2012 Last Post - Hello 2013

So moments ago, I just submitted my Wharton’s app. I feel good about this app, mainly because I think Wharton really allows the applicants to express their individuality through the essays. I’ve also grown rather fond of Wharton and its many Venture Treks are really something that I look forward to the most – hello Antarctica & Cotopaxi!  

Looking ahead, I have just one more application to be submitted – Stanford GSB. Now, applying to the most selective MBA program in the world comes with its fair share of anxiety, self-doubt and many sleepless nights. If Wharton lets its applicants to shine through its essays, GSB really forces us to dig down and deep, on our motivations, passions, and goals for life. It ain’t easy, but I managed to get there. I’m surprisingly happy with how the essays turned out to be, and this is another application that I’m proud to submit and regardless of the outcome, I know I’ve done my best (barring silly last-minute typo errors).

So what next?

Actually, I went into my MBA cave to finish off my Wharton and GSB essays knowing that come July 2013, I may well be enrolling in one of top US BS. On 17^th Dec, Kellogg was nice enough to put me on their waitlist.

Now, waitlist may not be everybody’s favourite response but considering double rejection from HBS, I’m willing to take anything that these prestigious BS are willing to dish out to me.

Let’s talk about Kellogg

I’ve also grown fond of Kellogg over the course of this MBA application season. It’s the no.1 school in marketing (which is supposed to be a big deal) and McKinsey and its other MC siblings seem to love Kellogg grads (so that’s a huge plus). One of my bosses just came back from Kellogg’s AMP and she seemed to really enjoy her experience.

Now, the thing that really excites me about Kellogg is how everything the students do seems to revolve around groups. The last thing that I’m willing to put up with at this age is sharky, snarky type-A jerks (who seem to go to BS to “transform” themselves). So on that merit alone, I personally think Kellogg sounds like a really good place to gain some crucial business knowledge and skills and build lifelong friendships that are based on genuine mutual interest.

The question now is, how do I get off the waitlist and into Kellogg MBA Class of 2015?

I love me a good challenge!

 

It’s probably not a good idea to watch an action movie whilst trying to draft your MBA essays…

True story, but me being me, I’d have 10 thousands things opened at the same time, cluttering my screen, just to get things done. Some people need order to focus, some thrive in chaos, I seem to do best in orderly chaos…

A quick update on my Rd 1 application…

I tanked HBS again and interviewed at Kellogg. But then again, Kellogg interviews anyone who requested to be interviewed, so it was really not an indication of how strong my application was. I have mixed feelings about tanking HBS for the 2^nd consecutive time. On the other hand, I should’ve learnt enough from the previous experience to submit a better application but the application pool itself is super hyper competitive – HBS is a stretched to everyone (unless of course, your whole family goes there and made tons of donation to the school…). And because of the hyper competitiveness of their pool of applicants, a rejection from HBS does not automatically mean that my application was weak (at least, that’s why I’m telling myself to mend this broken heart!).

An interview with Kellogg…

I thought it went well. I clicked with my interviewer. It helped that we both came from the same industry, so the lingo was not lost and I don’t have to de-jargonise my resume all that much. At one point, I thought I was doing the interviewing since we were trading questions, back and forth – he asked me why Kellogg, I asked him how was his Kellogg experience etc. All in all, it felt more like a conversation between 2 people who shared the same passion (for Kellogg).

But here’s the thing; being too comfortable during the interview could also give you false signal. Maybe, just maybe, he was such a great interviewer that he immediately put me in such comfortable state that my answers came unfiltered. I knew that I could’ve answered some of this questions better… but alas, what’s done is done.

Round 2 strategies…

I guess not getting in HBS was actually a great thing – I wouldn’t have researched Wharton at all, had I gotten an interview invite with HBS. Initially I was a bit put off by Wharton, mainly because the school’s reputation as the “finance school”. I did not see myself slaving away at any financial institutions in the near future.

But that all changed.

After all the research, reading student’s blogs, the s2s boards, watching the available lectures, seminars etc, I finally GET Wharton and ironically, Wharton is the school I felt most connected to now.

