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Prepare for the MBA Interview – It will help in the Application Essays

The MBA interview is way more complicated and difficult than it is made out to be. It is by no means just a casual chit chat to put a face on the name, exchange pleasantries and fulfill a formality in order to issue an acceptance letter to the candidate. The MBA interview has four critical goals for the MBA admissions process – 1) To evaluate the appearance, personality, communications skills, and attitude of the candidate, 2) To further probe and evaluate certain areas of the candidate’s application, which were not clear in the application or required more information, 3) To make a match between the key skills and attributes that the candidate had claimed to possess in the application with what is being displayed by him in person during the interaction, 4) Get a sense of the candidate’s professional maturity, vision, drive, culture, etc and establish if he/she is a good fit for that school.

The MBA interview becomes important in the context that however detailed and well thought out the questions in the MBA application might be, there are always certain pieces of information about the candidate that can only be acquired through a personal interaction. Also, the schools realize that applicants can use external help (from friends, family or admission consultants) while preparing the application, but he cannot ask someone else to appear on his behalf in the interview. Thus, the interview assumes the role of establishing sanctity in the application process and becomes the ultimate stamp of approval for the candidate, and can quite literally make or break the fortunes of the candidate. I am not suggesting that the MBA application with its myriad essays, recommendations, short questions and resume are not important. Of course the application has to be solid for the school to invite a candidate for the interview. But, if he does not do well in the interview and fails to score points on the parameters mentioned in the paragraph above, he will most certainly not get the final admission.

In this backdrop it is important to note that an experienced interviewer representing the school approaches the interview with a lot of preparation and a clear set of objectives of what to accomplish from the interview. The interviewer tailors her questions in order to extract the required information from the interviewee. But, does the interviewee also looks at the interview in the same way, and prepares accordingly? More often than not we find that in the euphoria of getting the interview invitation, the upcoming end of a long and excruciating application season and the potential of going to a top school for the MBA, the preparation for the interview becomes lackadaisical and complacent. The interviewee makes the classic mistake of underestimating the interview, and thinking that he is already accepted to the school and that the interview would be a walk over. It then becomes quite a tragedy that after all the hard work in building up a suitable profile over many years, working hard to get the best GMAT scores, networking with alumni and admission officials, and then slogging to complete the complicated applications in time, the candidate falters at the last step purely out of ignorance and arrogance. It is like going all the way up Mount Everest and then having to return just a few hundred meters from the top, without summiting.

In most cases, the time frame for completing the interview is 2-3 weeks from the date the invitation to interview is extended to the candidate. This is hardly enough time to prepare not only for the content of the interview, but also to practice the delivery and presentation, and learn how to drive the interview in the direction where the candidate can score the maximum points. These things require time to practice and internalize into a habit where irrespective of the format or nature of questions asked, the candidate can get the results he wants. Thus, the preparation for the interview must start several months before the actual interview.

The best time to start preparing for the interview is before the start of the application season. At this stage, most candidates have more free time since they don’t have to worry about managing the application deadlines. Also, most candidates at this time have not yet started thinking about their personal stories and it makes sense to start thinking about personal branding, profile highlights, vision and career goals using the common interview questions. As applicants start thinking and talking about these things, they can not only develop the communication and presentation skills required for the interview, but also they can develop a body of useful material that can then flow into their application essays when they start writing them. So, instead of using the material in the application essays in the interview, which is difficult to do since the preparation time is too short, it is better to work the other way round and use the material developed during the interview preparation in the essays. When an applicant spends several months talking and practicing the interview material, he would be totally ready to create a stellar impression on interview day and be able to convince the school to accept him in their class.

The interview is the ultimate corroboration of how good an applicant actually is. It is easy to show that a candidate can walk on water in the application essays, but without sustained practice it is difficult to produce the same image in the interview. So, start your application process with the interview preparation and then sustain it through the application cycle. Give the interview the respect it deserves and develop it as a powerful tool to gain acceptance to your dream school.

The Four things that the admissions committees of top universities look for in applicants

Admissions officials of the top universities of the world are looking for the “Best” candidates for their courses. While devising strategies for applications to such universities, it is important to understand what “Best” means in the context of university admissions. “Best” here refers to the right fit with respect to the criteria, qualifications or qualities set by the school. “Best” here is not an absolute term, but a relative term, where every applicant is compared to every other applicant and the ones found to be relatively closer to the “right fit” are selected. The good news is that there is a way to portray this “right fit” in your application, and thus pave the way for getting into the “Best” list. But first, let us look at what the admissions officials are really looking for -

1) The profile of an applicant must be very close to the average profile of the class as envisioned by the admissions committee. This does not mean that an applicant will necessarily have to have a particular profession or a particular kind of work experience, but it certainly means that an applicant will have to match the average profile of the class in these parameters – a) The base data of the person: GMAT, GPA, age, years of experience, level of undergraduate institution, prestige and reputation of the firms worked in, roles and designations, etc. b) The level of career progression and success achieved by the applicant, especially in managerial roles c) The exposure level of the candidate to various situations, cultures, business environment, economies, etc.

The comparison of applicants in these parameters is important as the level of the lectures, discussions in the class, course work, projects and assignments in the class would be tailored according to the envisioned profile. So, if the average profile of the class is 5 years work experience with middle management experience, then both a fresher without work experience and a top shot CEO of a large company will not get much value in the class. Additionally, one of the vital things that the university wants to create is cohesion in the class where classmates can coexist and thrive with mutual respect and admiration. If someone is either too low or too high in profile with respect to the class, he will either be in awe of his classmates or they will be in awe of him, both of which are bad situations for the class. And worse, there might also be an attitude of disdain towards a less accomplished person.

2) It is vitally important that the applicant can demonstrate that he has a realistic “Plan” in place. This is not only to mean that the candidate has ambitious but realistic post-graduation goals, but also that he has so far built his career as per a plan, starting from his choice of undergraduate study to all the decisions he has made regarding his profession. The choice of doing the MBA or another Master’s program is supposed to be an essential piece of the plan. This is important for the university to know as a person who has so far lived according to a plan has a better chance of following and fulfilling his plans of the future than others who have lived unplanned lives. If the candidate does not have realistic post-graduation plans then he would most certainly not achieve them and then an impasse would be created. The university would not like to deal with such disgruntled alumni who would recount their university experience with regret.

Additionally, the admissions office would also like to know if the applicant has a plan to utilize the resources in the university so that he can maximize the potential of his time there. Has the candidate thought through how he will participate in the community there (classes, clubs, extracurricular activities) and how he plans to contribute to the university as a student? This is vital, as the university would like to only accept people who are enthusiastic and believe in participation and contribution, and not people who will only attend their classes and then disappear into their dormitories.

3) It is very important to show to the admissions committee that you are already a leader with proven leadership abilities, someone whom they can further train and polish and make into an even better leader who can change the world. Top universities, especially the top business school, take this obligation towards the society very seriously. They strongly believe that they exist to create leaders who will solve the big problems of this world. Thus, it is vitally important that a candidate is able to demonstrate his leadership abilities – where he has shown them, where he has challenged the status quo, the impact that he has created, the maturity and vision that he has created for himself in the process, and the leadership ideas and techniques that he has mastered. Based on how the candidate presents his leadership experiences and potential, admissions official try to determine if the candidate has enough raw material to benefit from their mentoring.

4) Everyone loves winners, and so do the top universities of the world. They would like to bet on candidates who will be very famous and successful after graduation in their chosen fields and would thereafter go on to not only make the university proud but also contribute to it. Super successful alumni of such universities contribute heavily to their alma maters, through cash donations, by sponsoring research of professors, by starting scholarships in the university, and by creating career opportunities for students. A prospective applicant is expected to have the potential to contribute in such ways to the university. Since it is impossible to accurately guess how a candidate’s future career graph will progress, admissions officials depend on past data of a person to make a prediction about the future. Thus, based on the profile of the candidate, and the way he has brought out his achievements and future goals in the application, the admissions committee will make a judgment about the potential of his future.

Marketing yourself to the top universities of the world require a mix of smart strategy and realism. For a winning application, you need to have a very clear idea of the process and what admissions officials are looking for in their applicants. Additionally, you need to have a good view of yourself and how your qualities, differentiators and achievements best match with the requirement of the schools you are applying to. Everything you write in the application – in the essays, resume, recommendations or in the information sections of the application must add to one or more of the four things that the top universities of the world look for in their applicants. If what you are writing in your application does not add information on the parameters that the school wants to judge you on, then that writing is a waste.

With clever strategy, deep thinking and some valuable guidance from an admissions consultant, you can structure your application in a way that can make you come across as “Best” in the four main points mentioned above. That’s all it takes for getting accepted to these top universities. Even if this approach does not get you into Harvard, MIT, Cornell or Stanford, it would certainly help you achieve more than your normal potential and reach, and that by itself is good enough.

The final Step in the MBA Admissions Process – The Interview

The MBA admissions interview is the final part of the sales pitch that you have been making to the business school through your application. The fact that you have been invited to the interview means that the school likes your application and now they want to have some personal interaction in order to make the final decision. During this interview, not only will you sell yourself to the school, but also the school will also sell itself to you through the interviewer. Now that you have been found to be good enough to be invited for the interview - there is a big chance that you might be accepted, not only by that school but also by other schools. So, the school that is interviewing you will also try to ensure during the interview that they sell themselves to you well so that you end up joining them if they offer you admissions. Generally, a candidate has three options for the interview. He can choose to interview on campus of the school, or interview with an alumnus of the school, or interview over phone or Skype with the admissions office. Out of these three options, interviewing on campus is the best if you can manage to take the trouble of travelling to campus. During this trip you can spend a day in the school, take a couple of classes, interact with the current students and get a first hand feel of the school. Not only is this useful in impressing the school with the interest that you have shown, it is also an opportunity for you to gauge the look, feel and atmosphere of the school. In case you get multiple admissions offers, this first hand impression will be useful for you to make the final decision. In case you can't travel to campus then the next best thing to do is to take the interview with an alumnus.

The advantage of interviewing with an alumnus is that the interview generally takes the form of a discussion and is less formal. Although business schools generally insist that alumni interviews strictly follow prescribed time limits and format, it is generally never practiced by the alumni in real life. The alumnus generally customizes the interview according to his own liking and ends up discussing things he wants to discuss rather than what the school might be prescribing. Thus, such a situation can be to your advantage if you can engage in a discussion and make it interesting for the alumnus. Additionally, through this discussion you can get a lot of first hand information about the school based on the experiences that the alumnus shares with you. This will generally be an eye opener for you as it will be very different from the highly customized and well prepared information that the school puts on its website. You will end up getting a very different view of the institute – its pros and cons, opportunities and challenges and also how to make the most of your time there. Also, after the interview you can keep in touch with the alumnus and seek his guidance on many issues related to your decision and the preparation for transition to life in a business school. The only disadvantage of an alumni interview is that – alumni are generally the biggest gatekeepers of the school. Thus, there is no way they would allow you to get in unless you are good enough as they would never allow the dilution of their schools’ brand or the quality of the student body. Thus, sometimes they can be stricter in their assessment than the people in the admission office. However, if you can really impress the alumnus, then it can go a long way in getting you the admission.

Your last option should be to interview over phone or Skype with the admissions office. Over phone you miss two advantages that you get in a face to face interview – 1) the chance to look at the facial impressions of the other person and gauge if your answers are been understood or appreciated, and thus the chance to reorient your answers accordingly 2) One of the advantages we have in a face to face interview is that when the other person is speaking and we are not able to exactly understand what is being said we use the movement of the lips to guess. Over the phone we miss that advantage and this is especially relevant if you are interviewing with a school situated overseas where most probably there would be an issue with language and accent. Additionally, the interview over phone does not fulfill one of the main purposes of an interview – that is to gauge the personality, appearance, grooming, etc of the candidate. So the admissions office would end up with lesser information about you than they normally do in interviews and that is generally not good for you. When it comes to MBA admissions – the more information you can provide about yourself to the admissions office the better as that would help them make a more informed decision about you. A Skype interview neutralizes many of these disadvantages, but still it is not the same as a fact to face interview as things like chemistry and personality do not truly get conveyed over the internet.

Go for a face to face interview if you can, either with a member of the admissions office, or with an alumnus. Make the effort to meet someone in person, and more so if you are interviewing for a top program. Think about it - would you consider hiring someone to an important position in your company after just a meeting over the internet? If you won't, then why should you expect a business school to make an important decision like admitting you over an internet meeting?

The stories you tell ........ tell a lot about you

Why it is not a smart idea to copy admissions essays -

A recent article in BloombergBusinessweek has stunned the MBA community. MBA admissions essays, of candidates successful in securing admission in the top business schools of the world are now available for sale. So, all that you now have to do is go to the right website, pay and download winning essays of the school(s) you are applying to, submit your application after marginally customizing the downloaded essays, and ..... boom .... you get to be in the flight to Boston to join Harvard or MIT. Congratulations!

We all wish that life would be this easy. Unfortunately, it is not. If you copy these essays directly with minimum customization, then you definitely have a high chance of getting caught by anti-plagiarism software(s) used by most schools. If you get caught, you will most probably be banned for life from that school (and even from other schools as it is rumoured that business schools share data related to plagiarism).

Even if you just take inspiration from the essays and try to format your own essays accordingly, there is still a big chance of missing out on a deserving admission and a life changing education at a world class institution. Let me explain why –

The tendency to copy essays or take inspiration from other people’s essays stems from a very skewed idea of the MBA application process. The general belief in the applicant community is that – there is a formula for admission to the best business schools of the world. People have developed a check list - A good GMAT score, good educational and professional pedigree, relevant work experience, managerial experience, history of social work, etc, etc. After all this , all that remains are the essays which also then can be prepared as per a set format ( taking inspiration from how other people have done it) and then that will be all that it takes. The fact is – there is no such formula. Had there actually been such a formula, then the whole process would have been highly predictable and the top business schools of the world would never have gained the mystique, aura or value that surrounds them.

This is not to suggest that good GMAT scores and pedigree are not important. They are highly important, and increasingly so now, with the commercial pressures of MBA rankings. But, having said that, the top business schools of the world value your uniqueness more than anything else. They give you points for your ability to formulate your own stories in your own distinct way – stories that best describe your abilities, achievements and thinking process. You have the best chance of winning when you bring yourself to the table, not when you try to become someone else and in the process you lose yourself as well. And, this is exactly what happens when you look at the essays of others. Subconsciously you internalize the format and the contents and without even being aware of it, you try to fashion yourself accordingly.

If you want to be accepted to a top business school, you will have to trust that your own stories are good enough to get you there. Yes! By all means, discuss your stories with people or get help in formulating them or editing them, but they still should be your stories. You bring a unique set of skills, perspectives and background to the table. And, the admissions committee wants to evaluate you, not someone else disguised as you.

Remember that the stories you tell ... tell a lot about you. So, don’t miss the chance to tell your stories. The fact that you chose to tell a particular story about yourself (and not some other story), indicates what you value and what you think is important about you. It shows your mindset and your attitudes, abilities and perspectives.

Be yourself ... and be proud of it. You are certainly more capable than you think you are. If you work hard and put rigor into developing your essays, then your stories will be quite captivating, and the admissions committee would certainly be impressed after reading them.

You are good enough. And, you better believe in that yourself first, before you start expecting an unknown group of people sitting in the admissions office to believe it.

The scope of Admissions Consulting

Most people view admissions consultants as just advisors for helping students gain admissions in the leading universities of the world. Their role is just to help students select the right universities to apply and then provide help in preparing the applications. The general view is that an applicant's relationship with the admissions consultant is very narrow, limited and restricted to just the application process.

