An MBA Applicant, we reviewed, had a consistent 4-year performance in the advertising industry. He was responsible for some of the best campaigns in a top Ad Agency. As we condensed his performance to interesting narratives using the switching views method, shortlisting conflicts, finding antagonists and adding elements of storytelling, he shared one big secret just two days before the application deadline. Despite being a top 1% contributor, he was fired from two of the four jobs. We felt betrayed that he chose not to share this crucial piece of information while we were sending questionnaires for the life audit session. According to him, Firing was a negative incident, not something that enhances the narrative arc, or adds to the saleability of his profile. MBA Admission team has often found evidence of 'getting fired' during background checks, and had to reject accepted applicants because they chose not to disclose employment gaps contributed by the incident.
What most applicants fail to understand is that any incident can be transformed to a story by adding four elements: Characters, Points of Views, Obstacles, and Resolution. The top MBA program he was applying even had a question - "What is the biggest obstacle you had to overcome,” a 500-word essay that would have been the perfect space to include the 'getting fired' incident. It does not matter if you were fired or you chose to quite a job, the contemplation time to find the next job in addition to the actual search would add at least 1-6 month of employment gap. Before writing about getting fired, you have to decide whether getting fired was the focus of the story or the opportunities after the firing is the turning point in your career. The scenarios are personal, and if you found a job within 1-month of the incident, then 'getting fired' should be the focus of the story, but if you had a 3-4 month gap to consider multiple job roles, let the life after the incident be at the heart of the narrative.
Let's take Getting Fired and explain each story elements.
1) Characters
Characters are the backbone of the story. You are the protagonist, but a story is never engaging without the antagonists. The hell-raising boss, who wants the best; the boss who is blindly egoistic without putting any thought on the outcome or efficiency of the team; the boss who shows open favoritism to the less talented team member and all the weird characters in between makes for an opportunity to explain conflict. Your boss will be the central character in an essay about you getting fired.
When your story is about the incident, you have to be careful not to make a caricature out of your boss. Of course, they were egoistic, and made a quick decision regarding your employability but that doesn't make them a one-dimensional human being. The circumstances under which the characters behaved should highlight the vulnerability of the character. If the boss could not support you due to the non-negotiable company culture, let that be part of the Character study. The worst you can do is to paint your boss as the 'villain' without putting too much thought into how the incident was triggered. It didn't come out of the blue. Perhaps, the boss preferred less dynamic team members who obeyed a certain set of rules all the time, without letting them go out of the rule box.
When the word limits in most essays are constricted to 500 words, you don't have much option to add more than 3 characters. Try writing a 500-word essay with three principle characters. The Boss, You, and the person who was also an equal party in your firing - a colleague perhaps, and you will realize how tough it is to write a compelling essay within the word limits. A 2-character narrative works best in MBA Application essays.
2) Points of Views
Mark Cuban has explained beautifully how he got fired in the book "". He does not create one-dimensional narrative. Although the major portion of the story is spent on what he did, he has the maturity to shine light into the boss's point of view. Most MBA Applicants are defensive about the incident and try to focus exclusively on their point of view without showing any signs of empathy.
We had shared how switching views help you offer context, make opinions sound as facts, and improve the overall readability in MBA Application essays. Essays are our point of views. Even the empathetic representations of the antagonist’s actions are your point of view but by looking at the other person as a multidimensional character, you are transforming the narrative to a believable format.
A non-fiction writer handles the switch deftly by creating a believable environment with the words, and then suddenly including dialogues in the narrative – a technique that we found effective in MBA essays.
Sample Essay Part 1
The 9-5 schedule never applied to us. Initially, it was a challenge adapting to a work environment where productivity was everything, but we understood why hitting milestones in a $50 million project was crucial for meeting deadlines. That evening I had met my daily milestone – “develop the ‘data validation’ module”; a functionality that made sure that customer records were pre-processed before uploading in the database. “Jon, do you have a minute?” the Manager whispered to me with a sense of despair. The HR head, the senior project Manager, and the Manager, who closed the cabin after I entered, were present for the meeting.
