Ever since we started this newsletter, we have received tons of queries from candidates who are really interested but find the process quite intimidating. So, we thought that it was time to demystify the application process and train the candidates on the basic essentials of being a great applicant!

Excited to bring to you a compact cohort-based webinar series to help you navigate the MBA application process and make you a better applicant

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In a recent LinkedIn poll, I asked my readers about their level of reliance on student loans to fund the MBA program. Not surprisingly a significant majority of people, 48% to be precise, had taken loans to the tune of 50% or higher. Further, almost 72% of people had some level of loan ranging from 10% or higher.

Student debt is typically a feature of MBA programs with candidates ranging from those who are fully funded to those who risk significant debt burden. Let me offer practical advice when considering taking on a student loan – It will directly influence your thinking and decision making towards the end of your MBA. A significant student loan will modulate your risk appetite particularly if you’re looking to change geographies, function, industry.

So with that, I am going to share with you how I funded my MBA. When considering the funding, do take note of the following 2 considerations

1. Develop budget for the “Total cost of attendance” – Includes living expenses in addition to the fees

2. Don’t assume a scholarship in your budget

At IMD, the rough cost of attendance was CHF 110k (Tuition: 85k, Living: 25k), and here’s how I managed to fund

1. Family loan: 46%

2. Scholarship: 18%

3. Own savings: 18%

4. Loan: 18%

Some key learnings for me ( and hopefully you) as I reflect on these numbers

a)      I was extremely fortunate that my parents were quite supportive and offered to nearly take 50% of the burden. If you have friends or family who are willing to take a chance on you why not offer them an opportunity to invest in you. This need not be a gift but maybe you can offer to return the amount with a small interest

b)       Own savings – I cannot stress enough the importance of having some component of savings to fund your MBA. For one, it shows preparedness and forward-thinking and it will help you manage to pay off the initial installment that is typically due within a few weeks of admission

c)       Loan – I had 2 options- Prodigy Vs. Bank Loan. I chose the latter as it was much more attractive in terms of the tenure and rates. Keep loans to a minimum. Period!

d)      Scholarship – As I mentioned before, do not consider scholarships in your budgeting. I had initially planned to take this amount on a student loan but then like the cherry on top the good news came and it gave me that much more budget flexibility.

My personal opinion is that if you can’t afford the school without getting a 30-40% or more scholarship, then maybe that shouldn’t necessarily be your dream school.

I will leave you with the following thought- Imagine that you got into the school of your dreams only to find out that they are not offering any scholarship. Would you be comfortable adding that amount to your loan? Maybe a point to consider….

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In today’s post, we will discuss a common starting point in all MBA applications – Resume!

For those of you who have already submitted an application in R1, we hope that this post helps you in refining the resume for your next rounds. For folks, who are still early in their MBA journey, we hope that the next 5 minutes of this reading will get you up to speed on

• What is a resume?

• Our philosophy on writing one!

• The key elements of a Resume explained

• Testing the waters: How to analyze your resume?

What is a resume?

Consider yourself as an entrepreneur and the Admissions committee as “Venture capitalists(VC)” – You have a great idea and would like to sell that idea to the VC. Typically you would pitch the business to the VCs using an impactful, energizing, and easy to follow pitch deck. Correct?

Now, just consider that the business that you’re selling is essentially you! You are selling your skills, expertise, knowledge, personality, achievements. What would you need? A resume maybe?

Essentially resume, in simplest terms, is a quick (takes about 1-2 minutes) way for the adcom to get an idea about your candidature. This could make or break you so you would want to make it as impactful and easy to follow as possible. This brings me to our philosophy on resume writing!

The Resume philosophy!

Consider the resume as a piece of very expensive real-estate. You get only one A4 size plot of land and you must allocate the space to talk about different achievements in a way that maximizes your chances of getting an invite. This means no fancy graphics, no taking massive spaces putting up a pie chart of your key skills or how you spend your time, and no funny fonts. The real-estate of a resume must be allocated to the most impactful professional achievements that get you the most value for money!

The Key elements of a resume explained (with screenshots)

In order to make the message more real, we are using a sanitized variant of one of our own resumes (confidential information masked). Hope you don’t mind! 😊

Section -1: Profile Summary

In this section, the important thing that we would like to draw your attention to is the 2-3 liner pitch that summarizes the key skills, sectorial expertise, international experiences, and life perspective.

