MBA goals need to be practical, not just theoretical In the good old days when Wharton still offered feedback to rejected applicants, I talked with a potential client who was reapplying to Wharton. He had received feedback on his application and had, in fact, really liked his application. “They said I was well qualified, and…
Writing Your Career Goals Essay
The career goals essay–a close cousin to the graduate school statement of purpose–also demands a laser-like focus. Unlike personal statements that may discuss career goals but also allow for more flexibility in content, the career goals essay has a specific and packed agenda. In fact, a career goals essay questions may contain several questions in…
How an Admissions Committee Views Your MBA Work Experience
As you apply to MBA programs, you need to think about your past work experience and how it all fits into your story. Work experience is important because of what it reveals about you in terms of your character, maturity, and abilities. Even if your GPA and GMAT/GRE scores are spectacular, your work experience still…
Upskilling: 4 Steps to Choose your Next Learning Opportunity
In today’s ever changing professional world, the nature of each job, the skills it entails, and the tools it utilizes are changing more rapidly than ever. Thus, we are being forced to embrace “ongoing learning,” or “lifelong learning” (continuously learning beyond traditional schooling). The answer to this is “upskilling,” which is the act of developing…
Wake Up to Your Amazing Career Possibilities [Episode 354]
Woken awakes you to meaningful career opportunities [Show summary] Are you wondering what your career path should be? How to create it? Our guest today is an NYU Stern MBA and associate-certified coach who also serves as a consultant for the Career Design Lab at Columbia. In addition, she is the founder and CEO of Woken,…
How to Clarify Your Goals for Your MBA – And Beyond
Some applicants may be very clear about either the industry in which they want to work or the function or job title they’d like to have, but not always both. For example, you may be certain that you want to grow into a marketing executive role but are much less clear about what product or…
The Importance of Defining Your MBA Goal
The Importance of Defining Your MBA Goal You should never view your goals as an afterthought when it comes to your MBA application. Admissions members view MBA goals as leading-role performers, so you certainly shouldn’t push them to a supporting role as you prepare to apply to MBA programs. What is an MBA goal? Yes,…
Your MBA Goals Essay: Get Ready, Get Set, THINK!
You’ll be applying to b-school this fall, aiming for the Round 1 deadlines. You may also be working full-time, juggling a few other responsibilities, and perhaps trying to hike up that GMAT score. What should you be doing now? Thinking about why you want to go to b-school, and for that, you’ll need to formulate…
The Reality of Unrealistic MBA Goals
Business school candidates (depending on career stage) will often look to advanced graduate degrees for one of three reasons: (a) to accelerate in their current career, (b) to make a career switch, or (c) to start a business. Whatever the reason, it’s important that the adcom know exactly what it is that you want to…
MBA Admissions Advice for Career Changers
As an IT consultant, how do you know equity research is the right career for you? How do you know you can handle the hours, the more Darwinian industry and company culture, the stress of having a pivotal impact on huge investment decisions? If you are an MBA applicant pursuing a career change, then you…
How to Add Detail to Your Social Enterprise/Community Service Goals
Whether you’re applying for an MBA, a PhD in Public Policy (or many other doctoral fields), or a Masters in Social Work, you’re likely to talk about social enterprise or community service goals in your application. For some, this will be your primary objective – those of you seeking careers in the non-profit sector, for…
Backup Plans, Research and Professional Support
I will wrap up this series with a few additional points. Creating a backup plan Think you’re done with MBA goals? Think again… In the current global economic volatility, having a backup plan for your immediate post-MBA goal can be not only good planning for you, but also enhance your goal essay’s credibility. It’s particularly…
How to Edit Your MBA Goals Essay
Short- and long-term goals Before you start drafting your MBA goals essays, work out three levels of goals: short-term, intermediate, and long-term. It helps to have this whole picture in your mind regardless of where you’ll “zoom in” for a particular essay. Short-term applies to the timeframe immediately post-MBA to about two years later; intermediate…
Write an MBA Goals Essays that Turns the Adcom into Your Cheerleaders!
By following the advice in the previous post you can create goals that are clear, credible, and convincing, but they won’t necessarily be exciting. They won’t make the adcom reader think as she reads, “Wow, it would be great if he could do that!” And this latter reaction is really what the goals essay should…
What Exactly Are Goals?
“I want to move from the buy side to the sell side.” “I want to shift from technology consulting to investment banking.” Not goals. An engineer once said to me, “I want to go into either finance or consulting.” Not goals. A goal isn’t something you want, it’s something you do, something you want to…
Why Write a Series About MBA Goals?
A few years ago, in the good old days when Wharton still offered feedback to rejected applicants, I talked with a potential client who was reapplying to Wharton. I asked him whether he’d obtained feedback on his application, and he said yes. Well? “Actually they said they really liked my application. They said I was…
Getting Your MBA Goals in Shape
Knowing they’ll have to write essays about their goals, most b-school applicants have identified their goals prior to starting the application process. But I’ve found that “identified” often has a misconstrued scope, either too narrow or too broad to effectively serve the purpose of the essays. With some moderate effort, you can flesh out your…
3 Ways to Determine Which B-Schools Are a Good Fit for You
There are loads of MBA programs out there. How do you decide which ones are best for you? It’s time to unlock the secrets to the elusive “fit” factor. “Fit” is established by the relationship between your needs and desires and what a given program presents. What elements do you seek in an MBA program?…
6 Tips for Creating Your Compelling MBA Goals Essay
Ask yourself this question: Is THIS the program that will help you reach your goals? Most schools ask why you want an MBA and why you want it from this school. And really, even if they didn’t ask you, you should still ask yourself. Before you invest the time and money in an MBA, you…
Bain & Company’s Keith Bevans Talks About Careers, Life at Bain [Episode 251]
One of the biggest motivations, if not the biggest motivation, for applying to graduate school is career enhancement and achievement of professional goals. For many MBAs and some other graduate students, consulting has irresistible appeal. Today it is my distinct pleasure to have on Admissions Straight Talk Keith Bevans, Partner and Global Head of Consulting…
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