I personally feel that the fit come from the fact that Wharton, out of all the other schools (that I’ve researched), is the most quant-driven, in a good way. I think a lot of people get easily intimidated by any quant-heavy subjects, and Wharton makes no qualm about how quant-heavy their program is. But here’s the thing, they make it more than just about crunching the numbers but giving greater emphasis on what the data tell you about a problem. This mind-set, this way of approaching a problem, so analytical and methodological – speaks highly to the engineer in me. I guess that’s why I’m gravitating more and more towards Wharton!

Plus I now find a newfound appreciation for PE… ha ha ha. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll write about a PE specific goals in my career essay for Wharton.

I’m still applying to Stanford’s GSB…

As off now, I’m searching my soul to find what matters the most to me. There are many things that matter to me, some matter more than others but to nail what matter the most and why – let me tell you my friend, it’s gonna be a long and arduous journey (till new year).

But right now, let me enjoy The Expendables 2 first!

Reflection on HBS Application

First off, I probably will drive myself crazy obsessing over HBS application AFTER submitting it. it’s done, it’s done and nothing I do now can change anything. That being said, I was up till 1 am last night twitching every second and double-triple checking every single alphabet that I put in the application form… until FINALLY I told myself that I needed go to bed because I have to go to work in less than 6 hours…

But then, I had the WEIRDEST dream – that I was in an interview for HBS and the only question I remembered that was asked of me was this “how do we know that you will commit to HBS since you’re applying to other schools?”. I wish I’m some sort of oracle who can read my future through dreams because I would give anything to make that dream come true!!!

Now, moving on I still have another set of essays to worry – that’s for Kellogg. I have a good 3 weeks to outline and write and revise the essays to perfection… that shouldn’t be a problem, rite?....

Class of 2014 vs Class of 2015 Application

My first reservation about submitting another HBS application after rejection from last year was that I couldn’t write much about how much I’ve improved over my last application. I thought that last year, I covered a wide range of experiences throughout my life in that set of essays that spectacularly bombed with the admission committee. I worry that even before they read my new application, they would just put it in another pile that says “stank last year, probably won’t be better this year”… gosh, I was super paranoid!

But boy, was I glad that HBS actually revamped its whole application structure – new essays (well, actually they were similar to old essays but with more words to play around) and that was the saving grace for me this year. I was extremely happy with how my two essays turned out to be and they were enthusiastically endorsed by a HBS alumnus, a future INSEAD MBA, a Stanford GSB alumnus and some of my closest friends. It kinda validated my positioning for this year’s application. If nothing else, I hope the admission committee this year see the maturity in the essay and how far I’ve come since submitting my application last year.

The second part that made the most different this year was my letter of recommendation. I was extremely grateful to two of my managers and another friend whom I’ve worked with on a charity organisation. They have graciously agreed to write my LOR and incorporated most of my inputs and recommendations (I hope so) and submitted their part way ahead of the deadline!

One of the tragedies last year was that my previous superior whom I worked closely for almost 2 years completely and utterly bombed his LOR. He left it to the last minute, refused to talk to me to discuss how to write LOR for US BS MBA application and the result was a lukewarm standard LOR, which did more harm than any good whatsoever at all… But I was glad that I learnt this lesson though. It made my selection of my recommenders for this year way more stringent and it forced me to really find people who share the same level of enthusiasm about my personal growth and development as me and most of all, whom I could totally depend to write a great LOR to support my candidacy!

It’s somewhat anticlimactic when I think about these two situations. I still remember early this year (I submitted Rd 2 application in Jan 2012) where I almost cried in the office of one of my recommender when I knew that on the morning of the deadline, he haven’t even started anything yet and started to be defensive when I gave him an outline of stuff to write. Come to think of it, that was the moment where I knew my application was going to waste… ha ha, and I was right!

Looking Ahead…

So I have to wait till the week of 17^th – 24^th October to know my fate this time around, after which I can move on to other application or if lucky, be invited to an interview, where I will then be paranoid about every single thing that I wrote down in my application and will probably lose many nights thinking about the post-interview reflection. Plus I have the tendency to be too honest in my interviews… so, yeah… we’ll see!

I just wanna give a shout-out to all those who have helped me with my HBS application. I couldn’t have done it without your support, so THANK YOU!!!

Stanford GSB Asks What Is Your Fav Food - Part II

Different types of sambals and condiments for Nasi Lemak. I think here we have sambal ikan bilis and sambal sotong!

