Intern
Joined: 25 Jan 2011
Posts: 34
Location: United States
Schools: University of Texas - Austin (McCombs) - Class of 2014
Career goals essay - how specific?
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23 Sep 2011, 08:05
I have a quick question in regards to how specific I need to be in the career goals essays.
To first give you some color, I have experience in a Big 4 accounting firm, and now am at a hedge fund doing accounting, financial reporting, operations, a little bit of everything - "wearing multiple hats". In addition, I am applying to Columbia, Chicago, Darden, UCLA, UT, and NYU
Post-MBA, I'd like to transition to Investment Banking, then afterwards, I'm not sure. Ideally, I'd like to continue in an investment bank to as high as a level I can. However, I'm also interested in exiting to corporate development, back to a hedge fund as part of the investment team (vs. middle/back office), or small/mid-market PE.
Essentially, I'm sure I want to do i-banking short-term, but long-term...not as clear. Even in the short-term, in Investment Banking, I'm not 100% sure what industry group I'd end up in, I am thinking of Financial Institutions as it's connected to my prior industry (but part of it is within my control, and I'm sure a lot more of where I end up in the bank is a function of the bank's needs).
How specific do my short-term goals have to be? Is "Investment Banking associate in corporate finance" sufficient? Or should I also say I want to target an industry, such as financial institutions. I'm afraid of being too ambiguous, at the same time, I want to communicate flexibility as the investment banking industry has, and will continue to change in the next few years.
And for long-term, do I need to drill down to one, or can I list the above as multiple options that I am interested in with a logical reason why they all tie together?
I understand many MBA's change tracks during their program, so I want to be honest and specific so that the committee understand I know what I want, without sounding TOO narrow (that is part of the reason I am doing an MBA).
Apologies in advance for the length or potential rambling. Most of all, thank you so much for your help! I've really enjoyed your website guides for specific school, the candid approach is most helpful!