New Website

We just updated and moved our website/blog. You can find us at:

www.elite-essays.com

Thanks,

Bryan

New Website Coming

We're really excited to be re-launching. Should be some time next week. Please check back for all the latest information, including about the new Elite Essays scholarship, re-applicant assessment package, and essay analyses for January 2010 enrollment programs. In the meantime, I hope you like the new logo above.

bryan@elite-essays.com

2009-10: The New Ethics in B-schools

The NY Times published a must-read article for MBA applicants and potential applicants, the implications of which point to some changes in this year’s new application questions. I’ll make some predictions here and we can see how well I do this summer when MBA programs start to release their 2009-10 questions.

Here is the link.

Also here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15school.html

The lead in to the article is that some of the people most heavily criticized recently for their roles/performance/behavior during this global economic crisis of ours came from top MBA programs. In fact, the article names names in the very first paragraph. Interestingly, it doesn’t say where they studied, but that’s easy enough to Google.

John Thain – final chairman and CEO of Merill Lynch – HBS
Richard Fuld – final chairman and CEO of Lehman Bros. – NYU Stern
Stanley O'Neal - former President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Merill Lynch – HBS
Vikram Pandit – CEO of Citigroup – Columbia

The article also mentions John Paulson (President of Paulson and Co. – HBS), but he has actually profited enormously from the downturn.

A few years ago, after the accounting scandals at Enron, Worldcom and their cancerous ilk, the role of ethics in business schools came into sharp focus, with the number of schools asking ethics-related questions jumping sharply. Now, those questions are almost nowhere to be found among the applications of top schools, or at least they are not being asked directly. My feeling is that, for obvious reasons, schools realized there was limited value in asking, essentially, whether applicants had ever lied or cheated to get ahead in business.

The difference between those scandals, which were largely contained within the US, and the current global economic meltdown, is that this time the perpetrators weren’t just some greedy corporate officers and spineless accountants. Apparently, everyone was complicit – consumers, regulators, and of course business people.

My prediction is that we will see a return of ethics-related questions, but they won’t be as simple or direct as they once were. A typical ethics question used to go something like this:

Have you ever faced an ethical dilemma? If so, how did you handle it?

I believe the “new ethics” questions will be more subtle and more broad. They will inquire not only about taking a stand against the crowd, but also about how applicants have worked to benefit society. Among top schools this year, I think Chicago was the earliest in touching on these topics in what I predict will be a strong trend.

a) Have you ever made a decision that caused you to go against popular opinion? Please describe that situation and your rationale for your decision. b) Did you feel at any point that people misperceived your motives? Explain. c) In retrospect, how do you think an MBA from Chicago Booth would have affected your decision?

And with MIT’s announcement late last year of a new ethics training program for all incoming students, I would definitely expect an ethics question from them in some form or another. Other schools will almost certainly follow. Not only will such questions help schools address the perceived (fairly or not) lack of ethics among business people, but if asked correctly, such questions will also serve to distinguish truly exceptional candidates from within what will probably be an even more competitive applicant pool.

bryan@elite-essays.com

Looking Back and Forward

While everyone is playing the waiting game, I thought I would offer a few thoughts about this past season and what it might mean for future applicants.

With the wrecked economy and so many people applying to business school as a result, everyone knew the application process this year would be tough. And it’s been true. Even my clients that would normally walk through the process have struggled. All things considered, perhaps the most important factor this year has been timing; my clients who applied in the first round seemed to enjoy a distinct advantage, with a 100% interview invitation rate for those applying to two-year U.S. programs, even for those with a GMAT score below 700.

The number of applicants and re-applicants (who will have the advantage of knowing themselves and the process much more deeply, and who will probably be targeting the first round) will likely remain high or even rise this year, with layoffs expected to increase throughout the U.S. economy and worldwide. For 2009-10 applicants, then, this means applying early has never been more important and that you should start your GMAT and/or TOEFL test preparation now, if you haven’t already begun.

