Category Archives: MBA Interviews

MBA Adcom, MBA Admissions, MBA Interviews

The iPad launch and the evolution of the MBA applicant ‘type’

Last time I spoke about applying for an MBA like Steve Jobs would, by which of course I mean not ‘as if’ you were Jobs, but going about it in the way he would — staying true to yourself and your motivations. Anyway, speak of the devil, the Apple iPad is out and I, like millions around the world, have been drawn into the media extravaganza surrounding its release. So I find myself watching Jobs doing the promotion keynote.

There is Jobs in his blue jeans and sneakers and polo-top, just being completely his geeky self, and it inevitably makes me think about what ‘the image of success’ is these days in the business world, and how it’s changed.

Now, make no mistake, these launches are rehearsed and choreographed and fine tuned for mass marketing appeal – a bit like yesterday’s ‘State of the Union’ address come to think of it. Because projecting an image of success is important. And it is as important in MBA admissions as it ever has been. But Jobs is the poster boy for how that image is has changed. Bankers in dark suits and power ties loosing quantum fortunes and asking for taxpayer handouts somehow ain’t it right at the moment.

I think of the issues I have (and I know other MBA admissions coaches have the same problems) in getting applicants to free up and be themselves, and go beyond being trying to be a ‘square’ or a ‘suit’ in their applications. Why be another young guy in banker dress trying to get himself taken seriously, when the image of business success is currently so … not that.

I know Jobs is in the media-entertainment-electronics industry and a finance guy or even a mainstream consultant couldn’t dress like this – or not yet anyway. And I’m certainly not suggesting that anyone go to an MBA admissions interview in blue jeans. At your MBA interview you do need to show you can play the game.

But there is still plenty of room in what you say, and what you plan to do, and how you present yourself across your MBA application, to show what makes you ‘you’ and therefore unique. It’s definitely what Adcom wants. And chances are it’s what you really want too.

MBA Admissions, MBA Admissions Book, MBA Essay Resources, MBA Interviews

Making messages stick: an MBA Studio ‘bible’ gets some airtime

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As a follower of many blogs in the MBA admissions ‘space’ I know, as you probably know, that they are of mixed quality. But the musings of AIGAC-accredited MBA admissions consultants is generally good, and I find we are of one mind on most important matters. So no surprise that today’s post is a hearty agreement with Linda who recently recommended the book Made to Stick (Random House, New York, 2007) by Chip and Dan Heath, on her Accepted blog.

made-to-stickI read the Made to Stick hot-off-the-press two years ago, and have integrated every aspect of it into MBA Studio’s client offerings ever since. It’s not the only resource I use of course (and my own MBA Admissions Strategy, which predates it, has many of the same principles.) But Made to Stick is unsurpassed in focusing on one single thing: getting a message across. Formulating it so that the reader reads it, understands it, remembers it.

So, as I have said consistently to MBA Studio clients and whomever else would listen: this is the single best “non-MBA” guidebook for MBA applicants. Be aware that it won’t help with the key aspects of determining who you are and what your key value points and application platform are — what you want to communicate in the first place (as revealed and coached through MBA Studio’s signature “Profiling” process.) Nor will it help with the specifics of how to manage and beat business-school-specific expectations in essays and interviews and reco’s. But as a book about how to communicate a message, it can’t be beaten, and is justifiably a worldwide bestseller.

The Heath brothers have distilled what makes a message “stick” into six principles, which they communicate in a (sticky) acronym, SUCCESs (sic). That is Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories. Chapter by chapter they show how to simplify a message to its essence; grab attention via its unexpected elements, use concrete rather than abstract intelligence; enhance credibility via various proof channels; and achieve emotional connections with the reader. Telling stories that matter, and telling them well, is the key to much of this.

Made to Stick has a blog by the way. Unfortunately two years and counting after the book was published, it’s only occasionally active.