In the above example, 40% of the narrative is expressed from a third person’s point of view, 40% from the applicant’s perspective with a dialogue immersed at one point to highlight the moment when the applicant knew something was wrong. By mixing the point of views, the reviewer is immersed in the applicant’s experience without pre-judging. Only during the end of the paragraph will the reviewer ask the question –“Why was he fired?”
3) Obstacles
Obstacles are what makes the narrative interesting, and gives a peek into the applicant’s strengths, weaknesses, values, and biases. An obstacle creates moments of conflicts resolved through one on one personal interaction. We can’t emphasize it more – what differentiates you from other applicants, who also had led a team, mastered their domain and achieved academic excellence is people skills. Unless you can show how you navigated personal setbacks with maturity, by communicating and understanding the bigger picture, you are just another applicant trying to narrowly focusing on achievements.
Obstacles that create conflict in the narrative are:
1) Personal Conflicts: A feedback that you are not good enough for a job function might seem shocking to you at that moment, but unless you can put to words your insecurities, the reviewer will not understand the internal turmoil.
2) External Circumstances: Maybe the company had a losing quarter for the third consecutive time, and they cannot afford to keep you in the team. The firing might be due to downsizing – not your fault.
3) Politics: Writing about office politics is tricky but what we have observed is that majority of firing happens due to ego clash and favoritism.
Sample Essay Part 2
The HR Manager looked at me with sympathy. Over her shoulders, I could see the performance list for the quarter. My name was on the top of the list. I had developed 3 modules a week with Maggie taking a distant second at 1.5 modules per week. When the boss said, “We have bad news for you,” I knew what the next sentence would be. The company failed to close two major projects where my skills would have been put to optimum use. I showed them the performance board just behind their back. The Senior Project Manager smiled and said, “We know. That is why it is painful to let you go.”
4) Resolution
Resolution does two things: it gives a clearer context on what happened from your personal point of view, and shows how you managed the internal and circumstantial conflicts. Two things most likely follows: a feeling of injustice first fills the narrative, followed by the realization that getting fired was for the better. How you put that to words differentiates you from other applicants
Sample Essay Part 3
I sat shocked, and a little insulted when the HR Manager shared that I had to leave the desk immediately. One hour back, I was pumping up the team with new ideas, and here I was leaving the company. I had overstayed my welcome. In early July, when over 100 employees were fired, my inner dialogue blamed their performance. Although I saw some anomaly when even some of the talented creators were let go, I kept sticking to a company whose culture I had despised. I felt I could bring change to the bureaucratic organization by giving autonomy to each team member. I did, and motivated quite a few, but the company believed in the status quo and the rigidity of commands in a top-down flow.
When my style of leadership started disrupting the rigid process oriented organization, the leadership started neglecting the results. The Senior Project Manager who was a stickler for ‘obeying orders’, gave me a sly smile while I was crossed his desk. I pressed the ‘0’ button, and saw my Manager rushing towards the lift. He shared how he had fought for my position; all in vain and how the Sr. Project Manager despised how I dealt with the team. I thanked my Manager, and felt grateful at the opportunity to take a break from the 9-7 schedule that I had worked for the past 4 years.
Next month, I received an invitation as one of the speakers on a software development framework. The pay was hourly, but my name was all over the brochures – an opportunity I was experiencing for the first time. One of the attendees was the CTO of a start-up in Bay area. He stopped by me after the talk, complimented my presentation, and wanted to know how the framework would reduce development time, especially in the App Business. I demonstrated how productivity could be doubled with the new framework. Although there was a 2-3 month learning curve, the long-term impact was huge. The next day I got an email with an offer – be the consultant and trainer for the start-up with a pay package that was 1.5 times my previous salary for 4 month’s work. I had finally found a niche where I could excel, but my heart was always on scaling the Tutoring Business. Luckily, I met Mr. Todd (the Marketing Manager for X MBA program), who shared how MBA students last year have incubated two start-ups in the Education industry through the school’s Entrepreneurial ecosystem. I had finally found my match.