Using this short framework let’s break down the sample profile summary

1. Key skills – analytical, project management, product commercialization, strategy

2. Sectorial expertise – Commercial Pharma & Public healthcare

3. International experience – Asia, Europe

4. Life perspective –  Enjoys adaptive, fast-paced, challenging things

In the resumes, we have come across we see candidates writing generic, non-distinguishing language such as hard worker or fast learner without the setting the context. We urge you to carefully consider the essentials skills you bring to the school

Section-2: The core

Now comes the main part of the real estate. This is where you will make the most impact and therefore you must allocate a high resume real-estate to explain your professional experiences/achievements. Although by no means exhaustive we write the most important pro-tips to nail this part of the resume

1. Real-estate allocation: Give more space to write about more recent achievements/experiences than those that happened 5-6 years ago.

2. Provide timelines: It’s a good practice to give timelines of your professional stay at different companies and also timelines for the different roles and highlight career progression

3. Give Company & role descriptions: Top, recognizable brands do look good on your MBA resume as they lend you credibility. If your company is more local, you may want to briefly write a line on the core of your business.

4. Active verbs: Using Active voice reflects ownership while passive makes it a dull responsibility. From the example above “Led a consumer & provider research to…” is more favorable to “Responsible for leading a consumer & provider research to…..”.

5. Show tangible impact: Adcoms would definitely want to see two things in each experience – what did you do and what was the result. It’s very common to see that candidates just write about what they did and completely forget telling about what was the impact – Did it lead to an X% increase in sales? Did you win a new client? Did it create a more efficient way of working?

6. Use numbers: Wherever possible, consider using numbers to showcase the impact. Example - Increased sales by 30% by leading activity ABC

Section-3: Personal skills and education

We recommend allocating 20-30% writing space to education and personal interests. In education, you may want to mention any distinctions or honors (summa cum laude, magna cum laude). In personal interests, we recommend choosing a few topics that are of real interest to you than writing about generic interests as traveling. For example, saying “summited a 3800m peak….” Is more impactful than saying “love to trek”

Testing the waters: How to analyze your resume in 2min?

We hope that after reading this is a long article(we promise to keep the articles shorter next time 😊 ), you have a better idea of how to write a winning resume. Some final thoughts on quickly analyzing your resume

1. Check for “So What?” – Every point must clearly show the problem, your role, and the impact. If it doesn’t, it fails the “So what” test.

2. Check for Active voice

3. Check for the allocation of writing space to different points- the most important experiences should get more writing space

4. Check if personal interests are meaningful and differentiating

While we hope that these tips help you get started but if you would like a second set of eyes for review please do feel free to reach out to us by email

Cheers and we wish you a Happy New Year 2021!

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The interview season is here – November is typically a month for the R1 and R2 interviews for B-schools globally. So I trust you have spent the past few months fine-tuning your applications and finally hitting the submit button!

Long story cut short – If you did not receive an invite, then despair not: I would consider this as an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and reassess the application to diagnose what can be improved. For those of you who received the interview invite, well done!. Receiving the interview invite is one further step that takes you closer to admission, but it is not admission itself. So in this article, I will try to help you prepare for cracking your MBA interview. Read along!

I believe you may have already read that a lot of strong candidates, who may otherwise have got an admit, were rejected following the interview. Typically the interviews are conducted by alums, and in some cases, the MBA faculty. The non-standardized nature of assessment may make you compare the interview process to a game of roulette. For example, I can assure you that you will find cases in which candidates who have seemingly crushed the interview find out to their dismay a rejection from the MBA office. The opposite is also true. 

So how do I ensure success in an interview?

I recommend a 3 step standardized approach to control the interview and prepare yourself for success. Note I used the word control – more on it in point 3

1. Practice your value proposition to school: What value can you bring to the B-school?

This point is essentially your brand – What are you bringing to the cohort in terms of your unique personality, skills, experiences, values, and learnings. You need to keep personal & professional stories in the back of your mind as evidence for each of the qualities you want to highlight. Remember that the interviewer is trying to learn about you through different questions, and you need to ensure that you are highlighting the correct personal/professional qualities throughout the interview. Read about branding here

2. Articulate the B-School's value proposition to you: How can the B-school specifically help you?

This point is essentially answering- Why this school? or Why not some other school? If you have done the research, you must be able to articulate 2-3 strong and personal reasons why this school is the right fit for you. Note that again, you will be highlighting indirectly the things you are good at and the qualities you lack, and how will this B-school fill the gap. Easy?

3. Lead the interview instead of being led: I told you about controlling the interview!. That's it!. It is very usual for interviewees to try second-guessing what the interviewer will ask next. Unfortunately, it does not work that way, and if you are not leading the interview, you are more likely to face a volley of a random sequence of interview questions.

