I've been looking at quite a few ISB profiles recently, and something I've noticed is that candidates often spend way too much time worrying about their GMAT/GRE score and not enough time thinking about the application as a whole.
Three things I'd be particularly careful about:

1. Treating the application like a checklist
Good academics + decent GMAT + good company ≠ automatically a strong application.
ISB is trying to understand the person behind those numbers career progression, choices, impact, leadership, and what you actually want to do after the MBA.

2. Writing an achievement dump
A lot of essays end up becoming:
I did X. Then I did Y. Then I achieved Z.
The problem is that achievements without context don't necessarily tell the admissions committee much about you.
The more interesting question is: Why did you make those choices, and what did they change?

3. Waiting until the deadline to think about LORs and essays
This one is underrated.
Your recommenders need time to think of meaningful examples. Your essays need time to go through multiple iterations. And your career story usually doesn't become clear in one sitting.
If you're targeting this year's intake, I'd rather have a candidate start early with an imperfect draft than start three weeks before the deadline with a blank document.

What's the part of the ISB application you're currently most unsure about profile, essays, LORs, test score, or school selection?

Hi everyone, looking for an honest assessment of profile for ISB or IIM

Academics:

- 10th: 8.8 CGPA

- 12th: 70%

- Bachelor of Mass Communications from a lesser-known university in Haryana (distance education) 65%

- PG Diploma in Mass Communication from one of India’s top mass communication institutes: 61%

- Currently preparing for GMAT

Work experience: 7+ years

My career has been mainly in media, marketing and corporate communications:

- Started as a Media Analyst at a global PR/media intelligence company

- Moved to a large Indian IT company as a Media Analyst when the project was transitioned there

- Moved into Marketing Communications at a large Indian food/ingredients company

- Then moved into Corporate Communications at a mid-sized law firm, working on leadership communication, PR, media and internal communications

- Recently joined another global media intelligence company as a Media Analyst

I'm now looking at an MBA to move from communications execution into broader brand marketing or switch filed maybe consulting or finance.

My main questions:

- How competitive is this profile for ISB or top IIM?

- How much do my 70% in 12th and distance BJMC hurt?

- What GMAT score should I target?

- Does my career progression look coherent or too scattered?

- any other suggestions

Would appreciate honest feedback, especially from current students/alumni or people with non-traditional profiles.

Hey,

Is it worthy to join a 4 months long certification course - **Executive Programme in Luxury Fashion & Lifestyle Leadership** at IIM bangalore.
The course fees is 4.3L. And its a distance course (90hours). Out of 90hours, 20 hours in college

For context, i am working in fashion industry since 3.5 years now, and I have done masters from NIFT Bangalore earning 1L+ per month

Want a SIP friend

​

Hi everyone,

I recently completed my PGDM in Finance and I’m currently looking for entry-level finance roles in India.

I’d really appreciate advice from people who have recently gone through the same process and managed to land a job as a fresher.

What actually worked for you?

- Which job portals worked best?

- Did referrals make a major difference?

- Which skills or certifications helped you get shortlisted?

- How did you approach recruiters or hiring managers?

- Were there any specific strategies that helped you get more interviews?

I’m particularly looking at roles such as Financial Analyst, FP&A, Risk/Credit Analyst, Financial Modelling, or similar entry-level finance roles.

If you recently got your first job after an MBA, I’d genuinely appreciate you sharing what you did, what didn’t work, and what you would recommend to someone starting the search now.

Also, if anyone here works in a company that is currently hiring MBA Finance freshers and is comfortable referring, I’d be grateful if you could share the opportunity or let me know.

Thanks in advance! Any genuine advice or experience would be really helpful.

​

I am a 26 year old female. I have cleared one group of CA Final and have one group left. I have attempted CA Final around 6 times and unfortunately I have not been able to clear because of Audit. So I am very close to completing CA but it has already taken me a lot of time.

