Alright, I'm the biggest procrastinator known to man. There I said it! If only I can put that on my application to make me "unique", haha! Anyway, I'm going to start a "semi-blog" of my thought processes, just so people can comment on things, help me brainstorm, and maybe this will be helpful or funny to read once it's all over. Who knows. It's a "semi-blog" because I'm not going to update it with all the steps I'm taking, but it's more of my own little process tracking utility and sounding board. The first thing I managed to finally put down tonight was my theme/handles. No, this isn't the theme/handles like "Empathic Leader who's a Quant God" type "slogans" that people talk about, but the 5-6 "Chapters" of my essay package that I want to make sure I talk about. Feel free to comment as you like, but I think these are the things I want to talk about in my essays: My 4 themes are broken down into Work Leadership, Career Motivation, Non-Work Leadership, and Community Involvement/Volunteering. I'll also put some comments out there on why I'm including the item: Work Leadership: - Leading a summer intern program: This one is a shining example of my leadership skills, even if it was roughly 3 years ago. - Other minor examples of leading smaller groups in 2 different functions (5-15 people) Motivations: This is for my "Why MBA/Why Now" essays. These three "brief mentions" will combine into a coherent story of my thought process and reasons for how I decided on what my career goals are and why I need an MBA. Think of them as one big theme encompassing three minor ones: - Brief mention of the leadership program I was in: This explains how I got exposed to the business side of things - Brief mention of a "startup" group I was in within a big company, and how I enjoyed seeing the process of concept exploration to fully funded program. My entrepreneur friend said that this is the best story to show why I'm interested in entrepreneurship even though I've never done it. - Brief mention of my quest to shift from a tech position to a more business position in my company Non-Work Leadership: to show my well-roundedness - Company and local tennis team(s) founder/captain Outside Community Involvement: The key is to show that I am involved with the community *and* school/alma mater whenever I find an opportunity. It also shows that I focus my involvement in things I'm passionate about. - Music and Astronomy teaching: - Mentor/Advisorship of an alma mater student society: - Starting a social network for new employees at the company: Alright, so this what I'll be using for the various essays for each school. 4 major items, Work Leadership, Why MBA, Non-work Leadership, and Community involvement. Work and Non-Work Leadership each have one major example, and I'll leave it at that. Motivations always encompass a wide variety of reasons that go throughout your career, so having 3 brief examples is good. Involvement I'll pick and choose the best ones that fit the essay question. Since my background is engineering, I will leave the tech stuff out of all my essays, and let me transcripts, GMAT, and GPA do the talking. My focus is on leadership, people sklils, well-roundedness, minor innovations, and passion for the things I do. Comments? Questions? Hope this brainstorm is at least of some use to others... at least it's been good for me to type it out...

Are you serious? So not only do both of us want to focus on entrepreneurship, but both of us are interested in the same "telecom / mobile businesses" too !! Now that you mentioned your interest in "telecom / mobile businesses", I am all ears, dude !! I should buy up the domain xgmatclubberscommunications.com then, eh?

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Kryzak's Semi-Blog for Themes, Essays, and Apps

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abhishek.sardana

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19 Aug 2007, 22:57

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kryzak

Just finished my optional essay outline, I'm pretty excited that I found a place to talk about my volunteering work and a way to connect my passions for some of my hobbies with my passion for teaching/mentoring. Listed 2 major examples and a couple smaller ones, and linked it to a different kind of leadership than ones where you lead a work team or a group of people. I think I am happy with how my Haas outlines are coming out (other than their length)... they covered every aspect of my life that I wanted them to cover, and touched upon work/extracurricular leadership, Motivations, Goals, Volunteering, and that I'm a People-person.

I think you might have a place in the application to talk about your community service experiences. The optional essay is meant only for the inforamation that is not reflected elsewhere in the application. I think that you should not use the optional essay for community service, if you have a place in the application for that.

kryzak

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19 Aug 2007, 23:18

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unfortunately, at this point I have no other place to discuss community service (which is a big part of my personality) in any of the Haas essays because of word length and the solo-nature of my volunteering activities (more teaching/mentoring than team work).

