Q) I graduated from a tier-2 engineering college. What are my chances for ISB PGP program?
As we had shared in our detailed analysis comparing ISB with IIM-A, and our experience guiding hundreds of applicants through our essay review and consulting service, the PGP program looks favorably to applicants from IIT and those with credible academics (rank holders). That makes your quest to gain attention from the admission team an uphill task. Having said that, I have noticed that experience makes up for many of the deficiencies in academics.
I am assuming that you have the above-average grade (B+), GPA 7/10, or percentage (75%+). Now the admission team might not straightaway reject you, but they are looking for ways to eliminate you. That means you must capture the attention immediately.
Resume Strategy
The first part of gaining attention and eventually respect is to capture the IMPACT of your work in an easy to read format with the right numbers, leadership, and team contributions. If you don’t know how, subscribe to our resume editing service.
Leadership
The term Leadership intimidates most applicants as the word by definition requires you to conjure up the image of leading hundreds of people or high-stake projects. That is not the case with ISB PGP, where the average experience of the class is less than 5 years. In that time span, no matter how superstar of a performer you are, the chances of leading several teams or managing multiple roles are minimum unless you worked for a start-up. If that is the case and you want to settle in India, the PGP program would be a match. But our experience shows that most with diverse entrepreneurial experience are targeting Stanford, MIT, and Harvard – cultures that value entrepreneurial applicants.
Leadership for ISB PGP means initiative and confidence shown by the employer.
If a Fortune 500 company is giving you the autonomy to lead a project with a high consequence, that is already a sign that you are a leader, even if the role is functional in nature. ISB has a traditional outlook on leadership.
Extra-Curricular
If you don’t have anything substantial to showcase, the extra-curricular becomes the next point where they measure your performance. For the traditional high-chance applicants (good academic or working for a Fortune 500 company), extra-curricular is not consequential. For tier-2 applicants, extra-curricular, especially the collaboration with known non-profit brands or global organizations (like the UN), becomes a selling point. Articulate the roadblocks and the impact your contribution had on achieving a milestone. Mention the numbers part of the vision in a clear manner both in the resume and while writing your essays.
If working for the UN on sustainability goals was your extra-curricular involvement, choose the goal (from the 17) where you worked on.
Specificity has huge value when you mention extra-curricular. Don’t just say lead or communicated effectively. Demonstrate the challenge. If quality education was a criterion, how did you build awareness in the villages of Maharashtra. What were the roadblocks in changing the opinion? This narrative should remain consistent across the resume, essays, and the interview.
Interviews
Interviews for the ISB PGP program works for those who manage the process as a traditional job interview. Nothing too fancy. Just traditional narrative with enthusiasm and subtle respect for authority. The entrepreneurial or the ones who questioned the status quo have fared poorly in the interview. Stick with the narrative that you had in the essays and the points you have highlighted in the resume
ISB PGP is a traditional school with placements, mostly in India. So global outlook or changing the world narrative rarely resonates with the admission team. Choosing India-focused narratives have worked consistently.
For mock interview preparation, subscribe to our mock interview service (2-hour session with detailed feedback, strategy, and steps to improve your performance).