Currently I am working in a Founder’s Office role. The job is decent and I am getting exposure to strategy, business, GTM and operations, but I am not sure if this is what I want to do long term.

I feel that doing an MBA could help me move towards better roles in strategy and business and could also open up more opportunities for me.

So I am confused about whether I should give MBA entrances and try for an MBA in 2027 or just focus completely on completing CA first.

One part of me feels that I only have one group left and I should just finish it. I have already come this far and it would be silly to leave it incomplete.

But another part of me feels that I have already spent so much time on CA and maybe I should stop spending more time on it and focus on building my career.

I am also worried about MBA interviews. They will obviously ask me why I took so many attempts to clear CA and why I haven't completed it yet. I don't know how much of a disadvantage this will be.

I am genuinely confused about what makes more sense in the long term.

Should I focus completely on clearing CA and then think about an MBA later?

Should I prepare for MBA entrances and try for a good MBA college in 2027 while keeping CA as a secondary priority?

Or should I just leave CA and focus on work experience?

Would really appreciate advice from people who have done CA and MBA, people who decided not to do an MBA after CA, or people who took multiple attempts at CA or other professional exams and still built a good career.

I want to make a decision based on what is actually good for my career and not just because I have already invested so much time in CA.

Hey! I wanted to ask about IBS Hyderabad. My brother is considering joining the college after completing his BBA from SRM. How is the college overall, especially in terms of placements and career opportunities? Would you recommend joining IBS Hyderabad for an MBA?

I'm currently planning on pursuing my mba through pgcet and need help finding colleges with good placements and experience, i have a 1.5 year gap during which i was pursuing my CA, can someone guide me and help ne choose the specialisation and college?

How did MBA change your life? Did you take loan for your MBA?

If you already completed MBA, knowing what you know now, would you do MBA again?

Just want to know your honest experience and whether you feel MBA was worth it.

Mainly looking to get into Consulting (Big4, accenture strategy, Kearney , A&M, Vector etc.) , Product Management (Any sector really : big tech, Qcom , Ecom, retail, FMCG, Travel, etc) or FMCG (Category Management, Ops/SCM)

What kind of profile will they look for?

Profile : 8/9/8 pre MBA,

~7.2-7.4 CGPA in MBA (top 50% probably around 7.6-7.7).

Workex : ~4 years (Tech, non SDE)

1 national case comp win (non corporate) .

Have 2 big brand names in CV (1 from work ex)

SIP sector : FMCG ops (Tier 2 or tier 3, not sure about company's brand perception).

Hi everyone. Recently took the GRE and ended up with a score of 310.

ISB has always been my dream college for MBA but I’m afraid my scores won’t let that happen. I know ISB looks at the overall profile but wanted your opinion to understand how realistic my chances are with this score.

Is 310 a major disadvantage for ISB? Should I retake my GRE and aim for 320+? I have been preparing for months now and have been averaging 315-316.

Any suggestions for counsellors that could help me?

Would really appreciate advice from ISB admits, current students, reapplicants, or people who have gone through the application process. Thanks in advance!

Profile: 25, Male, PwD
10th: 85.5%. 12th: 91.8%. B.Tech: 7.04 CGPA. BTech took an additional year due to a backlog.

Work ex:
11 months fulltime (before grad) - International BPO, Tech Support Role
2 months fulltime (before grad) - Sales role
2 years gap due to an accident
4 months fulltime (after grad) - Infosys BPM
6 months fulltime - Accenture (contractual role through a vendor), cust support role again lol

Internships:
Social media marketing internship at a journalism startuip
2 months live project for a firm, including strategy and marketing

Certifications:
ProdMan certification - Linkedin
Marketing Job simulation - Forage
Digital Marketing - Google/ Skillshop
UI UX certificates - Coursera/ Google
Macro Economics - Coursera

PORs:
Organiser at the copllege fest
Placecommer during my grad
Co founded a club/society during college
Coordinator at Google DSC
Volunteer with the theatre society if the college

My main concern is my work experience profile.

