There are three important steps to be followed to emerge with a successful recommendation:

Selecting the recommender: The best recommender is a supervisor  who has interacted with you closely. Recommendations from CEOs or CFOs are absolutely useless  unless you have closely worked with them on several projects. A supervisor who can talk about your strengths, weaknesses and really knows what you are made of is one of the best choices. A peer review is sometimes sought by schools. But when the recommender selection is left as an open choice, I would say a supervisor is preferred over a peer.

Coaching the recommender: This is an essential and crucial step. Make sure you coach your recommender about your goals and aspirations. Tell him/her why you are looking for an MBA. The recommender may very well be mindful of your work culture, team spirit, attitude etc. But it is also important that he or she be made aware of your professional goals; it’s your duty to make an appointment and tell him or her about your goals in greater detail. The next step is to tell him/her about the timelines for your applications; don’t hesitate to send across a gentle reminder if necessary!

The recommender’s say: In short, the recommender must back-up whatever you said in your essays. In fact, the recommender gets a chance to narrate instances and elaborate on many of your key attributes. You can make sure that your application ties together if your recommender reinforces your ideas and elucidates your qualities. Taking the extra steps will ensure that the  the recommendation letter makes the maximum impact on your application, resulting in a favorable outcome.

Selecting the right school is one of the important things in the application process. I consider the following aspects important in the selection process.

Curriculum and Electives: Check what a school offers as a part of the curriculum. Do the electives offered meet your career goal and aspirations?

Placements: How good is the recruitment in the field of your interest. If you are an international student make sure to know the companies that are willing to sponsor work permits. Not all companies are inclined to recruit international students.

Teaching style: Teaching methodology is typically a mix of cases and lectures although some schools only practice the lecture based method. Personally, I think cases give a real time experience and schools that promote it are a better choice.

Networking: Know how good the school’s ties are with its alumni and the kind of events and fairs arranged.  Networking is very important for intern and post-MBA jobs as well. One of your main professional networks will be through the school you graduate from.

Location: Location can be of concern to many because of family ties, weather or other interests.

Student body: What is the student body composed of? What is the extent of diversity in terms of work-ex, age, nationality etc. How enthusiastic and participating are the students?

Outside classroom: Student organizations and cultural clubs enable you to pursue your interests and develop extra-curricular activities. Learning about the various clubs will help you understand what you get to do outside class.

Hands-on experience: Many schools encourage their students to work for companies even during their course work. That helps you hit the ground running.

The various sources to know about schools would be their students, staff, alumni, websites, MBA fairs and class visits. Class visits are more advisable after an initial shortlisting. They will help you to zero down on your choices.

From my experience I would suggest the following:

A complete and thorough retrospection of WHY an MBA would help with essays and interviews too. Know very well what you stated in your essays and ensure you reinforce them in the interviews.

WHY MBA, WHY MBA NOW, CAREER GOALS, ABOUT YOURSELF (show a career progression and also showcase extra curricular activities), WHY XYZ SCHOOL (bring out the match between your goals and what the school has to offer. Also what you can contribute and how you can continue to pursue your other interests) are typical and must be handled VERY VERY well.

These apart, MOST important thing is: Have instances in your professional and personal front illustrating leadership, failures, hurdles, accomplishments, contributions to organization, team work. You would cover quite a few in the essays. But you would need more for the interview. Have an experience to quote in each of these areas. ALSO if you say abc is your strength, have an example ready wherein you demonstrated that strength. Generally you are asked for 2/ 3 strengths…so have as many examples ready for the interview.

Same is the case with weakness. Have an instance and also show how you are working to overcome this weakness.  It is important to mention this.

In your recommendations ensure that the recommender actually backs whatever you stated in the essays and what you would possibly say in interviews. CONSISTENCY is very important.

In regard to career goals, you are expected to be very focused and clear. The POSITION you would like to take up post-MBA, 5yrs, 10yrs and 15yrs down the line. The industry and function must be very clearly stated and you must be in a position to say which company you are looking at post-MBA. Even if your essay doesn’t require you to cover these, in interviews the adcom (the business lingo for admissions committee ) will delve into depths. They are interested to know if they can help you with your career aspirations.

