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Filthydelphia
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Struggling with Essays about Career Goals Updated on: 12 Apr 2017, 11:56
Originally posted by Filthydelphia on 25 Feb 2017, 19:14.
Last edited by Filthydelphia on 12 Apr 2017, 11:56, edited 1 time in total.
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Hello,

With Round 3 deadlines approaching, I am having a challenging time writing essays. Surprisingly, I have been able to come up with something for the schools with more open-ended topics (like HBS's 'what more would you like us to know?'), but the more directed essay questions, particularly involving my career goals, are very challenging.

Any advice and general thoughts are appreciated!
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Struggling with Essays about Career Goals 25 Feb 2017, 22:35
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Filthydelphia
Hello,

With Round 3 deadlines approaching, I am having a challenging time writing essays. Surprisingly, I have been able to come up with something for the schools with more open-ended topics (like HBS's 'what more would you like us to know?'), but the more directed essay questions, particularly involving my career goals, are very challenging.

I view sample essays and I see a lot of very specific career aspirations: someone wants to be an Associate Vice President of Information Technology for a top Pharmaceutical firm (how oddly specific!) or they are passionate about a particular industry like the healthcare industry or private equity or the entertainment industry.

It occurred to me that I have no such career goals. I am a challenge seeker and a collector of accomplishments. I got my undergraduate degree magna cum laude, then became a military officer, then got a job at a top financial firm, then took the GMAT and scored highly. Now, I want to get into a top program which will open the doors to the next level of challenges. I am indifferent to profession and industry. I am not passionate about any; at least, I do not believe I am.

I cannot imagine that I am alone in this and so I am asking advice on how I should approach these essays?

I have considered bypassing the question but I am not sure how well that would go over. For example, I could bluntly say that I have no specific career aspirations because I want to explore, see what else is out there, and what else I can do. An MBA would give me that opportunity. Will this approach be a mistake?

Another challenging type of essay question is best represented by Booth's: "View this collection of shared Booth moments. Choose the moment that best resonates with you and tell us why." I looked at the pictures and I felt nothing. Am I supposed to feel touched or inspired? Talk about a difficult essay!

Any advice and general thoughts are appreciated!
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I would suggest seek help from Admission Consultants. They will help you in digging into the essays and get the solutions.
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Struggling with Essays about Career Goals 26 Feb 2017, 06:46
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You are probably not going to want to hear this, but my personal view is that B-school is a complete waste of time (and money!) if you don't have a clear intention on what you want to achieve there. Business school is for taking action not figuring things out. Would strongly recommend you connect with a certified career coach (i am one, incidentally) and spend time clarifying things. Your MBA goal is the foundation of your essays and everything stems from that. Round 3 is not ideal anyways - so you would be better off using the spring to do this and apply in R1.
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Struggling with Essays about Career Goals 26 Feb 2017, 06:47
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You are probably not going to want to hear this, but my personal view is that B-school is a complete waste of time (and money!) if you don't have a clear intention on what you want to achieve there. Business school is for taking action not figuring things out. Would strongly recommend you connect with a certified career coach (i am one, incidentally) and spend time clarifying things. Your MBA goal is the foundation of your essays and everything stems from that. Round 3 is not ideal anyways - so you would be better off using the spring to do this and apply in R1.
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Struggling with Essays about Career Goals Updated on: 12 Apr 2017, 11:57
Originally posted by Filthydelphia on 26 Feb 2017, 14:05.
Last edited by Filthydelphia on 12 Apr 2017, 11:57, edited 1 time in total.
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MBAPrepCoach
You are probably not going to want to hear this, but my personal view is that B-school is a complete waste of time (and money!) if you don't have a clear intention on what you want to achieve there. Business school is for taking action not figuring things out. Would strongly recommend you connect with a certified career coach (i am one, incidentally) and spend time clarifying things. Your MBA goal is the foundation of your essays and everything stems from that. Round 3 is not ideal anyways - so you would be better off using the spring to do this and apply in R1.
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Hi. Thank you for your thoughts.
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Struggling with Essays about Career Goals 26 Feb 2017, 19:18
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Filthydelphia
Hello,

With Round 3 deadlines approaching, I am having a challenging time writing essays. Surprisingly, I have been able to come up with something for the schools with more open-ended topics (like HBS's 'what more would you like us to know?'), but the more directed essay questions, particularly involving my career goals, are very challenging.

I view sample essays and I see a lot of very specific career aspirations: someone wants to be an Associate Vice President of Information Technology for a top Pharmaceutical firm (how oddly specific!) or they are passionate about a particular industry like the healthcare industry or private equity or the entertainment industry.

It occurred to me that I have no such career goals. I am a challenge seeker and a collector of accomplishments. I got my undergraduate degree magna cum laude, then became a military officer, then got a job at a top financial firm, then took the GMAT and scored highly. Now, I want to get into a top program which will open the doors to the next level of challenges. I am indifferent to profession and industry. I am not passionate about any; at least, I do not believe I am.

I cannot imagine that I am alone in this and so I am asking advice on how I should approach these essays?

I have considered bypassing the question but I am not sure how well that would go over. For example, I could bluntly say that I have no specific career aspirations because I want to explore, see what else is out there, and what else I can do. An MBA would give me that opportunity. Will this approach be a mistake?

Another challenging type of essay question is best represented by Booth's: "View this collection of shared Booth moments. Choose the moment that best resonates with you and tell us why." I looked at the pictures and I felt nothing. Am I supposed to feel touched or inspired? Talk about a difficult essay!

Any advice and general thoughts are appreciated!
Show more

Thank you for your post and your honesty! This is certainly common as I have many clients who don't have an idea what they want to do when we first start working together. While I can't tell you what your goals should be based on your post, I can say that you do need to have a clear idea before you submit. I usually have an in depth discussion with applicants and begin the career advising process where we figure out the right path together. If you are doing this on your own then I suggest you start to think about aspects of your job you like / don't like and search around for jobs that have those aspects. Then have conversations with MBA graduates in the roles and try to learn more about them.

As mentioned above, round three is tough, but it won't hurt you to apply now and then again in round one if you are not successful. Good luck and reach out if you want to chat further.

www.personalmbacoach.com

Best,
Scott
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Struggling with Essays about Career Goals 05 Mar 2017, 09:15
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Hi there,

Just to reiterate, it is absolutely critical to have a point of view on your career trajectory. This is the essence of your story and how the AdComm will define you. You have to stand for something, and if you think it's going to take some time to figure that out, then I would wait. To be frank, without a key message about who you are and who you want to be, applying now would be a mistake.

You're absolutely right in that you're not alone. This is what we help applicants do - craft a compelling story that accurately demonstrates your career vision. If you'd like to discuss how to tackle this question and how we approach it, we'd be glad to chat! Feel free to sign up for a free consultation below. In the meantime, take a look at some of our free recourses to get you started.
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Struggling with Essays about Career Goals 05 Mar 2017, 10:32
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Do you guys know if the essays questions are the same every years ?
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Struggling with Essays about Career Goals 06 Mar 2017, 06:40
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Ross2018
Do you guys know if the essays questions are the same every years ?
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This really depends on the school. Some schools use the same or very similar questions and other schools change the questions. The good news is schools will start to release the questions soon (Columbia will be first in a little over a month) and regardless of the question, you can always prepare yourself by writing about goals now since you will have to communicate that at some point during the application process.

Best,
Scott