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PRECISION ESSAY’S
SO YOU WANT AN MBA…
PRECISIONESSAY
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PRECISIONESSAY -2-
LOTS OF REASONS TO GO GET AN MBA
Make more money
Get promoted
Meet some powerful future contacts
Learn…stuff (accounting, finance, etc.)
Career change
Enjoy two years away from work
Intangible benefits of the “pedigree”
I’m here today to tell you that ALL of these things are true. If you go to a good program, you simply WILL get all these goodies. Period.
(Everyone wants to be a rock star!)
PRECISIONESSAY -3-
BUT AT WHAT COST?
Lose money in the short term
Two years of no pay = $200K
Two years of tuition = $150K
Two years of beer = $50K
You’re out, what, $400K?
Lose your current JOB and job-track in the short term
The app process stinks, and will crush your soul
The smartest people don’t need MBAs anyway…
So what do you do? Well…you get an MBA of course. It is just pricey…
PRECISIONESSAY -4-
THE COSTS ARE GREAT; THE COSTS OF NOT GETTING IN
OF COURSE ARE EVEN GREATER…
That’s where we come in.
We have done 10,000 MBA applications in five years.
Last year, well over 50% of our client base was international with the other 50% based in the US.
All Precision Essay MBA consultants attended Magic 7 MBA programs in the US and live in the US or Europe. You will work directly with them.
I have trained all our guys personally—and Raj and I look at EVERYTHING before it goes out the door. When there is a second MBA (all Deluxe packages), I do the work personally…
Last year over 50% of HBS students used consultants; we are expensive, but compared to $400K it’s a drop in the bucket!
PRECISIONESSAY -5-
THE “COST”…IS PEANUTS. LET’S REVISIT OUR LIST…
“Lose money in the short term”
If you play your cards right, you will earn this money back in five years. Period. And 10X it in your lifetime…
“Lose your current JOB and track in the short term”
If you were perfectly happy with your career you wouldn’t be looking to go to school.
“The app process stinks”
Man up folks! So what, three tough months.
It’ll all be a memory soon. And worth it if you play your cards right.
The smartest people don’t need them anyway
Sure, but even Stoppelman came up w the idea for Yelp at HBS…
(You.)
PRECISIONESSAY -6-
BUT. Look out for some very common myths. Misinformation.
Three myths to be exact.
1) An MBA will grant me FREEDOM.
• I want to go to bschool for freedom. I want to learn new things, meet new
people, and find myself. Who knows what I’m gonna do after school…
• Recruiting starts in October. You have four weeks to find yourself.
• Loans anyone?
SO WE’RE IN AGREEMENT: “LET’S GET AN MBA.”
Many applicants hope that the world will open up to them when they graduate; but in fact, the opposite is the case. The world gets muuuuch smaller once you arrive at bschool…
(Time in Bschool) (You.)
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2) Fit is important when considering Bschools.
• “I like finance—so I should likely go to CBS.”
• The Golden Rule: Go to the best school you can get into.
• Network
• Getting a job
• Mileage in 30 years
• A case study: raising money in the film business.
• Do not choose a school based on a scholarship.
• If top ten (or even 15) isn’t right for you, THEN start
to look at other factors, like geography or specialties.
MYTH #2: “FIT.”
But mostly, just go to the best school you can get into.
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3) Essay questions REALLY matter.
• “I am so stressed about my essays! Where do I even begin...”
• Ignore essay questions.
• The entire game is predicated on your putting your best foot forward. You have 4
stories that MUST be told. It doesn’t matter what the essay questions are—tell
these four stories. At all costs.
• Don’t let the wording of topic of any one question force you to use your seventh or
eighth best story in an app
• The same is actually true with interviews. But we are getting ahead of
ourselves…
MYTH #3: “ESSAY QUESTIONS.”
And don’t forget, go to the best school you can get into.
PRECISIONESSAY -9-
THE ALMIGHTY CAREER GOAL
So we now know that we should apply, how to select schools, we even know a bit about how to select essay topics to write about.
Now, let’s talk about career goals. After all, it is BUSINESS school.
