Hey there,
I am considering taking the GMAT purely to get into Investment Banking, i.e. only to put it on my CV. I am already in a masters program, GMAT's are not used where I am doing my masters.
I am wondering if it is positive to take the GMAT and put it on my CV as some kind of objective measure, or is it utter useless?
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Don't bother. Out of curiosity, what program are you following?
If you can beat 680, go for it. Many companies, eg. Houlihan Lokey, BlackRock, explicitly ask for gmat scores. If you go a graduate school and that (or GRE) is blank, its a red flag.
I was thinking that it was not worth the time/effort (just as others were saying), but this is a great point. They will not think about the fact that you didn't have to take it for your program, and they will assume that it was poor (or poor enough) so that is why you left it off.
Just food for thought.
I think it's a great idea. It's a relatively easy test to study for, it's cheap and won't take too much of your time.
I know from experience that McKinsey only interviewed people from my class with GMATs of 700 (and that if you had a GMAT over 700, you didn't have to take their PST). As far as I know it was the magic piece of information they used to filter a ton of CVs.
If the IB Resume scanner knows anything about MBAs, they will be happy to see a high GMAT.
It can only help, assuming you do well.
honestly, does the GMAT really indicate intelligence, or just experience with math? It feels like the test strongly discriminates against those without a technical college major. The SAT didn't. Thats why I think the SAT is really a better test.
It depends on your resources (time specifically). If graduating from your master's with a good GPA won't be a problem and you have extra time on the side, GMAT might not be such a bad idea. It won't be a significant factor, although it might help if you do manage do score impressively high. People say >700 is a good score and yes that's quite high, but the really impressive is 730 and above - the kind of "impressive" that would make this GMAT effort worthwhile at the end of the day. You know yourself that there are plenty of bright candidates trying to break into IB that can also boast with good scores.
Otherwise, I would prioritise networking and applying for internships/graduate jobs depending on your existing experience and how much time you have left until graduation. For example, delaying your applications by 2-3 months just because you are focusing on GMAT is probably not the best idea.
I have done a bachelors in engineering and I am doing a double master in economics and international business, one at a university and one at a business school.
Given that you are already taking a masters in international business (and that therefore getting an MBA might be somewhat redundant), it seems that focusing on networking would probably be a greater use of your time.
It is pretty useless for IB given you could spend the same amount of time cold calling/emailing and going over the CV drop/online app route. Leadership/ECs, if you don't have them yet, would come after that and then 'maybe' the GMAT.
Useless for IB
There are plenty of people that do undergrad and masters at the same school (think Kelly at Indian or Wakeforest) and are already well followed by IB programs. If you're in one of those types of programs then no, don't take the GMAT. Build your network...
Not worth the time and effort.
You may need to take it in the future for graduate business school. Might as well take it now.
i have a GMAT and I don't put it on resume or Linkedin; however, it's more of a preference question.
to be honest though, I suggest you not putting GMAT in all the resumes you drop, because GMAT expires in 5 years and you're signaling that you'll leave in 5 years - to attend business schools!
so use it in your discretion.. good GMAT is nice for b-school admissions, but plenty of guys get IB jobs without that GMAT right?
Take GMAT just for IB or MBB? (Originally Posted: 10/05/2014)
Hi
i'm currently studying @ one of the MBA business schools">M7....
and I took GRE instead of GMAT b/c I took it for my grad school study few years ago and applied to MBA with that score..
Now I am wondering if it is worthwhile to take GMAT for IB or MBB..
I have tech background and my quant is basically perfect score with verbal >80%...
but not sure if I still need to take GMAT for IB or MBB...
Any advice will be appreciated...
I'd really like to know as well.
If you already have a decent score on a post-grad exam, I don't think it's worth it. People will understand what constitutes a good score.
Thanks for posting this thread. I'm also wondering the same thing. I'm a 1st year MBA student looking to recruit for MBB consulting with a high GRE score, but no GMAT.
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