• Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (up to 250 words)

Background Information: Through the changing economic and family dynamics of her father's mining business, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to find an audience for her underappreciated voice, and later as one of the youngest subject-matter experts in mining and commodities.  

Leadership Traits: Resilience, Authenticity  

Berkeley Haas MBA What Makes you Feel Alive Essay Example (Flying and Building Tech Products)

Extra-curricular feeding into the profession can be structured with two strategies. 

One – finding a common set of skills that are useful in both endeavors. 

Two – sharing that both have a unique purpose in your life. 

In this example, we have used the 2nd strategy - by highlighting an extra-curricular that makes the applicant feel alive. Then a professional endeavor which has provided a similar meaning to the applicant’s life. 

Berkeley Haas MBA What Makes you feel Alive Essay Example: Pushing oneself until Failure and Learning from Diverse Teams

Theme: Entrepreneurial Thinking, Failure, Diversity

Fast-moving consumer goods manufacturers like Unilever and P&G struggled to find a market in developing economies with traditional American and European-themed promotional strategies. Poking the aspirational class with the hope of a better future or the sparkling smile of the celebrity didn’t help the market share. On the verge of giving up the drive to enter rural markets that represent the lion’s share in developing economies, the executives called on ‘MBA’ consultants, many from reputed universities, for solutions. 

Haas MBA students selected for the IBD (International Business Development) consulting engagement, apart from sharing the tourist getaways, share a poignant observation - while discussing the client and their customers from thousands of miles away, they lacked the perspective on the ground realities. The statistics were too impersonal. When they reached on-site, the real challenges for enterprises to overcome infrastructural limitations and price sensitivity became apparent.

HBS Business-Minded Essay 

HBS Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay: Please reflect on how your experiences have influenced your career choices and aspirations and the impact you will have on the businesses, organizations, and communities you plan to serve. (up to 300 words)