by Kelly Wilson
MBA Admissions Advice for Career Changers
As an IT consultant, how do you know that equity research is the right career for you? What makes you sure that you can handle the hours, the Darwinian industry and company culture, and the stress of having a pivotal impact on huge investment decisions?
While you will certainly not be the only student in your MBA program who wants to pivot to a new career, there are some things you will need to consider with respect to your application. You will need to clearly demonstrate to the adcom that you understand the new industry and/or function you’re targeting in practical terms. After all, you might genuinely be fascinated by equity research and even have much you could contribute to the field, but you might not fit in with that industry’s culture. So, you must go beyond expressing sincere interest and make a logical case for your career goals. This involves showing that you understand your chosen industry or function “from the inside.” Failure to do so will undermine the credibility of your goals.
The goals essay (or for some schools, a shorter goals statement in the online form) is at the heart of that effort. You’ll need to explain how you plan to achieve your goals, laying out the actual steps you will take.
Here are seven pointers for using your goals essay or statement to convince the adcom that you know exactly what you are doing in deciding to change career direction. Note that applications differ from school to school, so some might provide more or less space in which to implement these tips.
1. Describe the natural progression and evolution of your desired career change.
To make the professional pivot you seek seem as natural as the sunrise, tell the “story” of your motivation and evolving understanding of your target field or function. For example, suppose you are an IT consultant seeking to become an investment research analyst. In that case, you could talk about how interacting with people in different functions at client companies helped you discover how intrigued you were by the financial factors shaping not just IT decisions but also overall strategy development. Describe your developing awareness and interest, detailing some of the more illuminating interactions you’ve had.
2. Show that you understand the day-to-day reality of your desired industry and/or function.
Interacting with people in your desired role or industry, as we’ve noted, is one way to prepare yourself to accomplish this. You could also do informational interviews, audit courses, and read industry publications. Outline in your essay your proactive efforts to understand the field and the insights you’ve gained from these efforts.
3. Openly address the challenges and obstacles you expect to face as a newcomer to the field, and how you plan to handle them.
Discussing the potential difficulties on your professional path further demonstrates your knowledge of the field or function, as well as your maturity and objectivity. It also enhances the adcom’s confidence that you can indeed make the change you seek.
4. Connect the dots between the skills you already possess and the ones you need to develop to successfully change careers.
Your current work has undoubtedly honed your skills and provided knowledge that will be beneficial to you in your future career. These skills and knowledge are transferable, and making sure that the adcom knows that you understand how these skills connect to your future goals is incredibly valuable. For example, as an IT consultant, you might have developed strong communication skills in the process of obtaining information from clients, and these abilities will help you draw information from company management as an equity analyst. In addition, your quantitative skills from engineering will apply. Presenting concrete examples of the capabilities and knowledge you’ve gained that are applicable to your chosen field underscores both your preparation for the role and understanding of its demands.
Also, through the MBA program, you’ll develop some new skills that are necessary for your desired role. Convey your awareness of those crucial skills and how they will complement your transferable skills.
5. Highlight how your background is an asset.
You can likely argue that your “different” background will enable you to make a greater contribution in your new role. For example, an IT consultant can bring their deep understanding of real-world technology deployment to their new role as an equity analyst, and that understanding will facilitate the analysis of a company’s true value and potential for continued success. Delineate such benefits for the adcom and support your claims with concrete examples.
6. Get the adcom on board with your plans by articulating a vision for your goal.
Identify something you want to accomplish or contribute during your career, and the impact you hope to have. An example for an IT consultant could be “integrating deep technology know-how into the evaluation of all companies.”
7. Effectively demonstrate “why this school” by conveying how the MBA program and student experience will help you achieve your goal.
Ideally, your MBA studies will serve as a bridge to take you from where you are professionally to where you want to be. Outlining key learning needs for your new career will strengthen the adcom’s impression that you understand its realities and demands. Describe, using specific details, how the program you’re applying to will become that bridge.
As a career changer, you face certain obstacles in your MBA strategy and application. On the other hand, you likely have an interesting story to tell about your goals. Use that story to make your plans seem like the most inevitable, natural thing in the world.
As the former executive director of admissions at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School and assistant dean of admissions at Georgetown’s McDonough School and the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School, Kelly Wilson has 23 years’ experience overseeing admissions committees and has reviewed more than 38,000 applications for the MBA and master’s programs in management of information systems, computational finance, business analytics, and product management. Want Kelly to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!
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