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FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business |
MBA applicants can get carried away with rankings. In this series, we profile amazing programs at business schools that are typically ranked outside the top 15. Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business unveiled an updated MBA curriculum in 2012—and with it, a revamped global emphasis. Dean David A. Thomas announced the changes as a response to the evolving global business landscape, meant to equip students “with the skills to be innovative leaders—whether they are joining established organizations or becoming entrepreneurs.” During “opening term,” first-year students are required to take “Structure of Global Industries.” This immersive three-week core course provides a foundation in international business that runs through the required “modules” in the spring semester and culminates with the school’s newly expanded, signature “Global Business Experience” during students’ second year. In this program, students take on consulting roles working for actual international organizations. In the spring, student teams travel to their respective client’s country—such as South Africa, Turkey, Mexico, and Italy—to gain firsthand experience working in a global consulting and management setting. After the participating students return to campus, they present the stories of and take-aways from their experiences to their classmates at the school’s Global Business Conference. The post Diamonds in the Rough: Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Stanford GSB Supports International Students |
With approximately 40% of a typical class at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) having been born outside the United States, the school provides a wide variety of support services for its international students. Before arriving on campus, admitted international students receive information crucial to the logistical and social challenges they may face, including how to obtain a study visa for the United States, how to obtain a U.S. Social Security number, and how to adapt to an American classroom environment. Once on campus, first-year students from outside the United States are strongly encouraged to share their perspective in global business courses and can attend seminars and workshops designed to increase their confidence and improve their skills in written and spoken English via the Management Communication Program. Of course, international students also frequently participate in and lead targeted student clubs, including the Africa Business Club, the Europe Club, the Asia Business Student Association, and the Middle East and North Africa Club. To help with their international career search, students can count on a dedicated international career coach. The school’s Bechtel International Center offers additional support for international students, including U.S. employment and tax workshops as well as advisory services on visa and immigration issues. In addition, the center hosts an international playgroup for children. Finally, the center provides modest stipends for the spouses of MBA students to pursue their educational and career goals through the Spouse Education Fund. For more information on other defining characteristics of the MBA program at Stanford GSB or one of 15 other top business schools, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Friday Factoid: Stanford GSB Supports International Students appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Must Have Gotten It Wrong! |
You have a 720 GMAT score and a 3.75 GPA. You have made solid career progress and procured glowing recommendations. You have been actively volunteering in your community for years. You worked hard on your application and landed an interview at your target school, where you felt you did well. But… you did not get in. You must have done something terribly wrong in your interview or unwittingly made a mess of your essays, right? Not necessarily. We recently spoke with the admissions director at a top MBA program who explained that his school does not give feedback to rejected candidates because it is simply a waste of the candidate’s and admissions staff’s time. The admissions director told us that the school would need to nitpick in order to give candidates something to work on and to ensure that they filled the time during these hypothetical feedback sessions. He explained that nine times out of ten, the feedback that they offered to weaker candidates would be patently obvious and that countless strong applicants had done nothing wrong at all. In fact, most candidates create their best applications, but space is simply limited in the class. Although this may not be comforting if you were rejected, you may just have been the victim of a competitive process during a competitive year. We suggest that you honestly assess your own candidacy and consider staying the course as you continue applying. Spending significant time revamping your applications may be a waste of time and a losing strategy. Patience may prove beneficial in the long term. The post MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Must Have Gotten It Wrong! appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: Harvard Business School Nears Its $1B Fundraising Goal |
