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Venture Capital to Consulting – Career Pivot with Tuck MBA

Venture Capital professionals are often subject matter experts from the Technology, Law, or Finance industry. A big challenge for those used to the hands-on experience is the increasingly soft touch a VC role demands.

The interviews with Founders, the rejection news about funding, and strategically joining meetings in companies where the annual results didn’t meet the expectations of the fund often require sophisticated people management and communication skills.

There is a large percentage of MBAs eagerly looking to enter the VC role from technical experience, but there is an even larger percentage who don’t want to be tied down with Excel sheets or known for investments in a niche function or industry.  

For the VC to Consulting career switchers using a General Management Program like the Tuck MBA to pivot, here are three useful Goals Essay tips for you:

1) Networking and History of Pivoting

There is no better proof than demonstrating that you have already pivoted in your career. For the applicant in our Tuck MBA Goals Essay Sample, the motivation to switch was from the increasingly dull status quo-seeking attitude of his law graduate peers. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs for whom risk wasn’t an averse term but an essential part of survival and growth, the applicant secures a VC role by networking with a non-profit peer in a volunteering engagement. The fund was making headway into the FinTech market in India.

2) Passion for a New Industry

Often, VC roles are at the cutting edge of a new ecosystem or a technology. The more relevant the industry for the current admission cycle/year, the better the recall of your profile. For the applicant, FinTech was the theme and continues to be an evolving ecosystem where the disruption in peer-to-peer payment systems and digital money could create a new breed of entrepreneurs.

The promise of the industries where you have invested should be evident in the narrative. Rarely will Tuck MBA accept applicants with apathy towards an industry (except for Oil and Gas).

3) Typecast as a Motivation for Career Switch

Switching industries twice is a rare phenomenon. But if the applicant's strength is the cause of pigeonholing the person into an expert without many opportunities outside the narrow industry or function, applicants take the refuge of an MBA to expand their experience. Such impatience is only seen in applicants in their 20s. By the mid-30s, everyone becomes known as an expert in a niche. So, an MBA is the last podium to gain a few inches and to be heard in the exceedingly super-specialized employment market.

With the Tuck MBA, the applicant wants to transition into consulting. For the transition to happen, the experiences he seeks are not academic alone but experiential that Tuck MBA offers with its diverse global and US-focused consulting projects.

Read how the Applicant plans to offer Consulting services for Startups to improve their odds of success while pitching to VCs with this Tuck MBA Goals Sample Essay

About the Author 

Atul Jose - Founding Consultant F1GMAT

I am Atul Jose - the Founding Consultant at F1GMAT.

Over the past 15 years, I have helped MBA applicants gain admissions to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Chicago Booth, Kellogg, Columbia, Haas, Yale, NYU Stern, Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, IE, IESE, HEC Paris, McCombs, Tepper, and schools in the top 30 global MBA ranking. 

I offer end-to-end Admissions Consulting and editing services – Career Planning, Application Essay Editing & Review, Recommendation Letter Editing, Interview Prep, assistance in finding funds and Scholarship Essay & Cover letter editing. See my Full Bio.

Contact me for support in school selection, career planning, essay strategy, narrative advice, essay editing, interview preparation, scholarship essay editing and guiding supervisors with recommendation letter guideline documents

I am also the Author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, covering 16+ top MBA programs with 240+ Sample Essays that I have updated every year since 2013 (11+ years. Phew!!)

I am an Admissions consultant who writes and edits Essays every year. And it is not easy to write good essays. 

Contact me for any questions about MBA or Master's application. I would be happy to answer them all