Last visit was: 26 Jul 2024, 18:02 It is currently 26 Jul 2024, 18:02
Decision Tracker
My Rewards
Unanswered
Active Topics
New posts
New comers' posts
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel

The mbaMission Blog

SORT BY:
Date
Kudos
   1  ...  42   43   44   45   46  ...  179   
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Monday Morning Essay Tip: Do Not Use the Same Technique Twice [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   03 Aug 2015, 07:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Do Not Use the Same Technique Twice
Writing can be challenging for many business school applicants, and some have particular difficulty changing the structure from one essay to the next. For example, a candidate might choose to use a quote at the beginning of an essay to create a sense of urgency:

“This cannot be fixed. This cannot be fixed!” I stared blankly at the broken machinery and knew that the next few hours would be crucial…




Using this kind of attention-grabbing technique is certainly acceptable, but you should never use the same technique more than once in an application. By starting more than one essay in the same manner, you are effectively sending the admissions reader the message that you understand how to use a gimmick but not how to tell a compelling story in your own way. This is also a quick way to lose the reader’s interest! So be sure to vary your approach with each new essay within a single application. We work with our candidates to ensure that their ideas are presented in fresh and different ways, to captivate the admissions committee with each introduction and, indeed, each essay.

The post Monday Morning Essay Tip: Do Not Use the Same Technique Twice appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Mission Admission: Ask for Last-Minute Feedback [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   04 Aug 2015, 07:01
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Ask for Last-Minute Feedback
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

As most business schools have recently released their deadlines for the 2015–2016 season, we thought we would share a piece of advice that might help alleviate some deadline-related stress. After you have completed (but not yet submitted!) your application(s), find one individual you trust—whether a professional consultant or someone with insight into the application process—to read your essays one last time and give you last-minute feedback. We strongly suggest that you limit yourself to requesting feedback from just one or two individuals, however.



Because the application process is subjective, you will discover that as you add readers, you will also add new and different opinions. Soon, a multitude of alternatives might appear, and although none of these varying ideas will necessarily be “right” or “wrong”—considering that a single candidate’s stories can be marketed in almost countless ways—they can create unnecessary uncertainty.

We are not suggesting that you ignore critical feedback, but rather that you not complicate your final days and create doubt where it may not be due. If one or two readers support your ideas and emphasize that your application needs minimal work, you are probably best off ending your feedback loop there and submitting your application.

The post Mission Admission: Ask for Last-Minute Feedback appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
MBA Career Advice: Cover Letter: Cover Little, but Also Plenty! [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   04 Aug 2015, 12:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Career Advice: Cover Letter: Cover Little, but Also Plenty!
In this weekly series, “MBA Career Advice,” 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.

Polonius is famed for saying, “brevity is the soul of wit.” Well, in the MBA job hunting world, “brevity is the soul of a compelling cover letter.” Forgive our editorializing the bard and making the quote less brief and also less witty. But this illustrates how it applies to you as a job applicant.



We are sure that you have sifted through resumes and cover letters at some point in your career. As you worked through that stack of papers, did you stop and read the letters at all? Maybe one or two, if the candidate was incredibly compelling – maybe not even in that case? If you are applying for a job that you know many are pursuing, then you should try to keep your cover letter as short as possible because… 1) No one reads cover letters! And 2) if they do read a few, they read the brief ones!!!

Here is the format that you should follow.

  • Paragraph one: Here is why I am interested in your position
  • Paragraph two: Here are my qualifications told in concise but concrete and vivid terms
  • Paragraph three: Here are next steps
Just because your cover letter should be brief, that does not mean that it is unimportant or should be ignored. You still want to convey critical information. You still need to spell and punctuate correctly. You still need to make sure the correct company name is on the page. And you still need to treat it as a potential opportunity to differentiate yourself. You just don’t want to convey so much information that you overwhelm an already taxed reader.

The post MBA Career Advice: Cover Letter: Cover Little, but Also Plenty! appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Professor Profiles: Sharon Oster, Yale School of Management [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   05 Aug 2015, 07:01
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: Sharon Oster, Yale School of Management
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose an MBA program, 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 profile Sharon Oster from the Yale School of Management.



