Hello Members,
We had a chat session with Bhavik Trivedi - Managing Partner of Critical Square Consulting - on GMAT Club a couple weeks back. Bhavik shared very helpful tips on communicating Career Goals to adcoms. He also answered the questions of participants. For those who missed this event, I am putting here some important questions/answers as well as tips shared by Bhavik during the event. You can also download the transcript of this entire session from bottom of this post. Also visit this thread to view schedule of upcoming consultant chat events.
schedule-of-online-chat-sessions-with-admission-consultants-188123.html"Communicating Career Goals"
For a lot of folks, going to business school and getting an MBA can be a great way to shake up their career. Whether it's a slight course correction or a complete shake up, everyone has professional reasons for getting their MBA. But how do you communicate them in a way that resonates with the admissions committee? Talking about them is really difficult and, done incorrectly, can sink your application. That's the whole point of today's live chat! I'm going to share some tips and things to keep in mind as well as answer any questions you might have. So take all those pent up career questions and let's do this!
First off, your goals need to be ambitious. Now, before we go any further, relax. Ambitious doesn't mean you need to be the first entrepreneur to the moon or that you need to launch the world's next big NGO in Africa. You don't HAVE to change the world for a goal to be ambitious. Even a goal like getting into consulting can be ambitious. Maybe you come from IT and you're trying to get into strategy consulting. That's going to be pretty difficult and it'll take a lot of hard work and elbow grease. No one is going to just GIVE you that job. But it can't be TOO safe! Admissions committees want future leaders that are going to do big things. Big things mean good things for the brand! They want applicants with drive and vision. But y'all don't have to try too hard to make them ambitious but making them make sense? That can be a bit tougher. Making goals realistic is what trips up most of the applicants out there.
There are 3 main things adcoms are trying to figure out when they look at your career goals
Firstly, do you understand what the career entails? Private equity might sound sexy, but there's a lot that happens in PE. Deal due diligence? M&A? Ops? location? industry? So merely stating PE won't automatically get your brownie points.
Secondly, is this specific MBA program the right one to help get you there? Some schools are better for certain career goals than others - does that mean you can't get where you're going from most of the top programs out there? Of course not! but it does mean some schools have advantages. hate to say it - but heading to a Booth / Wharton / Columbia is a nice ticket to Wall Street! and heading to McCombs to get into Oil & Gas makes a lot of sense!
Thirdly, have people from your background been successful doing what you're trying to do. From the usernames off to the right, a lot of you seem to be international. That carries inherent risk and limitations. Or maybe the school isn't super well known for what you're trying to do. but others HAVE done it - well if you can convince the adcom you understand the difficult road ahead, then who are they to question your path if other students have already blazed the trail? So remember - good career goals are balanced. They are ambitious yet realistic; They're aggressive but achievable; And no matter what your career goals are, make sure they're well researched! DIG DEEP. don't just visit wikipedia and go, "hmm consulting sounds interesting". that won't do!
Ergenekon: Hi, Bhavik. Can you give me tips how I can research and present career goal such as healthcare in a big 4 consulting companies?
CriticalSquare_Bhavik: Because within consulting there is a lot of nuance - you need to know how each particular firm operates in terms of staffing (regional? national?) what they're focusing on - how easy it is to get plugged in, are they growing? how would you ensure you would actually land that role - because consulting can be a chance game as well. So really understanding each specific firm and their needs is important, but what I like is you're focusing on a specific industry and then you can absolutely explore diverse roles WITHIN that silo
Sunshine: It is generally said that your post MBA goals should be consistent with your past work experience. But is it possible for one to have a career goal altogether different than the past experience?
CriticalSquare_Bhavik: That is a WONDERFUL question. So generally, they need to be leverageable - something in your past should tie. But it's not a requirement. If you go down that route, however, you need to really sell the adcom that you know a) how to get into that job and b) why they would find you valuable
kulkarninik4: Bhavik. I have heard that a high GMAT score sometimes leverages your chances of recruitment in a management consulting firm. I have heard they ask your GMAT score at times. Can you shed any light on this?
