Developing your Personal Brand for MBA Admissions - The Art of Pivoting

Although Business Schools would love to have A+ candidate, a class full of students who are in the pre-destined Finance and Consulting background would add very little value to the diversity of the class. AdCom is looking for students who have pivoted in their career.

The term pivot was popularized with the lean start-up movement. It is defined as a strategy of correcting the course of action based on the tests conducted on the initial hypothesis. In the lean start-up environment, the hypothesis can be related to the product, strategy, people, or market.

What does Pivoting Mean in MBA Admission?

Even if you are not a typical student with 3.5+ GPA and 720+ GMAT, your career choice till now can impress the AdCom if you let them know that you have pivoted. It doesn’t matter if you had a setback and you were not able to get into the planned career choice.

Economic Scenario

The AdCom understands that a tough economic environment can impact the career path of some of the best candidates. Therefore, instead of blaming the Economy, explain how you navigated through the setbacks and came back as winner. You don’t have to mention that it was all planned out. Although candidates who have a good understanding of where they were heading will get more point from the ADCom, making the most out of adversities, and creating a niche for yourself in a career path that you have not chosen, shows your maturity, resilience, and capability as a leader.

Start-Up Experience

It is very rare that candidates, before pursuing MBA would opt for start-up experience instead of that of a well-established company. It is a Myth that Brand name of the company that a candidate worked for matter more than the roles and responsibilities that the candidates was entrusted with during their tenure in a start-up or less established company.

More likely, the applicant would have gained diverse experience working in a start-up with no established processes than working with limited scope on a large project in a bigger company. The experience in the smaller company or start-up would have pushed the candidates from their comfort zone and would have made them a better-qualified candidate for the MBA program. The AdCom has no clue that you did. It is your responsibility to highlight your work experience.

What AdCom wants to know?

The AdCom wants to know that you are among the top 10% of your peers in terms of career growth and learning capabilities. They would also like to know that instead of hiding from responsibilities, you were pro-active in pursuing leadership roles, and responsibilities, no matter how small the context was.

Recommendation Letter

Your story about pivoting and performance will be of very little value if your recommenders cannot give a similar story. Therefore, it is your responsibility to find the right recommenders – managers, supervisors, mentors or colleagues, and maintain the consistency of your story through well-crafted recommendation letters.

Recommended Downloads

Sample Recommendation Letters for MBA Application