MBA Essay Advice: Part 1
MBA Tips and Sample Excerpts
An MBA is undoubtedly the most career influencing programme today. Hence an MBA essay is an entry pass into a new world of ideas, attitudes and opportunities. Here are the points to keep in mind for this essay type:
1. Have a Clear Career Plan:
A question of the “where do you imagine yourself five/ten years from now” is very common in an MBA application. Most students make the mistake of keeping this as vague as possible, keeping their “options open”. What this does is to convey to the committee that you are either not taking the MBA seriously or are still too confused about what you want. Hence, be as detailed as possible. Remember, no one is going to force you to follow the exact career path that you have outlined in the admissions essay, so the closer the plan is to your goals, the better it is. Here are two sample essay excerpts to demonstrate how you can draft a better MBA essay:
Poor essay:
“I want to set up an global educational consultancy that empowers people in developing countries. It will facilitate the delivery of education to areas where it is needed most and work closely with related agencies. The goal will be to connect education experts with small communities…”
Good Essay
“I plan to open an educational consultancy targeted at working for private and governmental entities in South Asia and then progressively in Latin America. These countries face two major issues in education: the lack of good teachers and the inability to pay them adequately. I plan to leverage the strength of the dollar versus these countries’ currencies to tackle the second issue. For instance, a salary of $250 per month in India is equivalent to a salary of $1250 per month in the United States, as per the World Bank Purchasing Power Parity estimates. As for the the first issue, ….”
2. Link the career goals with your work experience:
To add credibility to your MBA essay, you must describe how your work experience has influenced your career decision. This can be done in two ways:
Demonstrating that you are already in the field you plan to to work in and an MBA is but the next step in order to handle larger responsibilities
Describing your past work experience to make the case for a career switch and explain why you need an MBA in order to be able to do this
Remember that the admissions committee will be reviewing essays written by individuals with similar work experience, so you must find way of standing apart. Let’s say you have been working for a bank for the past few years, then so have most of the applicants looking to major in finance. You could perhaps mention how you took the initiative to suggest ways of getting a bank to engage with the community such as by inviting in-house experts to the local community center to give advice on retirement planning for blue collar workers in the MBA essay.
