Ask Alex @ MBA Apply

I keep watching these videos again and again, they are just fantastic! So fresh approach to a dusty MBA admission process...

My Top-3 are
- a chinese
- gordon gekko
- a backstabber

Alex, you are amazing! Your advice a few months back on my profile really helped me hone my focus. Just wanted to say thanks again!

THERE IS A FORREST GUMP IN ALL OF US

One of the most common questions I loathe to give advice about is how to build a profile that will improve one’s chances for getting into a top b-school. Especially when it's coming from folks who are more than a year away (and sometimes years away... I've had *high school* students ask me!).

The reason why is this. Getting advice on what you should do with your career and life choices is limiting yourself to the advice being given. It has a tendency to limit your imagination for what is truly possible for you. Especially when getting advice from a complete stranger like me, no matter how much of a novel you want to write to me about your entire life story.

Simply put, no one knows you as well as YOU.

I hate life coaching, because I really don’t think I’m better or wiser than anyone else. I have my hands full with in my own life, let alone trying to give a paint-by-numbers recipe to others for what they should do with theirs.

So this is the only “life coaching” thing I will say based on my own limited experience and what I believe. I guess it could be considered some broad advice that is meaningless on its own, but hopefully meaningful if you are able to find a way to incorporate it into your own specific circumstances.

The reason why I hate giving “what can I do to improve my profile” advice is because some of the most accomplished and amazing applicants I’ve ever worked with were people whose history and career choices I could not have ever imagined or envisioned in the order or manner in which it had evolved. And I can safely say so for many if not all of them, I doubt they could have envisioned it turning out the way it did.

Facing the unexpected and surprises is where life and careers are made. It’s when you’re faced with situations where the script you had written becomes irrelevant, and you have to react in the heat of the moment. That’s where a lot of the most interesting career progressions and lives are built.

In short, for some (or even many?) of you MBA types or those who are attracted to do an MBA - you tend to over think and over plan. You don’t take enough risks because you psych yourself out by over thinking it. You don’t trust or you’re unwilling to trust your own instincts, so you want to follow other people or “templates”. Basically, you’re almost too willing to follow some cookie cutter recipe you think exists as long as it gets you the result you want - because you (falsely) believe that when it comes to building a career and a life, the results are all that matters (and where hopefully you’ll learn over time that while results aren’t irrelevant, the journey or the process is just as important if not more important, depending on who you talk to - because the only true result for all of us is death; everything else is a journey or process and the struggle to understand it).

Focus on working your ass off on whatever you feel is most meaningful to you at this time, *assuming* you're not going to b-school at all. It's about being your most overachieving self - adcoms really don’t care what it is. They really don't. What they care about is whether you are a dynamic and compelling individual who is accomplished in his/her chosen profession. It’s not about being perfect, but about being intriguing. And there are endless permutations on what that can be and what that means. Make life/career choices that you want to do, regardless of what others think. And of course that is “riskier” if you aren’t sure what you want, and there are plenty of “template lives” out there for you to follow. But the journey itself in taking that leap of faith is worth it for the self-knowledge you’ll gain, and if opens up even more doors than had you taken the “template”, that’s a bonus.

Don't just start volunteering at the local charity for the sake of resume building or make job/career choices for the sake of resume building, because you're not fooling anyone. Do it because you f*cking believe in it. Otherwise the only person you’re trying to fool is yourself into believing that “if I do X, Y and Z, then I will get A, B and C and everything will work out.” Even if you don’t believe in the “follow your dreams” mantra, there’s still a huge difference between “I chose this career path because it’s a realistic compromise” and “I chose this career path because others are doing it, or I am afraid of being different, or my parents forced me to.” The former is based on a negotiation you have with the world around you, whereas the latter is simply giving up the right to your own life. Now, that may sting some of you whose parental pressures are oppressive, but that only makes the struggle to overcome and defy them that much more meaningful - because it will teach you more about who you are than anything else (because no matter how much you love your parents, you are still your own person if you give yourself that right).

