I will teach you how to bring your life stories to essays faster with F1GMAT's essay guides. Download below or subscribe to F1GMAT's Service and work with me - Atul Jose, Author/Editor/Founding Consultant, F1GMAT(16 Years of helping applicants gain admissions to M7 and Top 30 schools) As the program with the highest application volume, Harvard must differentiate between two applicants with similar scores (GMAT/GRE and GPA).
In your application (essay, resume, and recommendation letter), make sure that these 10 traits are highlighted.
2. Preparedness
3. Learning
4. Extroversion
6. Ownership
7. Data-driven decision making
8. Passion
10. Chutzpah
1. Experience
In the HBS Case study method, professors give scenarios and roles for students to play. You might have to decide as a CEO, a Manager, an Employee, or think like a Customer. Your decision will determine the future of your company or the competitive dynamics in the market.
Most first-time writers struggle to bring an authentic narrative to their stories, primarily because we are not as imaginative as we think. Professional writers spend just 4-hours everyday writing. The rest of the day is spent doing real work and interacting with people.
Stories lie hidden in the daily struggles of life.
Except for talented writers that we can count on our fingers, most have one good book in them. They are the fictitious version of their life or a life they are familiar with. Rest are derivatives of their initial story.
When the admissions team looks at your story, they are evaluating whether you can contribute to the case study method and the larger engagements in the class.
Do you have exposure as a Manager?
Can you break down the value that the company is offering as a customer?
Do you understand the incentives of the team – as a project member, team lead, manager, or employee?
Have you worked closely with a CXO or understand the multiple pressures they endure to offer value to shareholders, customers, and employees?
We can imagine the pressure and put ourselves in ‘their’ shoes. However, without relevant experience to evaluate a scenario, the narratives are like empty promises. They are just words.
2. Preparedness
Before the case study method, students must brush up on case facts – competitors, pricing, limitations, opportunities in the market, and threats from new entrants. The day before the case, smaller groups (5-6) from the learning team (a group of 90 students) come together, read the overview of the case, and engage in an open dialogue, discussing the scenario from different perspectives.
The Scale of Preparedness
While working with clients, I have seen varying degrees of preparedness and the impact it had on the application. Those who looked at the process with open-mindedness prepared extensively when each to-do list was presented. Interestingly, this small group came up with the most creative prose and helped us build a strong narrative.
The other end of the spectrum is when the client is ready with a summary of five life-altering events – success, failure, learning, growth, and goals. They have assimilated the techniques, the tools, and the discipline required to create a wholesome application. Needless to say, they fare extremely well too.
It is the middle that the admission is trying to eliminate.
When the Harvard MBA application is considered a ‘dream’ application without any effort put into understanding the culture, the students, the writing process, and the iteration required to represent one’s authentic self, the process becomes mechanical with no ‘spark’ captured in the essay.
Preparedness is a virtue that differentiates a professional from the amateur, the contender from the dreamer.
Those who are stuck in the twilight zone assume that with some strange stroke of luck, they will get an interview invite from Harvard. That rarely happens. The ones that happen become folklore and spread widely to give the impression that it is all about luck.
‘Preparedness’ is an integral part of the HBS culture.
Even for professors who have read the case a hundred times, the case study discussions are sacred. They put a lot of thought into the opening remark and techniques to orchestrate the talking points in such a way that the wider – traditional and unique ideas are captured, entertained, and developed.
The discussions can move in multiple directions.
That is the fun part for the professors – getting perspectives that they have never thought of while preparing for the case.
What will be the opening question, and who should be the first person to kick start the debate are some of the concerns that professors have.
3. Learning
What these discussions do is that each student will get the chance to vocalize their opinion in front of the learning team and get additional or contradicting information that validates or changes the stand completely. Before the case study method, students must brush up on case facts – competitors, pricing, limitations, opportunities in the market, and threats from new entrants.
The day before the case, smaller groups (5-6) from the learning team (a group of 90) come together, read the overview of the case, and engage in an open dialogue, depending on how each student takes the information. The group rationalizes them in a concrete direction that synthesizes the collective knowledge.
Even before the case study method, a debate has already started.