You should also be thinking about your applications themselves. Recognizing this more difficult landscape, I’ve begun offering a Foundation Package that will begin in May of this year and last for two months. By the end of June, you should have both a highly developed resume and goals essay that will jumpstart your applications and leave you strategically placed for the rest of the application process. You’ll be able to present your resume during school visits, or hand it directly to admissions committee representatives and alumni at MBA fairs and information sessions. You’ll also be able to speak with confidence about your career aspirations, which are the foundation of your entire application and now more difficult to establish given the economic crisis.

To learn more about the Foundation Package, please click here. For more general information about my services or to arrange a free consultation, please contact me.

bryan@elite-essays.com

Stuck in the Middle: Waitlists

When I wrote previously about push materials for waitlisted applicants, I mentioned that some schools encourage them but others don’t, and that you can’t adopt the same waitlist strategy for every school. To demonstrate my point I’m including parts of waitlist notifications received by some of my clients.

NYU encourages additional materials:

“Below are some of the ways you can strengthen your application...

Academic Potential

Retake your GMAT. We consider only your highest overall score, so there is no downside to retaking the test if you believe there is room for improvement. The GMAT is a good indicator of future academic performance. An improved score may alleviate concerns in this area. If you intend to retake the GMAT, please email your test date to XXX. Once you take your exam, please fax your unofficial score report to us at YYY. Even if the score does not improve, please send us the new result. It will signal that you put forth additional effort to improve your application (international students also can consider retaking the TOEFL if appropriate).

Inform us of new, relevant coursework or continuing education classes you are taking. Please provide a transcript when your coursework reaches conclusion.

Provide an explanation of your undergraduate performance (if not already provided).

Inform us of any new, relevant credentials you have pursued (e.g. CFA, CPA).

…

New information should only be submitted when it provides a different or updated perspective to the Committee.”

So does Haas:

“There are many things that you can do to enhance your candidacy:

1) We strongly encourage you to schedule an interview if you have not
already had one as a part of the admissions process. In addition to
interviewing on campus, you may also schedule an interview in other cities
around the US and the world. To request an interview, please use the
Interview Scheduler link available on the Status Report page of your online
application. (NOTE: You will not be able to schedule an interview until you
first accept a place on our waitlist by following the directions below.)

2) If your GMAT or TOEFL scores fall below our averages, you may retake the
test and forward an unofficial score (followed by your official score) to
the admissions office.

…

4) You may provide an additional letter of recommendation (or two) to your
file, if the letter will add information that was not provided in the
original letters submitted. New letters may be submitted in hard copy or
electronically. To request a new online recommendation, you must enter the
Recommendations section of your online application and provide the requested
information regarding your new recommender. (NOTE: You will not be able to
request a new online recommendation until you first accept a place on our
waitlist by following the directions below.)

5) You may submit a new statement (via mail, fax, or email) updating the
Admissions Committee on any relevant changes in your professional or
personal life since your application was submitted.

…”

Columbia, however, does not:

“Please do not send in additional materials. The waitlist manager will contact you if there is any further information that we need.”

A few things I want to point out:

You should know your own weaknesses and take steps to address them pro-actively. One of my clients last year had a low GMAT (under 600), particularly in math. I encouraged him to take a pre-calculus class through a university online extension program to demonstrate his recognition of and commitment to improving his weak area. He was outstanding in all other areas and garnered interview invitations from many top programs, during several of which the interviewer mentioned the math class as being a very positive sign. He ended up getting accepted at Chicago, Kellogg and Wharton.

Don’t just blindly send in materials. As I’ve indicated above, NYU and Haas only want information that is new and significant. It is a safe bet that other schools feel the same, if they want additional materials at all. Being waitlisted is incredibly frustrating and nerve-wracking, but fight the temptation to send in weekly “love letters.” This is business school, not high school.

bryan@elite-essays.com

Killer Interviews #5 - Asking Good Questions/The Myth of "Killer" Questions

Most interviewers will give you time at the end of an interview to ask questions. You should. After all, you are the consumer, an MBA is an expensive and life-changing experience, and you have many choices. Not asking questions might make a negative impression. As a guideline, I think 3-5 questions is sufficient.