No matter what else you do, if you’re career goals are screwy, you wont get into a top MBA program.
What is a good career goal?
YOU MUST CONNECT YOUR PAST EXPERIENCES TO YOUR FUTURE GOALS.
An example of how it should work (real estate finance into real estate development, investment management into investment banking)
An example of how it should not work (IT into non-profit, non profit into investment banking)
PRECISIONESSAY -10-
THE ALMIGHTY CAREER GOAL
“But Jon, how could anyone expect me to know what I actually want to do in life?”
Good question, I don’t actually know what I wanna do either.
Never mind that, they are testing your judgment.
Can you come up with a plan that makes sense?
Can you come up with a plan that will yield a JOB?
Do you understand what business school is, and how to use the MBA?
Don’t get too personal, this is BUSINESS school.
By the way, most people actually do what they say they will do, including me. Real estate. Why? Because the best apps will show off your greatest skills—and that’s what you will get paid to do upon graduation…
PRECISIONESSAY -11-
BEYOND THE CAREER GOAL, BEYOND THE ESSAYS
LORs
Often, applicants write them themselves. This is very, very bad.
It is obvious. Not a killer, but obvious.
We leave out a TON of great stuff. Why?
70-30 rule.
The role of specifics—there are only so many adjectives.
The role of…TONE! Versus the role of, well, tone?
Interview Prep
First, prep the obvious questions. Plenty of sites have lists. Figure there are 25 of em—90% of the time, that’s all you will be asked.
Go in with YOUR stories. Ignore the questions. This will be genius, especially if you run out of stories, or get stumped...
PRECISIONESSAY -12-
TOP TWO MISTAKES WE SEE AT PRECISION ESSAY
The smartest people are the ones who can explain complicated things in simple terms. Be one of those people—and NEVER hide behind complicated language, and jargon…
*95% of aaaaall the apps we see make two main mistakes.*
1) Jargon
“I convinced my lead designer to utilize a unique hardiboard construction that
allowed load limits to support up to eighteen thousand tons of dispersed force,
far more than OSHA guidelines allowed. When we withstood CAD 5 testing, I
knew we succeeded.”
• Would a 14 year old get what you’re saying? A dentist? My grandmother?
• What about a waitress in a bar…that you’re trying to impress? Quickly?
• If these folks wouldn’t understand what you’re saying, redo it…
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TOP TWO MISTAKES WE SEE AT PRECISION ESSAY
If you’re paying attention, you’re probably thinking “if I include all that detail my essays will be too long!” And yes, that is true. So tell FEWER stores. Cover LESS ground. But do it COMPLETELY instead. If you’re gonna write it, SHOW it to me. Don’t just TELL me.
*95% of aaaaall the apps we see make two main mistakes.*
2) TELLING, not SHOWING.
• TELLING: I earned the buy-in of senior management.
• SHOWING: I reached out to the CFO and COO each in three separate private meetings to
earn their buy-in.
• TELLING: I opened a new restaurant in Chengdu, China.
• SHOWING: I raised $400,000 from friends and family, then met with the local council. At
this meeting, they agreed to support my plans to open a restaurant.
The resume is a great place to TELL what you did. But in the essays, you need to SHOW
HOW you’ve done it.
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WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO BE CREATIVE
So then, what’s the secret to writing engaging essays?
Dramatic Writing
Focus today: Organization
A Scary Statistic…
Answer: 5-10 minutes!
Question: How long does it take an Adcom member (on the first review) to read your entire application?
Why is this significant? Because if your essays are engaging, you will have a distinct advantage.
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Example A I first envisioned my career path while working for Fluor Corporation, the world’s second largest engineering-and-construction firm. I was developing on a financial for a $1.4 billion polysilicon facility, producing an ultra-pure semiconductor used in solar panels, for a joint-venture between a German chemical giant and a local Saudi Arabian chemical firm. The joint-venture was projected to obtain a return of 500% over ten years, and the facility created over 1,000 jobs and $20 million in salaries for Saudi workers in Jubail.
Organization: By the Book.
PART 2 OF 5: THE ROLE OF ESSAYS IN A CHINESE MBA
APPLICATION • CREATIVE ESSAY ORGANIZATION
PRECISIONESSAY -16-
Organization: Creative.
