Ms. Aussie Consultant

Hello Ms. Aussie Consultant! Talon Rindels here from The MBA Exchange. Your application should stand out against the others at LBS. An Aussie + Female Engineer + a solid GMAT score are the first three things they’ll notice (and like)! From there, it’s your job to convince them that you’ll use these unique attributes to make a unique impact on the LBS community and also score your dream job after graduating. I think the key here will be in leveraging your interview (assuming you will get one) to add some authenticity to your post-mba goals. You’ll need to explain what experiences you’ve had that are pulling you to impact investing. Perhaps it’s your extracurricular non-profit consulting work, but either way, you’ll need to put some emotion and depth into your story to make it convincing. I have a good feeling about you though – best of luck!

Hello Ms. Aussie Consultant! Krista Nannery from mbaMission here. Former Londoner too! Farringdon Station was my old stomping ground. Please have a Welsh Rarebit for me at St. John on St. John Street.

I digress…so firstly, b-schools don’t get enough Australian applicants so when someone like you comes along, with great stats and great international work experience to boot, they get pretty excited. Add female engineering major to the picture and there’s even more to be excited about! The thing I want to think about though is what’s the “why” behind your goals? What’s the connection between what you are doing today and what you see yourself doing post-MBA? What are the prerequisites for impact investing? If you did product management in the social space, what would that look like? I think your overall profile will get their attention, but application execution is also going to be critical here to make this all come together. LBS is usually pretty generous with talking to applicants prior to application so start that networking now and see what they say about applying now (presumably R1 2020) or waiting a year.

G’Day Ms. Aussie Consultant, Lisa Cummings from Stratus Admissions. There is a LOT here for an admissions committee to like, very strong stats, a female engineer, solid work experience and coming from an unusual geography. I also really like your leadership, mentoring and non-profit work, schools will like that too. How did those roles help you in your current position and help you shape your goal of impact investing? Based on your blurb, I don’t have a true sense of what you are actually doing day to day in your current role but it seems you want to pivot post MBA. I suggest you pick one area to focus on at least for the interview stage – impact investing OR PM as they are different roles that require different skill sets. Better to have clarity so you can paint a strong picture. That will also allow you to explain how what you have done so far, combined with the skills you will gain at LBS will position you for a role in your chosen field. Good luck to you!