Ask Jason@沃顿 (my essays inside!) Free essay advice again~

spoiledchild

Hi, Jason. I have some questions.
I am a government officer in the Quality Supervision Bureau of the municipal Government of Suzhou, the second largest industry city in China, and I am the youngest(30 years old already
L) middle-level leader (deputy director of a department) in this bureau. My job responsibility is focusing on operating annual Mayer Quality Award, which is based on the criteria of US Boldrige Award and aims to raise awareness of quality management and recognize companies that have implemented successful quality-management systems, and making short term and long term quality management plan for municipal government. My GMAT score is 730, and iBT score is 105, both just taken once.

One of my career goal is to be the General Manager in a large-scale private enterprise in China, and my short term goal is attend a leadership or rotation program of an international company in order to learn the overall company management skill which I am lack of. A top MBA degree is a ticket for me to enter the business world.

Another seemingly more logical and ambitious career goal is to create a quality management consulting firm, providing operation and production improvement consulting for local private enterprises. This goal fits my past career experience and I do have a deep view of the quality management deficiency of Chinese manufactures. To achieve this goal, I plan to attend a  consulting firm focusing on operation consulting such as Accenture to get consulting experience in operation and collect varieties of cases to prepare for my future career.

Q1: If you were an admission committee member, which career path seems more logical, convincing and competitive?
Q2:Based on my background, is it a misson impossible for me to get a consultant offer post MBA, therefore my career path seems to be unpractical?

Q3: Do you think I have a chance to be admitted in TOP20 US Bschools? Any recommendation and suggestion?
My school list is as follows:
Duke  Michigan  Cornell  UNC  Emory  WUSTL  Vanderbilt  NotreDame

Thanks for your time. Looking forward to your reply.

cannedpineapple

Hi spoiledchild,

I personally think 1 sounds better. After many years in the government, you probably have great general management skills, and are used to handling responsibility. That allows you to transition well into a GM-type role (more senior, and with responsibility over others). But having said that, both seem fine- so it's a matter of your own preference.

Those schools look perfectly ok for your background. How are your academics? (本科)

Jason

leeern

Thank u Jason.
R u still available for reviewing essay? U must have done a lot of reviewing work recently. I hope u r not getting too tired.

cannedpineapple

no problem. send it to me!

spoiledchild

Hi Jason,
Thanks for your reply. Here is my academic background.

Bachelor of Engineering in Electronic Science & Technology from Southeast University(985/211),GPA 3.08
President of Student government in Department of Electronic Engineering, Honored Graduate, Leadership Award
Nominee of Public Administration Leadership Program of Jiangsu Province (the reason why I became a government officer)

Thanks
Jacob

cannedpineapple

Yup, your background looks fine (especially the extra-curriculars). You should be fine, as long as you do well executing on the essays. Feel free to email me when you have drafts

spoiledchild

Hi Jason,

I am struggling with essays. They are really tough. I will keep in touch with you.
By the way, do I have any chance if I submit the application in R3( March)?

Jacob

cannedpineapple

For most schools, the chance is very slim. Normally schools use R3 to round out the diversity of the class.

Your background is non-traditional, which is a better bet than others (ie, not consulting/banking/corporate). If you don't mind taking the risk (for example, if you think you can just try another set of schools next year if you don't get in to these this year), then you should certainly try. After all, if you don't apply, you have zero chance.

If you ask me, your best bet is to rush out 1-2 applications for R2, then do the rest for R3 and 'hope for the best'.

mocid

Hi Jason,

Could you provide some insights into MIT essay 3: Please describe a time when you had to make a decision without having all the information you needed.

My job is rather technical and if I went through the whole process of making technical decisions, it would be totally quantitative and even boring for industry outsiders. To tell the truth, the thought of writing it out is boring for me.

Thanks in advance !

cannedpineapple

mocid:

First simplify the situation to one, at most two sentences. Then, as any good manager would, you first need to understand what info you'll need before you can make a decision. This falls into a few categories: critical information, good-to-know information, irrelevant information, and so on. There are then many ways to write this essay. Which information were you missing? If it was critical, how long would it take for you to find it? What's the cost-benefit of spending time finding it, instead of just moving ahead with a decision? Can the decision be preliminary, meaning, you make it to get more info, then readjust if necesary?

There are many, many potential ways to deal with this. Just make it absolutely clear 1) what the situation is 2) what your values, priorities and decision-framework as a leader and decision-maker are, as you tackled this situation. The focus is more on this (on you, and your thoughts), rather than the information or data itself.