A student of mine was asked the panel (after the interview) to take up the family business management program since his goal was a grow his family business. In your case, they might give you a call but ask you to take up the entrepreneurship program or 1-year program.
As far as the rest of the b-schools., you can apply to all the big schools as per your percentile expectations, your profile will not be a hindrance for most.
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
I am a final year mechanical engineering student in NIT Surat and I am pretty confused about my preferences for SP Jain. My academic profile is as follows:
10th – 10/10 CGPA
12th – 90.00%
UG – 8.34/10 (till 6th semester)
NTSE (2015) scholar (one among top 1000 students of class X across India)
JEE Advanced (2017) – 9494 rank ( out of 13 lakh aspirants)
I don’t have strong extracurriculars (just played cricket in All India InterNIT tournaments and have some basic college fest PORs)
Since you mentioned that freshers should apply only to Marketing and Finance, and for operations mechanical engineers with work ex have an edge, so I am a bit confused as for Marketing I don’t have that extroverted personality ,exceptional communication skills and marketing doesn’t interest me either. Regarding Finance I have a bit of surface knowledge and I am decent with numbers but that knowledge is not at par with CA/CFA level or someone with good commerce background.
So I request you to help me with specialization preferences. Thank you for consideration, have a great day ahead.
Regards.
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Hi Soham,
You have a great profile and are very likely to get a call if you apply to Operations (first preference citing relevant education) and Marketing. Be that as it may the odds of you converting the call are very low since the GI where you will be giving the interview with other profiles, will kind of ensure that only the ones with very serious profile and aspiration alignment get through.
If the call is given more on the basis of all the relevant check boxes being ticked, the final convert is purely based on the performance in the interview.
So if you are not sure about your interests then there is no need to forcibly apply to SPJIMR, you are better off doing a General Management program.
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
I am a Mechanical Engineer working in L&T with 14 months of work experience as a Design Engineer.
10th – 88%
12th- 92%
Grad – 74.6%
Extracurricular:
1. International Achievement represented India at USA Aviation Competiton but ranked 35 all over the world.
2. Ranked 1st in India at Aviation Competition.
Was the team lead of the competition team consisting of 25members both at the National and International level.
3. Ranked 1st in India at Electric Car Development Competition.
I am more interested in Marketing and Consultancy than operations, but according to my profile should I fill Operation as my specialization for a higher probability of conversion?
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Hi Dheeraj,
Since your work-ex is only 14 months, you can apply to Marketing and take a shot at it if that is your core area of interest, since your profile is decent.
There is no point in doing an Ops-MBA if your areas of interest are Marketing and Consulting.
You can also skip applying to SPJIMr altogether and apply to a General Management program instead.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hello sir,
Thank you for this post. I have a query, I have done 12th with Commerce (plus Mathematics) and Graduation with (Political Science) Honors. I am a fresher. Do you think this change of stream will deter my chances of SP Jain when I’ll be applying for Marketing and Finance as my options?
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Hi Prerna,
For Marketing your graduation stream should not be a problem; Finance will be very competitive it will be tough for you to get a call on the basis of Commerce in 12th.
All the best!
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Thanks for replying sir.
My profile is as follows:
10th – 9.8 cgpa
12th – 91.4% (Comm + maths) (DPS Greater Noida)
B.A. Pol Sci hons – 68% (Maitreyi College, DU)
Academic achievements –
1. Awarded scholar trophy & gold medal in class 11 for scoring 85+ % for 6 consecutive years.
2. Presented a research on ” Polarization under Populism in post reforms Delhi” in a group of 4, while competing with papers presented by other courses and secured Rank 2 at college level.
ECA
1. House Vice Captain in School.
2. Secured rank 1 in A1 & A2 ( at school level) level German language exam conducted by Max Muller Bhawan, Delhi in class 8th and 10th respectively.
3. Member of NSS in College.
4. HR Head of College Fest in 2019.
5. Formulated a Mental Heath Club in last year of college (still in progress)
I do not have any Marketing course certifications yet.
Please let me know more about specialization preferences and if at all I should apply in SP Jain. Thanks for your consideration.
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Hi Prerna,
If you are interested in Marketing you can apply to Marketing and your chances of getting a call are quite decent given your Acads and PoRs.
The second preference is usually only a formality and you can apply to Finance but without any expectations.
All the best!
