Note that the question is only about your short-term goals post-MBA. Naturally, these should be in consonance with your past experiences as well as the courses you intend to pursue at Kelley. Though the question makes no mention of your long-term goals, a sentence or two on this would be quite in order.
Discuss your goals in details: industry/sector, desired designation, roles & responsibilities and preferred location. Explain why you are inspired to achieve this goal. What makes you passionate to accomplish it? Will it help you to achieve your long term career goal? If yes, demonstrate how this job will broaden your horizon, provide you with skills and leadership competencies, and assist you to secure professional contacts that are much needed to achieve your long term goal.
Thereafter, you need to demonstrate how your professional experience coupled with a Kelley MBA will help you to accomplish your career aspirations. Think carefully what are the skills/learning you have gained in your career so far. Then, evaluate how all these skills along with the expertise you will gain at Kelley will assist you to accomplish your short term career goal. Analyze your profile and identify all the gaps you currently have that are stopping you from achieving your dreams. Next, assess how the Kelley MBA program will help you to fill these gaps.
In order to do so, you need to know various aspects of the program in detail. Actively network with Kelley alumni, current students, and admissions officers to explore all the nook and corners of the program. Identify crucial electives, faculty members, professional clubs, conference, seminars, global consulting projects, networking opportunities, etc. that are available at Kelley and write how all these resources will help you to become a top leader in the corporate world.
The last portion of the question, on alternative career paths, is meant to test your pragmatism and adaptability. Are you realistic enough to factor in the possibility that your preferred short-term goals may not materialize? If so, are you informed of the possible options? What are they? It goes without saying that the options you choose should also have a close connection with your past experiences and the career interests you have expressed in your application.
Whichever of the prompts you decide to take up, make sure to use it as a vehicle for conveying a side of your personality that you have not been able to showcase elsewhere in the application. As you have discussed your professional career in essay #1, its best to narrate a story from your personal life in this essay.
Ideally, you should respond to this question in the form of a story. For instance, your greatest memory may be of an occasion when you succeeded in accomplishing something that people around you considered impossible. You can relate the story and, in conclusion, remark on what that feat meant to you as a person, and how it constituted a turning-point in your life.
As a rule of thumb, you should pick an experience that happened within the last 3 years and relevant to a B-school. A team based leadership story would be ideal as Kelley highly values collaboration. A story that showcases how you have communicated your vision to your team and thereafter inspired everyone to accomplish goals despite tremendous odds will illustrate your leadership qualities to the admissions team.
If you are a recent college graduate, you can narrate an on-campus experience in which you have shouldered substantial leadership, such as leading any club, organizing any campaign (political, social, or economic such as campaign to donate blood, spread awareness on global warming, promote gun control legislations, etc.) or leading any initiative in non-profits such as Habitat For Humanity, Red Cross, the Salvation Army etc.
Here, again, the rule is: Focus on some unknown aspect of your character that will strengthen your candidature. There are common qualities that all B-schools value, and the surprising fact that you communicate should throw light on one such quality in you. Let us consider a sample:
What does this sentence tell us about you? It shows you as a person of grit and determination who is ready to face any challenge in life, and who has the self-belief and capacity to surmount any obstacle. The incident may be a few years old, but its validity remains because you are still enjoying the fruits of that accomplishment – now you are a fluent speaker, and a good communicator.
If you look at Kelley’s system of values, you will notice that diversity and inclusiveness holds an important place in it. A sentence like the one below will demonstrate that you are no stranger to this quality:
Is there some aspects of your leadership personality that has not been covered anywhere in the application? This is the right place to write that. But in case of any gaps in your profile such as low GMAT, layoff and so on, you can address it here.
Keep in mind that attempting the optional essay demonstrates your seriousness. In a cut-throat globally competitive B-Schools admission process, seriousness of the applicants is one of the most important factors. This essay is another chance to portray your uniqueness. But be sure to avoid repetition!
Please review my tips for Optional MBA essays in my blog page here.
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