   What if you can change it? Well, I have a secret sauce for this! – Prepare a compelling introduction of 1.5-2 minutes where you touch upon interesting stories, experiences that you can use to “hook” your interviewer. Just as a fisherman would put a bait on the hook for the fish to latch on to it, I recommend you emphasize your unique experiences in your introduction with the intent to hook your interviewers and have them ask follow up questions. By using this strategy repeatedly throughout the interview, you’re essentially 1 step ahead of the interviewer and effectively controlling the interview.

I didn’t realize how powerful hooks can be as a strategy to control the interview and improve the odds of success. I have consistently used this strategy as a way to have the interviewer majorly ask questions that I want to answer instead of getting a random barrage of questions.

So, in conclusion, there are 3-effective steps to acing the interview

-         Show your value to B-school

-         Show the B-school’s value to you

-         Lead the interview

Normally, it takes some practice to get this right, and if you’re looking for a sparring partner, hit on “Contact me” for acing the interview!

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Firstly, I would like to apologize for the brief hiatus in updating the newsletter as I was moving to a new country and dealing with the challenges that come up with it. Anyways lets truck on!

So in this Part-2 of the Recommendation Guidebook, I share with you practical 4-Phase process on ensuring the perfect recommendation letter for your application. Remember that the ground rule for a recommendation – Its not okay to write your recommendation letter. However, it's okay to quality control the content!

Phase – I: Understand what is asked

The purpose of a recommendation letter is simple: It is an external validation of your candidature. The recommender is a trusted link or a bridge between the applicant and the admissions committee. Without this trust, your application is an un-validated hypothesis and adcom folks don’t prefer stuff that is not validated.

Ok so now hopefully you understand the purpose of the recommendation. Let’s focus our attention on the other aspect – What exactly is being asked in the recommendation letter?

Different schools have different formats but here is a broad framework of what your recommender may be required to complete in the letter

a)     Objective Assessment – Rating the candidates on a point scale for characteristics not limited to

-       Creativity

-       Analytical

-       Leadership potential

-       Integrity

-       Communication skills

-       Collaboration

-       People management

-       Ownership

Typically the school would like to understand the areas of strength and weakness from this assessment. One typical mistake that happens here is when over-enthusiastic and eager to prove themselves kind of candidates request their recommenders to score them exceptionally well on all these parameters. Well if you are excellent in every aspect, why do you want to go to school? So the key learning is

Allow yourself to be vulnerable and be transparent with your weaknesses. This works in your favor. Discuss this with your recommender!

However, in my opinion, there is a rider to this-  Typically I would not advise being low on Leadership or Integrity because if you are then it will be a red flag.

b)     Subjective Assessment – In this section, the recommender is expected to write a well-crafted essay detailing

-       Relationship to the candidate

-       Description of instances where candidate showed key strengths

-       Description of key improvement areas

-       Leadership potential of the candidate

-       Career expectations from the candidate in 5/10 years time

So as you can see it’s a fair amount of work that needs to go in a recommendation letter and therefore I would recommend you give at least 1 month to your recommender to come up with the refined recommendation letters!

But how do I select who to ask for a recommendation? Glad you asked for this brings us to Phase-II

Phase-II: Who to ask for recommendations?

If you haven’t already, please read the first part: https://theunofficialmba.substack.com/p/the-complete-guidebook-to-getting

We recommend the following ground rules for selecting the right recommender. You should choose some who

-       Shares a good rapport with you

-       You trust Highly

-       Can write well and has good communication skills

-       Has directly managed you

-       Has worked with you for long

-       Has been deeply involved in your own professional development

-       Can spare the time to write and review a good recommendation letter for you

-       Is committed to your success

-       Preferably has an MBA and possibly an alumni of your target school

If you look above, I have nowhere mentioned about the necessity of the recommender being a CXO in the organization. You will be better off asking someone who has directly managed you and knows you well over someone who is at the top of the food chain in your organization but barely knows you. I cannot emphasize this point enough.

Select recommenders based on their credentials to assess you and not their professional titles

In the last point, I make an exception and call out that if your recommender has an MBA or is an alum of your target school it may be a good idea to select them. However, make sure that they are able to write well and decisively about your candidature.

So with the recommender in place lets move to Phase III

Phase III: Set up the context with a virtual meeting

Before your recommender starts writing good stuff about you, it’s a good idea to have a 1:1 virtual Video session with your recommender. During this session, I recommend you to discuss the recommendation letter topics in detail and take feedback from the recommender on the various aspects of the letter.