A second-year student we interviewed at the Yale School of Management (SOM) remarked that Sharon Oster “loves teaching almost more than [she loved] being dean!” Oster, who served as the dean from 2008 to 2011, is the Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship and has taught “Basics of Economics,” part of the first-year core, for several years. Oster’s expertise lies in economics and nonprofit management. She is the author of several widely used business school textbooks, including Modern Competitive Analysis, and has co-authored introductory economics texts such as Principles of Microeconomics (with Karl E. Case and Ray C. Fair;) and Principles of Economics (with Karl E. Case and Ray C. Fair). In addition, Oster is an expert in nonprofit management. Her text Strategic Management for Nonprofit Organizations: Theory and Cases is used in the SOM course “Strategic Management of Nonprofit Organizations,” which Oster teaches.

For more information about the Yale SOM and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

The post Professor Profiles: Sharon Oster, Yale School of Management appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Beyond the MBA Classroom: Career Treks at Harvard Business School [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   06 Aug 2015, 08:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Career Treks at Harvard Business School
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.



Career Treks are an integral part of the Harvard Business School (HBS) culture and allow groups of students to network with governmental, corporate, and nonprofit representatives in particular geographic areas. These optional trips take place during the fall and winter semesters as well as during the school’s January break and range in length from two days to over a week. Past treks have included trips to the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, and Japan as well as the WesTrek to the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to attending alumni panels, meeting with government officials, and visiting companies, participating students take time to relax, explore, and simply enjoy their stay.

Treks are particularly important for students looking for a job through personal connections and for those seeking employment with smaller—or foreign—organizations that may not be able to participate in traditional on-campus recruiting. Treks are organized by student clubs, often with the support of the school and corporate sponsorship of events, such as a lunch or happy hour.

For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at HBS and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

The post Beyond the MBA Classroom: Career Treks at Harvard Business School appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Diamonds in the Rough: Krannert for STEM Professionals [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   06 Aug 2015, 12:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Krannert for STEM Professionals
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 technical knowledge becomes increasingly relevant across diverse industries, many MBA programs seem to be vying to dominate the intersection of science and management education. Supplementing its global focus, Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management has developed two programs specifically targeting students with a background in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In June 2014, Krannert launched a one-year, full-time MBA program for STEM professionals that is designed to bring management education to applicants who possess three to five years of work experience in a technical field. In addition, the school now offers a similar 21-month weekend MBA option that begins each year in August.

These specialized programs reflect, as Bloomberg Businessweek suggests, the growing role of STEM professionals in entrepreneurship, consulting, and managerial positions. The full-time curriculum entails a summer session and four modules that combine a business core and a wide selection of electives with STEM-related case studies and learning projects.

The post Diamonds in the Rough: Krannert for STEM Professionals appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Friday Factoid: Acclimating to the Cold at Dartmouth Tuck [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   07 Aug 2015, 07:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Acclimating to the Cold at Dartmouth Tuck
The thought of spending the winters in Hanover, New Hampshire—home of Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business—may send shivers down your spine. But those who tough it out and embrace the cold can discover some rewarding winter experiences, such as ice hockey and downhill skiing. From beginners to seasoned veterans, roughly 150 students participate each year in ice hockey games organized by the Tuck Hockey Club. Never played? Not to worry—teams are organized by skill level, so you can find a team of hockey players who will not care if you trip over the blueline (that is ice hockey lingo—you will learn). And those who are not quite ready to play hockey can always get in the game by cheering on their classmates!



Meanwhile, the Dartmouth Skiing and Boarding Club takes advantage of the Dartmouth Skiway in Lyme, New Hampshire, and organizes trips beyond campus as well. The club’s major event is the Tuck Winter Carnival, which draws more than 600 people and is held at the Skiway each year. The 2015 event welcomed aspiring MBAs from 14 business schools, sending teams of students to participate in the weekend events, which—in addition to the annual downhill ski races at nearby Whaleback Mountain—included a 1980s fashion show, a hot dog eating contest, sledding, and a raffle. Attendees also enjoyed live music at the end of the weekend. All events at the Winter Carnival are geared toward socializing while also raising money for a selected nonprofit organization. At Tuck, you just might be too busy working up a sweat to fret about the cold.

