When we recommend applicants to follow the fundamentals of storytelling, most of them look at us with suspicion. The admission team has to go through at least twenty essays before they can find a genuine narrative that looks honest and interesting. Story format in itself will not guarantee you admission. You have to meet the entry criteria (GMAT, GPA, and Experience) for the program while differentiating from other similar profiles, but storytelling by itself can act as a differentiator if your profile is weak or your achievements have a low recall within your profession.
Before you study extensively about Storytelling for MBA Application Essays, understand that every story answers the four fundamental questions:
1. Who is the protagonist?
2. Where is he going?
3. How will he achieve the goals?
4. How will he be transformed after achieving the goals?
The difference between movies/novels and storytelling for essays is that in essays one more question has to be answered explicitly.
1. Who is the protagonist?
2. Where is he going?
3. Why is he going?
4. How will he achieve the goals?
5. How will he be transformed after achieving the goals?
In movies, the storyteller has a 90-minute window while in novels a 60,000 word count to slowly unravel the why part with the SHOW don’t tell approach. In essays, you are dealing with word count in the 250-500 range, a space that constricts you from indulging in dialogues or describing the scenery of the event.
1. Who is the protagonist?
The resume is the introduction that informs the admission team about you. Make sure that you cover the most impactful events and achievements in the 1-page format. Use our services to edit the resume. If you spend, any words on revealing who you are through the essays, you would already take up at least 100-150 words from a 500-word essay. You can’t afford to do so.
Exposition without killing the narrative
In superhero movies, there will be a character, who assembles the heroes (Avenger) or a mentor who recognizes the power of the protagonist (The Matrix), reveals the superpowers of each hero, defines the goals and set the stage for action. In thrillers, the detective either will reveal in one monologue about what happened (50s and 60s movie) or split it out in a sequence of monologues interfered by action sequences that keep interrupting his findings or posing harm to the detective to avoid the revelation. In bad movies, one character will explicitly reveal the motivation in a dialogue.
So what format should you follow?
The character that mentors the superhero is the Recommender. The equivalent of bad movies is a recommendation letter where the supervisor lists out all the qualities without using the SHOW Don’t Tell Approach. Let the recommender reveal your superpower through your previous actions, backstory, and your potential while setting you up for the sequel – the post-MBA career path.
2. Where is he going?
The “Why MBA” question tries to find out the answer to this question. Your journey towards a bigger goal – something that you cannot achieve with your current skillset, should not deter you from trying. Superhero movies perfectly capture the essence of this narrative. Peter Parker is the dork that seems not to get anywhere in life without the power of his web-shooters, but his heart is in the right place. He sees injustice, understand his limitations, but aspires to achieve something that is bigger than what he is. If you can explain where you are going with a balanced narrative on your skills, demonstrated through your achievements, and what you don’t have, ‘the superpower’ that the MBA program (specific new skills, network, and confidence to take on your goals) will offer, the Essay reviewer will root for you.
Predictability of the Path
In movies and stories, the characters can create an illusion that the path they traverse is unique, but if you cut out all the bells and whistles, the motivation for the path will come down to justice, love, and immortality. In a post-MBA world, there are only limited career paths: Consulting, Finance, Technology and Non-Profit, but when you combine the industry and job function, the path multiplies. 
The admission team has a comprehensive awareness about the possible career paths. If you divert from the path too wide, it will not register within the storytelling narrative. Humans have evolved with a superior BS detector. The intuition has helped us outlive Neanderthal, Homo erectus, and Homo Habilis. The Admission team has one additional responsibility other than selecting promising and qualified students - to guard the brand of the Business School. They have developed a keen ear for exaggeration and spins.
Unfortunately, we have seen too many applicants creating a brilliant narrative but mentioning career paths that seem impossible or does not require an MBA. Use a third-party service to review your essay and evaluate the feasibility of your plan.
3. Why is he going?
“What you have done is an indication of where you are going.”
You might not believe in this statement, but a vast majority of the admission team does. You can’t say that you would like a post-MBA role where extroversion is valued when you have not demonstrated the quality in your professional life or extra-curricular. It is unfair that you are stuck in a persona defined in your teen, but if you hate a job function, you will most likely find the actual calling, initially as a hobby, and then slowly as a full-time gig when the market rewards you for the effort.
