Berkeley Haas MBA What Makes you Feel Alive Essay Example (Flying and Building Tech Products)
Extra-curricular feeding into the profession can be structured with two strategies.
One – finding a common set of skills that are useful in both endeavors.
Two – sharing that both have a unique purpose in your life.
In this example, we have used the 2nd strategy - by highlighting an extra-curricular that makes the applicant feel alive. Then a professional endeavor which has provided a similar meaning to the applicant’s life.
Author’s Note
I have explained about segue in my MBA Essay Writing series. I would highly recommend that you read them before reading this sample.
Theme: Meaning, Failure
Theme (Explained): The applicant uses flying as an extra-curricular that has offered meaning. Not meaning in pursuing an inter-generational goal but a meaning of mastering a skill that not many have mastered. A similar meaning of pursuing goals that not many people have achieved is in integrating AI into a healthcare diagnostic tool.
Profile: Product Manager
Industry: Healthcare
Similar Narrative (Industries): Technology
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to highlight flying and the applicant’s motivation for flying in the first half.
After establishing that pursuing challenging goals is not the first with the startup she is currently working on, I have also captured a failure to demonstrate the applicant’s growth and change in perspective about Technology from a solution to an enabler for systemic change.
Opener: Since the applicant falls into the typical ‘Engineer’ in a startup application pool that is highly competitive in any top schools including Haas, I wanted to completely shift the narrative to a unique aspect of her profile – flying.
Background Information (Resume): Product Manager with 5+ years working in a healthcare diagnostic startup.
Haas MBA Essay #1: What makes you feel alive when you are doing it, and why? (300 words maximum)
Sample Berkeley Haas What Makes you feel Alive (Flying and AI in Healthcare)(300 Words)
Controlling a machine through the uncertainty of the troposphere makes me feel alive.
My earliest memory as a child is a field trip to Buckley Air Force Base, where my Dad, a military pilot, showed me the massive panels of the 777 …
