Berkeley Haas MBA What Makes you Feel Alive Essay (Selling and Serving Low-Income Immigrants)
Theme: Selling
Theme (Explained): AI has become an integral part of data validation, research and finding gaps in processes. The applicant’s work with a non-profit that has optimized their income verification process with AI, could segregate beneficiaries who were in dire need of funds from those who have found stable income to thrive in the communities. With skepticism around AI as a job killer, the narrative just around AI as a tool would have the lowest impact.
AI as a supplementing tool to a larger human trait or organizational goal will receive a better reception in the MBA Essay.
Profile: Business Development
Industry: Non-Profit
Similar Narrative (Industries): Technology, FinTech, Consulting, Government
MBA Essay Strategy: The Strategy in this essay for me was to highlight the applicant’s entrepreneurial thinking. By taking the reader to his childhood when, as a 4-year-old, he was responsible for caring for his twin sisters, the essay is personalized to show why he cares about immigrant families in the US.
I could also introduce the origins of his entrepreneurial thinking and sales skills.
Once the skills are established, I share how such innate storytelling was leveraged for the non-profit by citing one example. The exposure to AI-driven salary validation is a strategic information that was incorporated in the Essay to appeal to the strong technology cohort that Haas MBA attracts.
Opener: I wanted the reader to empathize with the person’s struggle as a child and his motivation to serve the low-income immigrant families in the US.
Background Information (Resume): Worked with a non-profit in the US for over 3 years in a Business Development role, reaching out to high-net-worth donors, while also building a strong understanding of AI-driven data validation.
Sample Haas What Makes you feel Alive (Non-Profit with AI-Driven Salary Validation) (289 Words)
Starting the day with memorizing the photo of the mailman, plumber, and essential handymen was a ritual that I was used to as a 5-year-old. I babysat my 2-year-old twin sisters as my mother was managing two shifts as a single parent in the US. From finding tricks that pacified my sisters to rationing Quesadillas, I grew up faster than my friends.
Marketing for my uncle’s restaurant business, I
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