Rojak buah with kuah rojak mak bee!

Here we have nasi himpit with coconut sauce... yum!

Some sample of traditional Malay kuih - karipap, lompang and tepung pelita.

Delicious beef rendang, served with...

... lemang!

Soto meehun and soto nasi!

OK here's the thing - we in Malaysia are so blessed with so many good food. Today my department did a potluck breakfast (yes, BREAKFAST - this is what we have for BREAKFAST!!!) for Eid celebration and I thought what a wonderful coincident to take pictures of all of my favourite food!

Stanford, do you wanna hear more?!!

GMAT and Application Progress

OG 12th Edition, Kaplan GMAT Math Workbookm OG 13th Edition, Kaplan GMAT 800

Kaplan GMAT Premier, Kaplan GMAT Verbal Practice, Princeton's GMAT, Princeton's 1012 GMAT, Manhattan Critical Reasoning

How To Get Into The Top MBA Progams by Richard Montauk and 65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays were really useful in helping me put a concise application materials for this year. Totally recommend it!

I wish I could say that I'm 100% confident that I could better my previous GMAT score in my 2nd attempt... but unfortunately, computer says no.... (a little bit Little Britain joke, if you don't get it)

Today is a bit special however for some really weird/coincidental milestones. No. 1 I actually have finished my HBS application! That includes the data form, the essays and even managed to get all my recommenders to commit to submit by 20th Sept! I was sooooo happy when I saw this screen:

Proceed to submit? Nah, lemme sleep on it first :)

Deadline is in about 2 weeks, so I'm way ahead of the crunch time. But now I'm sleeping on it for a week before having a final comb through to make damn sure I've filled the form the best way I could've marketed myself and the essays are 100% to my satisfaction. And of course, I'll have to follow up with my LORs dilligently too... oh let's worry about it next week!

Second major milestone is that the project that I've been busting my arse off for the last 7 months had been approved by the President of the company! It is somewhat a huge deal because not everyday (or every year) you get to do a project that has such a huge impact on a company that it needs to get the approval from its President. I was involved in planning, execution, analysis and even crafting the storyline for the final approval presentation. It felt somewhat surreal but good at the same time! Project has now been approved so we're going into major full-on execution mode in the next couple of weeks, and I hope that I get to see the completion of this project before I go to business school next year... fingers cross!

Oh and finally, of course my 2nd attemp with GMAT, which will be next week on Wednesday...

Like you can see in the pics above, I've bought tons of study materials... but the issue I'm having now is not not enough materials to revise but TIME... god lord, I'm so freaking swamped with stuff after coming back from Eid break.

But lucky for me, this weekend is gonna be a long one - gotta LOVE Malaysia and its millions public holidays! So I guess, this weekend will be crunch time for GMAT vs Me round 2!!!

Wish me luck!

HBS Essays' Outline Is DONE

That's huge relief...

Maybe to some people, getting the outline done is no biggie, but to me, it's a huge step in (hopefully) the right direction.

In this post, I wanna compare what I did last year and what's different this year.

Haha, the first thing I did differently this year was of course, to actually have an outline for the essays! I think what it does is that it allows me to connect themes that I wanted to highlight to the adcom, rather than focusing on stories that I want to tell the adcom. What is the different between stories and themes? Let's look at what HBS asked last year and compare to how they ask this year....

Last year's questions were about 6 short stories (3 achievements + 3 setbacks), why you want a (HBS) MBA, and a pie-in-the-sky question. To the uninitiated, the questions seemed to ask about stories - and my mistake last year was to think that my stories implied that I have these traits and characteristics that would make me valuable to HBS and its MBA program...

WRONG, I was dead wrong...

I personally like this year's set of questions better. The questions only ask about 2 things and give you extra 200 words each to elaborate. They do not specifically ask for a set of things you do well or you wish you had done well but set a tone for discussing areas that you do well and you wish you could improve.

See the big difference here? Allow me to ellaborate.

