Meet The MIT Sloan MBA Class of 2017

Nitzan Haklai

 

MIT Sloan School of Management 

Hometown: Tel-Aviv, Israel

Undergraduate School and Major: Bachelor of Law (JD equivalent), Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation:

• Global Innovation Manager, Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd.
• Associate Attorney, S.Horowitz & Co. LLP.

Recalling your own experience, what advice do you have for applicants who are preparing for either the GMAT or the GRE?

While most people usually think of the GMAT as an analytical test, I believe that much more emphasis and preparation should be put on its mental challenges. The data sufficiency and sentence correction questions are indeed quite challenging, but I think that it’s much more difficult to train your mind to work for the four straight hours the GMAT requires. It’s important to prepare yourself mentally so that you will not give up, even if you think that the GMAT algorithm is against you. And most important: You need to treat each question as if it was the first question in that section. In other words, refresh your mind for each and every question.

Based on your own selection process, what advice do you have for applicants who are trying to draw up a list of target schools to which to apply? There are couple of criteria that might influence your choice when deciding on a b-school: Your potential career path, the community, the alumni network, the location, the brand, the academic level – the list goes on-and-on. Eventually, in my opinion, regardless of your specific goals, you can achieve them in any good b-school. The key, however, is to choose the school in which YOU will feel most comfortable, that fits YOUR character, and will allow YOU to explore and exploit all the resources that surround you. “FIT” is not just a buzzword that b-schools use, but it is the real differentiator among them.

During this long process, I discovered that simply getting to know some of the people helped me to best understand which school was the right fit. I spoke to students and alumni in each school and tried to get to know them better over coffee chats and video calls. I aimed to get a sense of their personality, and then asked myself which ones had the people that I most resemble? With whom do I share values and beliefs? And who makes me feel most “at home?”  By going through this process in a very personal way, I came to my decision of which school was right for me.

What advice do you have for applicants in actually applying to a school, writing essays, doing admission interviews, and getting recommenders to write letters on your behalf? Eventually, it all comes down to being yourself and ensuring that your personality shines through in all the various parts of your application. However, don’t skimp on your preparation! By learning the school’s nature from every available resource – its website, alums, current students, schools visits, etc. – your application will “speak the school’s language,” and emphasize to the reader why you are the best fit for the school.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA?

Coming from the Agtech (Agriculture Technology) industry, where I introduced and led innovative technologies in a complex and conservative organization, I viewed the Sloan program as the best “greenhouse” to develop my entrepreneurial skills while leveraging my corporate experience in international and diverse environment. Sloan’s culture and nature seems refreshing among b-schools. Together with its unique connection to MIT, I knew that it would be the best fit for me. Last, but definitely not least, another key component in my decision was the amazing Sloan community that I discovered throughout the process. Bright, intelligent and fun to be with, the “Sloanies” I met were always available for help and advice, and even became good friends before I was accepted.

What would you ultimately like to achieve before you graduate? The biggest challenge that I expect in my MBA experience is that eventually I will have to make a career choice. All options will be more or less open to me and it will be up to me to decide the path of my future. Choosing is challenging, but also very exciting, and I am looking forward to the MBA process like a kid in a big playground. In the upcoming two years I plan to try lots of different things, probably fail in some, and hopefully succeed in others. And by the time I graduate I will know that I have examined lots of options and will be ready for my next adventure.