Interviews

As we are getting started to prepare for our job interviews, you are getting started with your application process. Once you have finished your essays, it is time to think about your interviews, too. I put together a set of standard questions each Business School is going to ask you about. You should start to think about your answers and - in a few weeks - be able to answer them while you are sleeping.

Good luck practicing!

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AblzcNk7eG22ZGZmZGs0d21fMTlnNHNnam1kcQ&hl=en

What's Your Story?

It's summertime - time to hit the beach (for some), enjoy half-day Fridays (if you're lucky), and celebrate being done with the GMAT (for the overachievers).  It's also time to start thinking about the upcoming MBA admissions essays.  For anyone who thinks the hard part was the GMATs and that the essays are all about bullshitting (admittedly, this was me in 2008), get ready.....while there's no denying that the GMATs are a bear, the essays and recommendations are the core determinants of your fate.

As much as anyone says the essays are all about "bullshit", I don't know a single successful candidate who didn't use this task as an opportunity to do some serious contemplation about his or her future goals.  As much as those questions might be dull, the why us why now question is actually very helpful for focusing your ambition into something tangible and realizable.  The successful candidates are not the ones who see an MBA as the end, but rather as the means to an end.  We are all so single-mindedly focused on getting the MBA (especially after the torture of the GMATs) that it is sometimes clouded as the actual goal.  Don't make this mistake.  There's nothing more dull to read than a why us why now essay that's all about the school and not enough about the candidate.  Make me (the reader, the critic, the objective voice of reason) get excited for your goals, make me see the potential in your abilities, make me believe.  After, this is the story of your life.  Don't leave it up to chance - if there's a school that you pray to God every night before you fall asleep to get into, if there's a school that you know will change your life, don't you think you owe it to yourself to put forth the best package that you can?

blacksheepmba@gmail.com

Location Advantage

In real estate, they say, location is everything.  How does this translate for your business school applications?  It means that if you're applying to a school that's located in an area known for an industry, you better research why that's important and how that will add to the value of that school.

Obviously, Columbia and NYU have the NYC advantage, and Haas and Stanford have the Silicon Valley advantage.  If you're a media or finance person, go to the school's events webpage and see who comes to speak that you'd be interested in.  Incorporate that into the Essay One (why us, why now question).  For example, since being at CBS, I've had the opportunity to hear and talk to, whether through club events, guest lecturers, university events, people like:

Finance - Pete Peterson, James Chanos, Jerry Speyer (also real estate);
Advertising - Domenico Vitale (PIC), Rich O'Leary (McCann),Shelly Lazarus (Ogilvy), Donny Deutsch
Media - MTV, Bravo TV, Foursquare, Tumblr, Thrillist
Retail - Chanel, LVMH, Proenza Schouler, Ann Taylor, Loro Piana, Gilt, Steve Alan

And I'm only listing those coming to the top of my head.  My point is, when you're doing your research, look up the clubs you'd be interested in joining, see what events they have; look at the university events website and see which speakers you'd be interested in hearing (one of my favorites was Salman Rushdie at a Columbia-wide event).  Weave these into your essays and the AdCom will be impressed, for sure.

Global Economics

As Columbia J-term MBA's, we are in the unique position of having some very interesting professors in the summer term, where things tend to feel more relaxed and less focused on grades, more so on learning.  One of my favorite classes this semester is Global Economics (Macro).  This course is completely different from any Econ course I've taken.  Our class participation points consist of weekly debates between two learning teams (your pre-established study group) on interesting topics pertaining to the global economy.  I'm currently working on the first debate we'll be having with my team.  The topic: Does France have a higher standard of living than the U.S.?  My group is assigned the "nay" position, and we are having a good time using principles we've learned in class and our individual backgrounds to come up with a convincing argument.  I'm really looking forward to it.

Re-Applying

April 14th, last Wednesday, was the final notification date for Columbia's Full-Time September Start program.  Congratulations to all the new potential members of the Class of 2012! (And don't forget to do the Pre-MBA courses - they take them very seriously here!)  For those who maybe didn't get the response they would have liked (from Columbia or ANY business school out there) - dust yourself off, evaluate your options, measure how badly that ONE school means to you (rationally, although we know it's difficult to emotionally detach from it), and apply again.

I can't stress the importance of having the logical frame of mind and emotional strength to apply again.  A friend of mine applied to Haas two years ago.  He was ~3.5 years out of an Ivy League undergrad and had been working in one function at a prestigious financial institution.  He had a stellar GMAT, references, recommendations, etc.  He was set on Haas - loved the culture, loved the NorCal scene, wanted to get more into tech - it was the perfect fit.  He didn't get in. 

At this point, he was crushed.  While there more certainly more schools out there, he sincerely felt that Haas was the right school for him.  What did he do?  He sought feedback from the school as to how he could strengthen his application.  One factor was his work experience - it had been in one function/one office his entire career.  Career diversity in the community is so important (and totally underestimated and undervalued by most applicants).  He worked hard to get opportunities to expand his skills set and to work abroad (within the same firm).  He applied again this year, and, I'm very happy to say, he was accepted in the 1st round.

Your marketing pitch: the resume

The basis of your b-school application is clearly your resume. In my job prior to b-school I was hiring people for my team at work. Each time we published a job post, we received approx. 50 to 100 applications. I tell you guys: a lot of work to read through each and every application. My method quickly became to skim through the resumes first to narrow down the application pile.

