Ask Jon Frank- P69-Q&A:WHY MBA? 7 OVERLOOKED REASONS TO GET AN MBA

JonFrank

Jon,

What are the programs' brands for Wharton and Duke MBA? I know HBS is "leadership", but not sure what kinds of qualifies Wharton and Duke really care about? Could you please let me know the detailed info about that.  Thank you so much.

Chengya.
P.S.  Thanks a lot for answering my previous questions and your insights are amazing! hope you enjoy your trip in China.

-- by 会员 chengya (2010/11/18 8:46:00)

Hey there!  Happy to offer up some thoughts here.  Wharton and Duke are both VERY international.  So we can talk about that.  Also, Duke is known for its Teamwork approach to…everything.  And some GREAT non-profit work as well.  Wharton is known for both finance, real estate, and entrepreneurship. So…plenty to talk about for both.  Especially for our Chinese friends!  J  Hope this helps, and good luck!


Jon Frank

JonFrank

Hi, Jon,recently I met a situation in the interview. The interviewer is a IBanker and was quite nice. However in that interview he just raised very few questions like Why MBA, career goal, and why school. And the interview just lasted around thirteen minutes. Usually the interview for this school would be much much longer...
So would you offer me some ideas to deal with this problem？ Should I complain to the admissions commitee and ask them to arrange a second interview for me？ I really think such a short intervew is unfair to me.
Thanks！

-- by 会员 可怜孩子 (2010/11/25 21:21:52)

Hey there!  Yes, it is true that interviews can be far too short.  And whether they are 13 minutes or 30 minutes, neither is enough time to get to know you well.  I understand your frustration!  There is good news tho—you can send a quick note to the admissions committee.  You would need to word it veeeery carefully to be respectful—just say something like, “Hey I just wanted to let you know that I completed my interview last DATE with Mr. First Last Name. While I was surprised that the interview lasted just 13 minutes, I hope that he and you found it to be sufficient.  If necessary, I would of course be more than happy to spend more time with another interviewer should the adcom have interest in more detailed interview feedback.  Thank you again for all your help, and best regards…”

J  So that way, you are still niiiice and classy.  But you make your point.  Hope this helps, and good luck to you!


Jon Frank

JonFrank

Hi Jon,

I have read through your posts on this blog and find your feedbacks simply rewarding. I have a tough situation on my hand nowadays. I have applied for schools in round 1, but received zero offer, after reviewing my package I think one of my key error was that I chose consulting as my post MBA career. Like you said, it can be very dangerous if your package is not up to the competitive level for the consulting pool. Currently, I am trying to reposition myself, but kind of got stuck in the process. I firstly thought about a switch in career path from finance (1 yr audit, 2 yrs advisory in big4) to management (project manager), but as I read your comments, I found that I possibly fell into another dangerous application trap (change of career). Should I just keep it simple and describe a post MBA career in commercial banking or financial services? Thanks for your time.

My background:
GPA 3.63/GMAT 700
BA in top 25 business undergraduate program in the US
target schools for rd2: kellogg, stern, darden, anderson

-- by 会员 seeseewhy (2010/11/26 10:03:29)

Hey there!  Always a pleasure to respond here.  Lets see what we can do for ya.  art of the problem is that you need to make a VERY good case when pitching a career change.  So no, you aren’t dead simply because you are suggesting a career change.  You’re probably running into trouble because youre not doing a good enough job at selling it.  See the difference?  You need to convince the adcom that finance, to you, is VERY similar to consulting. Why are you qualified to do consulting?  Why should we believe you, that you have credibility in this new field?  You DO have a chance at pitching this career change, but you have to do it carefully.  Well.
Now.  If you don’t think you can make a compelling case, then…stay in finance!  THAT would be the easiest way forward for you, for sure.  Stick with finance!  J  That would be the easiest way to make it happen, for sure.  Why tempt fate… And good luck!


Jon Frank

JonFrank

Hi Jon, a quick question on CBS essay #1 and would appreciate your take on this.

The question only asks for career goal and why CBS. It didn't specifically ask for "past achievements".  Should we discuss past achievements anyway?