For more information on Dartmouth Tuck or 15 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’sGuides.

The post Friday Factoid: Acclimating to the Cold at Dartmouth Tuck appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: The Admissions Committee Wants a “Type [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   08 Aug 2015, 08:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: The Admissions Committee Wants a “Type”
Many MBA candidates believe that admissions committees have narrowed down their criteria for selecting applicants over the years and that each school has one distinct “type” that it seeks. So, in this world of stereotypes, Harvard Business School (HBS) is looking only for leaders, Kellogg is looking only for marketing students, Chicago Booth is looking only for finance students, and in some extreme cases, people actually believe that MIT is looking only for “eggheads.” Of course, these stereotypes—like most stereotypes—are not accurate. Chicago Booth wants far more than one-dimensional finance students in its classes, and it provides far more than just finance to its MBA students (including, to the surprise of many, an excellent marketing program). HBS is not a school just for “generals”; among the approximately 950 students in each of its classes, HBS has a wide variety of personalities, including some excellent foot soldiers. So, at mbaMission, we constantly strive to educate MBA candidates about these misconceptions in hopes that they will eschew these stereotypes, which can sink applications if applicants pander to them.

By way of example, imagine that you have worked in operations at a widget manufacturer. You have profound experience managing and motivating dozens of different types of people, at different levels, throughout your career, in both good economic times and bad. Even though your exposure to finance has been minimal, you erroneously determine that you need to be a “finance guy” to get into NYU Stern. So you tell your best, but nonetheless weak, finance stories, and now you are competing against elite finance candidates who have far more impressive stories in comparison. What if you had told your unique operations/management stories instead and stood out from the other applicants, rather than trying to compete in the school’s most overrepresented pool?

We think that attempting to defy stereotypes and truly being yourself—to try to stand out from all others and not be easily categorized—is only natural. Of course, if you are still not convinced, you might ask Stanford’s director of MBA admissions, Derrick Bolton, who wrote on his admissions Web site, “Because we want to discover who you are, resist the urge to ‘package’ yourself in order to come across in a way you think Stanford wants. Such attempts simply blur our understanding of who you are and what you can accomplish. We want to hear your genuine voice throughout the essays that you write, and this is the time to think carefully about your values, your passions, your hopes and dreams.”

Kind of makes sense, doesn’t it?

The post MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: The Admissions Committee Wants a “Type” appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
GMAT Impact: Just Getting Started with the GMAT? Here Is What to Do [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   09 Aug 2015, 07:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: GMAT Impact: Just Getting Started with the GMAT? Here Is What to Do
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.

If you are just getting started with the GMAT and are trying to figure out what to do, we have got several big categories of things to discuss: mind-set, devising a study plan, and learning how to study.



Mind-Set
If you do what most people do and try to prepare for this test in the same way that you prepared for tests in school, you are not going to get the best score that you could get.

If you are not sure what is tested on the GMAT or what the different question types look like, take some time to wander around this section of the official GMAT Web site.

Next, read this short article: “In It to Win It.” This will help you to start to adjust your mind-set so you can maximize your GMAT score. One important detail: you are only going to get about 60% of the questions right.

How can that be? Glad you asked. Read the “Scoring” section of Manhattan GMAT’s free e-book The GMAT Uncovered. This section explains just how the scoring on the GMAT works—which will help you better understand why trying to get everything right is a really bad strategy on the GMAT.

Okay, we are essentially done with the mind-set category, but I have to say one more thing. I put mind-set first for a reason: If you have the wrong mind-set, it will not matter how much you learn or practice. You still will not get the best score that you are capable of getting.

Devising a Study Plan
Get started with this article: “Developing a GMAT Study Plan.” Note: make sure to follow the instructions about taking and analyzing a practice test.

Next, read this article about time management. As you will have already learned from our discussions of mind-set and scoring, effective time management is crucial to your success on this test.

How to Study
One key GMAT skill is learning to recognize problems. “Recognize” means that we actually have a little light bulb go off in our brain—“Hey, I’ve seen something like this before, and on that other one, the best solution method was XYZ, so I’m going to try that this time, too!”

