LBS MBA Essay 2: What Makes you Unique (200 Words)
Even during the worst job market, employers look for candidates who are entrepreneurial. The popular culture, unfortunately, has painted entrepreneurs as these superhuman beings who persist and stare at failure with a Zen attitude.
They are not.
What makes entrepreneurial applicants unique is their resourcefulness in turning limitations into their strengths.
Case Study: Automobile Engineer (Defect in automatic braking sensor)
I once read an essay from an automobile engineer who spotted a defect in the automatic braking sensor. Any traditional engineer would have started with the sensor, but because the applicant was entrepreneurial, his root cause analysis was different. He found a fault in the forward-facing camera, whose visibility was affected by a faulty windshield wiper. What could have turned into a costly recall turned into a quick fix by replacing the rubber strip of the wiper.
Turning Weakness to a Strength
He sourced the best-in-market component from a supply chain partner in Latin America, an 85% lower cost solution than anticipated before. Interestingly, automobile forums raved about the high durability of the windshield wiper blades.
Resourcefulness End-to-End
From root cause analysis to low-cost solutions, the applicant demonstrated resourcefulness in taking ownership of the problem and turning a weakness into a strength.
Resourcefulness should be ‘specific’ to your job function.
The LBS MBA admissions team is not looking for traditional entrepreneurial or high-level strategic solutions.
Read F1GMAT’s LBS MBA Essay Guide, where Atul Jose, the Author and Founding Consultant of F1GMAT's essay guides demonstrates how to write the uniqueness essay, with resourcefulness as a theme.