Conducting virtual session offers a powerful way to initiate the recommendation process as it’s a collective brainstorming between you and your recommender. The brainstorming will give enough food for thought to the recommender when they sit down to actually write the recommendation letter at a later stage. Do record the session (after taking their permission) and send over the recording to your recommender for their reference

Phase IV: Refine the narrative

Now that you have a first recommendation draft, I would advise you to set-up another short session and ensure that the narrative is consistent with the storyline of your own candidature. Typically some edits may be required at this stage in order to ensure grammatical accuracy and a compelling narrative. Therefore, as I said earlier, choose someone who is committed to your success and can take out the time to help you develop the winning recommendation letter.

So hopefully with this guided series, you have been able to bust some common myths around the recommendation process and understand what it takes to develop the perfect recommendation letter that supports your application narrative.

Want to know more about how to conduct these sessions? Click on Connect me to reach out!

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Credits: Vantage point

Starting today, we will try to do a small experiment: Give short, quick, effective tips & perspectives that you can easily embed in your MBA applications strategy!

Ever watched the movie “Vantage Point”? If no, here is a short note on it - The movie visualizes the assassination attempt on the President but from multiple viewpoints of different people. So what you know from one viewpoint is not necessarily the only truth!

How’s this related to MBA application?

Think of the MBA application as your perspective on the various aspects of your candidature. It’s your subjective truth on why you deserve to be admitted.

But it’s not the only one!

There is a perspective of the admissions committee

There is a perspective of the alums who are involved in the process

There is a perspective of the friends with who you are discussing the profile

There is a perspective of the people who are advising you on the MBA process.

So the message is simple - Your application strength will be assessed differently depending on who is reading the application. Therefore make sure that you do share and get different viewpoints about your profile, strengths, and weaknesses from your friends, family, advisors, alums. You may discover something that you never thought about!

Having a 360-degree view on the merits/demerits of your MBA application can give you the advantage.

Here’s a good read: How To Gain A Vantage Point

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I think it is fair to say that applicants commonly think that getting that stellar CEO’s stamp on the recommendation letter is the golden ticket to Harvard. Nevermind that the applicant barely managed to have a 1:1 with the CEO in their career.

Another interesting story is of applicants with multiple job histories: They struggle to decide who to ask for a recommendation – Current Vs. Previous Managers/Employers.

Finally, there is the “Entrepreneur” applicant who always managed employees but never had to report to anyone. So who is eligible to write a recommendation about them?

Questions, thoughts, and confusions as the above are something that all of us applicants go through at some point in our MBA applications. In this new 2-part recommendation strategy series, I will try to help you clarify a lot of these doubts and develop the strategy for creating those “Winning Recommendation Letters”.

 This is how the plan is for the 2 part series. We will cover Part I in this blog

Part I: Clarify common confusions, questions, and doubts

Part II: Develop a 4-Phase Recommendation Strategy

Alright so let's go ahead and clarify a few common doubts

“Can I write my recommendations”

In short an Absolute No! You cannot write your recommendation nor should you think about writing for the following reasons

• It is unethical

• It is impractical – You’re supposed to give the official work email of your recommenders. Now assuming that they agree to you writing on their behalf, I would argue this is a sure shot fail. You will be writing extensively in the application and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the commonalities between the recommendation letters and the essays.

“I am an Entrepreneur – Who should I ask for a recommendation?”

You’re indeed the boss of your company however big or small but there will be people who know you deeply enough in a professional context to write about your strengths and weaknesses.

• Advisors/Investors – These will be a great set of stakeholders who can authentically write about your personality and your struggles founding the organization. Make sure that the advisors or investors know you for a significant period as that will give them enough context to fully paint your personality

• Clients – If you have a business, you have a client. Can you reach out to a long-standing client of yours who has had a long-standing business relationship with you? You got a winner here

• Suppliers/Vendors – Another innovative way is to talk to people who provide services to you. Chances are that some of them have closely engaged with you in the past

• Senior members – These include your co-founders or senior members who can talk about your leadership skills as well as highlight areas of improvement

 “I’m afraid the person who can recommend me is not in a senior enough management position as a CEO? Will that decrease my chances”

This is the age-old debate when choosing the recommenders: Should I go for Bigger Title or for someone who knows me well? Another common tactic is to choose a recommender who’s an alum of the target school even if the person is not well suited to write the personal recommendation.

So what to do?

The following is our recommendation on how to choose recommenders

• Prioritize the quality of professional relationship over the title

• Choose someone who you have worked for a long period

• Choose someone who can write about both your strengths and weaknesses

• Choose someone who can make the time commitment to work through the whole recommendation process for you

• Choose someone who can make the letter more personal and authentic

Remember that a personal and authentic recommendation will always score your more points than a generic letter from the CEO of the organization.

