From this prompt, it is obvious that Nanyang places social responsibility very high on its list of priorities. While describing your involvement, don’t forget to explain your motivation for undertaking the task in question, and the impact it made. In all likelihood, you will have worked in a group, so that you can also bring out the collaborative nature of your undertaking.
Journalists follow a classical rule while reporting events, and you may possibly find this useful in your description. It is called the five W’s and one H. In presenting any account, say who was involved, what happened, where and when it took place, and why and how it happened. Answering these questions ensures that you give a complete picture of the situation.
While assessing your career progress, you need not go into detail regarding your technical accomplishments. Rather, you should concentrate on the leadership roles you assumed, since this is what the adcom will be primarily concerned with. Explain what drove you into this career, and why a particular career path especially appeals to you. If there has been any switch in career roles, or gaps between different jobs, give credible reasons for the same. Following this, point out the short-term and long-term goals you have formulated for yourself, and then zero in on the skills you still need to acquire, and on why you think Nanyang is your best bet in this regard. Cogent reasons might include its strong Asia-focus, its high ranking, and its location in one of the world’s most liveable and efficient cities.
There are certain attributes all business schools look for in applicants – impactful leadership, community service, a sense of vision and the capacity to think big, initiative, integrity, communications skills, the ability to be a team player, self-awareness, etc. Therefore, when you discuss your personal and professional achievements, make certain you focus on one or more of these traits. Since you have already spoken of community service in your first answer, this does not need to feature again here.
Let us suppose you topped your batch in college, and you also took the lead in organizing an alumni association. While the first example might reflect your academic brilliance, it does not by itself reflect any of the qualities listed above. However, the fact that, with the help of your colleagues, you organized an alumni association will be seen as indicative of your initiative and collaborative spirit. Hence, it would be more judicious to mention the latter achievement.
Do not neglect to point out the impact of your achievements, for this is something the adcom is always on the look-out for.
This is an excellent essay to judge your leadership potential. Crises build characters. It infuses steel in your spine. You have to come out of your comfort zone in order to overcome the obstacles you faced. Please don’t talk about petty challenges such as one team member resigned or the client changed requirement at the last moment. Even though these kinds of challenges keep popping up every now and then, your leadership potential won’t be fully showcased with these kind of simple challenges. It is better to write something more profound.
How you structure this essay is not the million dollar question. The crux of writing an effective essay is to brainstorm on all the major events of your life, both professional and personal, and then zero down the biggest one. The bigger the challenges, higher were the obstacles, and more profound will be the lessons learnt and the changes it induced in your personality. So choose your story wisely!
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Politicians have speech writers. Journalists use news editors. Famous writers and columnists have an army of professional editors. Don’t you think you also need to have one?