Prepping For Your MBA Adcom Interview

Seven Tips For Applying Your Job Search Experiences To The MBA Application Process

 

‘I can’t think of anything more demeaning than job hunting.’

That’s what a friend once told me. And I couldn’t argue with her. Think about it. You can spend hours playing detective, brushing up on a company’s products, market, structure, and culture. From there, you craft a custom cover letter, resume, and portfolio that screams “We’re soulmates.”

So what happens? Your application ends up in a black hole, likely knocked out by a key word search before a live person even reads it. If you follow up, the gatekeeper acts like you violated a major taboo. And if you’re lucky enough to earn an interview, expect to defend every choice you’ve ever made. Worse yet, the decision-makers rarely know what they truly want…except that they should pay their choice less than market value. Is it any wonder that students would rather spend two years in business school than work? In school, they don’t have to hunt for jobs. Heck, the recruiters are the ones hunting them!

You might be skeptical to learn one Ivy League school encourages prospective students to treat the application process like a job search. According to Jonathan Masland, Director of the Career Development Office at the Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, “The same practices that make MBAs successful in their job search also make them effective in gaining admittance to the MBA program of their choice.” After working with 11 business school classes at Tuck, Masland has some advice for students looking to get into Dartmouth (or anywhere else). Here are some excerpts from his column:

• “…Always speak with current students and alumni of programs you are interested in. Ask them why they joined the program and find out what is unique about the culture and academics. The themes you hear from multiple sources will allow you to discover if there is a fit with the program while providing invaluable details you can share in essays and during interviews. Firms do not hire MBAs who have not done their due diligence and met people from their firm, and MBA programs are just as discerning.”

• “MBAs who are successful in their job search prepare. They learn an industry, understand trends, do company research, learn about who they are interviewing with, visit the firm, network with employees, review news, pick apart company websites, practice mock interviews, and more. You should do the same level of preparation when applying to business school.”

• “During many job interviews, the core questions recruiters ask MBAs are: “Tell me about yourself?”; “Why do you want to work for my company?”, and “Why should I hire you?” The same three questions also apply to MBA applicants.”

• “Each of us should be able to be interesting to the people evaluating us… And the vehicle for sharing interesting things about you and your background is through storytelling—being able to share events or accomplishments that are interesting, which make a point, and are memorable. As you write your essays and prepare for your admissions interview, make sure to have at the ready a set of stories you can share to convince a school that you are a strong candidate for admittance.”

• “Dress well, make sure your resume is perfect, choose your recommenders wisely, be professional in your communications, send thank you notes, be nice to everyone involved in evaluating you, sleep well the night before your GMAT exam, and get your application in early… in the end it is the many small things that ultimately tip the balance between landing a new job or being admitted to the business school of your choice.”

Source: asktheexpert.mba.com

Leadership MBA Essay – How Do You Define Leadership From An MBA Admissions Point Of View?

What is leadership? Well, you know it when you see it.

With due respect to Justice Potter Stewart, leadership often entails what you don’t see. Leadership is not about making rah-rah speeches, rolling out culture-changing initiatives, or firing the bottom ten percent in your stack rankings. In fact, leadership often isn’t about the leader at all. In reality, it is about finding ways to motivate and grow others, to create more leaders and fewer followers.

That’s an insight that could serve many MBA applicants according to our friend and b-school guru Stacy Blackman. This week, Stacy was interviewed by F1GMAT.com on how to answer the leadership question in application essays. And her answer challenges the conventional wisdom. In Blackman’s experience, many candidates associate their biggest accomplishments with leadership. But true leadership, according to Blackman, is reflected in the work of others:

“The work of the leader activates the work of others; one of the central tenets of leadership essays is showing that you can enable the actions of other people. You bring out their passions. You educate them. You help them see organizational priorities in new ways. And then they share in the achievement.  Often, the best leadership essays will have heroes other than you.”

So what are some of the key threads to integrate into a leadership essay where applicants are co-stars?  Blackman identified a number of them:

• Identifying and defining a problem
• Being open to new information, input, etc.
• Building consensus with appropriate stakeholders
• Guiding strong mid-course corrections; overcoming mistakes
• Building on success
• Articulating a vision
• Resisting conventional approaches; challenging status quo
• Convincing others of importance of problem
• Marshaling resources to address problem
• Motivating others
• Making good use of others’ talents
• Permanently upgrading organization’s capabilities; institutionalizing solutions
• Illustrating methods for other individuals, organizations, etc.

Blackman also cautions applicants against relying on a job promotion to demonstrate leadership. A bigger title and wider span may impress strangers at a cocktail party, but adcoms want to know what applicants did with their promotion. They won’t be impressed by increased responsibility. Instead they want to see how candidates helped “a team accomplish something meaningful or overcome great challenges.” Without that, applicants are no different than the thousands of other achievers who believe their bloated GPAs and job titles make them a shoo-in for business school.

Source: F1GMAT.com

 

Blast from the Past:

 

Why You Don’t Deserve A 700 On Your GMAT

If you’re reading this, you’re already pretty successful. In high school, you probably took honors courses, killed your ACT, collected a slew of awards, and earned a scholarship to your choice school. Chances are, college wasn’t much different. Now, you’re preparing for the GMAT. And a score of 700 or better is a given, right?

Guess again. In Lake Wobegon, maybe everyone is an A student. When it comes to the GMAT, only 10 percent score 700 or above. And the reason is simple, according to Brian Galvin, Director of Academic Programs at Veritas Prep.The GMAT wasn’t written to measure your abilities. It was designed to separate the performers from the pretenders. It tests your ability to apply concepts, not just regurgitate them. To add insult to injury, it basically quantifies everything you should’ve mastered in high school!

So why is the GMAT so difficult? And what can you do to increase your probability for success? Check out Galvin’s column below for the answers.

Source: Poets and Quants