Due to the heavy global level competition, schools tend to incline towards students who put in efforts to know about the school. Attending MBA events, getting in touch with Alumni, current students and staff and class visits are a plus. There may be questions in the interview as to how you got to know about that particular school.

Do have questions for the adcom as well. Don’t just ask something for which the answer can be found right on their school’s website. IF all this is done, you are all set!   Good Luck on your interview!  I know you’ll ace it!

Wondering what schools expect when they talk of extra-curricular activities?  Well, be it any domain that the school is concerned about, they look for one key trait; leadership!  In fact, one need not have held any lead roles in terms of designations in one’s work experience.  The initiatives you took and your leadership instances count.

The admissions committee looks for your commitment and leadership  in these activities. It is often misinterpreted that community service alone qualifies for this section. Definitely, not.  Do something you are passionate about.  That would help you enjoy whatever you do and be sure to bring out instances where you could showcase your leadership.  Tell them how you would pursue this interest at school.  Your activity could be music, some sports club…just anything.  Anything, but you are expected to do something outside of work…some for fun and some out of passion and interest.  No one out there wants a nerdy bookworm.  Try to be the right mix!

I’d love to hear from anyone regarding some of the things they’ve done regarding extra curricular activities.  Did you join a club?  Help out at a museum?  Please leave a comment and tell me about your leadership skills!

We have been hearing “It is the best to apply when you and your application are ready”.  But, why not get ready for early rounds? Even if your stars don’t turn lucky for you, you would still have many doors open if you are an early bird. Yes, people who are not happy with the offers they get in the first round decisions always stand a chance to apply to their next set of schools’ second admission rounds in the very year rather than wait for 365 days!!! This is more appropriate for international students who are typically allowed to apply only to certain rounds of admission, most likely the first couple of them. First round generally spans from Oct to Dec. But certainly, as said, ensure you are all set when you apply. You may go through the MBA Checklist post to measure your readiness.

Where should you place the GMAT in the admission process scale of ten?  Hmm… let us first redefine the scale. It is a scale of ten ones rather than a scale from one to ten. Each applicant is evaluated on a gamut of aspects ranging from from aptitude to work-ex to extra-curricular activities to….and the list goes on… essays and recommendations form a critical part…

Now, the GMAT is an indicator of your aptitude. It would help in guessing how one would perform in class. It is better to get the GMAT out of your way and get onto the other things which would be more demanding in terms of efforts and time. Certainly, GMAT seems as a monster on your journey to secure an MBA. But trust me, once you get past this hurdle, soon you will realize that you are just through the tip of an iceberg…an immensely huge iceberg!  Simply blow the GMAT out of your way and swiftly fly past it.  Giving one’s best to every inch of the admission process is important. No piece weighs more than any other.

If you need some guidance into acing the test be sure to see my article “The Four Letter Word..GMAT”

Here is a step wise approach to mission-MBA. This is designed by logically prioritizing each of the activities that make up the whole process. I hope this will be of help to address each task in a timely manner.

• Identify your career goals and identify why you would want to get associated with an MBA.  (Read “MBA? Where do I Start?”)
• Choose an MBA program that make the best fit for you in terms of mainly your career goals and other factors like the student body, class size, teaching methodology, placements, student clubs, location etc…
• Set a minimum target GMAT score which would be a must to score to get it out of way (the highest of the averages of GMAT scores of the schools you prefer to study at). Remember this is the MINIMUM you must score.
• Prepare, attack and beat the GMAT. If you are required to take TOEFL too, get it out the way.  (Be sure to check out my article “The Best GMAT Strategy“)
• Send out your score to schools.
• Make sure you post all the supporting documents (schools don’t review an application until the file is complete).
• Start your online applications and register your recommenders.
• Make appointments with your recommenders and talk to them about your goals. Let them reinforce in the recos the ideas you wish to project and showcase in your essays and interviews (it’s your duty to keep reminding your recommenders and get your recommendation letters in place before the deadline).
• Draft your essays and have them read by your family and friends.
• Submit your application and be hopeful to get a call from all the schools you applied to.
• Schedule an interview if an applicant initiated interview is required.  Rehearse all your interview responses aloud and read my article “Facing the Interview Beast“.

These apart, ensure you have all your under-graduation and graduation transcripts ready before you start applying. Also, connect with schools in whatever manner, whenever and where ever possible…attend MBA events, talk to alumni, current students and staff; visit schools (if possible)…show them that you make a good fit and would add to their community.

Ahem….there is ‘NO one size, fits all GMAT strategy!  “THE BEST” strategy is merely a myth.  No test taking strategy can be typical.  Strategy is something that’s highly dependent on a particular individual.  Go ahead and tailor a strategy by your own self for your own self.  I wasted some of my time trying to fit into the so called typical strategies.

Skimming – employed by many to crack Reading Comprehension in the GMAT.  However, this suits me the least and I always ended in soup.  Luckily for me, I realised my problems sooner than later.  Neither skimming nor skipping are my cup of tea

Reading through each and every word is MY way.  But let me add something here… Do devote some time to read how people devised their strategies and what they did. You could possibly get hold of some cues that may help you and then develop your own DO-IT-YOURSELF GMAT strategy.    The MBA365 article “3 Steps to Scoring a 700 on the GMAT‘ details a good GMAT strategy and is one that for some people may indeed prove successful.  Also be sure to read my article “The four letter word..GMAT” to get a good intro to the test and some of the resources which were helpful to me in my studies.  Good Luck!

GMAT.. What is this test all about? Just English and Math.  Well, but the big picture has much more to say.  As Princeton review rightly points out, to crack this test, you must develop the art of looking at questions through the eye of the test maker rather than that of the test taker.   Of course, you are required to be good at your basics in Math and English grammar.  BUT that’s definitely not all.

Understand what the test intends to test you in.  Practice from genuine study material.  It’s pretty easy to fall prey to the endless resources available on the Internet.  Understand that practice will help you to wade easily through the answer choices to the right answer.  That comes to you only when you know how to eliminate incorrect choices at a glance and solve smartly!  I would say it is always better to stick to resources that give not only the solutions but their detailed working.

GMAT Official Guide and GMATPrep software make the BIBLE for GMAT.   Go ahead and solve from the supplement materials for Quant and Verbal from Official Guide(OG) for more questions. These study materials contain real GMAT questions that are retired from the database.  Get tuned to solving problems in the ‘GMAT Official Guide’s‘ way.  Once you fall into that groove, you can be sure that you are gearing up.  Ensure you brush up on your basics and learn everything about the test; timing, number of questions, scheduling the test.. well before solving OG and I would recommend The Princeton Review: Cracking the GMAT to get an overview of the test.

GOSH!! I know. It’s so confusing! #@$% Chill… Read on and I’m sure you’ll feel better.

The first and foremost step that an MBA aspirant should get past is…no, definitely not the GMAT.  It’s introspection and cheers to those who guessed it right!  Of course, a tedious phase but the most important of all. Yes, know why exactly you landed on this blog!  Where are you heading?  Why are you looking for an MBA?  Just augmented career options or fat pay packets cannot be the only reasons.  Identify a specific career path you wish to tread…Which industry? Which function? What designation? What in the short run? What in the long run? Now, think if getting back to school will help you achieve these goals?  Once done, you will have a focused eye that will help you look in the right direction in the right way. This process will also help a great deal in writing your applications and also in interviews.  So, get set!

Ok, so you have hopefully taken some time to evaluate yourself and your long term goals.   So, if you have decided that the MBA is right for you I encourage to check out my article “Create an MBA Checklist” which outlines all of the steps needed to ensure that your path to an MBA is a successful one.

Good Luck!