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Thanks for the suggestions sir,
My acad base is
10th-10CGPA
12th-84%(Science)
Graduation(BBA fresher)-71.6% till 5th semester.
I think i shouldn’t apply this year for SP Jain’s MBA(Finance) profile based program as i think my profile needs more elements.
I’d love your advice on whether should i apply this year(Finance only)?
Also sir,what all certifications and courses may be very helpful to build the profile suitable for a call(I’m planning to prefer Markets roles-Trading/Quant/PE-VC and not IB in the future).
I was planning on enrolling for a CFA Level 1 (before doing an MBA) but i just got an advise from a mentor that i should do a CFA while doing an MBA..I don’t really find the advise that great so I’ll like your opinion on that as well sir.
Thanks
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Hi Rishabh,
A great career in Finance is usually, not always, based on having either a CA or a CFA degree along with an MBA. Of late these have almost become hygiene factors in campus placements with engineers who are genuinely interested in Finance also doing a CFA.
You can take the CFA exam whenever you are ready for it and likely to crack it. Some people take it during the MBA since there is some commonality in subjects that can make it easier to crack a CFA, especially for engineers with zero background. But as I said, cracking L1 before MBA is not tough.
Also, having a CFA L1 on your resume before summer placements will have increase your chances of a shortlist.
As far as applying to SPJIMR goes, it is quite competitive, Fin especially so. Apply if you are confident of crossing 96 and getting a score-based call.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
I am currently working with Infosys as a Test Engineer and my profile is:
Work Ex – 14 Months (till date)
10th – 10 CGPA( CBSE), 2012
12th – PCM-86.60%(CBSE 2015; I appeared for improvement of marks, as in 2014 CBSE 12th exam, I scored 75.2%)
Graduation – BTech(IT), GGSIPU, Delhi (8.79 CGPA = 87.9%), 2019
Extra-Curriculars in College:
1. Was Treasurer of Literary society of College
2. played major role in organizing Literary events during Annual Cultural Festival every year.
3. Campus Ambassador for Internshala, Rendezvous-IIT Delhi.
4. Also, I was given the chance to lead a team of 115 Campus Ambassadors of Internshala of different colleges all over Delhi NCR in the next phase of their campus ambassadorship season, because of my extraordinary performance as campus ambassador and I handled it efficiently.
Important Certification:
1.Digital Marketing[Udemy]
2.Fundamentals of Digital Marketing[Google]
3.SEO[Udemy]
4.Business Data Analysis with Excel and Power BI[Udemy]
5. Python[Linkedin]
6.JAVA[Hewlett-Packard]
7.Web Designing[WebTek Labs]
8. Also completed Google Adwords Certification, but currently it has expired
Interests:
1.Writing Short Hindi & English Poems
2.Blogging – Have a blog pratyushrajblog.wordpress.com, where i usually post my poems and few life experiences.
3.Cooking – Developed this interest in lockdown :D.
Academic Achievement:
Received Certificate of Merit from CBSE for class 10th performance and was felicitated with a medal and certificate of merit for being in top 1%ile performer in class 10th board exam by a newspaper organization- PRABHAT KHABAR.
*Apart from this, I don’t have any achievement as such, but my BTech CGPA in every sem has been above 8.5 (just in 6th sem, it was 7.89).
I am interested in Marketing(esp. Digital Marketing), as it is the sole reason for MBA. So is there a chance that i will get a shortlist for Marketing if i apply keeping Marketing as my first pref., considering my certifications and college level campus ambassadorship and Internshala’s team leading experience,as these were purely marketing based experience?
Regards,
Pratyush
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Hi Pratyush,
Since your work-ex is only 14 months you can apply to Marketing.
Cite area of interest as the reason and use the 50 words to highlight how the inclination towards Marketing developed through college and you then decided to learn more through certification courses.
Decent chances of getting a call.
All the best!
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10/12/UG :
95/88/82
Engineering from a Tier 1 College.
With a work experience of 2.2 Years with Big4 . My current role is purely Product Development (Technology based) , though I have worked over a year with Market Research firm with Analytics Team .
Extra Curriculars involved being associated with CRY for over a year and felicitated by Dean of Engg. for managing Technology and cultural events in the college span.
Will it be a safe option to choose Marketing as the first option and Operations as the Second.
Not wanting to consider IM.
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Hi Debjyoti,
No point applying to IM if you do not want to, which by the way is more than understandable.
