Tuck MBA Essay: Describe a time you meaningfully contributed to someone else’s sense of inclusion in your professional or personal community. (300 words)
Background Information: In the applicant in charge of leading a team of 20+ associates for an insurance giant witnessed an error in judgment from one of the 5 team leads. Reversing a decision to let go of the person is the ‘risky’ sense of inclusion narrative.
Theme: Inclusion, Ethics, Courage
Theme (Explained): MBA application is competitive, regardless of M7 or T10 MBA program. Tuck MBA class has a culture of collaboration and supporting each other.
The sense of inclusion for the essay is not dramatic but mimics a similar competitive environment as an MBA class where many of your peers are eying for the same Investment Banking or Consulting position.
Profile: Business Development
Industry: Finance
MBA Essay Strategy: Not all examples are black and white. There are way more decisions such as this that most applicants from the Finance industry don’t include in MBA application essays.
Unless you are in a highly competitive application pool where there is limited scope to differentiate, don’t use such an example.
For the narrative to work, the misjudgment is contextualized through incentives, and the culture of the company that pushes the team to pursue results at all costs.
When you phrase such lines, be careful not to portray the company in black and white terms. Include nuance, the external pressure and the communication gap to demonstrate why the person acted in an unethical manner.
By challenging the decision of the Senior Manager, the applicant showed courage and a perspective that it is the culture that needs change.
Opener: The opening line shows the challenges of managing a sales team.
Sample Tuck Meaningfully contributed to someone else’s sense of inclusion in your professional or personal community (300 Words)
Motivating a team of 20+ sales associates and 5 team leads requires a coach’s mindset—firm with targets but empathetic to the challenges they face in closing a sale.
One team lead had a spotless career for 7 years, but the company’s position in the market was shaky after an insurance aggregator prioritized paid partners. Eager to give the company the push it needed, the team lead took a shortcut – instead of informing the customers of the renewal terms, he retroactively updated the terms. The complaints began to rise the week following the renewals.
With a zero-tolerance policy on errors in disclosure, the senior manager let ..
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