I also like to think of questions as falling into 3 categories:

1) Questions about program content to see how well the MBA fits your needs

Example: “Regarding your international study trips, could you explain specifically how they help prepare students for doing business abroad?”

These kinds of questions are basic and necessary.

2) Questions designed to reveal your potential contributions

Example: “I understand you have a soccer club. I love soccer. Is it possible for me to arrange a tournament with another MBA program?”

I personally don’t like these kinds of questions. The answer will obviously be “yes” (MBA programs love this initiative), and the question itself is a transparent effort to reveal a potential contribution. If you feel you can make a contribution, just say so.

3) Questions designed to start a conversation

Example: “Why did you choose School X?” or “What was your best/worst experience at school X?” (if the interviewer is an alumnus)

Example: “Would you describe your program’s culture as more collaborative or more competitive?” or “Are you making any changes to the curriculum, especially in finance, in response to the current global recession? If so, what are they?” (if the interviewer is an adcom rep)

These are my favorite types of questions because they can break through the “question-answer-question-answer” mold that so many interviews take. They can also contribute to not just a good interview, but to a relationship between you and the interviewer that may be helpful later on; for example, if you are placed on a waiting list and need advice from an alum. One of my clients was able to get very helpful feedback from his interviewer after being denied admission because they established good rapport during the interview.

Additional interview tips:

1) Don’t ask questions you should know the answer to or that you can research by yourself. These are also known as “stupid questions.”

Example: “Do you offer consulting projects?”

2) Don’t over-explain your questions. Just ask them. The best questions are short and to-the-point.

3) Ask open-ended questions to get the most thoughtful responses. (An open-ended question cannot be answered with a “yes” or “no.”)

Example (closed-ended): “Are students allowed to assist in the admissions process?”

Example (open-ended): “In what ways can students assist in the admissions process?”

*************************

A few thoughts about “Killer” questions:

In a recent interview training, a client told me she had been advised to ask “killer" questions during her upcoming interview. She didn’t know what constituted a killer question and, to be honest, neither did I, though I've heard this mantra many times before. If I had to guess, I would say that a killer question is one designed to show how clever or provocative an applicant is, or even to put the interviewer on the defensive. The hope is to stand out in a crowded information session or interview.

With that definition, then, a “killer" question to an adcom rep might look like the following:

“Your ranking fell last year. What did you do wrong?”

or

“With your renowned financial curriculum and many alumni in the financial industry, do you feel responsible for the current global financial meltdown?”

These are certainly tough questions, and there are good points somewhere behind them. I would imagine that anyone asking them would stand out, but not necessarily in a positive way since the questions are calculated to provoke, not elicit helpful information. Ultimately, asking such a question might backfire.

Does this mean you have to lob baby questions in order to ingratiate yourself? Definitely not. An MBA is a life-changing experience that requires a huge investment of time and money, so you should be asking hard questions. My advice, however, is to begin by asking sincere questions about things you are truly interested in. Those are the real killer questions.

If you are interested in learning more or working with me on interview training, please see this page or e-mail me directly.

bryan@elite-essays.com

Killer Interviews #4: Mastering Your Resume

If you’re preparing for an MBA interview, you might be anxious about burning up all your “main” answers and having nothing left by the end of the interview, or about being asked questions you haven’t written an essay for. A good way to reduce your anxiety on both fronts is by mastering the perfect MBA interview training tool – your resume.

It’s perfect because:

1) It provides an expanded list of topics that go beyond your essay content, i.e., it gives you more weapons for your interview.
2) Each topic is already expressed concisely.
3) Interviewers frequently receive your resume in advance and develop questions based on things that catch their eye. You might even have a “walk-me-through-your-resume” type interview, which requires strong familiarity with every bullet point.
4) It gives you a manageable amount of information to master, as opposed to trying to memorize answers to massive lists of questions found online, an approach that, for most applicants I’ve worked with, increases anxiety and decreases performance.

Regarding the last point, of course question lists can be helpful, but I recommend using them to test your ability to adapt and express the information you should already know well from your essays and resume.

