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HBS MBA Business-Minded Essay: Private Equity and Power of Community

Harvard 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)

Commentary from the Author on choosing relevant personal stories and change in values for the HBS Business-Minded or Career Choice Essay if you are from the PE or VC industry


Background Information: The backstory is about the relationship between the applicant and her father, who manages a Small Business in New York under the backdrop of COVID spiraling out of control. The restaurant business was not doing well as sales dropped by 80% in March 2020.  As a PE professional, the applicant joins her father and faces one of the biggest setbacks in her life. The event is the backdrop for the realization that ‘community’ matters for a business. 

Theme: Community    

Theme (Explained): In a hyper-competitive PE industry, ‘community’ as a lever for making decisions about the potential of the business is a new insight that the applicant acquires. It is a value that transcended from her personal to professional life. 

Profile: Private Equity Associate

Industry: Finance

Similar Narrative (Industries): Investment Banking, Venture Capital

MBA Essay Strategy: While creating a narrative around community as a theme, include events that demonstrate your vulnerability and the importance of the value in such moments. Ideally, include stories from your personal life and strategically transition to your professional responsibilities where the value becomes a new insight. If the transition doesn’t work organically, don’t artificially segue. Use an alternative narrative. 

Opener: I want the reader to go back to a time when people were scared even to come two feet close to each other.

HBS MBA Business-Minded Essay - Private Equity and Power of Community (300 Words)

Did you sanitize? Did you wash your hands? Don’t allow that gap in your face mask? My father was rigorous with all safety standards when COVID-19 hit.

As a supermarket owner employing 30 in New York, my father couldn’t just shut down the business. Juggling between his sales falling by 80% in 

 
 

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. 

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