I had the privilege of interacting with Indian CA MBA Applicants over the years through my Consulting & Editing services and outside through the various engagements as an Entrepreneur. CA could be categorized as the most democratic occupation as it attracts career accountants whose parents have firms to the underdogs from rural India who had limited scope at rising above the socio-economic barriers. It is a satisfying experience to learn about their growth and help them target M7 schools with confidence.
#1. Unique Drive
This might not come as a surprise to many, but youths from the small towns in India and middle-income households have a drive that cannot be manufactured in an environment with privileged parents. The quality is easy to spot not through the narrative they share about their career in our initial brainstorming but by looking at the ‘Employee of the month/year,’ ‘cross-functional exposure’ and the ‘unique responsibilities way beyond their experience/age’ that they have earned in a short 3-4 year of their career.
Can this unique drive be captured in an MBA Application essay? Yes. You must be relentless in articulating why you are better than your peers in terms of gaining career opportunities. Most applicants share this with me, but when it comes to essays, they hesitate as any ‘selling’ is seen as desperation or misconstrued as an exaggeration.
#2. Skills that Matter in MBA Applications
In essays, like in any marketing message, the skill is in highlighting the positives without misrepresentation or sounding arrogant. The uniqueness should be verifiable for an international team. If the difference between your skill and your peer’s skill could only be evaluated by a functional expert, then those skills are not worth highlighting in an MBA Application essay.
Why soft skills matter for Indian CAs
The first skill that you must demonstrate is a command over communication. The verbal component of your GMAT verifies your proficiency. If your score is below 40, no matter how great you were in moving the needles in a complex organizational hierarchy, the admissions team would still wonder whether you could thrive in an International class. Many hope that by creating a great narrative, this verbal part of their score could be masked.
Although our effort while positioning and editing are to enchant the admissions team and make them forget about the verbal scores, the competition is intense. If you have the time, retake the GMAT and target a 45 Verbal score.
#3. Learning English as a Growth story
If you had asked me five years ago whether a narrative about a person who had limited conversational English skills, learning the language, and in a short timeframe leading the international client meeting, could be turned into a winning essay narrative, I would have said – Of course. The problem is that hundreds of CA applicants with education from government schools where the primary communication is not English began to use the narrative in different forms.
Even genuine narratives on learning English by watching Hollywood movies, talking to strangers in broken English to embarrassing stories of misreading the intent have all been used in some form or the other.
Now when I hear someone sharing their language acquisition skill, I remind the applicants that it is a pre-requisite for admissions to a top 100 MBA program. There are many more challenging learning milestones that you had accomplished – culturally, functionally, industry-wise, and in team dynamics that is a much better fit for MBA application essays. We will help you find the unique learning narrative.
#4. Due Diligence vs. Early Pivoting to Consulting
The admissions team’s first evaluation criterion is at looking at your core functional skills. All CAs start in due diligence roles. However, if your career progression has always been in due diligence and less on client-facing roles, you lose points. The School wants to know why the management didn’t give you a shot at moving cross-functionally or handle multiple industries.
Most CAs in a large organization has this opportunity. However, if you are moving between techno-functional roles with limited learning opportunities, experiences that you cite in the essays could be easily used to typecast you as ‘just another’ functional expert.
#5. International Projects/Team/Clients/Travel Experience
The easiest way to position you as a person with an international perspective is through International projects, experiences with an international team across time zones, or travel experiences as part of work. This could be challenging for most CAs who work in Indian companies. Although the client base for the companies is international, the siloed rules of accounting that vary with countries forces the company to assign CAs to local accounts and markets with rare instances when they are called to offer support for an international M&A deal.
#6. Volunteering with International Organization
When professional weaknesses, especially international experience is limited, volunteering engagement with an international organization or ones with international partners becomes a great alternative to gain cross-cultural exposure outside your core domain.
The narratives on teamwork, understanding cultural contexts, and learning a function outside your comfort zone all are great examples to demonstrate that you have the learning skills to excel in a rigorous 2-year MBA program where global experiential learning is an integral part of the experience.
#7. CA as a part-time Degree
Another unique challenge for a CA is the part-time nature of the degree. Although the call for the apprentice model into the traditional courses in science and technology has gained attention recently with the narratives created by VC and Tech bros, there is something unique about a group of people sitting in the same room and interpreting the ideas lectured by the ‘expert.’ No online tools or sporadic in-person engagements can compensate the learning experiences, and discussions a full-time degree offers.
The admissions team is aware of this weakness.
How do you explain that although the part-time nature of the degree robbed you of the immersive experience a full-time degree offers, you recognize the value of such engagement?
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