This view has solidified in people's consciousness as admissions consultants have consistently refused to accept a larger and wider role - often preferring to keep the handshake short and sweet, so as to be able to service more clients in a packed admissions season. The truth is – for a candidate, securing admissions is just the means to an end and not the end in itself. The end is career success for which the admission is just the first step. A candidate might slip in through the cracks and get his way into a top school, but will he necessarily be successful there? Does he really know what he is doing? Is he totally clear about which program he should apply in, and what will provide him the best value? Or, is he applying as everyone else is doing the same and he has been brainwashed into believing something.

I do not think people are aware that not everyone who graduates from the top schools of the world are successful people. Many struggle with derailed careers, lack of jobs, and high debt. And, there are several others who because of some weird career change again start from scratch in their professional lives. I know people who have done their MBA after doing a PHD and then they went on to do business development. Imagine investing 5-7 years in doing a specialized masters and PHD and then giving all that away for an MBA which they could have done even before the PHD. And, worse post MBA getting into a job which does not utilize the high value PHD in any way. A good and honest chat with an admissions consultant would have probably prevented such a ridiculous decision.

Admissions consultants, having worked with hundreds of students have a very good idea about graduate careers and the profiles and backgrounds that are currently selling in the market. If utilized properly, they can really advice candidates on how to manage their professional and educational decisions. Additionally, it is often found that just when a candidate is getting ready for applying, he finds that his profile is not ‘worthy’ for the top schools. And, why is that? It’s because that candidate might have not invested time and effort in doing community work or building suitable extracurricular activities which are essential for selling someone’s candidature to the top schools. By the time they realize this fact, it is often too late.

So, engage your admissions consultant in a wider role. Ask him questions and allow him to guide your decisions. Don’t come to him with a decision already made and just ask him to edit your essays. That is total underutilization of the potential of an admissions consultant. If you are in high school or college and looking to apply for undergrad or graduate school or MBA in a few years, get in touch with your admission consultant now. Ask him what you can do over the next few years to suitably build up your profile, so that you become a very attractive candidate at the time of your applications. If you are already working and considering an MBA, talk to your admission consultant about possible choices of programs and careers. Try to find out how your current career will adjust to your MBA.

Trust me when I say this - that no educational program in the world will work for everyone. And, no one has any stake in your career other than you. So, it is your responsibility to find out for yourself what is best for you and not trust the general view that is going around. After all, you don’t want to invest in an education and then find out in the end that you have got no advantage in your career or worse, that you have suddenly become unemployable because of the generalization of your profile or over qualification. An MBA generally moves you from extreme specialization to extreme generalization. Watch out for this change. It can kill your career.

#MBA #Admissionsconsulting #careers #graduate #undergraduate

Sharp change reported in the preference for the MBA

As you would read in this article from Businessweek.com, there is a shakeup in the thought process people have regarding the MBA. This is not to suggest that the MBA is going away anytime soon - it still continues to be a dominant educational program for career growth and will continue to be that way in the noticeable future. But, considering the large number of options people have for the MBA ( part-time, full-time, online, executive MBA, one year programs, boardroom MBA, etc), a debate has started regarding what is the best MBA format for an individual, and rightly so.

The full-time 2 year MBA, once considered the golden ticket to super corporate success is losing its sheen. Considering the investment required for such MBA programs in terms of time, money, opportunity cost - it is worthwhile to step back from the chatter and the dogma and critically consider if there is a way to have the best of both the worlds - that is get all the learning and the value of the MBA , without investing 2 years and going neck deep in debt.

There are "real" options available now, and they have been around for some time, but it required a sustained depressed global economy to wake people up to the possibilities. And, then there are other questions - Is the MBA the only program worth doing? Are there other more relevant options available for an individual? Will the MBA really aid my career or will it set it back? Have I done enough in terms of building up my pre-MBA professional profile to get a boost from the MBA? At no other time in the history of higher education has these questions been more relevant as they are today. So think hard and think on, and look before you leap.

#MBA #Admissions #Admissionsconsulting

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