“How do I know what my recommenders write? What if they write something poor about me?”

While we say that writing your recommendation is a strict no-no what is okay to do is control your recommendation. Remember that the recommendation is crucial evidence of your abilities and competence that merit an admission. It is possible that even with a great recommender you might be undone by a poor or inconsistent recommendation letter. Let me explain!

• Poor recommendation letter: Your recommender must be able to translate all their ideas to articulately worded essays. Grammatical mistakes, meandering thoughts, and lazy writing will do a great injustice to what could have been a stellar recommendation

• Inconsistent recommendation letter: You are projecting a persona in your applications. You are telling me about the story of you and writing about your triumphs and failures. The recommendation letters are a testament to those stories. If however, your essays convey that your main strength is tenacity while the recommendation letters convey a portrait of someone who needs more determination then it will only serve to confuse the reader. 

“My recommender is a very busy person and I don’t know if they can commit to finishing it”

Well then don’t choose someone busy. As we said before it will take a significant time for your recommender to write a well-written draft. You can almost budget in 1 month from the time you ask your recommenders to when they complete the process. Go for someone willing to invest their time and effort in helping you out with the process. It’s possible that recommenders who have an MBA be more sensitive to your career aspirations and think that it will be worthwhile for you to get an education. 

In the next article, we will delve deeper into designing the 4-Phase strategy for developing the winning recommendation letter for you.

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A common question I get from applicants who are just beginning their MBA application journey is a variation of the following question

How do I go about find help to ace my application?

Now the folks who ask this also want to know how to do the due diligence in an incognito mode as they are concerned about “office managers” knowing about their MBA aspirations. They are hesitant to post on social media as they would like to not disclose it to others in the office.

So How Do We Figure Out Who Can Help Us?

The MBA application journey can be fairly arduous and lonely but it doesn’t have to be and that is why I want to pen down my thoughts on how to go about developing a supportive ecosystem to help you crack on with applications. I broadly categorize into 3 key groups – Close friends, Alums, and online groups.

Have you heard about the “Best Friend Test”! Listen closely!

When I was writing the initial drafts of my personal stories, I was intending to highlight my key personality traits and things that I can bring to the table. In short, I was looking inwards for getting an understanding of how I can bring my experiences and expertise to the class. When I showed the initial drafts to the trusted persons in my circle, I got a less than stellar feedback. I got the feedback that I needed to be “more open” in areas where I struggled and failed. Additionally, I realized that I did not adequately bring certain aspects of my personality ( such as life beyond office) through the experiences that I had chosen.

In short, I had spectacularly failed the “Best Friend Test”. The premise of the test is that if your best friend thinks that you have not done a fair job, it’s probably because you haven’t. The outside-in feedback of your close friends on your application is probably the best resource you will find out there. Good news – It doesn’t cost you anything! Probably some beers if you are admitted! :)

How to work with Alums to see both the Seen & the Unseen of a school?

Networking with alums of your target school can be a powerful way of getting an insider’s perspective (The Unseen) on the daily life at school beyond what is available on the school’s website (The Seen). Talking to alums usually helped me assess what I can expect in the school both in terms of the program as well as what kind of people I am likely to meet.

How do you get about networking with Alums?

Run informational interviews!

1. Reach out on Linkedin and make a brief introduction. Do not send a request without adding a note.

2. Explain the purpose and share a brief note about the topics that you need their guidance

3. Set up a short call and make it engaging. Listen more, talk less.

4. Make them feel good and appreciated. Remember, they are not obliged to help you but if you ask nicely usually they will be happy to share information

I do train candidates who are interested in learning how to do this key exercise effectively. Reach out! Check out my other articles in the blog to understand how to do this process effectively!

Finally, an important way to get school-specific information is to engage with online forums specifically dedicated to this. You can do research on the gmatclub forum and also checked out the specific webpages of the various B-Schools where they would put some free resources and tips. The forums provide a good platform for interacting with other candidates.

A great way would be to use this blog for connecting with other like-minded individuals. Why not introduce yourself here and ask questions that help others!

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A doctor needs a degree to practice medicine
A Lawyer needs a degree to practice law
A Pilot needs a degree to fly planes

But an MBA degree is not needed to do business? So what's the point of having one?

A few days ago, an apparent " LinkedIn influencer" wrote a hyperbole that getting an MBA is akin to buying a label (because you’re not confident enough to make it big without it). I find it rather short-sighted, ill-meaning and bad advice for the following reasons

- Firstly unlike a label, a brand you can't just go out there and buy a degree unless it is from a shady university or an online course available to all at a price. For any good Bschool, you need to pass a thorough assessment and have the requisite credentials that meet the admission committee’s standards.