Essay 1: Tell us something you've done well (400 words)
In this essay, you perhaps thought that you can squeeze in 3 things you had done extremely well in the past (it kinda goes without saying that when they ask about things you've done well, they mean extremely well - HBS is the mothership of Type-A overachievers). But I think this is where most people would fall into a trap - stories are irrelevant because they will eat up your word-limit. Remember, you only have 400 words! Despite the fewer essays and shorter application, HBS is still looking for leaders who will make a different in this mad, mad world and they explicitly say that they look for this trait in past achievements - that is, more than 1 achievement. But how can you squeeze in more than 1 achievement in a 400-word essay? Simple answer is, you don't.

But you use this essay instead to highlight themes that adcom can see across other part of your application - recommendation, resume, details in the application form such as extracurricular etc. Pick a story that you can tell in 200 words - set the context, challenges, what YOU did, how others react, what were the results & impact (yea I know, still bloody damn hard to do all these in 200 words but you gotta do it!). Then use the remaining 200 words to REFLECT! Remember HBS is damn proud of their Case Method. This is a good opportunity to tell them how 1) this thing that you did well is not a fluke 2) that you can replicate/simulate the experience in their Case Method for the benefit of your future section mates 3) that you'll actually go do these things when you're there and after you left HBS

In summary, what I did for Essay 1 was to pick a few themes about me that are consistent with my resume and letters of recommendation - I'm a disruptive, no-nonsense, result driven cross-fucntional engineer with vast international experience (oh my, I sound so cocky on paper!). So I wrote about my experience in a cross-functional, multinational product development team where my main contribution was not designing a new product like I was suppose to do (but I did anyway because I'm type-A overachiever), but instead focus on how I created a "creative disruption" that enable the project to realise greater value earlier (translation - increase in profit/net present value/lower cost etc) and a breakthrough in process optimisation that will greatly affect future products - and that's the impact I'm highlighting (RESULT + IMPACT IS A MUST).

Then I reflect on how "creating innovative disruption" is kinda my thing (this is THE THING I'VE DONE WELL), mention briefly other examples in my uni life and career thus far (hoping that if adcom wants more details, they would refer to my resume and LoR and this is important to establish/emphasis consistency) and on how I can bring my "disruptive" eyes to the Case Method and contribute to the class.

Essay 2: Tell us something you wish you've done better (400 words)
Same approach can be applied (200 on a story that describe a set of themes, 200 on reflection) but bear in mind that you're writing for HBS. Hence, SOMETHING YOU WISH YOU'VE DONE BETTER better be something extraordinary in its own right. This is actually what I suspect would happen in the class room during the Case Method discussion. In a way, HBS is being smart by using the essays to screen for people who can give high quality, high impact answer in the class room! Aren't they a bunch of geniuses...

Anyway, my approach was to use this essay to establish why I want an MBA. I talked about something I did well in the past during my undergraduate studies (got an award for it, so that ticks a box in overachiever quadrant) but something else happened along the way that got me thinking that there must be MORE to what I've achieved and set me on the path to learn HOW to do MORE. MORE in this sense is not more money, but MORE IMPACT and HOW of course refers to business education. Relect a bit on how my experience now allow me to see a different angle to the THING I WISH I'VE DONE BETTER and describe a bit how I WOULD APPROACH THE PROBLEM NOW - important stuff to show maturity. It's important to say that you wish the end result would be A instead of B and SHOW WHY YOU THINK/KNOW B is better than A!!!

In summary:
Although the questions are different this year, the essence of HBS essays remains the same. They are still looking at your motivation to pursue MBA, things you're good at and how you can bring these to the classroom and your potential to exert impact on every level. Except this year, they are looking for ALL THAT IN 800 WORDS or LESS!

I wish this is the secret recipe to get into HBS this year, but these are just my take on their essays... I COULD BE 100% WRONG, THOUGH :)

Between Writing Essays and Studying GMAT

OK folks,

I knew that retaking GMAT would be time consuming, if I were to achieve my target score of 750+ to improve on my 700 score. But oh boy, how I've totally underestimated the time that I have to do justice to both my essays and GMAT!

So how does it look like now? GMAT is in less than a month and I also have slightly more than 35 days to finish off my essays - 5 essays to be exact, 2 for HBS and 3 for Stanford.

Technically, it's no biggie if I miss the Round 1 application deadline but then my work will be compounded for Round 2, which I plan to submit my MIT Sloan and Kellogg's application and those schools have a totally different set of essays to write...

I have my HBS essays outline ready, which helps calm my nerves a bit but the hardest part to nail is the narration of the stories...