When you recognize something, you have given yourself two big advantages: you save yourself time, because recognizing is faster than figuring something out from scratch, and you are more likely to get it right because you know what worked—and what did not—the previous time. You will not be able to recognize every problem, but the more you can, the better.

Read the “How Do I Learn?” section in the second half of the “Developing a GMAT Study Plan” article. Make sure to follow the links given in that section—those links lead to the tools that will help you learn how to learn from GMAT questions.

If you want to take advantage of online forums to chat with teachers and other students (and I strongly recommend that!), learn how to make the best use of the forums.

Finally, ask for advice! So many resources are out there that it can be overwhelming, but most companies offer free advice (Manhattan GMAT does here!) and you can also benefit from talking to fellow students.

The post GMAT Impact: Just Getting Started with the GMAT? Here Is What to Do appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
MBA News: The Most Successful Harvard Business School Alumni — and a F [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   09 Aug 2015, 12:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA News: The Most Successful Harvard Business School Alumni — and a Few Who Were Left Out
From the frantic application process to graduation day, the road to an MBA often takes its toll on one’s stress levels. Staying focused on success and overcoming fears are vital throughout the entire process. As the 2015–2016 application season nears, Bloomberg Businessweek offers a piece of inspiration for MBA hopefuls: a list of the most successful Harvard Business School alumni of all time.



The list, perhaps predictably, includes presidential hopefuls and successes (Mitt Romney, George W. Bush), banking executives (Jamie Dimon), former mayors (Michael Bloomberg), and authors (Stephen R. Covey)—but some names are notably absent. One might be surprised to learn how diverse HBS’s alumni pool is: New York University Stern School of Business professor and Sotheby CEO Tad Smith graduated from HBS in 1992, for example, while author and popular TED speaker Neil Pasricha earned his MBA from the institution in 2007. Mark Pincus, the co-founder and CEO of online game platform Zynga, graduated in 1993. And although Stacie Scott Turner might be known to most as a star of The Real Housewives of D.C., she earned her diploma from HBS back in 1996. The list goes on and on—could you be next?

The post MBA News: The Most Successful Harvard Business School Alumni — and a Few Who Were Left Out appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Monday Morning Essay Tip: Ensure Your Goals Are Ambitious but Realisti [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   10 Aug 2015, 08:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Monday Morning Essay Tip: Ensure Your Goals Are Ambitious but Realistic
When writing about your career, strive to inspire your reader by showing that your goals are ambitious, but not to the point of being implausible. You should work to find a middle ground between goals that are easily achievable and those that are naïve or entirely fantastic. For example, stating that in the short term, you want to return to your existing position at your firm would be an example of an unambitious goal and thus an unwise approach. On the other hand, declaring that in the short term, you want to become CEO of the New York Yankees would be shooting unreasonably high, and the goal would therefore be viewed as unrealistic.



Generally, with respect to short-term goals, you should be able to identify a reasonably precise position that you could expect to enter after graduating from your MBA program—or if you intend to start your own firm, you should have a clear understanding of what that firm will be, the direction you will take, and how you will steward the business to achieve its short-term goals. As for the long term, pick a goal that derives from your existing career path or could be considered a logical transition from it and that represents an ideal of sorts. Essentially, we recommend that you write about goals that would be within your grasp if everything were to go according to plan.

The post Monday Morning Essay Tip: Ensure Your Goals Are Ambitious but Realistic appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Mission Admission: Ignore Anonymous Message Board Posts [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   11 Aug 2015, 07:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Mission Admission: Ignore Anonymous Message Board Posts
Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.



Every once in a while, a concerned business school candidate calls us and says something along the lines of, “Star491 wrote that Wharton won’t read past the 500-word limit, but IndianaHoops09 wrote that 10% over the limit is fine. Meanwhile, WannabeTuckie says….” Some of you may be laughing as you read this, but the truth is that many MBA applicants have difficulty not visiting the various message boards, and some have even more difficulty not believing everything they read there. At the risk of stating the obvious, message boards are completely unregulated, and you should be skeptical when reading the opinions expressed by anonymous posters. For every individual who claims to know something authoritatively, you can always find another individual who claims to know that the opposite is true. Round and round we go…

Thus, our message is to ignore anonymous message board posts. Although this is valuable advice now, as you complete your first-round applications (ideally with your sanity intact), it will become even more valuable as the year progresses and many posters begin to make unsubstantiated claims about admissions statistics (offers given, GMAT scores of accepted candidates, etc.). If you tune out such noise now and put your energy instead into creating your best possible application(s), you will be far better off.

