In a high-volume application evaluation like MBA Admissions, the battle to take the mind space of the reviewer requires attention-grabbing narratives, a confident but objective choice of words, and a clearly defined strategy. To break the stereotype, you need a much more forceful strategy. Like the public, the Admission team is equally vulnerable to the stereotypes created by TV shows, Cinemas, Newspaper, Magazines, Social Media, and News Channels. Even though the goals behind the stereotyping might be political, humor, or to take storytelling forward, the impact can be lasting.
Remember the Matthew McConaughey Di Caprio interaction in the Wolf of Wall Street, where the former teaches the latter about the rules of Stock Business, and reiterates, “Why the protégé should not care about the clients but give them the illusion of making money.” That one scene reinforces the long-held view, especially after the 2008 financial meltdown, that Wall Street brokers are Greedy.
Although it is an extreme generalization, when an MBA Admission reviewer notices stockbroker in the resume, these images will flash in her mind. To understand why these absurd images get associated with the mention of the word “Stockbroker,” you have to understand the unintended consequence of categorization.
Categorization – Influencing Stereotyping
When MBA Applications are submitted in the thousands, they are categorized based on score (GMAT and GPA), nationalities, profession, undergraduate degree and gender, or in some cases a combination of categories (GMAT 700+ Asian Women with GPA score of 3.2). The unintended consequence is that the recall of Quant skills of a 700+ scoring Asian Women is much lower than the male counterpart. Even though the evaluating MBA Admission Officer is a woman, the mere mention of Female in the Gender column will trigger the concept “Women = Low Quant Skills” – a falsely held belief propagated across generations. Even if there is a positive stereotype with Asian applicants (strong quant skills), the stronger sub-category (woman) influences the recall of the skills. In MBA Admissions, recall is everything. If the MBA Admission officer cannot recall why you are different, your strategy to break out of the stereotype has failed.
Is the stereotyping so obvious?
Your MBA Application resume will give away information about your Nationality, Gender, Profession, and Socio-economic background, but your essays play a much bigger role in propagating the stereotype and reminding the reviewer that you fall within the ‘Group’. You cannot control the negative or positive connotation associated with the Group, but if you are aware of the general impression that the Admission team have about the common groups considered in MBA Admissions, you can pick narratives accordingly.
For a Wall Street broker, highlighting his wealth-creating skills in essays might prove counterproductive. Reviewers will be reminded about the negative stereotype – “All Brokers are Greedy,” and will be negatively influenced at a sub-conscious level, even if the narrative proves your competency. Instead, if the applicant mentions how he conducts a free course – “Value Investing for Senior Citizens,” every Saturday, it will mitigate the common perception, “The Financial Meltdown of 2008 wiped off the Pensions and investments of Senior Citizens.”
This kind of strategy seems strange. After all, as a broker, if you had nothing to do with the 2008 Financial meltdown, how is it your responsibility to fight the perception war against the ‘Group’? Ask the thousands of Asian applicants getting rejected from B-Schools, and they will have no explanation. “Not all Asian applicants are Quant focused with little creativity and poor communication skills,” but the perception is strongly against this Group. Those who actively fought the perception without feeling victimized received admit to top Business Schools. The rest of them are still complaining in Forums.
Perception is the lens through which we evaluate reality, and unless we actively alter the curvature, new stereotypes will be defined and old stereotypes reinforced. Breaking out of the Stereotype is an active perception war. Don’t assume that ‘Group’ thinking is not prevalent in MBA Admissions.
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