Operations will be a tough very chance, almost next to nil (even on a first preference but choose it as the second since you do not lose anything).
There are good chances of you getting a call given your profile (9,8,8) for Marketing, the final convert in the GI will not be easy.
All the best!
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Sir , should I consider my second option as FInance then? Primary objective is to optimize my chances of getting a call with whatever limited resources I have.
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Finance will also be toughest to get a call from since you will be competing with CAs and CFAs, there is so much you can maximise.
If maximising is the goal and specialisation does not matter then IM is your best bet.
Unfortunately you can’t have both with SPJIMR, maximise chances in a specialisation that your profile is not aligned or do not like.
All the best!
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Hi Tony Sir,
My Academic Profile is as follows:
SSC – 86.62%
HSC (Commerce) – 90.31%
B.com – 68.75% (M.L Dahanukar College)
Professional Degree – CA (Final 2nd attempt, CPT/IPCC – First Attempt)
I stood 1st in Xth in school (but was not awarded any certificate due to some dispute with school) and stood 5th in XIIth in college (but here as well I don’t have any certificate)
I am currently working with Saint Gobain group since past 18 months (total work ex is also 18 months). Furthermore during my internship I have worked on M&A Transaction as well during my articleship.
Extra – curriculars:
1) Played lawn tennis at national level in u/12 age group (Qualified for main draws several times)
2) Represented school at Mumbai level and our team stood 7th out of 32 school teams in finals
3) I write poetry and have also participated in inter college drama competitions
4) I have also led the team organising annual day events in office
Sir where does my profile stand with respect to SPJIMR profile based calls as well as for other Bschools?
Thank you in advance sir!
Regards,
Varad
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Hi Varad,
You profile will be competitive for SPJIMR but since Finance is a very sought-after field, it will all depend on the other applicants, so you should apply.
As far as other schools go, CAs always have a bit of an edge due to two things — educational diversity and the demand for CA-MBAs from recruiters.
The other b-schools do not explicitly select for profile. IIM-A is the one that gives most weightage to profile, especially educational diversity.
At this stage just focus on getting the best score you can.
All the best!
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Thanks a lot sir!
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Hi Sir,
I am a Computer Engineer who graduated from Mumbai University with 25 months of work experience as an IT Analyst at Nomura and currently working part-time with a health care startup as a software developer.
10th – 92%
12th- 80%
Grad – 78.67%
Academics and beyond-
– State scholarship rank 40 in Maharashtra Talent search Examination conducted at the state level for grade 9th (2011)
– Special Prize in Maharashtra Talent search Examination conducted at the state level for grade 8th (2010)
– School-level awards in Science and Maths Olympiad examinations.
– Published and presented a paper in the machine learning domain at the IEEE International Conference of Convergence in Technology (2018).
– ‘A’ grade in Intermediate grade drawing examination
Extracurricular –
– Deputy secretary of the Social responsibility team
– Lead member of the placement committee
My work ex. background is purely under IT domain but I am inclined towards Operations management. I am very confused about SPJain preferences. Is it advisable and possible to get a call if I put ops as my first preference?
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Hi Aishwarya,
You have a decent profile for IM as I mentioned in the super detailed post, no way you can get a call if the profile alignment is missing, especially for Ops and Finance.
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
I am an Electronics engineer, currently working as a Analyst with a total of 1.2 years of experience in Deloitte(My work is SAP software based, not entirely technical more of client based)
My academic summary –
10th – 95%
12th – 92.8%
Grad CGPA – 8.04/10
Academic achievements – A couple of Olympiad positions at school and city level(till 10th)
Extra-curriculars –
Represented my UT in Basketball at National level in class 10th, also have won a couple of tournaments in college as a captain.
Head of sports committee in college and have organised sport and college fests.
I am interested in IT consultancy.
Kindly guide me with the profile selection.
Thanks in advance!
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Hi Kritika,
You have a pretty good profile and you can apply to IM first and Marketing next.
All the best!
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Hello sir,
First of all, thank you for writing such a detailed post. It made the application process a lot easier. I have a small question for you though.
For the versatility section, I am planning to put Yoga. I was adjudged the Runners-up in my district and I went on to qualify for the National championship and also participated in it. But I didn’t get a position in the Nationals. So, in the application do I go with ‘2nd position in the district’ or ‘No position in the National level’?
Thanks in advance.
Arkaprovo Das
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Hi Arka,
Good to see some real versatility!
