​​Hello! Some of you might be busy working R3 applications for INSEAD and others, gearing up for round 1. Either way, the time to act is now! Implement, implement, implement.

Even if certain recommendation forms are not out yet, now is the time to start reflecting on the questions common to all forms: areas of strength as compared to your peers, and a story about receiving constructive criticism. 

Figure out the stories you want to share and outline them; then add other anecdotes/outlines later for any remaining questions. It is very unusual for schools to make major changes in this area of the application, aside from the fact that more and more schools are gravitating towards the Common Letter of Recommendation. 

If you are seeking a coach to guide you on the journey, the first step is to fill out my prospective client form. 

SELECTION TIPS 

1) You want a recommender who has witnessed you demonstrate the attributes business schools care about: teamwork, leadership and problem solving, among others. This is far more important than their status at the company. 

2) Speak with a few select people you have in mind regarding your plans to attend business school and gauge their reaction. If they elicit enthusiasm, keep the conversation going. If you decide someone is right for the job – make sure to ask them about work travel and vacation plans. It’s best to be in close contact around the application due date. 

3) Do not work with recommenders who are unwilling to work openly. You have invested a lot of time and money into this process and need to stay in control of the content. I’ve seen disasterious results from this. 

4.) Business schools pressure you for that manager recommendation, but it is not required and I have worked with clients who got into elite MBA programs with scholarships – and never shared their MBA plans with their managers. 

EXECUTION TIPS: SHOW, DON’T TELL

1.) Each question narrates a SPECIFIC incident or moment in time.

2.) Stories are narrated in STAR format or, if that doesn’t fit, at least have a beginning, middle and end. 

3.) These stories show how you MODEL teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, innovation, persuasion, strategic thinking; things b-schools care about. 

4.) Each recommender really champions you; they see the uniqueness of you – and articulate that artfully in whatever language they speak (you can translate.)

5.) The reader is moved by the content and wants to champion you to other members of the adcom. 

For more tips like these, follow me on social media. I post daily. 
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If I can brag a bit – MBA Career Services love my résumés.  “Don’t you dare change a single word!” were the words spoken to my client who started at Stanford GSB last fall. It went into the resume book as-is. Most of his colleagues started almost from scratch.

The mantra: succinct, but complete

• Every single word has a purpose (pare it down – hence the image!)
• It uses universal language instead of industry jargon, to the extent possible.
• One page only, but maximize space horizontally.
• Give context: provide a one-line company description if needed.
• Give context: provide a job scope statement under your role.
• Each bullet is an accomplishment that states a result and an action.
• Results: ideally, making money, saving money or saving time.
• Anyone from any industry would be able to step into your resume, and comprehend the value of what you have done.
• There is space to breathe on the page. It has white space, and the reader feels good when they look at it. It looks inviting.
• It includes “fun facts” about you and demonstrates community leadership.

For more tips like these, follow me on LinkedIn. 

https://mbaessaycoaching.com/2018/05/24/2952/

Q: I botched my video interviews. Out of the four questions, I only nailed one of them. I really struggled in one of them and gave an incoherent, rambling response. And the other two, I wasn’t as fluent as I could have been and struggled to find the right words. 

How true is it that they don’t disqualify people based on the video essays?

A: I listened to an interview last year between a key member of the Adcom and a large admissions consulting firm. Adcom person did indeed say that it was only a means of fishing out applicants who they might have otherwise turned down. 

It was criteria that would give them a reason to say yes; not a reason to say no. This might be a lie, but that is their story on paper.

Rather than pacing and ringing your hands, channel that anxiety towards amping up your profile. This way, if you end up getting wait-listed you have a viable reason for submitting an update letter where I can help you make your case over again.

This means: amp up previous or current community service, retake the TOEFL, get a high-profile or international work project, get on the board of something, or if possible, get a promotion.

Getting a promotion at work is the best but the last person I helped get off the INSEAD waitlist…1 month before enrollment…only got promoted to Organizer for the local Soccer Club. So think broadly about leadership.

And of course if it doesn’t end up working out you have more juicy stuff to report for round one US/UK apps if you choose to do that.

Q: Hi Farrell, I hope you had a great weekend. I’m at the early stages of looking into an MBA programme, at what point in your career do you think it’s best to apply?

A: If you’re going for HBS and GSB they do like younger applicants… I generally hear from people around age 25, and they have about three years of work experience. 2 years is the absolute minimum – 5 years is optimal and for EU or UK schools 5 years is the minimum. In either case,  I think I would wait to get a promotion first, establish a little bit of longevity at your current job. Just kick ass there. However, make sure that you do not neglect the community service angle.

Given you are a fresh grad working for a huge consultancy, they are not going to be handing you the keys to the castle so for that reason you need to get into a community organization that aligns with your profile where you can have a significant leadership position. To show what you can do to make an impact, in a sense, the way one would in a startup.

And make sure that it’s something you’re passionate about and adds value to your overall narrative. For that reason, it’s important to get more clarity on your post-MBA and long term goals. I would recommend that you do Career Leader, which helps establish your interests and motivations. It’s is a very popular assessment used by most Business Schools but you would be way ahead of the game to have some traction on those before applying.

I’m not sure where you are with the GMAT but you can never start too early with that, because it’s a black box as many find out to their chagrin. Scores are good for 5 years. The trick for you right now is to find a way to distinguish yourself PWC, a great brand name but there are so many consultants to apply to Business School, and the challenge is to make sure you have find a way to get the community service factor in there despite having to work a billion hours. Many try to contribute internally and do a lot of mentoring which is good but common.

There’s quite a bit that you can do now — take the actions to prepare the CONTENT and the writing will take care of itself. The content is about taking stock of what you have achieved, but also, researching yourself, your goals, and the schools. If you do this, writing the applications will be a far less painful process, but instead, an exciting journey of self-discovery, where you are gaining more clarity about who you are and how you want to contribute.

I recently tweeted that people think applying to business school school is about writing essays but it’s really all about the decisions you make before you get down to writing those essays. 

Hope that helps!

Cheers, Farrell

Q: I’m working on my NYU and CBS applications and both ask for a description of each job, without a specific word length. (It’s “Duties/Responsibilities” for Columbia, “Description” for NYU).

I assume I should include information different from what’s on my resume but what exactly? And how long should I make these be for each job?

A: The application boxes are there to give CONTEXT for the brilliant achievements on your CV.

One of the biggest mistakes I see are resumes that use the bullet points to describe activities, tasks, duties of the job instead of pointing to specific contributions made that added VALUE to the company. Each job title should be followed by a short “job scope statement” but the focus should be on the bullets = accomplishments = showing how you do the job WELL. Exceptionally well.