Example B What if a $1 billion+ investment produced more than just profit? What if it also raised the standard of living of an entire community across all socio-economical strata, creating thousands of jobs and providing education at the same time? While at Fluor, the world’s second-largest engineering and construction firm, I produced a financial model for a $1.4 billion joint venture that did just that. Projected to earn a 500% return over ten years, it would also create 1,000 jobs and $20 million in salaries for Saudi workers. My dream to become CEO of a multinational chemical company, like Dow Chemical or INEOS, materialized.
PART 2 OF 5: THE ROLE OF ESSAYS IN A CHINESE MBA
APPLICATION • CREATIVE ESSAY ORGANIZATION
PRECISIONESSAY -17-
The Hook
[Imagine it’s the year 1996]
What if I were to tell you that within ten years, 30 million people will all be online, but with no way to keep in touch on the internet? I can solve this problem.
Itch: Wow, I’m intrigued… what’s the actual idea?
PART 2 OF 5: THE ROLE OF ESSAYS IN AN MBA APPLICATION
• THE ALL-IMPORTANT PITCH
Get creative gang. In just five minutes, you simply have no choice.
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At this stage, you can’t control your profile—you are IT and you are Indian. You are a banker from the US. You are a woman in management. So what will you do about it? What can you control?
You have infinite control over how you PRESENT it.
Whatever your story, remember to create an itch throughout your essays. One great and easy way to achieve that is through smart organization of your story points.
PART 2 OF 5: THE ROLE OF ESSAYS IN AN MBA APPLICATION
• SUMMARY
PRECISIONESSAY -19-
THE ART OF THE FOREIGN MBA APPLICATION
(BY THE NUMBERS)
GMAT must be high. Why?
99.9% of colleges are unknown.
Even in the top 3, their reputation is that students don’t work.
And again, China is just so foreign. The GMAT is a powerful equalizer. EVERYONE must take this test, everyone’s on the same footing.
And besides, it is just so darn competitive for Chinese applicants; let’s run through the Stanford math:
330 accepted students
110 will be “international”
55 will be “men”
This means that 55 men from ALL countries will be accepted. There are a lot of countries out there folks…
PRECISIONESSAY -20-
THE ART OF THE FOREIGN MBA APPLICATION
(BY THE STRATEGY)
EXTREMELY SMART PEOPLE. Test scores.
Lack of creativity.
In the US we are encouraged to “be ourselves,” at all costs. To “find ourselves.” But not in China…
Lack of soft skills.
“Management science” was born in the “West” (vs. big gvt.)
Lack of international experience, international perspective.
Adcoms think that apps are often written by other people (MIT?).
Why is all this significant? Not because any of it is “true.” But because must overcome these misconceptions in our applications.
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THE ART OF THE FOREIGN MBA APPLICATION
(BY THE STRATEGY)
US Companies (Bridging the gap).
“This applicant GETS the way it works in the US.”
English skills
Soft skills
Comfort with US culture
International Companies (Bridging the gap).
The ability to work to an international standard.
The ability to adapt across cultures.
Europe, for example, “feels” less foreign than China/India/South America etc.
Family Businesses.
Can be huge for all applicants...especially foreign.
So if you don’t have any of these three benefits in your app, how will you account for that? “I don’t work for a US company, but here is proof that I know English ANYWAY, etc.”
PRECISIONESSAY
IN CONCLUSION
I already make $100K or more. Will I do better when I graduate?
Maybe and maybe not. But what about in five years? Or ten? $100K isn’t enough folks, not for what you wanna do career-wise. Look longer-term.
Take the case of Jon Frank. With his MBA, Jon has:
o Found investors for real estate deals.
o Made some of the best, closest friends of his life.
o Earned the credibility to get ALL of his jobs post-MBA, get investors to buy his buildings, and launch Precision Essay. (Ask yourselves, would you be here if Jon didn’t have an MBA? From HBS? In a way, you are his investors.)
o As always, friends, we are here to help. Let’s start by answering a few questions…
-22-
PRECISIONESSAY
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