Greetings aspiring MBA candidates!
We would like to build on our previous post that
delved into the often problematic “Why MBA Now?” interview question.
In our last post, we encouraged
interviewees to establish a clear, career-oriented reason for pursuing an MBA. These
reasons should revolve around the interviewee’s future career aspirations, which
allow the interviewee to explain that an MBA is needed to achieve them. This is
primarily a discussion about the future, and that an MBA is essential
for the person’s future career development. But we often find that the
interviewee’s answer to the “Why MBA Now?” question is limited to this topic
only: an explanation of their future goals and that they need an MBA now to
achieve them. However, this is really just an answer to “Why MBA?” and does not
address the key issue which is why now is
the right time to get this education (as opposed to one or two years from
now).
To fully explain why now is the right time to get an MBA
the interviewee must offer some context about their past experience. Thus, a
brief discussion of the past is also critical to providing a complete and
compelling answer to this question. If the interviewer does not fully
comprehend the interviewee’s past experience, it is impossible for them to
fully appreciate why the interviewee needs an MBA now.
A complete “Why MBA Now?”
interview answer will therefore:
a)
Provide some context about the interviewee’s
past professional experience. They might briefly point out their progression
and the key skills that they have developed which they can build on in the
future.
b)
Detail their future career plans.
c)
Explain that after evaluating the feasibility of
these plans, they have come to the realization that without an MBA it will be
very difficult to achieve them and that now is the best time to get this
education.
While a), b) and c) above seem to
be simple enough on paper, explaining them in a coherent and easy to understand
way in a high pressure interview is extremely challenging which is why a lot of
advance preparation is needed.
To further elaborate our ideas
about how to best execute the “Why MBA Now?” question we would also like to
offer the following sample interview response.
Sample “Why MBA Now?” response:
“My five years of project
management experience in the pharmaceutical industry have been extremely
rewarding, and I’ve developed solid leadership, analytical and problem solving
skills while driving several important process improvement projects. It’s just
been over the past 1.5 years I’ve become quite sure that strategy consulting is
the path I want to devote my career to. Merck’s acquisition of my company forced
me to quickly learn how major pharmaceutical companies plan and execute their
global operations. When I began to see the positive effects the new Merck
system was having on my company’s operations and product sales, I became really
interested in business strategy and how it could lead to improved performance. I
then started networking within the management consulting industry which led to
informational interviews with managers at BCG and Accenture. I just became really
passionate about consulting at that point, and I knew it was what I should be
doing.
Needless to say, with my past
education in accounting and experience in project management there’s no way to
break into consulting unless I ‘retool’ with an MBA. And at 28, it doesn’t make
sense to wait.”
In this sample answer we can
see that the interviewee has provided some useful context about their previous
work experience, stated their career objectives and why this path interests
them, and then explained that now is the right time to get an MBA education.
We hope this information is
helpful for all you aspiring MBA candidates out there! Please take plenty of
time to carefully consider how you would respond to this frequently asked
question before you enter your interview. Or if you would like to seek our
expert assistance in interview preperation,
feel free to reach out to us at info@transcendadmissions.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment