Tips to Write MBA Career Goals Essay

Having a high GMAT score is not enough; there are several other components to your application for an MBA at your dream business school. This article will share some important tips to write an MBA career goals essay that will take you one step closer to your MBA.

Almost all business schools, whether in India or abroad, expect you to write an essay detailing your career goals, motivation, and action plan. They may or may not provide an open-ended brief to stick with, but the essay you finally turn in must be concise, and should demonstrate clarity of thought and attention to detail.

It is important for the admissions committee to know about your career plans because they have to ascertain whether your chosen field of study is relevant to your short-term and long-term professional goals. Additionally, they need to ensure that your values align with the values of the b-school you are applying to. The career goals essay is your chance to explain why you chose this school, and why this school should choose you. The following insights will help you in writing an excellent career goals essay that will prove to be an asset to your application.

Tips to write the perfect MBA career goals essay

1.Defining your goals

The very first tip to write an MBA career goals essay is to create an outline that encapsulates all the important points you want to highlight in your essay. You need to then take into account the word count and ensure all the relevant points have been incorporated into the essay. 

Once you are done with the outline, introduce your essay by summarising your professional goals. This should include your short-term goals (something you might want to achieve right after you complete your MBA) and your long-term goals (something you want to achieve a few years down the line). Here is an example:

“After completing my MBA, I aspire to work with top multinational companies like Google or Amazon, and learn from their vast portfolio of client engagements. In the long run, I want to incorporate digital business strategies into the client engagement in order to ease the interaction.”

Your goals are milestones you want to achieve over the course of your professional life. However, for the admissions committee to be able to understand your goals fully, you need to explain your motivation to achieve them – why do you want to achieve these specific goals? Why are they important to you?

Portraying your authentic self in your essay adds a personal touch that will go a long way with the admissions committee. Moreover, this will help them better understand what makes your journey unique and why they should choose to admit you into their institution. 

2.Define a plan of action

The success of a career goals essay is not in crafting some unrealistic statement to impress the committee members. Be realistic about the goals you define for yourself in this essay. You should have an idea of how you will get there, and the actions you can take to make your goals a reality (and where your decision to pursue an MBA fits into that).  

Even if the path you take to reach your goals may change over time,  the admissions committee will judge you on your vision and foresight. Remember, the committee members are professionals who can distinguish between a realistic career vision and an engineered one. It is wise to be sincere and not fool them. It is okay to be ambitious in your goals, but remember that an unclear plan will result in a vague essay that is unlikely to win you admission into your dream b-school.

3.Connect your past experiences with your future career goals

It is important to build a connection between your past (your existing experiences, both professional and personal), your present decision to pursue an MBA, and your future professional goals. You may choose to provide some details about your existing professional experience, and how that shaped your goals for your career in the future. This connection should provide a glimpse of your professional persona, and also explain why you believe this particular b-school is the right choice to take you where you want to go.

4.Proofread your essay

Once you are done writing your essay, make sure to proofread it before you submit it. This will help you find any errors in spelling or sentence construction. Also, it will give you an impression of how your essay might sound to somebody who does not know you. You will also be able to identify and iron out logical inconsistencies, should there be any.

Conclusion

A career goals essay might sound intimidating and can put you in a fix if you have not thought beyond the MBA itself. However, it is a good opportunity to pause and think about what you would like to aim for, and how you might get there. A logical and well-thought-out essay can impress the committee enough to actually gain you a seat. Besides, it will go a long way in clarifying your own thoughts regarding your future, even when you do know exactly where you want to go and what you want to achieve.

We hope these tips to write the MBA career goals essay will help you in securing admission to the college of your dreams. Nevertheless, if you still find yourself confused, feel free to connect with the CareerLabs expert team for queries.