With the details, students rationalize their decision-making capability. After the case has been looked at from different angles, students form a firm opinion. They are ready to communicate the rationale in front of the class.
Learning is listening, rationalizing, and pivoting.
If you don’t have listening skills, the discussions become a shadow game of keeping mute and putting forward a contrarian view just to gain brownie points or demonstrate your superior thinking.
Good listeners evaluate the tone, the motivation, the content, and the goal of the discussions, without getting carried away by personalities and hundreds of interesting talking points outside the scope of the topic.
4. Extroversion
Even those who label themselves as an introvert are ambivert in real-life – outgoing and social when the topic of discussion interests them, and quiet when the topic is out of their expertise. Interestingly, the admissions team prefers extroverts over ambiverts.
A large part of the class discussions would involve topics that are out of your comfort zone. Even if you prepare with rigor, speaking in front of a diverse and accomplished class requires the thick skin to look foolish.
Extroverts are naturally good at shielding themselves from embarrassment. The essay, resume, and recommendation letters become valuable data points to measure your thick skin and extroversion.
The extra-curricular that align with your personality – debating, leading cross-cultural teams, public performance (arts, culture, and sports), and contributing to sales (professionally or at a non-profit) are good examples of extroversion.
50% of the final grade depends on your class participation. The ideal participation in a 90-member class is one where you comment on every two classes. Before you join the program, professors will study your name, achievements, and socio-economic background and even evaluate your potential.
To avoid the biases of the professors from influencing the evaluation of each student, the school even manages to employ a stenographer who notes down everything you say.
In such an environment, your extraversion and public speaking skills have extra credence.
5. Succinct Communication
When you debate about the case a day before the session, you get the chance to listen to your peers who have worked in the industry or to someone who has faced a similar problem.
By actively listening and succinctly discussing without going out of scope, you develop the habit of debating on points without your emotions clouding the objective of the discussion.
Many Harvard MBA students have rated peer learning as more valuable than learning from professors. It can only happen when you listen and communicate without going over the same point again and again.
Even in class, when the professors ask you to state your opinion, they expect you to make the point in just 30 seconds – a skill that marks a unique leadership trait.
6. Ownership
Even if you have not led large teams or had a life-altering impact on your community, team, or company, one trait that resonates with the admission team is absolute ownership of the tasks you are entrusted with.
As you progress in your career and the responsibilities increase, owning tasks and the outcome of competing priorities require the skill to manage time, prioritize tasks, and understand the impact of each task on the stakeholders.
The perspective on the bigger picture comes from immersing oneself in the project.
While discussing the best strategy to offer value for a marketing campaign, I suggested to my friend that instead of outsourcing whitepapers to a digital agency, he bring his unique voice to the paper.
I believed that his talent to communicate succinctly would connect with CXOs. He interrupted me with, “this is not my company.”
I had become accustomed to thinking diligently about adding value like an entrepreneur, and I forgot that he was an employee. Suddenly, I could recognize the boundaries of ownership.
Ownership of a project is not mutually exclusive to individual motivation and the influence of the person. HBS understands this. However, I have seen applicants continue to support causes despite the limited impact of such causes on their admissions.
Later, while brainstorming, they would passionately share about the small improvements in the infrastructure, the families their time and technology have impacted, and the change in perspective their involvement has brought in education, healthcare, and the adoption of green technology. It became much easier for us to create a narrative around the small project over several branded non-profit engagements.
The applicant truly owned the project.
7. Data-driven decision making
Unlike the case study method, where the limitations, opportunities, and threats are clearly defined, in real-life, decisions are made on insufficient data.
Take any crisis. You must act fast and decisively to weather the upheaval the setback has caused.
Imagine making such decisions every day in Technology, Operations, Finance, Marketing, Talent Management, and Strategy.
That is the life of a CXO.
Your every move is scrutinized, criticized, and questioned until the market validates or punishes your choices.
Data-driven decision-making is up against personal incentives, politics, and ideological warfare. Withstanding the pressures of the stakeholders and developing a superior filter for narratives & spin is a complementary skill to data-driven decision making.
