Question regarding to the story to write in mistake question

Question

Question per below:

Tell us about the biggest mistake you made, or almost made and what did you learn from it?

I have two stories in my mind:
1) It's a story when I was only 11 years old --- it changed my life forever and transformed me into a better person.
 - I was a bully child at that time and I was the cause to make my friend facing accident. His collarbone was broken and I felt so guilty from that. Also, my parents were criticized by my friend's parent from this accident. From that day, I promise my family that I wont let them down again.
2) Happening during my career, this story is quiet common for those who are working in my field. Im working as a FX sales/Trader and I made the company loss almost USD 200k from mistakenly quoting wrong bid/offer price to my customer.

Personally, I prefer to write the first one to the second, but I am not sure whether AdComs ask about failures and setbacks in order to assess my maturity and teamwork skills or not. 
Should I write the first or second or looking for new story?

Your response will be greatly appreciated

Admissionado · Answer

You ask a pretty tough question, because you have two pretty interesting stories that are very different. Honestly, it's hard for me to give you a definitive answer without seeing the rest of your application and without knowing what other stories you are using. But still, my tendency would be towards the second, professional story. even if the first one FEELS right, it is also very important that we choose stories that are RELEVANT! and here your objective is NOT to answer the questions the best you can, but to present yourself to business school. So it depends how well you can connect each story with the REST of your story (who you are,w hat your professional goals are, why you want to do an MBA, etc.). But let's not forget that business school is a professional endeavor, and my tendency would be to recommend using the professional story.

PolT · Answer

Hi Jon,

Thx u very much for ur instant reply. It's very helpful.
Btw, I would like to ask a few more questions.
 
1) I interest in both MBA and MS-Fin program, what if I apply both programs of the same school. Are there gonna be any negative impacts on my chance? And both programs use the same AdComs team or not?
2) This question is abt choosing recommenders. I've been working in 2 firms during my career, one is 2 and a half yrs and another is only 6 mths. Should I ask my boss at a firm that I spent only 6 mths there to be a recommender, or choose two recommenders from another firm, or only one and professor, or one plus my close client, who is fund manager managing the biggest portfolio in my country and knows me for 3 yrs already.

Admissionado · Answer

Glad to help!

to answer your follow up questions:

1. You can apply to both MFA and MBA programs if both interest you, but not both in the same school, (well you CAN, but it's not a good idea) so think about that when choosing your schools.
2. Selecting your good recommender depends on lots of things, and I don;t have enough information to help you here. One of the MOST important things is that your recommender really really like you. In general, recommendations are read for tone, so the most effective recommenders are the ones that are most full of praise. Other things to consider: How important they are. How well they know you and your work. How much they have seen you in leadership positions.

Hope this helps!!!!

Question regarding to the story to write in mistake question

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