CriticalSquare_Bhavik: yes, they absolutely do, and it's more of a line in the sand than a hard requirement - they also adjust the line for diversity candidates, etc. but generally a score of >=700 puts you in play.
Jega: I have read that the competition between Indian Male Engineers is too high to get into top b schools. So can I know what will differentiate one applicant from an overcrowded applicant pool, when GMAT, GPA and Work Experience are all above average?
CriticalSquare_Bhavik: it really comes down to story and passion and drive and commitment to the program > when everyone is very similar, it's all about the sentiments you express, how you do so, and how you can communicate personality and character; those are the things, on the margin, that move the needle
Ergenekon: Bhavik, can you also explain why adcoms need diversity too much? I know about learning experience, but i read from somewhere that they have business interests too)
CriticalSquare_Bhavik: of course - they want to appear accepting, representative, etc. > think about a company you might want to work for - same goes for schools and schools have political reasons as well or government mandates. but don't discount diversity of learning experience - it really is a BIG part of bschool
Engineer1200: Hi Bhavik, I know engineers are overrepresented. Does that hold true for all types? (Electrical, chemical, computer) and all countries (US vs India vs China, etc)? Thanks!!
CriticalSquare_Bhavik: no, it definitely varies - that's a great question > a chemE is less represented than a CompE no matter where you come from and engineers from India and China are more common!
Jega: does high GMAT scores compensate for low GPA's? Your views on this..
CriticalSquare_Bhavik: yes and no, can they help, absolutely, can they completely offset no. We had a client this year with a 2.3 from princeton but he built a solid alternative transcript and a 730 > boom, invite to Booth. so can it offset and help? absolutely!
Ergenekon: is it true that wharton pays more attention to high gmat scores than other other top programs?
CriticalSquare_Bhavik: no, that is rather mythical > there are some schools very focused on stats but Wharton isn't particularly one of them
MilosMiletic5: Regarding your tip on tying previous experiences to future goals - how do you communicate to schools the fact that what you did in the past has basically no tangential points to what you want to do in the future?
CriticalSquare_Bhavik: you'd want to at least tie the SKILLS you learned to your forward goals > lets say you were in engineering but want to move to consulting, the environments and collaborative nature and logical thinking all translate, or maybe there was a specific type of project you did that really made you interested, etc. you want to have SOME tie otherwise it'll catch them off guard
Important Tips
- There are two levers to most career goals > function and industry. Try to move one lever in your story - moving both is going to raise some red flags!
- Adcoms are closely tied in with the school's career services to department
- Adcoms view your goals from the perspective of a potential employer - would they find you an interesting applicant?
- Entrepreneurship in the short term can be a HUGE red flag if you're not already an entrepreneur
- Entrepreneurship in the longer term can be seen as a vague, catch-all goal that lacks clarity
- If you're going to go into a generic profession such as finance or consulting, have a VERY specific reason to do so
- High tech means a lot of things and something different to everyone you speak with
- If there is something unique in your background, try to hold on to it unless there's a very good reason you're letting it go > for example, one of our clients had a ton of hands on experience with unmanned defense aerial vehicles so we keep UAVs a big part of his story because it was really unique
- Understand the implications of being an international student and how that limits your realistic bschool exits
- Saying you want to go into consulting for broad based industry and functional experiences shows a fundamental LACK of understanding of how consulting firms work
- Investment Banking is an umbrella term - be specific. Which function specifically interests you?
- A lot of applicants want to go into PE / VC but what schools don't tell you is most folks who get those jobs came from that industry to begin with and, if not, then consulting and finance
- Product management requires an understanding of the back end, front end, and business - having just 2 of the 3 won't get you there
- If you heard about the role you're interested in just a year or two ago, then chances are there are THOUSANDS of applicants using the same goal
- Working for a consulting firm does not mean you can launch your own professional services firm
- Working in finance doesn't mean you can launch your own fund
- Industry shifts are easier to justify than functional ones
- If you're going to pursue off campus recruiting career paths, understand how the pieces will work together to get you there
- Whatever your goals, make sure you tie your previous experiences to your future path
Download Session Transcript Here.
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