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The toughest thing for me is finding identifiable gaps in my current skill set, and how an MBA will fill those gaps. Describing this is a tough balance, because basically all other parts of your essays, resume, application, etc, are spent talking about how great and terrific you are, which then has to be contrasted by showing weaknesses that an MBA will alleviate.

Its different than the "what is your greatest weakness" questions, which you can usually BS into coming out looking like a strength -- you must legitimately show how an MBA will help your career, and why you cannot do without.

I agree. In my case, I did some research on internet, trying to identify what are the variety of roles an IT Management consultant would do and the list of skills required. Also, I talked to my seniors who were already into this role. Now I had a list of skill-set required and another list of responsibilities of a typical IT Management consultant.

From list 1 of skill-set, I rated myself on each skills (e.g. good knowledge, basic knowledge, no knowledge etc). From the responsibilities list I marked those I'm already doing and those I'm not able to do coz of lack of knowledge. E.g. I cannot create proposals for clients coz of lack of knowledge in pricing, negotiations, competition, market trend etc.

Having said that, once this list was there it was very easy to identify some of the skills which MBA can provide.

Remember, probably you or me cannot identify all the gaps else we would have created our own customized MBA program and acquire knowledge through books / articles/ training etc on the required skills. So for all identified and unidentified gaps I'm going to people who are expert on this, i.e. the B-Scools :)
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Nice.

Thanks for the post :) Think you covered the bases pretty well, although the emphasis and procedure will vary from person to person.
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Nice.

Thanks for the post :) Think you covered the bases pretty well, although the emphasis and procedure will vary from person to person.

Thanks, yeah I agree. Specially in case someone looking for starting his/her own business the above self-evaluation may not work.
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This is really gr8 work bigoyal.. :)

how do you also take into account follwing cases:

1. Bored with the same technical job in IT and the job up the ladder is nothing but word/excel/ppt oriented.
2. Hold only a bachelors degree and a stunning career path can be taken only through a stunning masters degree..

obviously, B-schools don;t want the escapist or stamp-paper seekers but I am sure this is the story of most guys Indian/IT/Male.. so, hw do we address that.. ?

Further, I observe that the entrepreneurial bug seems to be hitting a majority and many folks want to start something of their own but not in immediate future.. one school of thought is to get your base in place, nurture an idea, build upon it, shore up some investment and then jump into it.. roughly a period of 10 years.. how does one builds up on this ?
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This is really gr8 work bigoyal.. :)

how do you also take into account follwing cases:

1. Bored with the same technical job in IT and the job up the ladder is nothing but word/excel/ppt oriented.
2. Hold only a bachelors degree and a stunning career path can be taken only through a stunning masters degree..

Thanks a lot. So, do you mean career switching? Btw, why would you say that "stunning career path can be taken only through a stunning masters degree." I'm against the word "only" coz one can never say that the masters degree is the only way for your career path. An MBA would just provide a base and help you achieve your goal faster, thats it.

Now, if you say "only" to adcom, they are surely gonna ask you your reasons. In my interview with ISB, I gave them example of couple of skill-sets which I was looking from MBA. The adcom took one of these and started grilling me saying I can get this skill-set from books, journals or trainings :P

Thats very true, I can surely get the skills without MBA. I cannot tell them that the hefty package or stunning career is my reasons for MBA :oops: . So still sticking with my step-by-step analysis, I was pretty much able to convince them what I'm looking for.

Regarding entrepreneurial stuff, I think my step-by-step analysis may not fit pretty well. But surely it will provide some direction for doing further analysis on one's reasons.
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This was definitely the most difficult question for me to answer as well as I wanted to be sure that I was being honest with myself and NOT just writing what I think an adcom would want to hear. I cannot stress this enough. I would tell any potential applicants to sit down and think about this before spending your time (lots and lots of time spent studying, researching, writing, etc. :P ) and money pursuing this goal.

I think it's important to shed some light on both your short term (1-5 years) AND long term goals (6+) as hopefully the MBA will play a pivotal role in both. It definitely does in my case.
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thanks for addressing this. It's a tough topic to get a handle on.
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Great post. I am an onsite TL and have a similar profile. But i am looking for a general management degree. I didnt want to do finance or banking or start my own company. So that left me with little options. I just want understand business better. And full time mba is regarded better than a postal/online course so i would prefer it. And it would be for career progression. so i am not sure how i could go about justifying it. Any ideas?
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Great post. I am an onsite TL and have a similar profile. But i am looking for a general management degree. I didnt want to do finance or banking or start my own company. So that left me with little options. I just want understand business better. And full time mba is regarded better than a postal/online course so i would prefer it. And it would be for career progression. so i am not sure how i could go about justifying it. Any ideas?

Believe me raven678, try to answer all those questions mentioned in the post (considering your career goals), note down your answers in a notebook and at the end you'll surely have lot of things to justify yourself.
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Thanks Bigoyal the question Why MBA and Long Term Career Goals are the ones which should be handled from the word go. These questions require a lot of introspection and can make or break your B School Application that said here are my two cents to the discussion

1. In addition to whatever Bigoyal has mentioned the essays should also have a wow factor, this can be done through an example of a work situation that you want to be in post MBA. Jetting around countries solving Business problems for different companies. Make it stand out!

2. About the weaknesses which you want to address through MBA one should always give examples from real life experiences and you can even mention the name of courses on offer which would rectify these weaknesses

3. In addition to mention the position, work stream, companies one can also mention the area and then justify these choices as well


That's all from me as of now, will keep adding as I go through the process

ATB :)
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Bigoyal, truly amazing.. I wish there was a -- 'Bigoyal's Guide to MBA Applications' available and I could lay my hands on it for preparing some real good applications for myself.

Keep up the Good Work!!


-Abhi
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Thanks a lot crackfire2003. I fully agree with you. The wow factor is really important to impress the adcom.
Thanks a lot Abhi for appreciating the post.
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Great post!
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Nice discussion going..keep going.
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WHY MBA?? MBA Students studying in schools all around the world ask themselves the same question everyday:
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Awesome post...KUDOS...

could you please share your views on other mba topics also. Eg. Weakness, Achievements, Strengths, Experience as a Manager.

Thanks in advance.
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This is the most important question to be answered. If we fail to explain properly the reason for pursuing MBA, I m sure adcoms will reject the application.

Great post Bigoyal. +1
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