Nothing ever really works out - not just in your personal life, but also in your professional career (or careers). Welcome to reality. And it’s how you cope and react to the unexpected (setbacks or triumphs) that help define who you are, and give you a much more profound understanding of what you’re made of. Whether you succeed in overcoming setbacks is not as important as your willingness to take on those obstacles in the first place. Because that willingness is what success is ultimately built on even if it doesn’t happen right away or how you had envisioned it.

There are those whose goal is to minimize the unexpected. And there are those who live. Who you are is not defined by fantasies of who you hope to be, but by how you cope with the realities of today.

More applicants screw up their b-school applications because of their attitude more than their actual profile. Adcoms smell the "please like me, I did this all for you" faster than you can even build it. It’s a profile based on premeditation, and not one built on living. Desperation and an eager to please attitude may be endearing in children, but is a death knell for adults. That’s the real struggle more than anything else for those of you early in your careers.

So do what makes you feel confident, not what you think pleases others. There are folks who get in with no extracurricular achievements to speak of and nothing special other than a solid work resume. And there are others with a crapload of everything and don't get in anywhere. More often than not, what separates those who tend to succeed and those who don't (whether in admissions or anything else) are those who don't need the permission to succeed - those who say "f*ck it, this is who I am, take me or leave me.” They may lose some of the time and maybe even a lot of the time, but they will win more than those whose attitude and vibe comes across as trying a bit too hard to please others.

Some of you have gotten it ingrained in you that getting into b-school is important enough for you to have big life/career decisions dictated by gaining admission. The deeper problem however is believing that you need some external permission to succeed - that without getting X, Y or Z, you’re not going to get what you want. It’s this lack of self-belief that is the problem. As some of you may have heard me say this before - a lot of the folks who are at these top b-schools really don’t need the “credential” or “brand” of the b-school to succeed. In the end, they would’ve gotten to a similar place or level without the degree. The only difference is that they had a good time in those 2 years, and they may have had an easier time moving up the ranks, but the difference isn’t night and day to the point where it’s worth ignoring your instincts and values for it.

And while it's harder to live by that principle of “trust your own instincts” when you're younger and being pulled in a gazillion directions by your peers, your family, your colleagues, and yes even those “b-school adcoms” that you have put on a pedestal -- sometimes it's just a matter of faking that confidence and self-belief even when you don't have it.

Ignorance can be bliss. There’s a Forrest Gump in all of us. Sometimes what you don't know can give you the dumb guts to accomplish bigger things than you would have at an older age where you realized how f*cking lucky you were to have achieved it in the first place. That delusional self-belief, that foolishness, is harder and harder to hold onto as one gets older, so don’t be so willing to throw it away so soon. It may be the greatest asset you have right now.

In short, rather than asking others what you should be doing, let ignorance be your fuel and ask YOURSELF what you feel you should be doing... you may surprise yourself when you're older that you managed to pull it off.

Now, I’m not saying any of this is easy to live by, but it’s worth it to at least try.

One of the best posts I have ever read about career goals.+1 Alex.

"if you not try it now, you wil regret about it later!"

This is awesome...Be real, be what you are !!
+1

As always, good writing and a good read.

Hey guys, I just took the GMAT today with low expectations (scored 540-650 on practice tests) and was studying sporadically with a hectic work schedule, crammed this past long weekend, and was absolutely shell shocked when I got a 720! (Q47 V42). Lady luck was seriously on my side today. Thanks again for the tips,I 'm getting more excited that perhaps applying to some of these schools may be a reality for me.

That is awesome!!! Congratulations!!!

**** it, this is who I am, take me or leave me.

One of the best posts I have seen in GC.

Thank you Alex!

I have a follow-up question because I've been reading up on various forums and have seen several posts about having a balanced quant and verbal subscore that made me question if I was prematurely happy. A Q47 translates to the 76th percentile and a V42 translates to a 95th percentile.
I think the Q47 used to be above the 80th percentile a few years ago, but the group average has since risen.