You can put Nationals and did not win since the level is higher.
All the best!
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Hi sir,
I am a mechanical engineer with 9 months of work experience in renewable energy sector in QA department.
My academic summary:
10th CGPA- 9.8/10
12th – 98.4%
Grad CGPA- 8.99/10 – NIT Warangal
(Has done couple of optional electives relevant to operations)
Academic achievements:
– stood 7th of the batch of 140
– Received merit scholarship for academic excellence during 2018-2019
-Stood among top 1 percentile (got a certificate from MHRD) during 12th
Extra curricular:
– worked as additional secretary of student mentors club in college
-Member of NSS and volunteer of nature club
– worked as event organizer for an event in our technical fest
Query: Sir my query is, which specialization would be suitable for my profile,(even though operations is relevant, considering lesser work experience, what are my chances of shortlisting)
what would be ideal for my preferences? And what are my chances for getting shortlisted?
currently I am scoring 95-97 percentile in Simcats.
Thankyou sir, for all your articles. They helped me a lot for VARC, especially the para to questions approach.
Kindly request you to guide me regarding the preferences.
Thanks in advance!!
Kalyan
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Hi Kalyan,
You have a very strong chance of getting a call given your academic profile and I won’t be surprised if you get one.
The catch though is the strength of the profile for the final convert.
You will have to do a great group interview with those with 2 and more years of experience in Ops.
The only other specialization you can apply to is Marketing.
I would suggest applying to Ops first and Marketing next.
All the best!
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Hello Sir
I am a fresher. I am doing Computer Science from MIT, Manipal.
I wanted to ask if SpJain would be a good option for me and if i would get in. As already seeing in the comments mostlly the students are with good work ex, plus i dont have any particular choices in mind for which specialisation to apply, i am comfortable with any as long as it has a good ROI.
Having done a minor in digital marketing and elective in advertising from college, i think it will be helpful to get Marketing as a profile in spjain as well.
But the thing is that most of my experience in college is in ML/AI and my achievements in college are also in that field.
Coming to my profile
class 10 : 95%
class 12 : 92%
college : 8.90 (till 6th sem)
i have done a bit of social service work as well in college.
In school i have many sports achivements (medals in athletics). School team captain of cricket and badminton teams. I also won a debate competition, interschool level.
The main query that i want to ask was that is SPJAIN a good option for freshers and will the experience be worth it and how my profile aligns with the marketing profile which is the only viable option available for me.
And thank you a lot sir for everything you have been doing constantly for us.
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Hi Laksh,
Glad to see that you actually went through the comments section.
Well, honestly, it is a school for people who are very clear about what they want to do and where they want to go.
Given your academic profile, you will get a profile-based call if you apply to Marketing but cracking the interview might not be that easy.
You will be much better off applying to MDI which offers a general management degree, is the same league and has a much better campus (Bombay and campus do not go with each other :-))
All the best!
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Hello Sir
Hope you’re doing well.
Following is my profile:
10th: 96.4% CBSE
12th: 94.4% CBSE
B.E(civil engg): 85.6%
I have a work experience of 19 months with Shapoorji Pallonji Company Pvt. Ltd. as a construction engineer. My job involved taking care of the execution work on site, manpower and material demand estimation, preparation of daily progress reports and quality control. I was in-charge of a team of around 200 labour and support staff.
My academic achievements are as follows:
– distinction holder in all the semesters in graduation
– school topper in economics in CBSE XIIth boards
– school topper in sanskrit in CBSE Xth boards
My versatility segment reads as follows:
– declamation and debate: won first prize in intra city competition for 2 years in a row
– creative writing: I have worked as a paid content writer with odesk.com
– song writing and composing: I have composed over half a dozen songs (but haven’t published them anywhere)
– event organizing: I was the event head in my college fest
– cricket: came second in inter school tournament
I was also the head boy and literary prefect in my school. Wondering if I can add it somewhere
I am planning to apply for operations and supply chain management.
How are my chances of getting a profile based call?
Also, one area of concern for me is my work experience of 19 months, as compared to the average work experience of 25 months of the previous batch. How much will this affect my chances?
Thankyou in advance
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Hi Ayushman,
You have a very good academic profile and stand a decent chance of getting a call for Ops since you have more than 18 months of work-ex — the average is 25 which means that there will be people on either side of 25.
You can put in the responsibility shouldered section.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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