About the Author
I am Atul Jose - the Founding Consultant at F1GMAT.
Over the past 15 years, I have helped MBA applicants gain admissions to Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Chicago Booth, Kellogg, Columbia, Haas, Yale, NYU Stern, Ross, Duke Fuqua, Darden, Tuck, IMD, London Business School, INSEAD, IE, IESE, HEC Paris, McCombs, Tepper, and schools in the top 30 global MBA ranking.
I offer end-to-end Admissions Consulting and editing services – Career Planning, Application Essay Editing & Review, Recommendation Letter Editing, Interview Prep, assistance in finding funds and Scholarship Essay & Cover letter editing. See my Full Bio.
I am also the Author of the Winning MBA Essay Guide, covering 16+ top MBA programs with 240+ Sample Essays that I have updated every year since 2013 (11+ years. Phew!!)
I am an Admissions consultant who writes and edits Essays every year. And it is not easy to write good essays.
Contact me for any questions about MBA or Master's application. I would be happy to answer them all
Winning MBA Essay Guide - A Complete Guide for M7 and Top 15 MBA Application Essays
F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay guide will teach you how to transform your essay into a life journey with trials and tribulations that will move the admission team.
+ Over 245 Sample Essays (Read Previews of F1GMAT's Winning MBA Essay Guide Sample Essays here)
+ Top 15 MBA Programs (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Columbia, Booth, MIT, Kellogg, Yale, Haas, Darden, INSEAD, LBS, NYU Stern, Tuck, Duke Fuqua, Ross)
+ The Art of Storytelling
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
+ Leadership Narratives
+ Review Tips
+ Persuasion Strategies
+ The Secret to "unleashing" your unique voice
+ How to prepare and present for the Video Essay
+ How to write about your Strengths
+ How to write about your Weaknesses
Want to try the individual school Essay Guides before upgrading to the Winning MBA Essay Guide? Try below.
F1GMAT's Essay Guides
Harvard MBA Essay Guide (20 Sample Essays)
Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)Example #1: Persistence Narrative
Background Information: The applicant – a design and music talent, shares her journey through several setbacks. She attributes curiosity to her growth.
Curiosity: Philosophy
Curiosity (Explained): Curiosity as a philosophy is tough to translate into a narrative unless you are from the creative industry or your contributions had an influence on a solution or an initiative.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to capture the humanity of the applicant and her influence in music instead of just highlighting how she overcame multiple roadblocks to gain attention as a designer.
Theme: Persistence
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Life Starts at NO (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #2: International Community Building
Background Information: The applicant, a Machine Learning (ML) entrepreneur specializing in healthcare diagnostics, shares how his curiosity to learn other ML algorithms’ evolution in diagnosing Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease transformed his platform into a global community.
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to show the applicant’s contributions in diagnostic from 2020 to 2024 by citing two events. Such examples build credibility instead of engagements that were recent. The evolution of the platform from an AI development community to a community for discussing the application of AI in diagnostics is captured through a ‘curiosity’ angle.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Growth through Collaboration (AI in Healthcare) (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #3: Culture
Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India narrates his first entrepreneurial experience – facilitating exchange of stamps in the late 1990s.
Theme: Culture
MBA Essay Strategy: Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – The American Dream (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #4: Addiction
Background Information: The applicant – a beneficiary of the foster home system, captures the sacrifice his adopted grandparents made to save him from a path of addiction. Paying it back through early intervention among teenagers and community engagement is the curiosity narrative.
Theme: Addiction
MBA Essay Strategy: My strategy is to capture a gratitude narrative in the first one-third of the essay to demonstrate motivation for starting the venture and dedicate the latter part of the essay to the unique solution
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Drug Addiction and Gaming (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #5: Scarcity
Background Information: The applicant, an education major, recognizes that 70% of all students in Kenya don’t have a computer. The curiosity that drives him to pivot from one solution to another is the growth narrative.
