Mr. Platoon Commander

Hi Mr. Platoon Commander,
Impressive credentials! This is Debbie Choy from mbaMission. I think your leadership experiences in the Marines will resonate with AdCom. Also, don’t underestimate your technical skills supporting your platoon in mobility, logistics and operations. The key is to describe your experiences in a way that helps AdCom understand how they will translate to your future career goals. Specifically, how will an MBA fit into the picture? AdCom will be interested in knowing why MBA and why now? Be sure to describe specific knowledge or skills that you’d like to learn that will help you reach your future goals. Further, do consider explaining how you arrived at your post-MBA goals. Whether it’s technology or investment banking, perhaps consider talking with ex-military contacts in these fields to better ascertain which area would be a better fit for you? Although b-school is certainly a time to explore options, for your applications, AdCom still prefers to see that you have done some preliminary due diligence on your career goals. Wishing you the best in your MBA journey!

Hi Mr. Platoon Commander, I agree that your military experience will be viewed favorably by MBA programs and that you have some very transferrable skills of project management, project finance and Excel skills—not to mention strong leadership. I encourage you to reach out to students in veteran’s clubs at the programs that interest you most and ask what companies hire a lot of veterans. Go one step further and find out what some of these people do in tech vs investment banking and ask yourself what sounds more interesting as they describe their work. I think Kellogg could be a great program for you as there are many options for experiential learning. I think it is important you find programs with strong career management centers and opportunities for experiential learning so that you make an informed career transition. While your stated career goal is not binding once you are admitted, it is a great exercise to spend a bit more time on this prior to applying. Our Stratus introspection process is very good at helping people to envision the pros and cons of several potential short term MBA goals. The MBA program itself is one of the fastest 2 years of your life so I do encourage you to spend some time researching career options. But I do think you have a lot to offer and wish you all the best as you prepare for your MBA.