Part of the How-To Series on MBA Essays
The Big Questions: The ‘Why’
In this short article, I’ll be introducing a series of questions that are a part of the introspection process I follow with my clients. Like the other ‘big questions’, ‘Why’ questions such as the ones given below are an important part of getting to goal clarity, which is the ultimate end-point to the process of figuring out what your application narratives are going to be.
Once you have a look at these questions, you’ll realize that many of the questions you’ll be facing during the MBA application journey hew closely to this list. And, of course, this very short list of five questions is in no way meant to be exhaustive, instead, I’ve tried to phrase these questions in a broad way, so that they can act as prompts for motivating a deeper introspection.
The first question on the list, ‘ Why do you want to do an MBA’, is obviously a shoo-in for any list of MBA application essays – after all, it’s talking about your core driver or motivator behind this whole process. When you answer this question, I’d recommend that you try and be as specific with your goals as possible, highlighting the industry, role, and function you’re seeking to work in post-MBA. That’s one part of your ‘Why MBA’ – the other part is to articulate why you think it is the domain of business administration that will equip you with the skills you’re currently missing.
This is exactly what the last, the fifth, question forces you to think about – is there another path that can lead you to your goals? One that doesn’t mean loosening your purse strings to the tune of USD 100,000+, or stepping away from your career entirely for up to two years? Given the plethora of new and old choices available to you, from Masters in Management of Information Systems to Supply Chain Management to Business Analytics, it’s good to know exactly what each alternative offers and how the MBA holds up compared to each.
The second question expects you to think about how the MBA figures into your long-term, wide-range plans for your career and professional future. What is it specifically about this program that will help you unlock the next stage? For example, you may find, after 5 years in industry, that while you’ve gathered the technical know-how to progress to corporate management, you lack the ‘softer’ leadership skills and presence to make that jump. Alternatively, you may belong to an industry where a prestige MBA is unavoidable if one is to make partner – or whichever flavor aspirational designation one is aiming for – and, having paid your dues, you feel you’re ready to make the commitment to breach the glass barrier.
In the vocabulary of the schools themselves, they see three main reasons why anyone would wish to part with good time and good money to pursue an MBA: one, you want to change your industry or function (moving from data analytics to finance, or from the non-profit sector to general consulting); two, you want a better role or designation in your industry (it’s about time someone recognizes you’re PM material!); or, thirdly, you would like to move countries and explore newer (and hopefully greener) pastures.
So, whether it is a change in geography, role, or industry that’s set you down this path, make sure you help the MBA program of your choice understand exactly why this change needs to happen now. So whether it’s a feeling that you’ve maxed out your potential for growth in your current industry, or whether you’ve finally achieved the financial stability to go after the burning but niche dream you’ve harbored for years, it’s important to show why an MBA is the best next step for you, given where you currently stand, and with a clear sense of where you’re going after.
Question 3, ‘Why should you be chosen over others’, can throw some people, especially more stringent variations on the theme, such as, “Tell us one reason why we should/shouldn’t offer you a position”. And while there’s no good reason to fear this kind of question, it’s also not an opportunity for self-aggrandizement or self-diminishment. In asking you this question, the MBA adcom simply wants to know this: do you have a reasonably fair sense of your own strengths and weaknesses, in a professional context, compared to those of your peers?
Without knowing your own strengths and limitations, it’s difficult to argue that you’ll be able to adequately contribute to your peers and the school at large, both within your classroom, as well as outside it. The MBA experience is a tremendously collaborative exercise – knowing how you fit in with a team, and communicating to teammates how you feel you can best contribute, is essential to early success during your MBA.
So, to answer this question, it’s a good idea to list down the transferable hard and soft skills that you’ve reliably demonstrated over time. The key term here is transferable – business schools care little about what you’ve achieved in terms of particulars, in previous stints in past organizations. What they’re interested in instead are the things you’ve learnt that can transfer and translate well to novel business situations – after all, for a business, the worst threat is not the known problem that was just handled, but the unknown one that has to be handled next.
Therefore, when talking about your strengths, your accomplishments, and your achievements, remember to highlight not just what happened, but how the lessons you learnt have prepared you to better handle more general challenges in the future.
Let me share an example of a client I worked with, who wished to pursue an education in management after having completed a Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS) from a well-regarded Indian Medical College in Maharashtra. What skills does a young, freshly-minted doctor possess that can translate well to a corporate context?
We spent a fair bit of time going to and fro on this point – there were some obvious candidates – great time-management and stress-management skills on par with military marine-types, ability to muster a very high level of academic rigor, excellent history of people-management from years of training in physician bedside etiquette, exceptional cognitive and data analysis skills grounded in the practice of differential diagnosis. We felt each of these skills could transfer easily and effectively to the quite different world of boardrooms and town-halls.
Ultimately, the story that gained the most traction, the one thread picked up by the interview panel at the top Canadian B-school he eventually ended up at, was his experiences of learning how to deliver terrible, heart-wrenching news to terminal patients or their family members – allowing himself to feel the full weight of the tragedy while maintaining his composure as the attending physician.
He spoke openly about the struggle to reconcile the two demands on him. Empathy demanded he face grief head-on, but he soon found himself physically and emotionally overwhelmed, and paralysed into inaction. Professionalism, especially as a doctor in Maharashtra’s most-bedded hospital during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, meant that such grieving was impossible. This was not a story where a miracle-solution suddenly appeared, ex machina, to solve the conundrum. It was a story of sullen grit, of doggedly, callously holding on, of simply surviving a sisyphean Catch-22. Not a story where any winning was done – only a story of carrying on while facing tremendous odds.
But it was a story that convinced a very selective panel of MBA adcoms that this was a person who deserved a place in their cohort, who had ‘what it takes’. It’s on you to figure out which aspects of your professional or personal experiences have made you into the type of person who stands out from the crowd.
Now, finally, we draw attention to the fourth question, ‘Why have you chosen your specific goals? Earlier questions have asked you to reflect on what your post-MBA goals are, over both the short-term, as well as 7-10 years down the line. We have considered questions which ask you to highlight your USPs and differentiators, and why the MBA is a no-brainer for you where you currently stand in your career. Here, now, is an opportunity for you to clarify what is perhaps the grandest of the ‘Whys’: explaining your ultimate and core drivers and motivations, for your career as well as for your life.
In conclusion, I recommend giving the most time to thinking this last one over – after all, it’s the most foundational part of your whole narrative. Are your post-MBA goals driven by money or impact? Are your goals influenced by personal experiences, and if so, then how? Do your goals align with the values and beliefs you espouse? Letting the MBA admissions committee understand your motivations will help them gain a deeper understanding of your profile, and get a sense of your commitment to the process.