-Foot in the Door: I can attest to the fact that having a strong alumni base opens doors that would otherwise be more difficult to open. I learned this first hand when I got introductions with organization heads as we shared the same alma mater. The tighter the alumni network, the stronger your ability to change industry/function/geography

- Perspectives: Do you read about civilization, history, philosophy? Reading history/philosophy/arts makes you well-read and keeps you informed about cultural perspectives. In the same way, spending a few years learning different business issues and working on actual projects gives you a broader business perspective. I know I can talk much more about stuff beyond what I did prior to my MBA. Quality of learning matters! Period.

- An MBA won't make you an overnight CEO or an entrepreneur. You will also face a lot of major hurdles in your professional life as you would without an MBA. But if you spend the time rightly during the MBA program you will have a good understanding of what behaviors it takes to succeed and what behaviors you need to drop. Consider the MBA program as one of the many learning tools that help you with a career but not the only one.

Unfortunately, writing hyperboles get you likes and comments on LinkedIn but often is misleading and shallow in substance.

But as they say, Listen to all and do your own!

So Why Do You Want To Do An MBA?

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We are going to attempt to answer what we think is one of the most commonly asked questions by MBA applicants – How many schools should I apply to?

Well, the simple answer is “It depends” and in this article, we will throw light on some of the hard realities that applicants can expect as well as deep-dive into 2 alternative application strategies.

First things first! Now here below are some hard facts you need to consider and absorb before you even begin to apply for a B-School

MBA application cost

It costs almost $250 to apply to Top Business Schools globally although schools do offer application fee waivers in certain cases. Therefore if you’re considering applying to 5 schools that’s a whopping $1,250! These numbers can even look more menacing if you decide to take an admissions consultant that typically comes with a price tag of $4,000 per school.

Time-effort for an MBA application

An MBA application typically demands candidates to spend a significant number of hours in information gathering and personal introspection. As per Poets&Quants' article, an applicant applying to 3 business schools spends no less than 154 hours on the various application components! This is even more relevant for schools as INSEAD that have a fairly long MBA application.

When I applying for INSEAD I probably spent over 4 months to get in the application for R3. Depending on how much time you can take out from your personal lives to spend on the application, we think that at least 2 months is needed for your first MBA application. For subsequent MBA applications, you will need less time as you have already done the hard work for the 1st application.

Demographic representation

It's true that if you belong to an over-represented section your odds of success will be much tougher than others. In the previous article, we suggested it is furthermore important for you to create your niche and portray a differentiated brand so as not to be clustered in a group. This means you need to work harder and spend more time than usual in working and reworking on your candidature.

Read how to create your brand: https://theunofficialmba.substack.com/p/the-unofficial-pocket-guide-for-a-162

Considering these facts lets try to pivot to the MBA application strategies and see what works for us:

1. Focused Diversification Strategy

We are taking inspiration from Buffet’s Focused Investing approach to portfolio management. In short, Buffett says its better to have a focused portfolio in high conviction stocks than diversify for the sake of diversification (He calls it diworsefication).

In this same way, we suggest that an intelligent and focused way for strategizing MBA applications involves a deep conviction on the candidate-school fit. In this approach, we motivate candidates to spend time doing preliminary research work on the school for understanding if the school is the right fit in terms of providing

• The Right Learning Environment

• The Right Professional Network

• The Right Job Opportunities

When you place a strong emphasis on checking for the B-school fit with your desired outcomes, the list narrows down to few options. In the Focused Diversification strategy, you pick 2-4 schools with a clear preference and intended back-ups. Ideally, also try to target the first rounds for your target schools (1-2) and later rounds for the backups.

2. Blitzkrieg Strategy

As the name says it's all about shooting applications in multiple schools and hoping to land one shot on target. We often see that this is a commonly used strategy by a lot of applicants who haven’t done the research on identifying the right school and instead want to take as many shots as possible. We don’t recommend this way of thinking considering that the cost and efforts of multiple applications. If however, you intend to apply to 5+ schools we highly recommend that you spread your applications over multiple rounds and apply all the learnings from rejections to subsequent applications.

Applying to MBA programs is a costly and time-consuming affair. You would need to sacrifice a lot of personal time in developing an application. Therefore it makes sense to start early and prioritize the school.

Till then,

Uzi

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In today’s post let’s explore a question that I’m frequently asked – How did you decide between going to American and European schools?