A mere 18 months have passed since Harvard Business School (HBS) launched an ambitious $1B fundraising campaign, but the school is already nearing its goal well before the 2018 deadline. The campaign, which had already drawn more than $600M before its public launch in April 2014, has now raised a total of more than $860M. The business school’s $1B goal is the second largest among all the schools in Harvard’s university-wide fundraising campaign—only the Faculty of Arts and Sciences goal is higher at $2.5B. Harvard’s overall goal is to raise $6.5B. The business school plans to spread the funds across various needs, including faculty research, financial aid for students, and an ongoing campus construction project. In addition, the gifts will help fund HBS’s online education programs CORe and HBX Live. The post MBA News: Harvard Business School Nears Its $1B Fundraising Goal appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: What the GMAT Really Tests |
With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this blog series, Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. The GMAT is not a math test. Nor is it a grammar test. Sure, you have to know something (well, a lot of things!) about these topics to get a good score, but this exam is really testing your executive reasoning skills. The term might be unfamiliar, but you already have—and use—these skills every day. Consider: You arrive at work in the morning and think about all of the things that you could do that day. You cannot get it all done, so which things will have to wait until this afternoon or tomorrow or next week? Which one thing should you start working on first? You have a choice between working on Product X or Project Y. Project Y will result in about 5% more revenue to the company, but Project Y will also take 50% longer. Which do you do? None of those decisions are easy ones (and many would likely require more information than I gave in the little scenario). This complex decision making is exactly what a good executive needs to be able to do well—and this is what the test writers and business schools actually care about. How does that help me take the test? A great decision maker has both expertise and experience: she has thought about how to make various kinds of decisions, and she has actually practiced and refined these decision-making processes. While the clock is ticking, she does not hesitate to make a decision and move forward, knowing that she is going to be leaving some opportunities behind. If you know how the GMAT works, and you know what kinds of trade-offs to think about when deciding how to spend your time, then you can learn how to make the best decisions to maximize your score. Okay, how does the GMAT work? Glad you asked. I talk to students nearly every day who tell me that they just cannot give up on a question, or they figure that, if they “know” they can get something right, they might as well take the time to get it right, even when that means running out of time later on. (Note: I put “know” in question marks there because… well, you do not really know. In fact, the longer we spend, the more likely we are to get stuff wrong.) So here is what you need to do: you need to grow up. I am not saying “Oh, grow up!” in a harsh way. I am saying that you need to graduate from school. The way that we were trained to do things in school is often not the way things work in the real world. You already know this—you learned it when you got out into the working world. In school, you are supposed to do what the professors assign. At work, you are supposed to think for yourself. So get yourself out of school. Graduate to the real world. Approach the GMAT as a test of your business ability and decision-making skills. Graduation day If you can graduate to the business mind-set, you will have a much better shot at hitting your goal score. If you stick with the “school” mind-set, then you are almost certainly not going to get the score you want. So, first, keep reminding yourself that the GMAT is a decision-making test, not an academic test. React accordingly. Next, the two articles “In It to Win It” and “But I Studied This – I Should Know How to Do It!” will also help you make this mental switch. Follow those up by educating yourself on the subject of time management. Great businesspeople know how to manage their time and make trade-off decisions; great GMAT test takers have this same skill. Finally, remember that your ability to get better hinges on your ability to analyze your own thought processes and the test questions themselves. Your goal is not academic. Your goal is to learn how to think. The post GMAT Impact: What the GMAT Really Tests appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Cyber Monday Deal: Last Chance to Save 50% on mbaMission Insider’s Guides! |
Our Black Friday – Cyber Monday Sale ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. EST. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to get our valuable MBA application resources for a minimal cost! From midnight EST on Black Friday (11/27) through 11:59 p.m. EST on Cyber Monday (11/30), when you buy one or several Insider’s Guides in our online store, you can take 50% off your total purchase price by entering the special code GIVETHANKS at checkout. This discount is available for new Insider’s Guide orders only. Purchase must be made between 12:00 a.m. EST Friday(11/27/2015) and 11:59 p.m. ESTMonday (11/30/2015) using the special code. The post Cyber Monday Deal: Last Chance to Save 50% on mbaMission Insider’s Guides! appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Choosing Safe Recommenders |
