golantrevize wrote:
trbetala wrote:
What does everyone think about giving examples from the same event/organization in two different questions? I know it would be considered rather narrow in terms of experience, but I'd like to know if there are anybody thinks otherwise?
Personally, I don't think it would matter if the examples are from the same organization. What about people who have worked at only one organization for the past 3 years- their experiences are going to be from there! What matters is the breadth of experiences.
My 2 cents.
If you can, mix it up. If they're from the same organization or company at least try to make them different projects--those from consulting have the advantage here. There are a handful of applicants who were 1 year postgrad or straight-out-of-undergrad, but they all worked part-time professionally and during their summers so they had different experiences to pull from for their essays. When you keep referencing the same project, it may raise concerns that you do not have enough experience yet. Remember, all of your examples do not have to come from your full-time job. If you have a startup, volunteer placement, community sports team, etc. that you're involved in, pull examples from there. Also, keep in mind that in interviews, adcomm asks for additional examples not included in your essays. For Sloan, I chose experiences that matched the core Sloan values and initiatives best. For other schools, I diversified more, kept my startup as a subject but switched up the others to formal employment examples. I was both a non-traditional and young applicant.
Essay Q's Last Year:
Essay 1: Please describe a time when you went beyond what was defined, expected, established, or popular.
[Emphasized going beyond what was expected and established and focused on the past five years (primarily in undergrad)--freelanced professionally, several internships, consistently beat quotas at work despite a decreasing budget, launched a startup, awards, etc. As opposed to focusing on one particular project, I made the essay more high level so the theme was more about raising the status quo.]
• Essay 2: Please describe a time when you convinced an individual or group to accept one of your ideas.
[Described convincing administration, faculty and student leaders to restructure a disaster relief strategy. Was careful to point out how the change not only made the relief efforts more effective, but also helped raise the profile of the university on a national scale. B-Schools want to believe that the students they admit would make comparable contributions to the program.]
• Essay 3: Please describe a time when you took responsibility for achieving an objective.
[Described the launch of my startup and the awards it received. Also, emphasized collaboration and the tech innovation behind the company.]
Hope this helps!