{"id":12791,"date":"2012-07-06T10:45:25","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T17:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=12791"},"modified":"2012-07-06T10:48:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-06T17:48:00","slug":"confessions-of-an-mba-consultant-white-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/confessions-of-an-mba-consultant-white-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of an MBA Consultant: White Spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post of Stacy's originally appeared on Poets & Quants<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019d rather listen to Celine Dion on a loop, I think to myself knowing there has to be a torture less painful than listening to a business school applicant recite his resume line by line. \u00a0 Getting to know a new client is ordinarily a pleasure, unless he or she drones on about \u201cwhat\u201d they\u2019ve done rather than why.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinnesota,\u201d says today\u2019s candidate, Alan. \u00a0 \u201cMendota Heights actually,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s a suburb of\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Minneapolis, I chime in.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight, Minneapolis. Then I went to Penn undergrad.\u201d \u00a0 He stops, bites his lip, then continues. \u00a0 \u201cWell, after a year at\u2026\u201d he says rushing and apologetic. \u201cThen I went on to a mid-level firm in\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Chicago, I guess to myself without looking at his resume.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan Francisco,\u201d he says. \u00a0 Same thing, I think. \u00a0 \u201cSo?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n

So what? I reply.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what are my chances of getting in to\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n

EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW IF THEY CAN GET INTO THE SCHOOL OF THEIR DREAMS
\nHarvard and Stanford, I interject, knowing full well this kid isn\u2019t planning on going home with an MBA from the University of Burbank. \u00a0 In more than ten years as a B-school admissions adviser, I\u2019ve been asked thousands and thousands of times some version of: \u201cWhat Are My Chances? Am I Going To Get In? What\u2019s It Going To Take?\u201d \u00a0 Much of the time, even top candidates like Alan are not going to get in. Not because they are unqualified or didn\u2019t deliver when it comes to their GPA and GMATs, but because they are clinging to the notion that a perfect score will make them the perfect candidate. They believe they are \u201cwhat\u201d they\u2019ve done, not why.\u00a0 As Alan\u2019s adviser, it\u2019s my job to get him ready. That means it\u2019s my job to tell him the truth.<\/p>\n

BUYING A WINNING LOTTERY TICKET IS THE ONLY THING WITH WORSE ODDS
\nThe truth is, the only thing with worse odds than admission to Harvard Business School is buying a winning lottery ticket. With the competition being so fierce, you have to be more than a resume. \u00a0 Sitting in front of Alan, the banker from Minnesota, I know nothing more about him than when I didn\u2019t know him at all. He didn\u2019t need to take three airplanes to meet me only to tell me what I could find out on a Google search and neither does the dean of admissions of any graduate school. \u00a0 We want to know who you are, not what you did. You\u2019re not being asked to talk about yourself for any other reason than to help a school learn why you made the choices you did. What those choices were is hardly relevant.<\/p>\n

THE REAL STORY IS NOT IN THE WHAT OR THE WHEN; IT\u2019S IN THE WHYS
\nBy skipping over the \u201cwhy\u2019s\u201d: why did Alan leave his first choice university, why did he choose a West Coast firm instead of the more typical Manhattan bank, why B-School when it sounds like he\u2019s already doing just fine, Alan relegated himself to being just a bunch of categories on a piece of paper: Background. Education. Work Experience. But what about the transitions that got him from his education to his work experience? These transitions give a director of admissions insight into how you think, what kind of student you\u2019ll be and, more importantly, what kind of impact you\u2019ll have on the world of finance post B-school. \u00a0 Again, I ask Alan the question he\u2019ll get asked over and over by every Interviewer, \u201cTell me a little bit about you.\u201d \u00a0 \u201cMendota Heights,\u201d he repeats. \u201cIt\u2019s a suburb outside of Minneapolis, but my parents wanted me to go to \u2026.\u201d \u00a0 I stop him.<\/p>\n

FILLING IN THE WHITE SPACES
\nTell me about the white spaces, I say. \u00a0 \u201cWhite spaces? \u00a0 Yes, I say. Tell me about the white spaces on your resume, as I take his resume, tear it up and throw it in the trash. \u00a0 He smiles, finally understanding what I\u2019m getting at.<\/p>\n

AN MBA CANDIDATE COMES TO LIFE
\nBy learning that Alan graduated at the top of his class from Minneapolis\u2019 most prestigious private boy\u2019s school as a son of one of the teachers, I get a picture of a hard driving outsider, determined to succeed. By learning that he left his first choice university because it was just too small for this small town native itching for more, I see a future leader willing to take risks. And by choosing to get his work experience at a West Coast firm, I learn of Alan\u2019s desire to think out of the box and not just \u201cfollow the pack.\u201d \u00a0 By telling me why, Alan becomes so much more than another set of scores on paper. He becomes a well-rounded candidate who stands out in a crowd.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very rare that you\u2019re going to have the highest GPA from the best university with the best GMAT score. And if you do, there\u2019s probably going to be someone who rates as well, if not better \u201con paper.\u201d \u00a0 Like Alan, you are not just your resume. You are the white spaces in between.\u00a0 You are the transitions that got you from A to B and that will get you from B to B-school.\u00a0 So celebrate who you are, if you want an admissions director to do the same.<\/p>\n

If you are looking for guidance on your <\/em>MBA application, Stacy Blackman Consulting can help with hourly<\/a> and comprehensive<\/a> consulting services. Contact us<\/a> to learn more. Visit the website for Stacy Blackman Reviews<\/a>, and check out the company\u2019s e-publications for more in depth school-by-school guidance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post of Stacy’s originally appeared on Poets & Quants I\u2019d rather listen to Celine Dion on a loop, I think to myself knowing there has to be a torture…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,3,4,775,113,10,243],"tags":[147,124,1906,12],"class_list":["post-12791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-b-school-life","category-career-reviews","category-admission-consultants","category-applications","category-interviews","category-blog","tag-mba-application","tag-mba-interview","tag-stacy-blackman","tag-the-mba-application-process","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12791"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12793,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12791\/revisions\/12793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}