Most applicants don’t have continuous involvement with one non-profit. When they learn that the spike in activity, 1 year before admissions would be judged as manipulation by the US schools, the geographic spread of their target schools widens. European schools don't have such heavy emphasis on volunteering and extra-curricular. However, if you were among those who had decent involvement (3-4 months each) in a non-profit while managing an impressive career progression, positioning the extra-curricular experience is necessary for a Winning MBA Application.
Here are 5 ways to position your volunteering/extra-curricular experience
1) Choice of Organization
Although schools don't openly share this uncomfortable trend, applicants from Fortune 100 companies have a clear advantage over applicants building their multi-functional skills in a start-up or performing above their peers in a 200 to 500 ranked Fortune company. When you have 3-4 years of experience in one organization, the sub-conscious question that admission team would have is - can the applicant excel in a highly structured organization. The processes and operational efficiency might not differ that much in a Fortune 100 and a Fortune 200 company, but most top companies stay on the list by consistently focusing on eliminating processes that hinder from serving the customers. Volunteering in one of the top recognized non-profit brands - Habitat for Humanity, Red Cross, Teach for America, Goodwill, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Smile Foundation, Salvation Army, World Wildlife Fund for Nature, or Amnesty International, is a trick that applicants from lesser-known brand employ to signal that they are associated with known brands outside their professional life.
2) Leadership Role
Not everyone has the opportunity to lead in a professional environment. Flat organization divide the responsibilities based on the functions with systems and automated processes taking over the role of managers in project tracking and predicting the timeline of each phase. In such organizations, individual responsibility to take ownership of a clearly defined outcome is valued more than managing a team of 3-4.
With no room to understand the motivations of individuals within an organization and leading them towards a greater vision, volunteering and extra-curricular becomes the opportunity to highlight this vital part of your personality. Leading a team in Football, Cricket, Basketball, Soccer or a platoon (military) involve managing the short-term goals and long-term vision for each organization.
If you were leading professionally, understanding the motivations of high-performing individuals is necessary to overcome short-term challenges. Most likely you would work with such individuals in an MBA class. The biggest learning curve while leading is at developing the skill in assessing talent, incentivizing them for performance and developing training schedules to help them reach their true potential. If during volunteering, you had the chance to mentor a teammate, share the experience with the emphasis on the journey you took in improving the skills of the person.
3) Commitment
For applicants who were part of one non-profit or organization (military/professional sports team), the narrative should emphasis the loyalty, the vision of the organization, the offers from rivals or alternative career paths (military), and conclude why commitment to the team has helped you grow as an individual and a leader. Organizations value loyalty in a job market when professionals on an average switch 2-3 companies in the first 5 years of their career. If you switched jobs more than 2 times, the loyalty to one organization in the non-profit would balance out the 'commitment' questions that might arise about your professional choices. A demonstrable performance with the non-profit and the diversity of the volunteering experience would showcase how you value challenges while subtly hinting that the switch in jobs was not entirely to meet the financial goals but to fulfil the tremendous appetite to take on broader challenges.
4) Diversity of Experience
Learning in an MBA class requires the flexibility to take on multiple roles in student clubs, as an event organizer, and as an effective contributor during class discussions. Highlighting multiple facets of your personality is not entirely possible in a functional role. If the involvement in the non-profit was sporadic, try to find a narrative that highlights the diversity of the experience. Most applicants start with on-ground volunteering with several opportunities to interact with the beneficiaries. Once they experience the joy, frustration and the snail-pace with which projects are delivered in partnership with the government (the majority of projects), volunteers seek a high-impact role. Since most applicants are trying to gain cross-functional experience, highlighting the learning curve in each phase, the mistakes made, and the lessons learned would demonstrate the readiness to learn and take on complex projects in any part of the world (a key winning trait for Management Consultants).
5) Bigger Picture
For those who have started a non-profit to resolve a specific community problem, capturing the bigger vision of the organization would help you portray an ability to foresee results that applicants traditionally don't do. The most common reason for rejection is the inability to connect short-term with long-term goals or citing long-term goals that don’t make any logical sense for the profile. By repeating an ability to see the bigger picture professionally and at an organizational level, you could bring a deep understanding of market forces, technology trends and government policies to the class.
Be as specific as possible when you predict trends, citing examples of your involvement with the non-profit whenever possible.
Have questions about the value of your extracurricular experience? Start the conversation here.
Want help capturing the most relevant extra-curricular experience in your essays? Subscribe to our Essay Review Service