Career switchers
Everybody has a reason for switching careers. A few common ones we have seen are:
Engineering -> Creative (Entrepreneurs/Writers/Media Personality) (An inexplicable thirst to create, find an audience and leave a legacy)
Engineering -> Finance (MBAs) (Engineering professionals who find Finance as a natural extension of their skills in reasoning, numerical analysis, and logical deduction)
Finance -> Marketing (Professionals who are fascinated by the propagation of the message more than the product and those who found the repetitive task of quantitative analysis boring)
Marketing -> Finance (Rare few. Those who survive in marketing are extroverts. Unless an increase in post-MBA salary is the motivation, very few professionals make the switch)
Finance -> Consulting (Finance restricts the mastery to one particular aspect of the Business while consulting, despite the travel demands, is a satisfying career path for most professionals)
Consulting -> Finance (Professionals who mastered an industry, feel disillusioned with the process- centric role that a consultant experiences and looks at Finance as a much better alternative with superior pay options)
Finance/Engineering/Consulting -> Non-Profit/Government (Professional who have earned financial stability often feels disillusioned after reaching the goal and seeks to find meaning from their work. Non-profit and Government offer roles that would have a much direct impact on the society)
The reasons for switching are equally important as the demonstrated skills in the new job function or jobs that require similar skills. Your ability to learn, adapt and work with people from diverse background is an indicator on whether you will achieve what you have aspired. Learning is not limited to grades and performance in a National Aptitude Test or a Math Olympiad. Any experience where you came out of your comfort zone and learned the vocabularies of a new job function while working under uncertainty is a valid evidence of your potential.
Supervisors strategically affirming your ability through recommendation letters should reinforce the idea that you are an ideal candidate for career switching.
Motivation -> Skills -> New Career
Motivation is a pre-cursor to skills, and if you cannot articulate, why the new career is important, you would not stick with the aspiring job function for the next 5-10 years. For the MBA Admission team, recruiting a candidate, who is fickle with the career choice, is risky. The recruiters want some form of guarantee that the applicant will go on to play a major role in the company, and not switch ships at the first opportunity.
Hooking the candidate through debt is a strategy that has worked for Employers. If you have a $200k debt, would you go for a start-up with an unpredictable future or an established Consulting or Finance role where the 150k+ annual salary is guaranteed? We noticed that despite a large majority of candidates citing unique motivations, they often work 1-3 years in traditional roles, to pay off the debt, before venturing out on their real post-MBA goals. So articulating unique goals is not bad in itself. It is much better that quoting the most likely short-term post-MBA career path.
4. How will he achieve the goals?
The MBA program has a fixed assembly line of learning: core, electives, experiential learning, speaker series, and student clubs. Most applicants will touch ....
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Download Winning MBA Essay Guide for the Complete Chapter (Foundation of Effective Storytelling for Essays: Transformation Matrix)
Includes: How to create the Transformation Matrix with Examples for Professionals from Technology and Marketing
About the Author
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.
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
Winning MBA Essay Guide - A Complete Guide for M7 and Top 15 MBA Application Essays
F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay into a life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.
+ Over 245 Sample Essays (Read Previews of F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide Sample Essays here)
+ Top 15 MBA Programs (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Yale, Haas, Darden, INSEAD, LBS, NYU Stern, Tuck, Duke Fuqua, Ross)
+ The Art of Storytelling
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
Want to try the individual school Essay Guides before upgrading to the Winning MBA Essay Guide? Try below.
F1GMAT's Essay Guides
Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)
Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)Example #1: Persistence Narrative
Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.
Curiosity: Philosophy
Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.
Theme: Persistence
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #2: International Community Building
Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #3: Culture
Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
Theme: Culture
MBA Essay Strategy: Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #4: Addiction
Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
Theme: Addiction
MBA Essay Strategy: My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #5: Scarcity
Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
Theme: Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)Example #6: FinTech
Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening.
Theme: Education, Child Welfare
MBA Essay Strategy: Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #7: Learning from the best
Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
Theme: Learning
MBA Essay Strategy: The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
Theme: Career Choice
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)Example #9: Small Business Values
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
Theme: Customer-Centric
MBA Essay Strategy: The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
Theme: Authenticity
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #11: Creativity and Communication
Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance.
Theme: Creativity, Communication
MBA Essay Strategy: The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #12: Mental Health
Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
Theme: Communication, Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
Theme: Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.
Theme: Failure
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her.
Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)
Example #16: Creative or Finance
Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views.
Theme: Passion, Talent
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.
Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)- Stanford MBA Essay Guide (24 Sample Essays)
- Columbia MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Wharton MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- INSEAD MBA Essay Guide (19 Sample Essays)
- Darden MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Yale SOM MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Tuck MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Haas MBA Essay Guide (18 Sample Essays)
- NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays + 6 Examples - Visual Essay)
- LBS MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Essays)
- MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Cover Letters + 3 Sample Video Statement Scripts + 3 Sample Optional Essays)
- Kellogg MBA Essay Guide (11 Sample Essays)
- Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
- Ross MBA Essay Guide (31 Sample Essays)
- Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Guide (10 Sample Essays + Two 25 Random Things Samples)
- Cambridge MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
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