During an MBA program, you will be required to make a lot of trade-offs daily – preparing for the next day’s lectures, working on a project, developing presentations, and having fun. What you choose to spend time on is determined by your priorities. When choosing where to do an MBA, it is worthwhile to consider several factors and weigh them to determine the ultimate choices.

Here is a quick reference framework to help you make the decision - How to Choose Where to do an MBA?

Learning Preferences

Think about the questions and what it means to you!

- How many years can I realistically invest in an MBA: 2 Vs. 1-year programs?

American schools typically run for 2 years while European programs typically run from 1-2 years. Moreover in schools as HEC, LBS there is a flexibility to finish the MBA in a customized timeline.

- What are my years of experience? What is the range of experience in the target schools?

Your answer to the 1st question will be determined by your answer to this question. A glance at US schools will tell you that average experience is <5 years while in European schools it is on the higher side. US or European schools may appear more compelling to you depending on what stage of career you happen to be in.

- What is the Cohort size best suited for my learning?

This was important for me as from my personal experience I knew that I learn better in small cohort sizes right from a young age. Although this does not always help decide between choosing a US & European school, it can guide your preferences.

- What is the level of diversity in the class profile?

A lot of your learning will be shaped by the diverse perspectives of your classmates. Therefore it is important to consider the diversity of student profiles attracted by the B-school. While there is no magic formula but I motivate you to consider the international background, work experience, and the skillsets that others are bringing to the table and choose accordingly.

- What learning styles is best suited for me?

Do you prefer a more experiential-based program or a more theoretical approach? Understanding the pedagogy can give you insights into what learning methodology is best suited to you. You might uncover differences between US & European schools on this axis.

Financial considerations

The MBA program is a costly affair depending upon where you choose to go. You must budget for the cost of attending the program including the opportunity cost of missing job income. A 2-year program will not only have a higher cost of attendance but also a higher opportunity cost. Do remember to also research the “Return on Investment” for the target schools 5 years post MBA to check if it financially makes sense. Here are some questions to consider.

- What is the total cost (less opportunity cost) of attending a 2 year vs. 1-year program? How much can I afford?

- What is the opportunity cost of a 2 year vs. 1 year MBA?

- What is the return on investment 5 years Post-MBA of target school? How does it compare to other schools?

- Financial aid availability

Target geography Post-MBA

Hopefully, you will know the target geography before you even start with the application process. You can consider aspects such as quality of life, healthcare, income, growth prospects, etc. to shortlist location preferences. You can also ask B-school relevant questions that will help you identify if the target B-school is the right fit for you to get a foothold in the target geography. 

- Can the target B-school stamp help overcome the language barriers(if any) to job opportunities?

- Are my target companies recruiting from the B-school? 

- For Industry shifters: Does the curriculum involve an opportunity to do an internship? Completing Internships can solidify your case for getting the role.

Other factors

Finally, it also makes sense to get insights on the following issues

- Are there any visa-related issues that will affect my job prospects?

- B-school’s brand recognition – Local vs. Global reputation

- The strength of the alumni network in the target geography

Hope this helps you give a bit more depth to your thinking and I motivate you to think deeply about these issues before choosing your target schools and target geography.

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Let’s begin our analysis by analyzing below the different variants to the “Goals” question asked by leading Business Schools. Please do note that some of the questions may have changed or may change in the future.

INSEAD

“Discuss your short and long term career aspirations with or without an MBA from INSEAD?”

London Business School

What are your post-MBA goals and how will your prior experience and the London Business School program contribute towards these?

IMD

“What specific companies do you want to target? What kind of responsibilities you are looking for? Do you already have a network in place?”

Cambridge Judge 

-  What are your short, and long term, career objectives, and what skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you achieve them?

- What actions will you take before and during the MBA to contribute to your career outcome?

- If you are unsure of your post-MBA career path, how will the MBA equip you for the future? 

I like Cambridge’s version the most because, in my opinion, it asks all the relevant questions that you need to think through when articulating your response to

“What do you want to achieve in the short and long term based on your current state and ambition (At this point)”?

Notice that I have highlighted the portion – “At this point”. You are not expected to have a magical crystal ball that tells you what you will achieve over the next 10 years. The B-schools want to understand your critical thinking in developing a professional roadmap that is grounded largely in the work experience, professional network, core skills, credible knowledge that you have developed.

If you’re putting lofty goals premised on the assumption that an MBA on its own will get you there, you are basically signaling to the admissions team that you have unrealistic hopes from the MBA. This means you’re likely not going to persevere enough to achieve the goals and probably end up as a liability on the careers team. This means one thing – You’re likely not getting that admission!

What’s an example of a lofty goal?

