You often hear how you need to have an “MBA story”, how your MBA story is the most critical component of your candidacy, much more important than your statistics. It’s true that the best way to think of your MBA application is as a story. And it’s also true that a compelling story can outweigh statistics. Yet, it’s often hard to know what this concept means and even harder to know how to develop that story for yourself.

Your “MBA story” is how you paint a picture of where you have been, what you have done, and where you want to go. Within this picture, the MBA program you are applying to serves as a bridge between “before” and “after”.

Where you’ve been and what you have done weaves parts of your personal and professional background. Where you are going is your vision for the future and more specifically your post-MBA goals. As you think about the facets you choose to reveal to the admissions committee, here is an MBA story development framework you can utilize. 

Your defining personality traits

You will need a true, honest assessment of who you are as a person and professional. Engaging in thoughtful, deliberate, and honest introspection is key here but it’s not enough.  You will benefit from an external perspective so make sure to speak with colleagues, mentors, current or former supervisors as well as friends and family. Many candidates also use assessment tools such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, CliftonStrengths or Career Leader. Once you have your answers, it’s helpful to put your defining attributes in a sentence such as “Quiet and compassionate leader who is committed to sustainable innovation”. Think of this as your MBA candidacy tagline. Refer to it periodically as you work on your essays and other materials to ensure it is visible and substantiated in your storyline. 

Your accomplishments

This is pretty self-explanatory but let’s go into a bit of detail. Your accomplishments include your academic history, your work history to date, and your extracurricular activities, hobbies, and passions. Within that educational, personal, and professional history you need to tease out the most important examples that add color and dimension and weave them into a narrative. That narrative should support your sentence above. You should demonstrate the ways in which you have been that quiet and compassionate leader in practice and the work and involvement that supports your commitment to sustainable innovation. 

Your goals – personal and professional

In thinking of your post-MBA goals, it’s useful to consider both the short and long term. The key is to balance specificity and flexibility. You want to clearly outline the industry and function you are interested in. That industry and function need to be aligned with what the MBA program you are applying to is known for, both in terms of curriculum or specialization as well as employment statistics. Your immediate post-MBA goals also need to have connections to your past. You need to demonstrate that your past experiences have positioned you, with the help of the transformational experience an MBA provides, to achieve these goals. Equally important, you need to allow some room for flexibility. Leaving an admissions committee with the impression that you are focused on a very narrow career path such as one specific role at a specific company may leave them concerned about their ability to support your goals.

How the MBA will serve as a bridge

Your motivation for pursuing an MBA is based on something that is currently missing in your arsenal. Whether it’s comprehensive business fundamentals, a global perspective, soft skills, stronger leadership, you are choosing to pursue an MBA because it will help you develop something that you currently don’t possess – or don’t have enough of. You will sometimes hear of this referred to as your “gap” or “gaps”. The pieces of the bridge will come from the MBA program features and the resources that business school will make available to you. You want to draw clear connections between your gaps and the MBA courses, clubs, centers, and activities that will fill them. You also want to make it clear why you need an MBA now, at this point of your career. 

Use this framework to guide your thinking as you start the soul-searching and background digging that are a fundamental part of the MBA application. This needs to be an iterative process and requires time. And if you are stuck for how to unearth these nuggets, read the 7 Questions to Ask Yourself as you build your MBA Brand.

My final words of advice to you have to do with uniqueness. Candidates often worry if their story is unique enough. But my advice to you is to focus on truthfulness and conviction. If the story you present flows from a place of honest and deep assessment about your past and your true vision for the future, I guarantee you that the resulting story will be uniquely yours – and that is what will make it alive and compelling.   

Want to learn more about some of the Dos and Don’ts of MBA Story Differentiation?

Read on to see the ways in which it can be done right - or go wrong!

Onwards and upwards,

Petia

Did you know that in MBA Application Boost Camp, you can work with me in a group setting at a fraction of the cost? You can join the driven community I am building to confidently walk the road to submitting your application.

Onwards and upwards,

Petia