Of course, if you do have any questions, you can always ask us on the message boards over at Manhattan GMAT, Beat the GMAT, or GMAT Club. Or sign up for a free one-on-one consultation!

The post Mission Admission: Ignore Anonymous Message Board Posts appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
MBA Career Advice: Why Do I Need a Plan B for My MBA Internship? [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   11 Aug 2015, 11:01
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Career Advice: Why Do I Need a Plan B for My MBA Internship?
In this weekly series, “MBA Career Advice,” 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.



If your first-choice firms only recruit one or two people from your MBA program or you know you will face stiff competition when pursuing a particular job, then it would be foolhardy not to pursue some other options to ensure that you don’t end internship recruitment season empty handed. Although an MBA internship is a critically important opportunity for you to test out a new field, get hands-on experience to determine if it suits you, and impress a potential employer and possibly earn a full-time offer, failing to land an internship at your target company is not the end of the world. In many cases, you will have another chance to apply during full-time recruitment the following year. So consider your Plan B as a chance to do something meaningful that continues to build your skill set en route to your ultimate goal. On the other hand, you may just find that your Plan B option becomes Plan A if you have a great experience during your internship.

The necessity of developing a Plan B highlights the importance of already knowing what you want when you begin your MBA program. For example, let’s say you are sure that you want to end up in a strategy position at a tech firm post-MBA. In that case, you can target logical Plan B options that not only better prepare you for a full-time role at one of your target companies, but also enable you to leverage your Plan A preparation to prepare for your Plan B roles as well.

The following list presents some viable Plan B options that build on the same skill set and work necessary to make inroads at Facebook and Google:

  • Boutique consulting firms focused on either very high-level management strategy, private equity or venture capital advisory, or the tech space specifically
  • Large firms in a related or adjacent space, such as Yahoo, Amazon.com, LinkedIn, Netflix, Expedia, and even Microsoft or Samsung—companies that compete with or interact with your target companies as customers or providers
  • Other high-tech firms in the app space, such as Uber, Snapchat, and Dropbox
  • Smaller tech start-ups at which you might be able to secure a lower compensation or unpaid internship
These are just examples, but as you develop your Plan B, make sure that it aligns with the kind of position you want after your MBA or in the longer term. If career switching is important to you, resist the “easy out” of falling into an internship in the field you came from. To make the most of your MBA, you need to position yourself for the role you want as soon as possible. To get targeted pre-MBA preparation advice and assess your Pre-MBA Job readiness Score, sign up for the MBA Career Action Plan Service from our partner, MBA Career Coaches.

The post MBA Career Advice: Why Do I Need a Plan B for My MBA Internship? appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Professor Profiles: David Beim, Columbia Business School [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   12 Aug 2015, 08:01
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Professor Profiles: David Beim, Columbia Business School
Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose an MBA program, 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 David Beim from Columbia Business School (CBS).



That a core-curriculum finance professor makes our roster of notable professors may be surprising to some of our readers—especially considering that many of CBS’s core-curriculum professors reportedly cycle through and leave the school after just a few years—but we learned that David Beim makes an impact on his classroom and his students by delving beneath the numbers. A recent alumnus we interviewed included Beim as one of CBS’s “amazing” professors with success in top industries, and another, referring to one of Beim’s courses, told mbaMission, “I think that class could have just been about how to run a pretty spreadsheet and be technically proficient, but he made it be about how finance is the lifeblood of a business.”

For more information about CBS and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

The post Professor Profiles: David Beim, Columbia Business School appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Sailthru Founder Neil Capel Shares His Entrepreneurial Path [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   12 Aug 2015, 12:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Sailthru Founder Neil Capel Shares His Entrepreneurial Path
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 ninth podcast episode features guest Neil Capel, the founder and chairman of personalized marketing communication company Sailthru. Capel gives Shinewald some insight on how he made his way to where he is today, touching on these stories among many others:

  • Coming to the United States from England on a whim after falling in love and then scoring a job at Morgan Stanley
  • Working on a number of start-ups with varying levels of success before launching Sailthru in 2008
  • Learning to lead a quickly growing firm by example—and realizing that the leader’s weaknesses can easily become the company’s weaknesses
Subscribe to the podcast seriesto find out how Capel and numerous other entrepreneurs navigated their way to success!

The post Sailthru Founder Neil Capel Shares His Entrepreneurial Path appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Beyond the MBA Classroom: Duke Fuqua’s MBA Games and Auction [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   13 Aug 2015, 07:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Beyond the MBA Classroom: Duke Fuqua’s MBA Games and Auction
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.

MBA Games is a collection of events that take place throughout the academic year and culminate in a weekend of competition each spring among MBA students from 12–16 North American business schools. The purpose of MBA Games is to support Special Olympics North Carolina, which students do by volunteering for events each month with athletes from the organization (e.g., tailgating, skating, bowling) and by participating in various fundraising events (e.g., sports tournaments, organized races, parties) and auctions. The MBA Games site proclaims that since the event’s founding in 1989, it has helped raise more than $2M for Special Olympics North Carolina.



Each year, Fuqua Partners puts on a fundraising auction for the MBA Games—which is reportedly Fuqua’s largest annual philanthropy event. One alumnus recalled how he bid on and won the opportunity to sumo wrestle one of the core professors, with both of them wearing humongous padded suits. The auction takes place during a Fuqua Friday in mid-February. Students and professors bid on dozens of items donated by corporate sponsors and members of the Fuqua community. Donations in the past have been as varied as dinners/lunches with several professors and Duke University President Richard Brodhead, a VIP table at the Black Eyed Peas concert afterparty, a three-night golf vacation on South Carolina’s Kiawah Island, a UNC/Duke beer-pong table, and a one-on-one basketball game with former NBA player Pat Garrity. The auction has both a silent component and a live, called component.

For in-depth descriptions of social and community activities at Fuqua and 15 other top MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

The post Beyond the MBA Classroom: Duke Fuqua’s MBA Games and Auction appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Diamonds in the Rough: Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   13 Aug 2015, 12:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Diamonds in the Rough: Ohio State’s Fisher College 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.

Despite the size of its parent institution, the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University boasts a relatively intimate classroom experience—with approximately 110–150 students in each incoming full-time MBA cohort—and a close-knit community. Fisher students consequently benefit from the school’s wider university network (more than 500,000 alumni in more than 150 countries) and its proximity to major companies based both in Columbus and throughout the Midwest. Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Fisher 34th in its list of top MBA programs in 2014.

The Fisher curriculum consists of a core sequence spanning the first year of the program and offers eight disciplines in which students can major (including a “Make Your Own Major” option). A particularly noteworthy highlight of Fisher’s MBA curriculum is its experiential Leadership and Professional Development (LPD) program, which spans the full two years. The first program of its kind to be offered at a business school, LPD begins with a compulsory two-week pre-term immersion course, in which students attend workshops, bond with teammates, perform mock interviews, and formulate their professional development goals. During the course of the academic year, the LPD program organizes various workshops and assessments—in addition to connecting students with corporate mentors who offer career guidance and networking opportunities. Also among the LPD offerings is a speaker series that in 2014 welcomed such business leaders as the chairman of Harley-Davidson and the founder and CEO of KRUEGER+CO Consulting, Inc.

The post Diamonds in the Rough: Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Friday Factoid: Stanford GSB’s LEED Certified Facilities [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   14 Aug 2015, 08:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Friday Factoid: Stanford GSB’s LEED Certified Facilities
Thanks in part to a $105M gift from Nike founder and chairman Phil Knight (MBA ’62), the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) has constructed a new $350M campus in recent years. The 360,000-square-foot campus of the Knight Management Center, which opened in April 2011, expanded the school’s existing campus footprint by 100,000 square feet. The extended campus is intended to allow the use of a wider variety of teaching methods and to increase interaction among students and faculty, including those from other Stanford University schools. Forty-two small classrooms, 7 large classrooms, 276 seats in the auditorium, and 60 faculty offices were added.



The Knight Management Center is a green, environmentally friendly building, boasting state-of-the-art technology. Each classroom has three screens and dormant cameras for computer presentations, as well as plenty of natural light (in contrast to many of the previous lecture halls, which were windowless). With an eye toward preserving green space, the 870-space parking lot was built underground. The school is employing sustainable practices with respect to site development and the conservative use of water and energy. In early 2012, the Knight Management Center was awarded the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum rating—the highest level of LEED certification granted by the U.S. Green Building Council—in recognition of its minimal environmental impact.

To learn more about the Knight Management Center and its official launch, check out these slideshows and videos.

For more information on the Stanford GSB or 15 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

The post Friday Factoid: Stanford GSB’s LEED Certified Facilities appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
Olo Founder Noah Glass Joins the Tenth Venture for America Podcast [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   14 Aug 2015, 10:01
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: Olo Founder Noah Glass Joins the Tenth Venture for America Podcast
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.

In the tenth installment of the podcast series, Shinewald welcomes guest Noah Glass, founder of the rapidly growing online and mobile restaurant ordering platform provider Olo. Glass—who says he is often confused with the Twitter cofounder bearing the same name—tells the story of how he grew Olo from a brand-new start-up to a 10-year-old company with a clientele that includes such established restaurants as Five Guys Burgers & Fries and Cold Stone Creamery. Tune in to hear the following tidbits and much more:



  • How Glass found himself spending a year building a local office for nonprofit Endeavor Global, Inc., in South Africa after arriving in the country for what was to be initially a three-month assignment
  • Choosing to quit his job at Endeavor and declining Harvard Business School’s acceptance to seize a unique opportunity to pursue entrepreneurship
  • How Olo grew from an “aha” moment to a platform with 12 million consumers and 10,000 restaurants
Subscribe to the podcast series to get all the details on Glass’s entrepreneurial journey as well as many other success stories!

The post Olo Founder Noah Glass Joins the Tenth Venture for America Podcast appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
User avatar
G
mbaMissionJenK
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
Joined: 25 Apr 2013
Posts: 4420
Own Kudos [?]: 336 [0]
Given Kudos: 1
Send PM
MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: They Will Not Notice My Weakness! [#permalink] The mbaMission Blog   15 Aug 2015, 08:00
Expert Reply
FROM mbaMission Blog: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: They Will Not Notice My Weakness!
Our clients frequently ask, “If I write the optional essay about my [low GMAT score, low GPA, bad semester in college, long stretch of unemployment, etc.], will it call attention to that weakness and overemphasize it?” In short, no. Writing the optional essay about a weakness will instead allow you to control the narrative and thereby better mitigate any negative effects of that weakness.



The admissions committee will notice a low GMAT score or a low GPA, and if you do not use the optional essay to address the issue, they will be left with unanswered questions about why that weakness occurred. Rather than putting the committee in the position of having to guess at an explanation, take control of the situation yourself and grab the opportunity to explain the details behind the weakness.

For example, let us say you have a weak GPA overall because you worked full time in your first two years of college, but your GPA from your last two years is much stronger. Not writing the optional essay means that you are hoping the admissions committee will take the time to search through your transcript, note the change in the GPA, and then examine your job history to learn that you worked full time during your first two years—then make the connection between your two years of full-time work and your subsequently lower grades during those years. On the other hand, if you use the optional essay to explain exactly what happened, you no longer have to simply hope that they will put in that extra effort and will know for sure that they are evaluating you using completeinformation. Likewise, they will not have to guess at the reason behind your low GPA, because you will have proactively filled in the story.

The bottom line is that the admissions committee is made up of professionals whose obligation is to notice all aspects of your profile. They are not punitive, but they are also not careless and will certainly note any weaknesses like those mentioned here. At the same time, they are only human and are dealing with thousands of applications. Any way that you can save them time and effort by guiding them through the story of your application can only work to your advantage.

The post MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: They Will Not Notice My Weakness! appeared first on mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting.
This Blog post was imported into the forum automatically. We hope you found it helpful. Please use the Kudos button if you did, or please PM/DM me if you found it disruptive and I will take care of it. -BB
   1  ...  42   43   44   45   46  ...  179   
Moderator:
mbaMissionKate
mbaMission Admissions Consultant
1458 posts