Hi. Good question!
The less movement you have actually, the better off you are as a potential candidate. It’s tough when somebody’s making a triple jump. Changing location, changing industry, and changing function. It’s a lot of risk for the candidate but also for the school. Admissions committee evaluates your employability chances when they recruit you and they evaluate your plan and how feasible it is. They don’t want you to be stuck without a job when you graduate and be a liability for the business school.
So, when you are not changing industries or functions and tries to stay within the same parameters, that’s a welcome sign to them. They would rather have a consultant go back into consulting because they know that a consultant can instead of a biologist trying to get into private equity.
As for your essays, and your story, I would recommend talking to some of the current students and getting their input. Perhaps you can connect with someone who came from your background or someone you know or someone you have networked with. It will be super helpful for your overall application. I would say in general, you can justify or motivate MBA application with reasons such as changing location, responsibilities, broadening your skill set, or more importantly, how will it help you achieve your end goal. For example, let’s say you want to be in Consulting and you just got a job in Consulting but to get promoted to the next level after, do you need an MBA. Or perhaps even if you don’t need an MBA for the next level perhaps it’s the level after perhaps some thing in five years that you’re looking for. When the admissions team reads your essays, they want to get an impression that you will use the degree and you will use it as a tool. You also want them to feel that if they don’t admit you, they’ll be committing a terrible act ghat will keep a lot of good things from happening 😂. Think about it this way, they have these magic tickets to distribute. They can give it to someone who would appreciate it but may not really need it or use it or they can give it to someone who can really be excited about it and will use it every day and really needs it and will make a difference using it. As the result, the more likely to give those tickets to people who would be leveraging this ticket it the most.
As to switching jobs, it’s not a problem. Traditionally it’s something you want to avoid because it’s going to cause extra headache for you but in terms of the admissions, a lot of people have been in and out of jobs and lots of changes have been happening in the last 18 months due to the pandemic. As the result, they hardly blink anymore if people have been changing jobs every eight months or so because they know how immediate the market is.
Here’s another common sense secret so to speak. Admissions teams love admitting successful candidates. If you were getting promoted and getting new jobs, and are on an upward trajectory they love it. It also creates an impression that you have many options and choices and you’re doing well. Nobody wants to admit a person who is a burden and is at a dead end job and it’s just sitting there waiting to be rescued. Yes this will create a hassle for your recommendations and more explanations but in general, as long as you are taking a position with a strong company and a good brand name, it’s a positive.
Finally, a lot depends about how you present yourself and how you paint your story. There are always many perspectives you can project. Do you want to cast yourself in a strong and positive light as a post to indecisive or unfocused or untruthful. Make sure you refined your message and stick to it. Again, business school student networking will help a lot and they’ll have a lot of suggestions. I’m talking about second year students, not the ones who just started a week ago (though those guys are also valuable, they are just super stressed and clueless at the moment)
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31 Aug 2021, 09:55
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