Haas's short answers ask about dinner guests, accomplishments (which I have a team oriented one), innovation (I have one for that already), and what you learned about Berkeley (definitely not a place for service)

Long Essay 1 asks about Leadership, and I have a very good work example for it

Long Essay 2 I'm battling just to get my career progression and why MBA in there under 300 words.

Thus, only in the optional essay can I discuss my passion for teaching/mentoring a wide variety of people.

kryzak

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Updated on: 23 Aug 2007, 17:24

Originally posted by kryzak on 20 Aug 2007, 17:29.
Last edited by kryzak on 23 Aug 2007, 17:24, edited 1 time in total.

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[Wrote this up for another thread, but keeping it here just as an archive...

- I have "entrepreneurial qualities" based on the work I did in my current job for the past 6 years

- I want an MBA to learn ALL the aspects of running a business, especially in the strategic area.

- With an MBA, I could start my business immediately, but I want to learn more about the industry by working in established (but still small and agile) companies and APPLYING the knowledge I learned, practicing it so I can truly understand what i need to do.

I know it might not be the "true" entrepreneurial spirit (taking a lot of risks), but I believe having a good foundation is as important as just having a good idea, and it's just a different path to take as an entrepreneur.

how does that sound?

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20 Aug 2007, 18:39

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kryzak

and have a strong technical background in the tech field I want to be in (telecom/mobile business)

Are you serious? :shock:

So not only do both of us want to focus on entrepreneurship, but both of us are interested in the same "telecom / mobile businesses" too !!

kryzak

Give that 2-3 years, and I'll be well equipped to launch my own company with the network I built in b-school (mNeo, are you listening?

)

Now that you mentioned your interest in "telecom / mobile businesses", I am all ears, dude !!

I should buy up the domain xgmatclubberscommunications.com then, eh? :wink:

bherronp

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20 Aug 2007, 19:15

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mNeo

Now that you mentioned your interest in "telecom / mobile businesses", I am all ears, dude !!

I should buy up the domain xgmatclubberscommunications.com then, eh? :wink:

I'm in the telecom/mobility business right now too.

kryzak, stop being a better version of me. Its getting creepy. :wink:

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20 Aug 2007, 19:18

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And did the entrepreneurship wasp sting you too, bherronp?

kryzak

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20 Aug 2007, 22:05

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this is kinda creepy...

yeah, my BS and MS were both in comm theory. I have a fascination with wireless stuff, but hate the nitty gritty equations that go with it. Thus I realized doing business in the industry is the best way to combine my passion for business with my tech background.

This is kind of weird to have two others on the same forum with almost the SAME background... oh boy, the competition will be tough! But then again, mNeo and bherronp, which schools were you applying to again? I hope not the same ones in the same round!

kryzak

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20 Aug 2007, 23:47

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just finished Haas Short Essay 1, the dinner guest one.

Wow, 278 words, *before* serious editing! only 10% over the word limit (250), I'm pretty excited! It's really not much space to talk about anything at all other than list some specific accomplishments that I'll discuss in other essays and very briefly explain why I picked my dinner guest. These short essays are pretty crazy!

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21 Aug 2007, 01:14

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maybe the 3 of you are split personalities of 1 person?

......

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21 Aug 2007, 07:38

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mNeo

And did the entrepreneurship wasp sting you too, bherronp?

I think about starting my own business, but if I do it, I want to do it about 10 years or so from now. I want to get through school, get it paid off, and get a good financial base built. Both my father and grandfather ran their own businesses, so I have seen both the good and the bad of being an entrepreneur. When things are good, they are really good. When things are bad.... well in 2001 I think I made about 18k, and that was more than my dad did that year. His business barely survived, and he is still fighting to get it back to where it had been. So I guess I have a more cautious outlook.

Also, the two year cost of what I would really like to start is enormous, so I'd have to get good financial resources lined up.

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12 Jun 2013, 23:52

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How about updating this thread line?
Looks really important but out of date

kryzak

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10 Aug 2013, 14:55

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haha, not quite sure what to update... can't believe this process was 6 years ago now... ;-)

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13 Aug 2013, 11:03

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kryzak

haha, not quite sure what to update... can't believe this process was 6 years ago now... ;-)

Wow! Someone was able to make Kryzak post again

P.S: Thank you for all the wonderful stuff on the forum.

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10 Oct 2015, 09:21

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