My take is that: discuss it in the context of how I moved between jobs to get closer to my career goals, and what I achieved over the process. The only difficulty with this approach is that sometimes it is difficult to connect the achievements to goals. I mean, a lot of times, achievements are just achievements that make you a more accomplished person. They don't necessarily tie to a particular career goal. For example, in my job A, I learned project management, presentation skills, etc... they're good for any career goals... it seems a push to connect these attributes/accomplishments to a specific career goal... But if we just discuss these accomplishments on standalone basis without tying it to career goal, we may go off tangent.

I'm probably over-analyzing this, but would still like to hear your view on this!

Best!

-- by 会员 choatezhang2001 (2010/11/27 1:16:30)

Hey there!  Thanks so much for the kind words.  This is a simple one…the answer is YES.  You do need to at least touch on your past experiences. Without that background, it is very difficult to adequately describe your future goals.  You just don’t wanna talk about it for toooo long, that’s all.  A paragraph or two—after all, they haven’t asked for it specifically.  The majority of your work should NOT be about the past.  But you will need to touch upon it.
If your past doesn’t connect closely to your future, you will likely have an even bigger problem.  After all, regardless of what CBS asks in their essays, if you cant back up your future goals with your past experiences, why would a school believe you?  Why would they accept a guy who doesn’t have clear credibility in his career of choice?  Sounds like that may be the bigger problem for you—but here, just 1-2 paragraphs covering your past should be juuust fine.  Good luck!


Jon Frank

JonFrank

Hi Jon,

I've a  question, as to Booth’s second essay, took a risk. Is the risk (possibility of meeting danger or suffering harm, loss,etc.) should be a huge one? The risky the better? The dangerous, harmful the better? The story I wanted to tell is related to my career achievement,telling about leadership, so I just wonder how risky should I write...Someone once said the risk should lose my job... I didn’t hear you clearly during your presentation about the risk part, could you explain a bit more here? Why Booth asked about risk, what do they want to see?

BTW, how do you like Booth? I guess it’s not far from you, right？Any first-hand experience, the Booth culture, students,faculty?

Thanks a lot!

-- by 会员 JoeyTribbiani (2010/11/27 23:49:31)

Hey there.  Happy to offer up some guidance here.  The answer is that…YES you do want a cool, exciting, dramatic risk.  It doesn’t mean that you would lose your job necessarily, but the riskier the better.  After all, that would simply make your story more exciting!  And that is what we want, an exciting story.  The riskier the better.

Now, in the presentation, the only point that I made, is that the best risks are ones where you describe what happens if you DON’T take the risk.  That is, if you could stay at your job and live happily ever after, THAN it is a risk.  If you were losing your job anyway, then it wasn’t much of a risk.  After all, you didn’t have much to lose!  The key is to prove that you DID have a lot to lose.  Describe what happens if you DON’T take the risk—that way we understand that you had a lot to lose.  Does that make sense?  And yes, Booth is a fabulous place.  But while I love the school, your best bet (and everyones) is to simply go to the best school you can get into.  Booth is great—but there are a few places just as good, if not better.  Good luck!


Jon Frank

JonFrank

Hey Jon,
I am a software engineer and used to work for an oil service company for 3 years and now work for a hedge fund (back-office) about less than one year year. How could I position my ST/LT career goal of switching to front-office to be an analyst role? I am worried how could I position such career change in the essay (which I believe many candidates have the same puzzle) and how much extend I could related my previous oil-service company's program experience? Thank you very much!

-- by 会员 goal2013 (2010/11/28 11:40:18)

Hey there!  Happy to offer up some guidance here for you.  This wont be easy, but we have done it before.  The trick will be for you to say that you have nursed this hedge fund dream for a long time.  At the oil company, you learned some great skills, such as AA BB and CC.  And those skills were NOT oil specific.  They will bode well for you in your new role.  So now, when it was time to get into a Hedge Fund position, you knew you had to start from the bottom up.  Today, in your current role, you LOVE being so close to hedge fund stuff.  You can practically taste it.  But from here, you need to get that final push, to complete your transition.  You’re 80% of the way there.  That’s how I would try it at least, and see what happens from there…  Good luck!


Jon Frank

JonFrank

Thanks for your explanation! That makesense, and very impressive
Hhe, I understand your principle “bestschool to get in”, but what do you mean “a few places as good” besides HBS,Stanford, Wharton, what other schools ranking before Booth? Because rankings up and down, and sometimes Booth climbs to the top….So what do you think about ranking,in general sense？

Hi Jon,

I've a  question, as to Booth’s second essay, took a risk. Is the risk (possibility of meeting danger or suffering harm, loss,etc.) should be a huge one? The risky the better? The dangerous, harmful the better? The story I wanted to tell is related to my career achievement,telling about leadership, so I just wonder how risky should I write...Someone once said the risk should lose my job... I didn’t hear you clearly during your presentation about the risk part, could you explain a bit more here? Why Booth asked about risk, what do they want to see?