Now we can start combining some of the techniques I’ve mentioned in prior posts.

1) Assuming you read my previous post about “One-Sentence Stories,” practice explaining each bullet point on your resume in the form of a one-sentence story. Rewrite them if you have to. It’s great practice at being both concise and comprehensive.

2) Even in a “walk-me-through-your-resume” interview, don’t forget your overall strategy. As you move from point to point, look for places to make connections and introduce important information. If you have an accomplishment on your resume that relates to your goals, for example, you have a perfect opportunity to explain your career vision.

Lastly, mastering your resume is a great way to build confidence, which is often the key difference between a good interview and a great interview.

If you are interested in learning more or working with me on interview training, including these techniques, please see this page or e-mail me directly.

bryan@elite-essays.com

Killer Interviews #3: The One-Sentence Story

Good essays are structured around detailed examples. The same can be said for good interviews. You can spend five minutes telling your interviewer repeatedly that you are a leader, or you can show it in one minute with a good example. With most interviews limited to about 30 minutes, the best choice is clear.

However, one of the biggest problems MBA applicants seem to have is addressing concisely standard interview topics like leadership, teamwork, failures and personal accomplishments. They often resort to word-for-word recitations of their essays, which are guaranteed to be too long and reflect poorly on their real-time communication skills. In journalistic terms, these applicants can’t “kill their babies”, i.e., they can’t imagine telling their beloved stories in a different way. I’m here to tell you that you have to be merciless in shortening your stories in order to have an effective interview.

Journalists do this every day, when they write the first sentence in a breaking news story. Done well, that sentence should convey the importance and broad outline of an entire story, to be then filled in with supporting details. Transferring this technique to the world of MBA interviews, one-sentence stories can look like this:

“During a recent M&A transaction between two leading snack food companies, I successfully managed my overly-demanding client while fostering my subordinates’ growth by giving them unusual responsibilities, leading to a successful deal worth $100,000,000.”

“For ethical reasons, I gave up an enormous deal that could have been worth $1 Bln. because I knew the aircraft could not be delivered to the client on time.”

“After our merger, I had to rescue our technology integration talks through strong diplomacy, creative negotiations, and confident decision-making.”

“I had always been a lead rower on my college crew team, but after my injury I still wanted to contribute so I became a team manager, which taught me the difficulties and joys of playing a supporting role.”

These one-sentence stories should leave the interviewer hungry to know more. As an interviewee, you can have confidence that you’ve expressed your main points, before adding a few important details to round out your answer. The more you can master this technique, the more prepared you will be for all aspects of the interview. With some practice, you can even apply the one-sentence technique to your self-introduction and to your goals. 

If you are interested in learning more or working with me on interview training, including developing your one-sentence stories and applying them to a variety of interview situations, please click here or e-mail me directly.

bryan@elite-essays.com

Killer Interviews #2: Introducing Yourself – The Verbal Resume

As I covered in my last post, a good strategy is vital because it allows you to approach the MBA interview pro-actively. If you know the topics you want to cover, you can look for or create opportunities to tell your best stories. Also, a checklist of “must-tell” stories serves as a “scorecard” to judge your performance and make improvements for future interviews.

Executing that strategy begins when you introduce yourself, which is often the first thing an interviewer will ask of you. Most applicants don’t take full advantage of the opportunity. They often give a bland recitation of some school, some work, and some hobby that goes little beyond what’s written on their resume. Your interviewers can read that for themselves. What interviewers need is a way to understand how all the bullet points match up and relate to each other. This is the value-added “verbal resume” you should be providing when you introduce yourself.

From that perspective, the self-introduction is a chance to create a framework for the entire interview, including your reasons for pursuing an MBA and the major accomplishments/strengths you want the interviewer to know about. Since I stress integration and consistency with my clients, many of them have strong themes that run throughout their essays. The self-introduction is a perfect time to introduce those as well. As one of my clients recently and beautifully expressed it, you need to “seed” the self-introduction as a way to move it in the direction you want it to go.