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. Given that you still have significant time before next year’s first-round application deadlines, you have the opportunity to take some steps now to ensure you submit your strongest applications possible. One such step is doing some background work on your recommenders to make sure your choices are indeed “safe.” After all, if you are playing by the strictest interpretation of the rules of recommendations, you will not get to see what your recommenders ultimately write about you. By doing a little intelligence work in advance, you can better understand whether you are making the right decision before committing to a certain individual. By doing some “intelligence,” we mean—where possible—contacting past colleagues in a discreet and diplomatic way to find out what their experiences were like with your potential recommender. For example, was your potential recommender a generous advocate or was he/she a disinterested third party who had a tendency to be harsh? Clearly, learning more about your target recommender’s approach in advance can help you understand whether or not you should offer him/her this important responsibility. Past colleagues can also guide you in how best to manage your recommenders, which can be just as important as choosing them. Knowing up front that your recommender is a procrastinator or performed better after being given a list of accomplishments from which to work can help ensure the best letter possible and can prevent you from inadvertently antagonizing your recommender or delaying the process. The post Mission Admission: Choosing Safe Recommenders appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Career Advice: Individual Contributions |
In this weekly series, our friends at MBA Career Coaches will be dispensing invaluable advice to help you actively manage your career. Topics include building your network, learning from mistakes and setbacks, perfecting your written communication, and mastering even the toughest interviews. For more information or to sign up for a free career consultation, visit www.mbacareercoaches.com. We have been talking about three tests to apply to your resume to ensure that each bullet showcases your accomplishments and how you excelled. The Cause and Effect Test requires you to show not just the results you produced, but also the actions you took that led to those results. Let’s explore some of the reasons bullets fail the Cause and Effect Test. Cause and Effect Test Fail:
Here is another phrasing of this bullet that would fail the Cause and Effect Test. Cause and Effect Test Fail:
Cause and Effect Test Fail:
Cause and Effect Test Pass:
The post MBA Career Advice: Individual Contributions appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Sankaran Venkataraman, UVA’s Darden School |
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school, but the educational experience you will have is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we focus on Sankaran Venkataraman from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Sankaran Venkataraman—who is known around the campus of the University of Virginia’s (UVA’s) Darden School as simply “Venkat”—is an internationally recognized expert on entrepreneurship. He is the MasterCard Professor of Business Administration at Darden and the senior associate dean for faculty and research. He has edited the Journal of Business Venturing and consulted with the U.S. Department of Commerce on promoting entrepreneurship globally. He is also a coauthor of The Innovation Journey (Oxford University Press, 2008) and coeditor of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Regions Around the World: Theory, Evidence and Implications (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008). Venkat earned one of Darden’s awards for outstanding faculty in 2008 and is generally considered one of the school’s most popular professors. In January 2010, Venkat earned the Academy of Management’s Decade Award for a paper published ten years earlier that was judged to have had the greatest impact on scholarship in the fields of management and organizations. A second-year student we interviewed described Venkat as “very analytical, very smart and teaching on the top edge of marketing analytics.” Added a recent alumnus, “He will help much more than you would expect a professor to help.” Another alumnus with whom we spoke recounted meeting Venkat at an Indian Affairs party only a few weeks into his first year: “He [Venkat] quickly realized that I did not know who he was and told me that he was a student in another section. I led him around, introducing him to other new students until I eventually realized that he was pulling my leg.” For more information about UVA Darden and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Professor Profiles: Sankaran Venkataraman, UVA’s Darden School appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: How Much Does Business School Networking Cost? |
When planning to apply to a business school, most candidates take the time to calculate the possible costs of pursuing their MBA. Aside from such obvious items as tuition and board, what should one take into account? Leaving some cash on the side for “extras” could prove to be vital, Bloomberg Businessweek says. As a part of its recent 2015 business school rankings, the publication examined the average cost of extra expenses during an MBA program, such as clubs, travel, and eating at restaurants—things that, perhaps more often than not, are a part of networking. The school with the highest average was Harvard Business School, where MBA students spend approximately $16K a year on extras. The number was similarly high at many other top-ranked business schools: nonessential expenses for students at Columbia Business School, for example, average approximately $14K a year. The post MBA News: How Much Does Business School Networking Cost? appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Fuqua Fridays and End-of-Term Parties |