Should I be concerned with this percentile on the Quant? Some of the schools I want to apply to i.e. Haas has explicitly stated that they focus on the quant sub-score.

I majored in finance and so took 'quant'-ish courses in undergrad and got B's, not great but not horrible either.

Your insights would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Lath

I wouldn't worry too much. It's not like your quant is way off (i.e in the 60s or low 70s), and like you said you have an analytical background so it should be fine.

It's good to have your opinion. Thank you Alex!

Dear MBA Apply consultants,

I would be really grateful if you could evaluate my profile, knowing how busy you are helping candidates to get into the top MBA programs.

I'll start by saying that I consider myself to be quite a strong candidate, however I need help identifying potential weaknesses that the adcoms of the universities I'm applying to could point out. Also it would be great if you could generally assess my chances of getting into my chosen schools and briefly summarize what could be the best marketing self-positioning strategy I could apply.

I am a Russian female of 26 (27-28 at matriculation) with 4.5 (5.5-6 at matriculation) years of professional experience at global IT companies in sales/marketing roles.
Career highlights: I was hired from university by Microsoft from a pool of over 500 candidates (as part of the MACH graduate program) for an Account Manager role. At program end I transitioned to another Fortune 100 software company in the role of Channel Account Manager, and I am currenty employed by a Fortune 500 security company as a Channel Manager responsible for the whole Russia & CIS territory. During my employment I have managed people, have done cross continent projects (e.g., launched an Online Software Store in Russia, which implied close collaboration eith the US HQ). With every new employer, I contributed with a solid and demostrated revenue increase, which lead to roles suggesting high-level responsibilities.

My GMAT is 750 98% Q48 (80%) V 44 (98%), AWA 5.5.

I graduated in 2006 from a top 3 Russian university - Lomonosov Moscow State University with a Major in West-European Laguages and Literatures - Magna cum Laude (GPA 3.9/4.0). Two years after graduation I obtained a diploma in HR management (became a manager and needed more knowledge on selecting, training and motivating employees) - Summa cum Laude (GPA 4.0/4.0).

I have Russian & Italian citizenships (lived in Italy in my teens) and speak three languages professionally: Russian, English and Italian. I also have conversational ability in Spanish and French.

As you probably know, community service isn't as popular among the youth in the Eastern Europe (as are similar things in the US), however, I have been an active member of a Russian charity organization helping sick children and homeless animals. I am also a member of Greenpeace and WWF.

My target programs are:
Stanford
MIT Sloan
Berkeley Haas
IMD
INSEAD

My post-MBA goal is to stay in the IT industry, but grow to a technology managing role with a broader scope (managing sales in a region like the Emerging Markets, EMEA). I am also considering IT consulting as another option.

My profile strengths as I see them:
Competitive background (limited applicant pool - IT but not Engineering)
Female with excellent academics (though this isn't probably THAT rare )
Higher than average GMAT
Fast career progression that shows leadership potential (transition to managerial position very young)
Solid international experience

My possible profile weaknesses:
Lack of quantitative sublects in my undergrad (though I think I have demonstrated my msthematical ability at the GMAT, I will probably need to write an optional essay explaining that I'm studying calculus, accounting basics and economics with well-known books like Mankiw's, J. Utts' and others)
... anything else?

Looikng forward for a reply and thanks a lot for soing this for all the MBA hopefuls!

Sincerely,
Olga

Ah if many candidates were like this it would be so much easier to get into a top MBA program =).

Honestly I think you have a very good handle on where you stand, so at this point it's just a matter of focusing on the written applications. You have a strong profile (you have managerial/supervisory experience), so all the schools you listed are within range (of course some schools like Stanford are hard to get into, but you have enough of a chance that it's at least worth applying). As for quant background, what you mentioned should be fine - your high GMAT certainly helps, and what you intend to mention in the optional is fine.

Thanks Alex!

This sounds quite promising, I'll do my best =)

a good confidence boosting and realistic post. grt alex!