And guess how I'm spending my time this afternoon? BY PLAYING VIDEO GAMES!

1st GMAT Prep Test Result

... is 700 - 49Q, 38V - exactly like my last GMAT...

now I'm feeling that I've not progressed much, more stress...

...sigh, let the burning of midnight oil begin!

Salam Aidilfitri & GMAT in Exactly 1 Month!

When I booked my second GMAT test a few weeks ago, I totally forgot to check the significant of the date that I chose. I'm such a bad Muslim... can't even properly remember when my Ramadan/Syawal starts and end... HAHA but I hope (pray to god like crazy) that the coincidence is a good sign.

I don't think I blog that much during puasa... I think it somehow related to my whole mood throughout the fasting month... dare I say it... I was way more zen (hence less stuff to complain about)... another good benefit of fasting!

Anyway, just to update on my GMAT revision progress - I think I've been taking it slowly this 2nd time around. Knowing what to expect - the test centre, the receptionist at the test centre, the warung mamak to eat lunch/lepak prior to the test, the 7eleven to go to buy supplies, the test room, the outdated computers, the GMAT itself - definitely help calm my nerves. I think mentally I was more prepared to take GMAT this time around.

But here's the thing... with this zen and calm, I'm freaking out that I'm becoming to complacent in my own deluded ways and that I will neglect revising critical concepts of GMAT. So far, my fear is kinda validated - the weeks since I registered, I've only been focusing on Verbal section of the test... and haven't done any substantial exercise on the Quant part (apart from reviewing quant flash card in the train to work every day)... panic has definitely sunk in!

So, what have I been doing in the Verbal section? Now last time I scored 38 which is 83 percentile - not too bad but it didn't get me 750+ that I was aiming for. So naturally this time, I put more time and emphasis on the Verbal Section.

As of a day before raya, I've completed the 12th OG verbal section - ALL of them and SC section of th 13th edition. I'm beginning to see the pattern to my mistakes, which is great because now I can focus on mitigating those weaknesses - I'm particularly bad at RC where the 1st sentence of the paragraph can "glaze" my eyes and brain shut... sigh, the necessary evil of GMAT.

And here's how I'm revising my Verbal sections - I treat them like a logic puzzle, in the similar way why 3 + 4 MUST EQUAL TO 7, the verbal sections of GMAT also follow a set of predetermined rules - just don't waste time arguing about the rules, you're better off learning the concept of the rules by heart and know how to apply them correctly. After this epiphany, I hope I can crack the Verbal puzzle of GMAT.

OK now on to the other part of admission process - resume, essays and LOR.

Resume - for lack of better words, I'm gonna say that I'm about done "gold-plating" my resume. It look totally different from the version that I submited to HBS last year but it retains the same essence, just dressed differently. I think in Asian companies/culture, at 3-5 years of professional experience, we tend to focus a lot more on the activities, project of our job and not so much on the impacts of our efforts - I wrote about the impacts of my initiative only during my performance appraisal whereas resume has always been a piece of paper that lists down things I can do and have done... oh, this was totally a misguided approach in BS resume writing. Gold-plating is the game, get on it.

Now what exactly is gold-plating? For the record, I'm not encouraging you to blatantly lie about your professional experience i.e. write about stuff you didn't do or have no freaking idea about but you think would impress the adcom. Gold-plating is nothing more than substituting "ordinary, boring" nouns and adjectives to the buzz words that adcom would immediately recognise. This is for your benefit as much as it is for the adcom's benefit. No point being involved in a National Level Review Committee on Energy Policy if what you do/accomplish cannot be understood by the people reading your resume. That's gold-plating aka translating your resume to the adcom language!

Letter of Recommendation - I managed to discuss with ALL of my recommenders before taking the raya break, and I'm pretty sure they will forget once they got back, with all the ketupat, lemang and rendang... but that's why I've taken the initiative to actually create a list of accomplishments that I've achieved that they can relate to and write in their recommendation. Word of caution - do not write the LOR yourself and pass it to them for them to review and put their name onto it - it's unethical. What I find as equally productive and way more ethical is to provide them guidance in the forms of evidence and activities that you have done whilst under their supervision. OK, if you're great, your boss will write that you're great but the adcom wants to know what make you great, what areas are you great at, why these areas, and they look at evidences to support this judgement. This is one letter where buzz words alone won't help the adcom understand your full story, so details matter!