Fox Center at Duke Fuqua When you select an MBA program, you are not just choosing your learning environment but are also committing to becoming part of a community. Each Thursday, we offer a window into life “beyond the MBA classroom” at a top business school. Every Friday evening, students, partners, professors, and administrators at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business meet for drinks and snacks at the Fox Center for Fuqua Fridays. One second year told mbaMission, “Fuqua Friday’s a really great way to bring everyone together in the same place. It provides a chance to unwind.” It is the primary regular event at which the school’s greater community comes together—one-half to three-quarters of the student body usually attends. Some Fuqua Fridays have themes, such as Casino Night, a version of television’s Top Chef or Iron Chef, an International Food Festival, and Green Week. Another second-year student we interviewed insisted that Fuqua Fridays are not to be missed, adding, “It brings everyone together when we are in a positive mind-set.” At the end of each term, students let off steam at an End-of-Term Party organized by the MBA Association. Past events have included a Halloween party, a luau, and a black-tie optional party. These parties sometimes draw as many as 500 attendees, if not more. A second-year student told mbaMission, “[The] end-of-term parties are crazy. [They’re] a huge part of our fabric and a way to spend social time bonding with people you might not see outside of class. They’re a huge reason why I love this school.” For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Duke Fuqua and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides. The post Beyond the MBA Classroom: Fuqua Fridays and End-of-Term Parties appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Business of Medicine MBA at Kelley School of Business |
MBA applicants can get carried away with rankings. In this series, we profile amazing programs at business schools that are typically ranked outside the top 15. As the demand for business-savvy health care professionals grows, business schools are taking notice. Leading the way is the Business of Medicine MBA at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, which is designed to train practicing physicians to assume management positions and face a changing health care business environment. As the Financial Times reports, the two-year degree program began in the fall of 2013 and presents a new kind of opportunity at the intersection of business management and medical practice. The degree combines the basic curriculum of Kelley’s full-time MBA with specialized health care courses supported by the school’s Center for the Business of Life Sciences. The Financial Times quotes Idalene Kesner, who was interim dean at the time of the article but has since been appointed dean, as saying, “With this degree, physician leaders will emerge with the full skillset to transform individual institutions, the broad healthcare field and, most important, patient outcomes.” Part of the Business of Medicine MBA program is taught online, drawing on Kelley’s pioneering strengths in distance learning, while the other part entails one weekend residence per month, allowing for a more flexible time commitment. The post Diamonds in the Rough: Business of Medicine MBA at Kelley School of Business appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Global Perspectives at Wharton |
To think that the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania excels only in churning out investment bankers and management consultants would be a mistake. In fact, Wharton boasts a truly international program, ranked #2 in this area in the 2015 U.S. News & World Report MBA specialty rankings. A full 32% of the school’s Class of 2017 is composed of international students representing 73 countries, and 15.5% of the school’s 2015 graduates took jobs outside the United States. Students who wish to study international business at Wharton have no shortage of options for doing so, including the following:
The post Friday Factoid: Global Perspectives at Wharton appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Birchbox Co-Founder and CEO Talks About Revolutionizing the Subscription Business |
Today, many aspiring MBAs and MBA graduates want to join start-ups or launch such companies themselves. Is entrepreneurship as exciting as it seems? Is it really for you? mbaMission Founder Jeremy Shinewald has teamed up with Venture for America and CBS Interactive to launch Smart People Should Build Things: The Venture for America Podcast. Each week, Shinewald interviews another entrepreneur so you can hear the gritty stories of their ups and downs on the road to success. The twentieth installment of the podcast series welcomes Katia Beauchamp, co-founder and CEO of beauty subscription service Birchbox. Beauchamp and co-founder Hayley Barna, both Harvard Business School MBAs, revolutionized the subscription service business with the launch of Birchbox in 2010. The company took off in a way that made Birchbox arguably the most recognizable subscription service in the country. Beauchamp tells listeners what led to the company’s success:
The post Birchbox Co-Founder and CEO Talks About Revolutionizing the Subscription Business appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Your MBA Program Is the Sole Determinant of Your Future |
Human nature dictates that amid a competitive application process—exaggerated by the pervasiveness of rankings and the chatter surrounding them—some MBA students will perceive that they are ahead of others because they were accepted at a top school, while others will perceive that they are behind their peers because they gained acceptance from a lower-ranked school. What is often lost amid all of this worrying is that you—not your business school—are the independent variable. You—not your school—will determine your success. Many regard Harvard Business School or the Stanford Graduate School of Business as a holy grail of sorts. Their reasoning is along the lines of, “All you have to do is get in and you are set for life!” This is undoubtedly wrong. Although tremendous opportunities exist for those who graduate from Harvard or Stanford, no graduate is simply given a free pass. When MBAs find summer or full-time positions at prestigious firms, they are still competing with others from many schools once they enter their workplaces, where (surprise!) their individual performance—not their pedigree—then determines their success. A staff member at mbaMission recalls her MBA summer internship at J.P. Morgan, wherein the firm recruited students from 17 top MBA programs. At the end of the summer, students from Wharton, Michigan Ross, UVA Darden, Texas McCombs, and NYU Stern were offered full-time positions, while students from many other schools were left out. This simple anecdote features a very small sampling from one firm and one summer, but it can be an eye-opener for an MBA applicant who assumes that a top 10 school is the “ticket.” Further, a myriad of studies suggest that lower-ranked schools offer a greater return on investment than top-ranked schools. In one study sponsored by GMAC (the collective of MBA programs that administers the GMAT), data suggests that lower-ranked schools offer lower costs and higher returns over a ten-year period (185% vs. 118%). We are not suggesting that you start applying exclusively to lower-ranked schools or that you shun Stanford or Harvard—both have excellent programs. Our point is simply that some applicants can too closely identify with their target schools and neglect to recognize that their internal motors have gotten them to a place where they can compete for acceptances. These internal motors will not be shut off during or after business school, but will continue to drive the applicants in the future. The post MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: Your MBA Program Is the Sole Determinant of Your Future appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: All About Critical Reasoning, Part 2 |
With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this blog series, Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. In Part 1 of this article, we talked about the overall process for solving Critical Reasoning (CR) problems and reviewed the four major CR question types (the ones that show up the most often on the test). Now let’s take a look at the five minor types. The Assumption Family Assumption Family questions always involve a conclusion. This group consists of five subtypes, two of which are minor types: Flaw: This is the “flip” of Find the Assumption. The author assumes something, but that thing might not be true. What is the flaw in the author’s reasoning? Evaluate the Argument: What information would help to determine whether the conclusion is more or less likely to be valid? The Evidence Family Evidence Family questions really do not have conclusions (never “big” conclusions, like the Assumption arguments, and usually no conclusions at all). This group consists of two subtypes overall, but only one of these is a minor type: Explain a Discrepancy: The argument contains some surprising information or outcome. Which answer choice provides some new information that clears up this surprising situation? The Structure Family Like Assumption questions, Structure questions do involve conclusions. The answer choices are usually in more “abstract” form, discussing characteristics of pieces of the argument. Both question types here are minor types. Describe the Role: These are also known as boldface. The boldface portion plays what kind of role in the overall argument? Describe the Argument: These are a variant of the boldface question, and they are so rare that I do not have an article for you. If you are really worried about these, you can take a look at our CR Strategy guide—but my best advice for you is not to worry about these. Now what? Soon, we will talk about overall CR study strategies based on your scoring goals. The post GMAT Impact: All About Critical Reasoning, Part 2 appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: In Other News… MBA Rankings, a Rapper Keynote Speaker, and a Notable Donation |
The business school world is constantly buzzing with change and innovation. Each week, in addition to our regular news posts, we briefly touch on a few notable stories from this dynamic field in one roundup. Here is what caught our eye this week:
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FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Why You Should Show Rather Than Tell |
