Choosing Your Career Vision for Business School - Part 1    by Oscar Pedroso

in Education / College and University    (submitted 2012-02-08)

If you're applying to a top MBA program, you're going to need a fantastic career vision. One that is high-impact and that shows admission officers you have what it takes to make it big one day. But you've got to take a few steps back if you're looking for that big career vision. What you need to understand first is that your career vision has to be believable. Part of that involves digging deep and using your work experience to your advantage.

Would it make any sense if I've devoted my whole life to information technology management and now I want to get into investment banking? I mean, sure, lots of MBA students change careers all the time. BUT, as an applicant, you need to stick to your guns and extrapolate your career vision from your prior work experience. Once you get into business school, you can do whatever you'd like.

For example, Joe works in hospital administration helping underserved populations by winning state grants. He can talk about his desire to help transform public health and healthcare initiatives on a national scale by creating new policies and becoming an executive at the National Health Institute to advocate for such policies that are aimed to help the disadvantaged.

Mary worked as a Brand Manager at Volkswagen. Her career vision could be to work for a company like Smart Car and continue creating a hybrid car in developing nations that encourages a green environment by relying more on light than fuel.

If you notice in these two examples, I've transformed a simple and very important fact about Joe and Mary to a more sophisticated career vision. What's CRUCIAL here is that whatever career vision you choose, it needs to always relay back to at least two aspects of your work experience or extracurriculars. Think of it as bridging your past with your future; you will have to make this connection very clear as you're writing those essays. It needs to be clear to the admission committees.

As I mentioned earlier, you don't want to have an admission read about your career vision in investment banking when all you really have is information technology management experience. This is going to make him or her go..."Huh? Where's the connection? Hmmm"
Of course, once you're admitted, you can start to venture down 'career switcher' lane.

Most business schools would like for you to have between 3-5 years of work experience so your dream goal and work experience background only need to connect at a very basic level. Most pre-MBA jobs are at the junior level and you've probably only had one or two jobs beforehand so not a whole lot of grandeur is expected here. You do need that connection though because you create a sense of credibility. Again, credibility. This is really important.

So don't just sit there, go for it! Write some awesome MBA essays! I'm with you all the way!

About the Author

Oscar is founder of MBA Writer's Block - an online admission resource for students and young professionals applying to business school, particularly top MBA programs. Resources include an informative blog, videos, podcasts, interviews, and guests from the admissions world.

Learn to increase your confidence, brainstorm, organize, and write powerful essays. Readers gain access to over 20 MBA essays that have helped applicants gain admission to schools like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Tuck, and Simon. To learn more about MBA essays, feel free to check out MBA Writer's Block.