A big reason why schools insist on evaluating your statistics score is that the dashboards, AI tools, and quant analysis are founded on statistics and probability.
Your in-depth understanding of this critical decision-making tool, the assumptions on which the models operate, the margins of safety to take risks, and the ‘blind spots’ of statistical analysis are equally important when making high-stake decisions.
The nuances of such decisions might not be entirely captured in one essay. However, your skills in making choices with limited information and getting it right based on rigorous quant skills would be a relief for the admission team, who wants to ensure that your success is not just driven by gut feeling but strong science.
8. Passion
Passion is the most loosely used word in modern culture without understanding the intensity of this bastardized term.
I am passionate about Basketball but not passionate enough to practice like Jordan - 3 hours every day.
My friend is passionate about writing but is not willing to write 2000 draft pages and, eventually, 1000 published pages every year, as I do.
I became passionate about viruses with the pandemic but will never read 20 dry scientific papers every week as my brother does as a Pulmonologist.
Passion is love.
You love what you do. You do what you love.
In an MBA application, it is easy to spot passion. It need not be related to your post-MBA goal or even your career.
The tale of passion for Math, Science, or Technology is plenty and genuine when it comes from an authentic applicant.
The interesting ones are from your school and undergraduate years when the motivation for an MBA might not be fully formed.
The passion was not strategic. It came from your love for what you did and the impact you had.
9. Sense of Community
The common bucket where the passion materializes for MBA applicants is in local communities.
Even the most driven, individualistic society becomes sensitive to the local community during a war, disease, or natural calamity.
HBS is looking for a habit of engaging in local communities regardless of your country or city/town of origin. Applicants take the tutoring, pro-bono consulting, and technology integration route to highlight skills that are not easily captured in their professional careers.
Some of the relevant volunteering and community service we have seen in the HBS MBA Application include:
• A quant-strong Finance professional demonstrating his caring side through mentoring immigrants on career choices and learning techniques
• A marketing professional demonstrating her learning skills by demonstrating capabilities in technology integration that served low-income families in a developing economy
• A Technologist demonstrating her creative side through paintings and auctioning them to build funds for hunger management in Africa.
• An Oil & Gas professional showcasing the origin of her passion for renewable energy and the incredible awareness she built around adopting green technology
• A Business Development professional with a passion for governance and the progress he made in transforming a cluster of villages in India with equitable access to information, healthcare, and electricity
If your target post-MBA industry or function is different from your current experience, community service becomes an excellent opportunity to demonstrate your skills and attitude toward serving local communities.
Known Brand vs. Start-up (Non-Profit)
We have seen just-in-time engagements with start-ups and systematic volunteering for known non-profits (Teach for America, Habitat for Humanity, and Red Cross). Depending on the narrative, both have worked. However, for known brands, the scrutiny is low, and the believability is high.
The start-up engagements require some impressive numbers. If you don’t have great numbers to quote, but the engagement gave an insight into human behavior or your life goals, breaking down the narrative with impact at a personal level works the most.
10. Chutzpah
The one person who epitomizes Chutzpah is Elon Musk. His Twitter eccentricities aside, the vision to have a backup plan and not be sitting ducks for an extinction event on earth led to SpaceX. The building blocks to colonize Mars have led to rapid developments in space exploration, satellite technology, and the development of reusable rockets.
When leading car manufacturers considered Electric Vehicles (EVs) as a gimmick to keep shareholders happy, Elon started Tesla with the vision to “accelerate the advent of electric vehicles.”
Mission-driven companies always gain mass support over suits with short-term thinking.
HBS MBA admissions team is not expecting ‘Entrepreneur-like’ long-term thinking. However, narratives where the ‘greater’ good of the community is emphasized over personal goals will attract empathy for your tales of ‘Chutzpah.’
Working on goals that are outside your comfort zone is a rare quality. The challenge is in building a narrative that identifies your weakness, shares your fears, and then gives a peek into how you take risks.
Nothing would seem logical. However, your ‘confidence’ in learning and figuring out, and the impact your initiative would have on society, ties the story together.
The admissions team subconsciously will root for you when the scale of the challenges is clearly defined, and your sincere effort is highlighted.
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