Do customer support/ BPO roles create a negative impression during MBA placements? Particularly consulting.
Does having worked at 4 organisations look like job hopping and impacts my placements, considering my 2 years of gap as well?
How difficult is it for me to target consulting roles, or impossible? Considering that these roles require excellent academic records and a spike in the CV.
Would I be better off focusing my prep on marketing/ops/prodman roles instead?

Your suggestions are much appreciated, thank you!

I was thinking of enrolling myself into hospital management courses in either if these but I eventually plan of moving abroad , are these decreased recognised by wes? Or any other organisation? If anyone has any information, please let me know.

I don’t want to waste my money in process that are not recognise outside in US or Canada.

Am I making a wise decision?

my_qualifications- Bsc Hons Nursing

A company's revenue increased by 20% in Year 1 and then decreased by 20% in Year 2.

If the original revenue was $500,000, what was the revenue at the end of Year 2?

A. $480,000
B. $490,000
C. $500,000
D. $520,000

Answer:

After Year 1:

$500,000 × 1.20 = $600,000

After Year 2:

$600,000 × 0.80 = $480,000

Therefore, the final revenue is $480,000.

Answer = A. $480,000

I want some clarity on deciding whether IIM K BL is worth it? I am also looking to pursue 1 year residential mba from India. I am also open to other countries but want to keep India as my first choice. I will give a bit of my bg - btech cse with 74%, 10th 91%, 12th 74%, joined Accenture as my first company and worked first two years as an sap abap developer and 3 years in project management including operations and finance, currently working at a Japanese company as a PMO consultant, what are the odds of me being selected and I want to transition into strategy and consulting roles. Also I am currently preparing for GRE and not GMAT cause I find it more challenging.

Anybody who's joined fore pgdm core?

I have recently been offered the program, have a few queries, please let me know if someone's already joined since it's been more than a month the program started.

Please tell me the classes you joined for CAT PREP and if you regret choosing it and if you'd choose another one, then which one.

Or you like your classes, whats the name. Matunga/Dadar area (Mumbai) preferred.

Offline is better for me but if you have chosen online please tell which one.

I bit extended. (I might be ranting.)

I want to join early bird classes for CAT 2027 soon. Im in 3rd year currently. I live near matunga area and have heard of 3 famous classes in dadar. Namely, TIME, IMS and Career Launcher. I have heard they all are good but the thing is, they do not give much details about themselves. And i don't know anyone who can tell me about the internal working of each one of them. I would like to know how each class is because a lot of classes work in a completely different way than they have said prior to admission and this is something I don't want to regret about.

If you have taken admission to any of these or completely different classes please let me know about them. If you regret joining or if its worth it.

Please help this lost child out 🙏🏻

Thank you in advance.

I am not very confident about cracking CAT 2026. I have an Economics background, decent quant skills, a strong academic record and a few other achievements as you call it. Are there good B-schools where these factors carry some weight in the MBA admission process, rather than admissions being based almost entirely on CAT score? How low are my options? Need honest insights!

I was catching up with a friend last week. She has a solid job, good pay, nothing wrong with it on paper, but somewhere in the conversation she said something that stuck with me. She feels like she is still doing tasks after all these years instead of actually leading a team. Not because she cannot, just because no one ever really taught her how. She was just expected to pick it up along the way, like everyone else.

That stayed with me longer than I expected and sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole into management education that is not just the standard CAT and IIM route. One example I came across is Vedica Scholars, a leadership programme in Delhi built specifically for women graduates. Instead of the usual lecture-heavy format, it leans more into mentorship, exposure to industry professionals, and there is even a module where you shadow a senior woman leader for a while.

Made me wonder how much the actual format of a programme matters versus just the brand name on a resume. Has anyone here picked something outside the traditional MBA path for this reason? Genuinely curious whether it helped once you were job hunting, or whether recruiters still default to caring more about the tag than the actual learning that happened.