Bankers, Consultants & Engineers: Six Tips To Stand Out In A Sea of Excellence

MBA applications are trending upward at top schools, making the competition for a slot in the entering class of 2024 more intense than ever. As a leading global admissions coaching firm, Fortuna Admissions keeps a sharp eye on application trends for the M7 and other US and international MBA programs. We’re seeing a sharp uptick in demand from consultants, engineers, and bankers in the 2024 MBA applicant pool.

So if you’re a candidate from the finance, tech, or consulting sectors — the three most heavily represented professional profiles — how do you make yourself stand out from the crowd in a highly competitive year?

You have excelled at every level — but so have hundreds of others from your overrepresented sector in the applicant pool with identical job titles and strong track records of exceptional performance. 

Excellence gets you in the game; you win by showing your uniqueness. That’s why it’s essential to approach your application differently to uncover the distinctly individual qualities that set you apart and catch the attention of the MBA Admissions Committee.

If you’re coming from one of these typical fields, you’ll also need a sector sector-specific strategy to stand out. Our insights are informed by the Fortuna team’s decades of experience as former gatekeepers to the world’s top MBA programs. 

For instance, our deep-dive analysis comparing the profiles of the admitted classes at Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business suggests that those schools preferred candidates who had experience in varied areas of finance beyond big banks. 

Consultants will be more compelling if they credibly demonstrate passion for a cause beyond client work that highlights their leadership potential, while applicants with engineering and tech backgrounds must convey their transferable skills and present a coherent career trajectory given their sector’s higher degree of job mobility.

Here’s a summary of our industry-specific insights for aspiring candidates from these three major applicant groups, with links to a deeper dive for each overrepresented pool:

TOP TIPS FOR CONSULTANTS

1. Reveal greater dimension to your candidacy.

Don’t let your identity be defined only by your job. Most consultants feel it’s who they are. That’s a common condition among hard-working, high-achieving stars. 

A winning application requires deep reflection to capture your individuality authentically. We recommend taking the opportunity of applying to B- school to step back from your breakneck 80+ hours-a-week schedule. Take time to understand what really drives and motivates you, and where you wish to have the most impact. Reflect on what’s brought you to this moment in your career and your life – and this decision to pursue an MBA.

Excavate unexpected and unique elements from your past or future aspirations that can you craft into a compelling story and offer as evidence of your leadership potential. Being able to tell stories that are important to you is about being reflective and self-aware. The more personal you can be in terms of why you do what you do, the more interesting and memorable you’ll be – because so few people are.

2. Explore meaningful extracurriculars.

In our analysis of admitted candidates, we find that consultants from top firms who were admitted to the most elite programs all had a level of community engagement that spoke to a sense of higher purpose and a desire to contribute to society. 

Their extracurricular pursuits reinforced patterns of leadership and commitment that was both distinctive and compelling — whether it was part of a nonprofit board, fundraising effort, sports team or Bollywood dance club. Outside activities can fall by the wayside in the face of heavy workloads, but it’s vital to stay involved in at least one or two of your commitments outside of work. This demonstrates that you’re both dynamic and passionate — values highly prized by MBA admissions. (It also shows you keep your commitments and can juggle time well.) Also, know that extracurricular activities you take up a month or so before your MBA deadline may look calculated and are unlikely to be given much weight.

3. Communicate your self and situational awareness.

In your admissions process, your communications savvy will be under scrutiny, especially in a candidate pool whose sharp self-possession can veer quickly to overconfidence, Certain qualities that may have helped you thrive as a strategy consultant can come across as impatient, arrogant or misaligned with values the admissions committee is looking for. 

The MBA interview, for example, is a relational experience, not a pitch meeting. Establishing that you are who you say you are on paper means staying alert and curious, maintaining eye contact, and asking thoughtful questions when given the opportunity. Your ability to be authentic, and to discern the line between confidence and arrogance speaks to your acumen and maturity.

For more tips, see our, Advice for Consultants Pursuing an MBA. 

TOP TIPS FOR CANDIDATES IN FINANCE

1. Convey what you’ve learned, not just what you’ve done.

Don’t make the mistake of creating the “resume to prose” essay that simply describes your career path and achievements. This will put your wearied admissions reader to sleep. Using precious essay space to showcase a highlights reel of professional accomplishments is a common mistake, and it robs your narrative of the potential for making an emotional connection.

Go beyond what you did to convey what you learned from your experiences. Then connect what you’ve learned to what you’re going to bring to the MBA classroom. For example, “you might use your essay to talk about a failure — a time you fell and picked yourself back up,” says Fortuna’s Karla Cohen, a Fortuna senior expert coach and former HBS Associate Director. “Underscore what you learned from the experience and how it shaped you as a human being. It’s so much more compelling when you allow people to connect to your experience.”