Here is what I consider a strong self-introduction, based on recent interview trainings I’ve conducted.

Me: “Please introduce yourself.”

Client: “Thank you. I would love to. The most important thing to understand about my background is how important international experience has been to both my personal and professional development. I’ve always known that I wanted to work internationally, which is why I enrolled at a university with a strong international focus and why I went overseas during college to conduct research for my thesis on manufacturing in the developing world. It was an amazing experience that led me to volunteer with an international NGO, something I would like to talk more about later.

After graduation, I joined my company where I started in an engineering role, developing hundreds of programs for my company’s leading software product. I also had the rare opportunity as a young staff to lead many software development teams, during which I was able to refine my interpersonal skills.

I experienced a big turning point when I was assigned to lead an implementation project overseas. I managed to solve the inter-cultural issues, as well as bridge the technology and business viewpoints that were necessary for success. After that, I knew I wanted to take a more front line position in my organization so I transferred to a sales department.

In the past few years I’ve become our top salesperson, responsible for 25% of our revenues for our leading product. Now my goals are to combine these experiences to help my organization expand sales internationally, which is a brand new challenge for us. This is actually my short-term goal and I’d be happy to provide more details.

Honestly speaking, however, I don’t feel ready yet to pursue my goals. I need to develop more team management skills since I often work alone as a salesperson, as well as deepen my international business experience and networks. These are the main reasons I applied to your MBA.”

I read this out loud and it comes in under two minutes. But in under two minutes, this person has shown himself to be thoughtful and intelligent, with a firm grasp of what he wants and why he wants it. He has shown himself to be both realistic and ambitious in his career goals, while identifying specifically how an MBA can help him clear the main hurdles he faces. He has also introduced both personal and professional topics that can be developed more fully throughout the interview. Strategically, he has set himself up perfectly to move in several different directions, including expanding on his goals and reasons for an MBA, which is often the next most natural thing for an interviewer to ask.

As with all the techniques I’ll cover, this ambitious approach might not be for everyone or might not fit all interview situations. But I do believe that all applicants can find some benefit from the principles behind it.

In my next post, I’ll explain a technique I call “The One-Sentence Story” that can help interviewees deal with the common problem of expressing their stories both completely and concisely.

bryan@elite-essays.com

Killer Interviews

Thanks for your patience during my blogging hiatus and for your kind wishes for 2009. Over the next few days, I’ll be providing “Killer Interview” techniques and approaches that I’ve developed over the many years I’ve been coaching MBA applicants. The topics will include (and may expand):

1) Developing Your Interview Strategy
2) Introducing Yourself: The Verbal Resume
3) One-Sentence Stories: The Killer Technique
4) Covering Your Resume: The Domain of Your Interview
5) Asking Good Questions to Expand the Dialogue

First up: Developing Your Interview Strategy

It still surprises me how many people sweat and babble through their MBA interviews without a strategy. I consider them victims, at the mercy of the interviewer. However, strategic applicants, those who know their best stories and can deploy them to maximum effect, gain control over the content and direction of the interview.

A good strategy is based on good essays; if they are developed properly, then they should already provide a comprehensive profile of you covering the typical interview questions. By “properly” I mean that individual essays are structured and detailed enough to withstand the probing of a dubious interviewer, and that your essays are consistent and integrated as a whole. If your essays do not match this criteria, then prepare to sweat and babble.

The first step to developing a strategy then is to review your essays, and to a lesser extent your resume and even your LOR (depending on your access), to identify the 10-15 most important topics you want to cover. I think a good list has to include the following:

1) Self-introduction
2) Short-term goals
3) Long-term goals
4) Why MBA?
5) Why School X?
6) Accomplishments
7) Personal life
8) Strengths
9) Weaknesses
10) Contributions
11) Questions for the interviewer
12-15) Other topics that express your unique experiences/qualities

For most of my clients, these topics have been well developed by the time of the interview, so identifying them is easy. The difficulty is presenting a topic both individually and strategically.

Doing that starts with Introducing Yourself, which I will cover in my next post.

bryan@elite-essays.com