This is how it works in the B-School as well. Even though the schools claim to read through all the essays, and yes they probably do, they will also skim over your resumes to gather a first impression of your skill set and in which pool (banker, consultant, international, female, …) you are likely to compete. The resume tells the admissions officers in 30 seconds if you are a potential fit. So, the resume becomes your most effective marketing tool and we better don´t mess it up:

Content-wise

• Provide a balanced mix regarding academic strength, work experience (especially emphasize leadership) and social or extra-curricular assignments.
• A method to make your points more effective is to follow “Content, Action, Result”. For example: Managed key accounts, negotiated high-impact deals with BMW´s senior management, increased account´s turnover by 234% in 2009
• Your resume forms the basis for your stories in your essays, so position the points on your resume wisely and with consistency throughout your whole application package

Format-wise

• it should look somewhat like this: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AblzcNk7eG22ZGZmZGs0d21fMThnOHh4bWs1bg&hl=en

"Your story"

As we all know, there is no magical formula for getting into business school. Certainly, GMAT scores in the 700s, professional achievements and community service will help. But even if you nail those, the school will have plenty of applicants to choose from. The most important way to stand out is to establish a real relationship by simply telling “your story”. What is unique about you? Identify characteristics that might not be immediately associated with your profession and try to build a unique, compelling case of how you would add to the greater student body and why you want to attend a certain school. While you still need to do your homework, we are here to help you make your story stand out!

Just got home after working on my first Operations Management case. I suspected I would like the class (the practicality of it suits me better than...oh say, stats) and I was excited learn that the case dealt with the customer service issues of Ritz-Carlton hotels. During my pre-MBA career as a travel writer, I visited many a Ritz and have become a bit obsessed. Having prior knowledge of the hotel industry (and yes, fond memories of rooms far larger and lovelier than my UWS apartment) made the project incredibly fun.

Your power card

I just watched a screening of an interview with Warren Buffett (Columbia MBA '51) moderated by Professor Michael Feiner who is a legend at Columbia Business School.  The film itself was interesting regarding personal ethics and value, but the key takeaway I got from it was from Professor Feiner, speaking upon his corporate career at Pepsico.  He said that everyone in the room (all Columbia students) have that one thing that they know they are irrefutably, undeniably, indisputably talented in.  Make that talent your power card and use it in any event of a work crisis as leverage to, in Feiner's words, "take no shit from nobody."  When applying this to actually getting into a top school, you absolutely need to know what your power card is.  If you're unsure of it, go back as early as you can and figure out what was the one area that 1) you repeatedly showed the strongest aptitude for and 2) how can you make it work in terms of a possible career.  If you base your Essay One (I broadly refer to this topic as Essay One but it can be any number - the standard "why us, why MBA, why now?" question) on your power card, it has the ability to convince a skeptical reader that you're a contender and that your enhanced self awareness will an asset to the program.

Declare Who You Are

As I said yesterday, Seth Godin (Stanford MBA '86) is one of my favorite thought leaders.  He is guest blogging for renowned cartoonist and overall creative force Hugh LacLeod this week and I thought this post was also extremely relevant to anyone starting the b-school application journey.

Remember Who You Are

Seth states that when people tell you to "Remember who you are", it's usually meant as "Remember who we think you are."  It's usually used as a thinly veiled comment to pull people back rather than to seek the truth about one's nature and potential.  However, Seth beautifully writes:

...Art, whether it’s the drawing art that Hugh does or the business art that a great Wall Street trader does or the customer service art that Tony Hsieh at Zappos espouses… that sort of art isn’t limited by social boundaries. When you connect and change another human being, when you create upside wherever you go, then who you are is decided by you, not by them.

Let’s change the mantra, then, from “remember who you are,” to “decide who you are.”

Decide to be the generous, change-making, scarifying, delighting, over-the-topping dreamer you’re capable of being.

And when applying to business schools, I say we take it even one step further.  Decide who you are, then declare it in the most sincere, believable, and personal way to the world.  Take a stance, declare yourself, and embody all the attributes it takes to become that vision of you.  If you succeed in doing that, then you have succeeded and answered to yourself regardless of the outcome of that essay.

Finding Your Brand Essence

Seth Godin is one of my favorite thought leaders and his latest posting (below) is completely relevant aspiring top b-school applicants.  You have to take a stand in your application and show admissions who you really are.  There are too many smart, capable, and interesting people applying for the same spot- you can't afford to project a persona that isn't authentic, relatable, or likeable.

 

Finding your brand essence

I got an email from someone who had hired a consulting firm to help his company find their true brand selves. They failed. He failed. He asked me if I could recommend a better one.

My answer:

The problem isn't the consultant, it's the fact that if you have to search for a brand essence, you're unlikely to find one.

Standing for something means giving up a lot of other things, and opening yourself to criticism. Most people in the financial services industry (or any industry, actually) aren't willing to do that, which is why there are so few Charles Schwabs in the world.

First, decide it's okay to fail and to make a ruckus while failing. THEN go searching for the way to capture that energy and share it with the world.

Clothes don't make the man, the man makes the man. Clothes (and the brand) just amplify that.