2. Start at a big bank but gain additional experience.

Our analysis of the career paths of successful HBS applicants showed that those who started their careers in big investment banks like J.P. Morgan or Citibank often made a career switch within two years of graduating from college. Many of these applicants secured an interesting position working in private equity or venture capital (e.g., Blackstone or KKR) after roughly two years of a rotational program.

This pattern really seemed to appeal to admissions reviewers at HBS and for Stanford GSB. This indicates that a big bank is a great place to launch your career, but that you stand to be more interesting to the admissions committee if you bring additional experience in PE, VC, consulting, nonprofit, or strategic and product manager roles in other sectors.

3. Persuasively connect your career vision to the MBA.

Beyond the power of its MBA brand, the admissions committee wants to know that you understand what’s being offered through its management curriculum: what it will do for you and then how that connects to your specific professional goals. You’ll need to be logical and convincing, not only about why an MBA, but why right now, and how an MBA is going to serve as a catalyst for your own success post-MBA. Early in your application journey, reflect early on about what you want to do after your MBA, and what you’ll be doing to make it possible. Be sure you can articulate the impact you’ll have on your future peers and community.

Keep in mind that the Admissions Committee is looking at your file thinking, “How is this candidate going to look to a future recruiter?” They want to bring people in who are going to be successful in achieving their post-grad goals.

For more tips, see Tips for Finance Candidates Pursuing an MBA.

TOP TIPS FOR ENGINEERS

1. Showcase your transferable skills.

The tricky thing for many engineering applicants is that the role you have and the work that you’ve done may not be directly relevant to the MBA classroom (or to your post-MBA career; many engineers are looking to make a career switch).

When thinking about how to introduce yourself to the admissions committee, step outside your narrow role and take a big-picture view of the skills and talents you’ve acquired in the job. As you do, reflect on the transferable skills that you’ve developed: communication, teamwork, leadership and/or presentation skills.

This may be quite different from the way you think about your skills in the context of day-to-day demands, and your strengths may not be so obvious at first. Consider the patterns of behavior that flow through your professional performance and how they extend to your engagement in the community, the roles you took on and how you made a contribution.

2. Present a coherent career trajectory.

There’s a lot more movement in tech industry career paths than in industries like consulting or finance. Top software programmers get lured away by competition. It’s not uncommon to see the software engineer who started at Oracle, then continued at Salesforce before moving on to Uber.  Admissions committees are familiar with this high degree of mobility; what they will look for is a sense of coherency and connection in your path. Make sure to weave a narrative that shows a logical and fruitful progression through your roles, so that you are not seen as the ‘hired gun’ with a mosaic of employers. It’s vital to convey that you’ve had the time and opportunity to really take ownership of a project and see it through. Really focus on the impact that you’ve had. Go beyond what you did to convey what you learned from your experiences and be able to connect what you’ve learned to what you’ll bring to the MBA classroom.

3. Coach your recommenders.

They may be accomplished professionals, but don’t assume your recommenders will know exactly what’s expected from them. Unlike the consulting industry, where it’s common for senior leadership to have an MBA, your boss may not know a great deal about b-school. Set your recommenders up for success by walking them through the process, emphasizing the importance of depth, details, and anecdotes to address specific situations and your contributions. This doesn’t mean telling them what to write – you want your recommender’s voice and authenticity to lead. But you also don’t want them to dive in blindly – especially if they’re unfamiliar with what’s entailed. Business schools want substance, with stories that really back up the fact that you’re an amazing person and stellar employee with enormous potential to succeed. Your recommender can also convey aspects of your personality or character traits that will add color to your candidacy.

For more tips, see Advice for Engineers Pursuing an MBA.

Finally, for anyone with a common profile, weaving your credentials into captivating story is the key to capturing the admissions committee’s attention. To do that requires planning ahead to truly define your goals and discerning the unique qualities that will distinguish you from your peers.

Reflect on your goals early on, explore other passions outside of work, and seize the opportunities to take the path less traveled as they arise. The trick is to weave a personal narrative throughout each element of yo application that’s distinctive, powerful and leaves the admissions team eager to learn more.

If you master this, odds are you’ll be one of thousands of impressive, qualified candidates competing for a few top spots. 

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Matt Symonds is cofounder of Fortuna Admissions and cohost of the CentreCourt MBA Festival. For a candid assessment of your chances of admission success at a top MBA program, sign up for a free consultation.