The Classic “I want to be a management consultant” – Management consulting typically has a rigid hierarchy in roles. You start young in entry levels and make your way to a Partner.

Additionally, consulting firms have a few target schools that give them a lot of relevant potential candidates. If you have never done consulting, you don’t have a working visa(for the country of choice), you’re not in the right age bracket/GMAT/B-School, it will be extremely difficult for you to even get an interview invite. The same logic of lofty goals also applies to people writing about getting a job in Private Equity/Venture Capital without having any background or network in the same.

How to Write Your Goals?

Alright! Having said that, I want to guide you on how to think about writing your goals essay for any school. Let’s truck on!

The essential way of writing any essay is to breakdown the essay question into smaller, individual essay questions. This makes you think at a deeper level and ensure that you cover the essay in its entirety. Please do not consider the word limit in your first try. You should first develop material and then refine.

So we go from INSEAD style (bigger picture question)

“Discuss your short and long term career aspirations with or without an MBA from INSEAD?”

To Cambridge style (individual sub-questions)

- What are your short, and long term, career objectives, and what skills/characteristics do you already have that will help you achieve them?

- What actions will you take before and during the MBA to contribute to your career outcome?

-  If you are unsure of your post-MBA career path, how will the MBA equip you for the future?

Short Term Vs. Long Term

Short Term Goals - The Next Logical Step

Short-term goals are essentially a reflection of your “next logical step”. The goal needs to be realistic and ambitious. If you are thinking of staying in the same industry, you can leverage an MBA to fast-track on a leadership path that would otherwise take time without an MBA.

• If you’re looking to shift the industry, please do ensure that its possible to make that transition based on your skills.

• If not, is it possible that you are considering a pre-MBA internship for that role or you are applying to a school that gives you a 2-month internship opportunity

• If you have none of that, can you still leverage your specific functional skills and expertise in making that transition happen?

Long Term Goals - Directionally Correct

Long-term goals are essentially on the opposite end of the goals spectrum and therefore only directional. This means that you can only forecast and by definition, all forecasts are going to be incorrect. I would borrow from Yuval Noah (Author of Sapiens) to call it a level-2 disorder.

Your MBA experience will essentially change your view of what would you like to do and that in turn will change what you end up doing in the long term future. Therefore don’t fret over being precise that you want to have a specific position in a specific company. Instead, focus on what would be an interesting thing to do

• Are you looking for a P&L responsibility?

• Are you looking for a specific management position in a functional area or industry?

• Are you looking to start your venture?

• Are you looking to become a thought leader in a specific business? I hope you get the drift.

What skills, experiences do you already possess that will help you achieve the goals?

This is an important question to ponder over because this will be the basis of your pitch to the admissions team that you got it in you to achieve the goals. When I guide my MBA mentees/clients, I ask them to bifurcate their skills into

Core Business Skills – These are the essential skills that you need to have to get an interview invite with the company. If you’re looking at Marketing post MBA you need to be analytical, have communication skills, and the ability to design consumer journey and pain points. These are the skills that are expected of you and will be very helpful to pitch for the Post MBA job. Therefore think through deeply.

Core Personal Skills – All of us have a unique backstory that defines who we are and explains what we do and how we do. This is a key differentiation point for you if you can bring out finer nuances about your skills that can help you achieve your goals. For example – You’re excellent at organizing people to work through on a project which sets you up nicely in a more leadership-oriented role. It's important to think about these skills as you will use them extensively as key differentiators in your cover letter.

What actions will you take before and during the MBA program?

I love this question 😊 I’m surprised why more schools don’t ask this.

Just because you will have an MBA doesn’t mean that companies will make a beeline for you. Recruitments are a challenging season both for candidates and the careers team since the expectations run high during this time. To help you prepare, the school will have you go through mock sessions, networking sessions, and company talks. The school also expects that you will actively do the same. This is essentially what you need to convince them – You will take specific actions such as internships, practice sessions, and major networking to be a more eligible candidate. This will make you appear a “Low-risk” candidate in the eyes of the admissions team and good things happen to “Low-risk” candidates”. 😊

Do you have a Plan B?

Some schools ask you to write a Plan-B in case you don’t get an admission. Nonetheless, I motivate you to consider this as a sub-question of the “Goals” essay simply because you need to be confident that you will achieve your goals without an MBA even if that means facing more hurdles and taking more time. It's highly likely that you will be asked about the Plan-B question during the MBA interview.

All right! So we have covered good ground here for an important topic – Goals. Think about what we have discussed and leave below your comments and questions.

If you’re looking for a mentor to specifically brainstorm with you on the goals, click on contact me and we will connect 😊

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