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.