Career Protocol

Q: Tell me a little bit about the firm. Size, number of full-time or part-time admissions consultants, how long you’ve been in business, and who do you serve?

A: We run a tight ship here: small team, full-time, collaborative, a team in the truest sense. Our coaching model is 1:1; clients work directly with one Instructor, with each Instructor taking on a maximum of 10 clients per round. But clients also get access to our community huddles (group coaching sessions and workshops led by our founder). On the back end, the Instructor team communicates constantly on Slack, sharing inside info, resources, and ideas. We meet weekly to discuss client work and share feedback. When you work with Career Protocol, you have the entire team backing your success.

We’ve served clients from every imaginable industry and over 80 countries. The uniting feature they all share is a desire to make the world a better place through their careers. The people who seek us out have a vision for their future post-MBA that stretches way beyond themselves.

Q: What is your firm best known for?

A: Three things:

1. Our content, which offers the most insightful and useful advice for free such as our YouTube Channel, MBAmo, the MBA odds calculating robot, and our in depth MBA career report.
2. Our mascot, Fred, who is a dancing unicorn.
3. Our service commitment, which is the driving force behind the above two. We support people in developing practical skills so they can do the hard things in life while fully experiencing the joy of being alive. Personal meaning and fun have to be the defining features of your career if you want to go the distance. We are here to help everyone do that.

Q: What makes your firm unique and differentiates you from other firms, large or small?

A: We’re not admissions consultants. We use the content of the MBA application as a training ground for elite soft skills that propel our clients to global leadership post-MBA. Skills including deep self-awareness, storytelling, critical thinking, influence based on inspiration, and relationship-building skills that define the difference between top performers and also-rans in the post-MBA world of leadership. The people who work with us are seeking a meaningful growth experience en route to their MBA; they’re not looking for secrets or hacks or for someone to tell them the right answer or who they’re supposed to be in order to be successful. They graduate from their time with us clearer about what they want and more confident in who they are.

Q: Do you have a roadmap or formula for the MBA applicant?

A: We leverage the comprehensive training resources we’ve developed over the years to help our clients advance these skills. This includes video lessons and group coaching and workshop sessions in addition to the extensive 1:1 coaching they receive. There are distinct waypoints on the journey: the moment they identify their “so what” of their career, the moment they nail their first epic story, the moment the grok what a BCG-ready bullet looks and feels like, and the moment they know they have presented their best selves. But each client arrives at those waypoints in their own way and through their own path. We are just the guides accompanying them on this inspiring journey.

Q: Since you opened doors, how many MBA seekers have you helped to gain acceptance? How many successful applicants?

A: If we include the collective experience of everyone on the team, we have helped over 1000 MBA applicants in addition to hundreds of career coaching clients we also serve. Clients who gain admission to one or more programs after completing our process hover between 93 and 96% each year.

Q: How can an applicant tell if your firm is a good fit for them to help them through the application process?

A: Two ways:

1. You want to improve the world in some way in your career. You’re not just getting an MBA for the prestige or the money or the clout. You want to be of service. If that’s your goal, you need to be able to inspire, influence, and gain trust and support for your vision beyond the MBA. We’ve designed our program to help you build and refine those skills during the year+ that you work with us.
2. You love to grow as a person. You aren’t seeking admissions consulting support as a way to get a competitive edge in the process. You want to develop yourself, self-reflect, build greater confidence in your story and your value-adds, and define more clearly the mark you hope to leave in the world through your career. If you want that and have the integrity to show up for yourself in that process, then we are the right firm for you.

Q: Do you ever refer people to other firms?

A: Absolutely. Many of the people we speak with do not conform to the two criteria laid out in the “good fit” question. We are only able to work with people who fit those criteria, and we are happy to refer them elsewhere so they can get the support they are seeking if we can’t be of service.

Q: Give us one free tip for applicants:

A: Do not let anyone else tell you what you should be saying to schools to obtain admission. If you do that, you are gaining acceptance at the cost of your own self-esteem. That is far too heavy a price to pay. Instead, use this process to find your own voice. If you don’t know what that means, watch the many videos on our YouTube Channel that talk about it or read Angela’s book.