Monday, May 31, 2010
Interviews
Good luck practicing!
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AblzcNk7eG22ZGZmZGs0d21fMTlnNHNnam1kcQ&hl=en
Thursday, May 27, 2010
What's Your Story?
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
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Location Advantage
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.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Global Economics
Monday, April 19, 2010
Re-Applying
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.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
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