BTW, how do you like Booth? I guess it’s not far from you, right？Any first-hand experience, the Booth culture, students,faculty?

Thanks a lot!

-- by 会员 JoeyTribbiani (2010/11/27 23:49:31)

Hey there.  Happy to offer up some guidance here.  The answer is that…YES you do want a cool, exciting, dramatic risk.  It doesn’t mean that you would lose your job necessarily, but the riskier the better.  After all, that would simply make your story more exciting!  And that is what we want, an exciting story.  The riskier the better.

Now, in the presentation, the only point that I made, is that the best risks are ones where you describe what happens if you DON’T take the risk.  That is, if you could stay at your job and live happily ever after, THAN it is a risk.  If you were losing your job anyway, then it wasn’t much of a risk.  After all, you didn’t have much to lose!  The key is to prove that you DID have a lot to lose.  Describe what happens if you DON’T take the risk—that way we understand that you had a lot to lose.  Does that make sense?  And yes, Booth is a fabulous place.  But while I love the school, your best bet (and everyones) is to simply go to the best school you can get into.  Booth is great—but there are a few places just as good, if not better.  Good luck!


Jon Frank

-- by 会员 JonFrank (2010/11/28 14:22:45)

-- by 会员 JoeyTribbiani (2010/11/28 15:51:37)

Hey there!  Yes, this is a great question.  And the rankings do tend to switch around from year to year.  But if we had to look at one ranking system which employers tend to weight most heavily, it would be US World and News Report.  That’s the most important one, followed perhaps by the Financial Times, perhaps only because they include international rankings.  But it is through the USNEWS.com rankings that we back into the magic 7, etc.  So this would leave just two schools worth considering, MIT and Kellogg.  Hope this helps…


Jon Frank

JonFrank

Hi, Jon
I was in a U.S. univerisity in some southern state and was allergic to some identified allergen in that area. I had to transfer to another school in the northern states. During the one year in the first school, my GPA was very bad due to my medical issues. I did not get any degree from the first school any ways. Should I mention that experience especially when some school ask you to list what you did after college chronicly?
Thanks.

-- by 会员 danasun2001 (2010/12/4 5:19:13)

Hey there!  Absolutely, happy to help here of course.  I would simply explain in the optional essay, that while you were at the first school, you had some medical issues.  After you switched schools, the issues went away.  rovided that the rest of your app checks out, they shouldn’t care about it.  And if they do, they can ask you in an interview.  Just address it (you do need to address it of course), and move on.  Don’t show weakness, or they will think that perhaps it IS one!  J  Hope this helps.


Jon Frank

JonFrank

John, thx for your consistent dedication to this forum.

I decided to apply for MBA last month, and finished GMAT two weeks ago. Right now, I haven't started my essays. Do you think I still have enough time for the second round apps? I want to apply for 5 schools.

Thanks for your answer.

Best,
Feny

-- by 会员 feny211 (2010/12/6 16:19:45)

Feny, I think we have already chatted with you on the phone!  J  But yes, you do have time.  You will find that your first app will take the longest.  Your second app will take juuust a bit less time, and your third will go quicker, and so on.  So the 5^th app will be the quickest of the bunch.  Aim high, and GO for it!  Once you have 2 or 3 apps done, the rest will be much easier.  Good luck, and make us proud!


Jon Frank

JonFrank

Dear Jon:

How to approach this recommendation question ? Thanks. My recommendator and i are BOTH confused.....

The School of Business is committed to developing outstanding leaders who can inspire trust and confidence in others. Please comment on the applicant's behavior within your organization and in the community.

-- by 会员 Monkyi (2010/12/6 23:44:33)

Hey there!  Happy to offer up some guidance here my friend.  What theyre really asking here is about LEADERSHIP.  After all, that is what leadership is, to inspire others to, well, do what you say.  So what they want you to talk about is LEADERSHIP.  If you and your recommender can do that, you will be in business.  So to speak.  J  Hope this helps.


Jon Frank