You may have heard the old journalistic maxim “Show, don’t tell,” which demands that writers truly illustrate the actions involved in an event or a story rather than simply stating the results of what happened. Here is an example of “telling” (results oriented): “I arrived at ABC Bank and took on a great deal of responsibility in corporate lending. I managed diverse clients in my first year and earned the recognition of my manager. Because of my hard work, initiative, and leadership, he placed me on the management track, and I knew that I would be a success in this challenging position.” In these three sentences, the reader is told that the applicant “took on a great deal of responsibility,” “managed diverse clients,” and “earned recognition,” though none of these claims are substantiated via the story. Further, we are given no real evidence of the writer’s “hard work, initiative, and leadership.” Here is an example of “showing” (action oriented): “Almost immediately after joining ABC bank, I took a risk in asking management for the accounts left behind by a recently transferred manager. I soon expanded our lending relationships with a children’s clothing retailer, a metal recycler, and a food distributor, making decisions on loans of up to $1M. Although I had a commercial banking background, I sought the mentorship of our district manager and studied aggressively for the CFA exam (before and after 14-hour days at the office); I was encouraged when the lending officer cited my initiative and desire to learn, placing me on our management track.” In this second example, we see evidence of the writer’s “great deal of responsibility” (client coverage, $1M lending decisions) and “diverse clients” (a children’s clothing retailer, a metal recycler, and a food distributor). Further, the candidate’s “hard work, initiative, and leadership” are clearly illustrated throughout. The second example paragraph is more interesting, rich, and humble—and more likely to captivate the reader. By showing your actions in detail, you ensure that your reader draws the desired conclusions about your skills and accomplishments, because the necessary facts are included to facilitate this. Essentially, facts become your evidence! The post Monday Morning Essay Tip: Why You Should Show Rather Than Tell appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Do Not Neglect Short Answer Questions |
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday. Many MBA candidates will work painstakingly on their essays, prepare rigorously for their interviews, and endlessly contemplate their choice of recommenders. However, applicants tend to leave the short answer section of their applications to the last moment, and some simply paste in information from their resumes or from their applications to other schools. The short answer sections—meaning the actual questions within the application about your work and community experiences, hobbies, etc.—should definitely not be ignored and should be completed with the same spirit of diligence that you bring to all the other aspects of your application(s). We advise candidates to refrain from just pasting bullet points from their resumes into the short answer section and to instead take time to truly contemplate the questions that are asked and write out the answers in full sentence form. Further, bullets from a resume often lack the necessary context, so they rarely make effective answers for this portion of the application. Although the information conveyed in the short answer section is important, we believe that what is really crucial is that candidates give care and thought to all aspects of their applications. The post Mission Admission: Do Not Neglect Short Answer Questions appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Career Advice: Three Tests for Your Resume: Weak to Wow! |
In this weekly series, our friends at MBA Career Coaches will be dispensing invaluable advice to help you actively manage your career. Topics include building your network, learning from mistakes and setbacks, perfecting your written communication, and mastering even the toughest interviews. For more information or to sign up for a free career consultation, visit www.mbacareercoaches.com. No matter what industry you plan to enter, your resume needs to make sense to the reader. In our last three blog posts on resumes, we have attempted to convey how you can create compelling bullets — it is your duty to ensure that each individual one passes these three tests: The High School Test: A high school graduate with no exposure to your industry could understand every word and concept named. The CEO Test: If the CEO of your company read each bullet, she would care because the results of your work are clear and your impact on the company’s profit and loss statement, or bottom line, can be directly seen or at least inferred. If direct-to-bottom-line results are not available, then meaningful qualitative results are offered instead. The Cause and Effect Test: The reader can understand exactly how your work translated to, influenced, or related to the result indicated in each bullet; your specific contribution is clear and not disguised by an emphasis on group work or by implying total credit for a team result. When you keep these three tests in mind, then you can begin to turn your weak bullets into wow bullets. For example: Weak:
The post MBA Career Advice: Three Tests for Your Resume: Weak to Wow! appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting. |
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