I gave them deadline to submit their LOR by 18th Sept, a day before my GMAT (it also helps to know the part I don't have control over is done and submitted before taking the test).

Essays - I'm working on my HBS and Stanford essays for Round 1. HBS is by 24th Sep and Stanford is by 3rd Oct... Now, I've got some pretty clear ideas of what my stories will be, and it ties pretty well with my career path to date, my aspiration, my community involvement and it feels so much more "ME" this year than it did last year (hey, last year app was put together hastily in 2 months, give a brother some cred...)

On a side note, I had the opportunity to speak to this awesome lady who happened to be a HBS MBA alum and she's estatic about guiding/helping me with my application (well, she offered to review my essays and lend some books/resources that helped her get into HBS). More great news is that her profile is very similar to my profile, which means that I'm quite competitive for the programme, so it's all in the execution now.... and that my friends, is the HARDEST part...

OK, enough for now - more GMAT verbal question to be tackled!

To all Muslims celebrating Eid today, Eid Mubarak!

Stanford GSB Admission Event: KL - Review

OK before I forget, I better write down my thoughts on the recent Stanford GSB Admission Event that took place at Parkview 2, Mandarin Oriental on 1st August - which also happened to be my mother's birthday (Happy Birthday, Mama!)

Initially the event was scheduled to start at 7.00 and finished at 9.00 pm and I thought I would have to break my fast with a sip of water (I was used to it though, from my university fasting days in the UK but I definitely was not looking forward to it...). But a couple of days before the event, Stanford sent an email updating the change of time. So the event started at 5.30 instead, to allow the Muslims who needed to leave for buka puasa to leave around 7.15 pm ish... how thoughtful!

So I arrived there at around 5.15 pm with two of my friends whom I managed to drag (ha ha!) and we were greeted by Sabah, a very lovely lady who's also the Assistant Dean of Admission (if I'm not mistaken). She looked a bit tired from the traveling but nevertheless, she was really welcoming. I asked if she's gonna be joined by some alumni but unfortunately according to her all of Malaysia-based alumni were not availble for the event... oh, what a bummer (I was really looking forward to network with the alumni, especially since these people are the leaders in local businesses)

The event then started pretty much on time, and there were about 10 of us, so it was really an intimate session. A few others who came in late sneaked in in the middle of Sabah's presentation. So I think in the end, there were about 15 of us who sat there listening to Sabah's presentation.

The presentation itself was nothing new, though it did give me some insights on how to tackle the essays... (guess that's what happen when you can remember school stats by heart). But what made a lasting impression on me was how simple the presentation was - the slides were very plan with a picture or a comic graph and a buzz phrase that captures what GSB stands for or is looking in applicants. There was this one slide with Vegemite that immediately get me to chuckle (honestly, I didn't why I chuckled at that moment - the mental image of Stanford looking for Vegemite just seemed odd to me). But the slide also kinda shed the light into how to approach the tough essays - be who you really are, some people might like it, some might not but if you're vegemite, just let Stanford know you're vegemite!

There were two parts to the presentation - the first part was more about Why Stanfrod, What We Offer etc - the marketing thingy. The second part talked about the application process itself. Again, all of the info was not new to me, who has been obsessing with top US BS for years... but I guess it was useful for the potential MBA applicant who were just starting to get obsessed with the whole process!

So in the end, although I got some really good pointers for my essays, I didn't feel like I learnt anything new about the school. But I knew I had to make an impression on Sabah, so I chatted with her for a few minutes after she wrapped her presentation. It so happened that we had something in common - we both once worked in Malawi! So, there was some obligatory reminiscing about the good ol' Lilongwe and I asked for her email before I left for buka puasa.

Overall, I was glad that Stanford made the effort to come to KL. Most other top US BS didn't bother to stop in KL for their admission event - Bangkok and Singapore are their fav spots. Unfortunately, I can't just drop everything I was doing to go on a trip to Singapore or Bangkok for each admission event... HBS, I'm talking to YOU!

I'm definitely liking Stanford more and more... I just hope they will like me too!!!!

OK, now I need to drop Sabah an email to remind her about my application...

