Q) Michigan Ross is a place where people from all backgrounds with different career goals can thrive. Please share your short-term career goal. Why is this career goal the right choice for you? (300 words)
Approach: Extra-curricular feeding into post-MBA Goals
The most common but effective narrative is about the extra-curricular feeding into your career. It could be a role in a non-profit that complemented your functional skills or an entrepreneurial pursuit that gave you exposure in multiple functions. With 300 words, the narrative must hook the admission team and sound believable.
Most post-MBA placements in highly competitive functions – consulting and technology requires some form of pre-MBA experience in the function.
The admission team must make a call whether your experience is good enough with an MBA, to switch into a new function.
For most, the leap in skill is not believable. The impact is too low, or the involvement sporadic to convey passion.
In this example, we look at an applicant who accidentally found a cause while engaging in his passion – landscape photography. The analysis of the ‘huge’ problem that rural heartland is facing is the core of the narrative. The applicant’s background in Investment Banking helped the non-profit find the most effective path to funding the infrastructure project.
Sample Ross MBA Essay – Short-term Goals and why the goal is the right choice for you (Private Investment as a Tool for Change) (294 Words)
Working in Investment Banking (IB) left me with little energy for the weekend. I struggled but found time for weekly trips to villages nearby and capture the hidden landscapes on my trusted camera. The exploration paused when I saw a thick black smoke persist in the air for the 2 hours, I was in <x>. The villagers engaged in a weekly waste-burning ritual. When cities have evolved in conservation practices, villages with the limited infrastructure had no options. The next week, I joined a non-profit serving in the region.
We spent 40% of our time, educating the villages on conservation practices. I analyzed the effectiveness of our time allocation. Education had a marginal impact on changing behavior. Without infrastructure, the effort required to adopt the conservation best practices was too ..
