Essay 2: What have been your most significant leadership experiences? What challenges did you face, and what impact did you have? This is your opportunity to explain how you Think Bravely. (500 word limit)
Very standard. Notice how even here they wanna know about the challenges and how you overcame them. Overcoming challenges, remember, is one of the best windows into what your DNA is truly made of. Now, the focus here is leadership. So, an achievement that doesn’t exhibit much leadership isn’t gonna do you much good. The example (or examples) you pick must allow us to PICTURE you… leading. That means actually leading. People. A team. Several teams. Cross-departmental groups. A massive project with tons of moving parts. Leading. Don’t lean on the numbers and the success, instead lean on the idea that pulling this off couldn’t have been done with someone with leadership TALENT. Imagine someone else trying to do this and FAILING, or succeeding LESS somehow. Now, pin that failure to a shortcoming in leadership. What aspects were key to getting this thing off the ground? Humming smoothly? Was it discipline? Was it pragmatism versus idealism? Was it the opposite? Was in big ideas and inspiration and a slap in the face to a more practical approach? Was it cultural sensitivity? Was it “managing up”? Whatever it was, we need to see it. One great way to cut the core of it is to establish the goal, but then when framing the challenges, to frame them as LEADERSHIP challenges specifically. “The only way to solve this was to be X Y and Z as a leader. A B and C style wouldn’t have worked. Here’s what *I* did.” Another way would be to focus on the way the experience tested you (similar to the first essay). Show how you rose to the occasion, wore a new hat, stretched yourself, whatever it was. In either case, remember to talk about impact. The coolest accomplishments are the ones that have ripple effects. Now, if those ripple effects were purely accidental, it’s still cool, but not quite AS cool. Great leaders tend to be visionaries, and plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in. Great leaders often look just beyond the objective at hand while they’re solving the objective at hand. Show us those layers while you were leading. Walk us through the anticipation, the vision, and then the actual impact. Thinking Bravely. At its core, this is all between the lines stuff. When has a great leader ever talked about how brave he was. If you need to talk about it, you don’t actually have it. Imagine eating at a fancy restaurant, and the head chef comes out and tells you “By the way, what you’re eating is delicious. I made it myself, and perhaps you didn’t realize it, but it’s really quite tasty. Bye now!” Guess what, you’ll know if the food is tasty if the food is tasty. No one needs to tell you. And if they tell you, chances are it isn’t tasty. Same is true here. Brave Thinking will read loud and clear through the circumstances and through your actions.
Essay 3: Part 1: What career/role are you looking to pursue and why? (250 word limit)
Don’t overthink this, folks. There are two ways to screw this up. Two magnificent ways to vomit all over this question: - Leave your reader CONFUSED about what you wanna do.
- Make your reader SKEPTICAL that your goal is achievable.
The opposite is kinda true, by the way. There are two ways to CRUSH this thing: - By being extremely CLEAR about your goals, you give your reader confidence that you have clarity and have thought it through.
- Make your reader believe that the goal not only makes sense, but sounds like something you are likely to achieve.
Clarity. Easy enough, right? A thousand times, NO. Being clear about what you want to do is so much harder than you think, you have no idea. Assume a few things for us. That your reader isn’t a reader of Forbes magazine. Doesn’t know what the DOW is, can’t balance a checkbook, doesn’t know what a hedge fund is, etc. Assume they don’t know ANYTHING. Assume you’re EDUCATING at the same time as you are explaining. 90% of folks have the impulse of trying to sound all Johnny Fast-track, using tricky jargon and insider lingo. This is the wrong impulse, folks. Talk slow, explain what it is you want to do as though the person reading this doesn’t know anything about your industry (they will likely not know anything about your industry—but that doesn’t mean they can’t spot TALENT when they see it). Success. Show us that the plan makes SENSE, not just on its own, but with respect to YOU. Pretend the reader is going to grade this essay on “how likely is this person to achieve this thing he’s talking about?” Seriously, let THAT be your goal here. Your product will likely end up much more coherent and compelling.
Part 2: Why are Kellogg and the MBA essential to achieving these career goals? (250 word limit)
(Please answer Part 2 in terms of your program choice: One-Year, Two-Year, MMM, JD-MBA).
This seems to be the trend of b-schools these days. Splitting up questions into pieces to force your hand. To focus you. Nothing new in the actual ask here. We’ve said it a million times, and if you’ve read more of our stuff, you’ll recognize this. The best way to attack this is to consider some ALTERNATIVE paths simultaneously. “Achieve your goals in your mind” … without an MBA at all. You’d best be able to, otherwise, what, you’re pinning your hopes and dreams on a degree/experience? Not good. There MUST be a path that doesn’t pass through an MBA that gets you SOME version of where you wanna go. Good, think it through. Let’s give that version a grade: B+. Now think about another scenario. B-school! But, not Kellogg. Something… top 50, say. Congrats, you’ve earned your MBA. What did that do for your trajectory? Elevated it somehow, but how? Think through it. Get it sharp in your head. Let’s grade that scenario: A-. Now, do it again, but take your path through Kellogg. The “A+” version. Why does this one get an A+ whereas the others fall short? Couple ways to skin it, structurally. You could paint a “generic” picture of success to give us a sense of what’s possible. Then you can walk us through the ways in which Kellogg + MBA enhance that picture. Another way is simply to show us where you’d hit a brick wall without an MBA. And then to identify unique attributes of Kellogg that snap into your plan BETTER than other programs. It all sounds simple, and is easier said than done of course. The one element that folks miss, and the one that tends to leap off the page of successful cases is this: momentum. The sense that this kid is on his way toward achieving his goals. A sense of inevitability. NOT a sense of “please please please accept me, I don’t know what I’ll do if you don’t!” We want smart arguments that show what you want and why, but also an indication that you’re already kinda barreling toward it. The sense should be, “This is gonna happen. If it happens at Kellogg, great. If not, no real harm. I’ll find another way. I’ve not only thought through my plan, I’m… executing on it as we speak.”
Re-Applicants Only: Since your previous application, what steps have you taken to strengthen your candidacy? (400 word limit) Please note: re-applicants are required to answer this question in addition to #1-3.
The approach to a reapplication is always the same.
Additional Information (Optional): If needed, briefly describe any extenuating circumstances (e.g. unexplained gaps in work experience, choice of recommenders, inconsistent or questionable academic performance, etc.) (No word limit)Yup, this is the same as every other application as well.
@JonFrank
HBS 2005
| 
京公网安备11010202008513号 京ICP证101109号 京ICP备12012021号
楼主
发表于 2013-9-13 11:59:17