Theme: Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: Often, innovation is captured with a ‘hero’ narrative where the applicant is the sole originator of an idea. I wanted to break that cliché and include a person from whom the applicant learned to use a concept called ‘scaffolding.’
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Scarcity (Growth-Oriented HBS Essay Example)Example #6: FinTech
Background Information: The applicant captures a vulnerable moment of a beneficiary to compare his journey of side hustle before a technology giant noticed his talent. Although cryptocurrency is not a flavor for the year, capture niches where innovation is still happening.
Theme: Education, Child Welfare
MBA Essay Strategy: Empathizing with a techno solution is tough without a strong backstory around the beneficiary. For the essay, I wanted to clearly establish the beneficiary – Rami, before the applicant narrates the similarities to his journey and finally shares the solution that emerged from his curiosity.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – FinTech as a Tool for Good (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #7: Learning from the best
Background Information: The applicant – a Remote Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry, reflects on a value that has helped her learn from the best regardless of her geographical limitations.
Theme: Learning
MBA Essay Strategy: The effectiveness of the case-study method depends on the assumption that peers in a Harvard MBA class will help elevate your learning experience. For the essay, I have highlighted the applicant’s recognition of this value proposition with three examples.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Learning from the Best (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #8: Military & Search for IMPACT
Background Information: The most common narrative for US military applicants is to quote 9/11 and the reaction your immediate family had while watching the events unfold. The horrifying moment is captured as a motivation to join the Military. On digging deeper, most applicants would share that their motivations were diverse.
Theme: Career Choice
MBA Essay Strategy: I wanted to quickly highlight that the applicant had the choice of entering any industry. One achievement to demonstrate his curiosity that I shared in the first half is the invention of a game. Since the game is mentioned in the resume and verifiable through search, I didn’t quote the name. By clearly highlighting the person’s curiosity and career options, the family legacy is used as a factor in joining the military.
Read: Harvard MBA Curiosity Essay – Career Choice after a Military Career (Growth-Oriented HBS MBA Essay Example)
Leadership-Focused Essay: What experiences have shaped who you are, how you invest in others, and what kind of leader you want to become? (up to 250 words)Example #9: Small Business Values
Background Information: The applicant - a second-generation Asian American, is familiar with the values of fiscal conservatism, building relationships, and understanding the daily struggles of the community through his family’s department store.
Theme: Customer-Centric
MBA Essay Strategy: The applicant’s role in developing an App for the store is highlighted in the essay at a crucial part of the narrative so that the essay is not all about his father. I have also humanized the journey – by sharing how upset the father was when the revenues fell by 40%. The essay is about the transformation in the applicant’s value from a person chasing productivity and optimization technique to someone who is truly thinking about the customers.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Small Business Values (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #10: Breaking Away from Family Business
Background Information: A unique challenge that applicants whose parents are public figures or CXOs of businesses or entrepreneurs are the pressure to live up to the parent’s standards or milestones. For the leadership narrative, the burden of legacy is established before the narrative addresses his leadership principles.
Theme: Authenticity
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, I want to capture an entrepreneur’s journey to rise above his entrepreneur father’s image. But I didn’t want to make the entire essay about this complex dynamics. The narrative is around the applicant’s focus on customers and surrounding with teams who keeps him grounded.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Breaking Away from Family Business(Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #11: Creativity and Communication
Background Information: When the overall percentage of users with internet access is 62% in South Africa and the inequality accentuated by the rural and urban divide, the applicant endured the lack of digital infrastructure, and spending close to 22% of the family income on gaining relevant information on schools, global exams, and financial assistance.
Theme: Creativity, Communication
MBA Essay Strategy: The strategy is to share why the applicant values no distraction in a child’s home for optimum education experience. Then I highlight the many roadblocks the applicant’s non-profit faced in receiving fee waiver for their cooperative run ISP.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Non-Profit (Telecom) (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #12: Mental Health
Background Information: The applicant like most didn’t pay much attention to the mental health epidemic until tragedy hit home.
Theme: Communication, Innovation
MBA Essay Strategy: A question we frequently get from applicants is whether they should cite tragedy in the family as a motivation for a venture or a non-profit initiative. As long as you don’t linger too much on the tragedy and offer a balanced narrative, there are no restrictions on leveraging unique stories from your life.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Mental Health (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #13: Trauma, Healing & Finding Authentic Self
Background Information: The applicant narrates the absurdity of war in the narrative about the duties in Kabul, and the trauma. Instead of wallowing in on the horror, the applicant takes what makes military applicants strong and guides unprivileged children build life and leadership skills.
Theme: Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing PTSD in an essay, the healing process, and the cues that helped the applicant are too sacred to be shared in a Harvard MBA application essay. However, with the right motivation and narrative arcs, you can capture the essence of your journey without sharing the darkest secrets. That is what I did by merging two stories – the horrors of the war with a non-profit engagement.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Military & PTSD (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #14: Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra
Background Information: In this narrative, the applicant captures Peru’s Silver mining boom of 2006. The growth experienced in her father’s business shifted the family’s economic status to a new stratosphere. Through the changing economic and family dynamics, the applicant finds her voice in a unique way, initially to record her unheard voice but later as one of the youngest subject matter experts in mining and commodities.
Theme: Failure
MBA Essay Strategy: For the essay, the strategy is to show how life’s unpredictability is a blessing. By narrating two setback events, the essay demonstrates the applicant’s resilience and her acknowledgment of people who made a comeback possible.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – Addiction, Setback and Leadership Mantra (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)Example #15: War, Immigration and Starting Over Again
Background Information: Despite a raging war in Syria, the family of the applicant was unblemished by the chaos. The strategic government assets near the applicant’s house would have made the region an easy target, but it was not. The calmness of her journey is shattered in one event. From the privileges of a cocooned life, the applicant is forced to think about survival, her sister’s future, and her future in the US. The second half of the narrative captures the change that was forced on her.
Theme: Gratitude, Resilience
MBA Essay Strategy: I consciously chose not to start the essay with a dialogue or trauma. Two lines are allocated to set up the narrative before the trauma event.
Read: Harvard MBA Leadership Essay – War, Immigration and Starting Over Again (Leadership-Focused HBS MBA Essay Example)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)
Example #16: Creative or Finance
Background Information: The applicant starts the narrative with the origin of her talents. The unbridled enthusiasm receives a reality check when in high school, the applicant’s father has a conversation with her about academics. While the applicant picked up her quant skills, she was reaching over 50,000 loyal fans, and her videos captured 1 million views.
Theme: Passion, Talent
MBA Essay Strategy: Capturing vulnerability is the toughest part for Harvard MBA applicants. For this essay example, I have captured the applicant’s uncertainty about career choice throughout the essay. Here the goal is to show vulnerability in the career choice essay while for leadership and growth essay, I could capture one example each from creative and PE industry respectively to balance the narrative. So don’t follow this example without a strategy.
Read: Harvard MBA Business-Minded Essay – Creative or Finance (Business-Minded HBS MBA Essay Example)- Stanford MBA Essay Guide (24 Sample Essays)
- Columbia MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Wharton MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- INSEAD MBA Essay Guide (19 Sample Essays)
- Darden MBA Essay Guide (21 Sample Essays)
- Yale SOM MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Tuck MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays)
- Haas MBA Essay Guide (18 Sample Essays)
- NYU Stern MBA Essay Guide (15 Sample Essays + 6 Examples - Visual Essay)
- LBS MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Essays)
- MIT Sloan MBA Essay Guide (6 Sample Cover Letters + 3 Sample Video Statement Scripts + 3 Sample Optional Essays)
- Kellogg MBA Essay Guide (11 Sample Essays)
- Chicago Booth MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
- Ross MBA Essay Guide (31 Sample Essays)
- Duke Fuqua MBA Essay Guide (10 Sample Essays + Two 25 Random Things Samples)
- Cambridge MBA Essay Guide (12 Sample Essays)
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