Honesty vs. Vulnerability: Writing MBA Essays

There is a big misconception about storytelling for MBA Essays. In at least one iteration, I edit and remove unnecessary scenery. Any phrases that take the attention away from the main character to "describe the room," always need a rewrite. Great Gatsby, regarded as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century did that. But the narrative only dragged when Fitzgerald tried to infuse more mystery to Gatsby's character. We have come a long way in understanding what storytelling is. The influx of streaming services and movies with parallel & reverse chronology has given us the cognitive capacity to predict ending.

When an essay reviewer is reading essays, she is predicting the structure. To break the predictive nature of the narrative, break the attention of the reviewer through interesting segue that takes the attention of the reviewer away from you, just enough, but not far enough that the reviewer loses their train of thoughts or investment into your story.

How much contextualizing is required to keep the admission team's interest in your story?

This is tricky. An independent eye can help you overcome 'creation biases.' Our baby always looks cuter to us than the rest of the world. The more we have invested in writing an essay, the more unlikely we would allow an independent reviewer to cut our world into pieces. The beloved phrases that looked untouchable become an easy edit for the reviewer. It is hurtful, but the writing process just like GMAT preparation can lead to irrational behaviors. The forum addicts craving for the extra-points as a contributor and the applicant who has a bias to fight for each phrase, miss the point of the whole process.

Essays and GMAT are tools to get into a top MBA program.

If you can't differentiate and appeal to the strengths of the MBA program, the admission team wouldn't be impressed with 'flowery phrases' or your GMAT 750+ score.

We all know our weaknesses. You can pretend not to know. But the more honest you are with yourself, the more likely the weaknesses will be captured in the essay without jeopardizing your admission chances.

Honesty vs. Vulnerability

An honest revelation of your weakness that indicates that your acceptance will impact teamwork or morale of the class will not convert to an admission letter.

Understanding how to balance honesty with vulnerability is key to differentiating your essay. Few applicants have the confidence to share their vulnerable moment. Most essays are brag sheet disguised as narratives. Imagine what an essay reviewer goes through when applicants - one after the other, talks about how he overcame setbacks or led a team to unachievable heights, without sharing any moments of vulnerability.

Vulnerability always triumphs Honesty. That doesn't mean you purposefully hide your weakness if the event was a defining moment in your life.

An applicant shared how his start-up failure changed his outlook on preparation and planning. The exuberance of his early 20s and the risk-taking that comes with lack of exposure helped him gain experience in an interesting start-up eco-system. He failed, but the learning experience was truly meaningful in 2017 when AI became mainstream. Suddenly, his experience in the eco-system, half a decade back became more relevant. The vulnerability of his youth and the irrational thoughts were shared in a heartwarming narrative.

The exciting part of reading essays of applicants showing vulnerability is that we tend to empathize and root for their victory. Applicants who write achievements after achievements without any vulnerability always fails to get the attention of the admission team. It shows lack of self-awareness and confidence in one's own skills.

Failure is just one event. No one is a failure because of one event. We all have failed. Many have quit or in start-up lexicon - pivoted. Many failures had life lessons. Many had no particular meaning. Many were failures in your learning path.

But look back and see the cumulative effect of the failure.

In retrospect, we can connect how one failure led to a chance encounter with another idea or a job opportunity or an interesting project that made your profile unique.

Uniqueness matters.

In a mad rush to create narratives, don't forget that contexts offer uniqueness.

Your projects, environment, and the team are unique.

You don't need flowery phrases to create a Winning MBA Essay.

Download Winning MBA Essay Guide and learn how to use contexts for interesting narratives.

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