Stanford GSB MBA Admission Event in KL!

Yay, tonight I'll be meeting some of the adcom from Stanford GSB and hopefully some really interesting alumni too!

The event will be at Parkview 2, Mandarin Oriental and it will start at 5.30 pm and hopefully ends around 7.30, just perfect for buka puasa!

OK, here's a few tips to make the most out of admission event such as this one, for you MBA hopefuls out there:

1. Come early, leave last
2. Make a connection, make a lasting impression
3. After the event, send a follow up email to the adcom that you've made good connection with - tell them you'll be applying in whichever round you're working towards
4. Once you've submitted your application, send a reminder to them - remind them who you are, that you met them in KL in August etc and tell them you're super excited about the school!

But most importantly, before attending the event - read as much as possible about the programme so you won't waste time asking the "duh" questions and get a standard "you can check this info at our website" answer!

Remember, you're trying to impress the adcom of Stanford GSB, one of the top-5 US BS!

If you're going too, see you there!

Death by KISS

OK, I don't know what's wrong with my middle management team but sometimes I swear that they like to make the simplest thing 1,000 times more complicated that it needed to be...

KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID!

I personally think it’s a mark of poor leadership skills and lack of competency when a manager needs to “make things more complicated” before proposing a solution to solve the issues… why, oh why do you need to make things worse before solving them?

Maybe it’s a “manager complex” thingy that’s going on here… some people feel the need to paint the most hopeless picture to their bosses before they come in and save the day with a simple solution… but heck, who the hell are these people kidding?

The one who has to do all the heavy lifting is their subordinates… this kind of leadership behaviour is very corrosive in the workplace. Essentially, the manager will be wasting the subordinate’s time and productivity on a wild goose-chase…

So, let’s cut to the point and put more effort to solve a particular problem, rather than spinning it out of control!

But hey, in corporate world, everybody would like to think that they are saving the world… but none know how to keep is simple…

p/s: oh yea, first post after a long break, I rant about my work... ha ha, oh well

Stanford GSB's Webinar for ASEAN Countries

OK, first thing first - the morning after I decided to retake GMAT, I woke up with severe migraine, sore throat, blocked nose and ears... was it a sign?!!

Anyway, last night, Stanford GSB held a webinar for ASEAN countries to give a chance for the prospective MBA and Sloan programme applicants to chat with 2 of its recent graduates. So we had the pleasure to meet Tilia Wong, who was from Malaysia but is now living in the US, recent MBA 2012 and Khai something something, a recent Sloan programme graudated who is now a civil worker in Singapore.

OK, confession time - I didn't really pay attention to what Khai something-something said because he was a bit kiasu, spoke longer than necessary and mainly he was talking about Sloan programme... yea... not really interested in the Sloan programme...

But Tilia came across as a very charming lady, soft spoken but very articulated and obviously smart. I just wished that Khai would be less of a mic hogger and let her speak more... like really MORE! and Khai just had opinions about everything, even on MBA specific matters... oh well.... kiasuness...

What I like about the webinar - it was at 9 pm on a weekday, a nice change from having to wake at 2 am on a weekday to attend other top school's webinar (HBS, I'm looking at you!).

What I don't like about the webinar - Khai... like seriously, I rather Tilia be the sole speaker for the session so she could explain more about her experience as a student at GSB...

What I learnt about GSB that I couldn't get elsewhere - hmm, ah this actually came from Khai (thanks, Khai, hahaha) - he said to take advantage of the different programmes offer by the 7 other schools in Stanford and work with the young people who are doing the undergraduate there.

What thing that was quite obvious from the way both of them talk - the entrepreneurial spirit of GSB and the Silicone Valley... this seems like something unique to GSB and students should really take advantage of it.

OK, now I can't wait to attend their info session on 1st August!

GMAT Round 2

...I better start studying the IR section!

What is Your Favourite Food?

Stanford GSB wants to know what is your favourite food!

here's one of my many-many fav food:

Nasi Lemak Sambal Kerang!

As a Malaysian (I can hardly call myself a Malay since I'm part Malay, Thai & Indian...) I'm completely at a loss as to what food I will actually put in that tiny little box in Stanford GSB's application... we're such a food society, it's tough to just pick one!!

Data-Mining My Life...

In between cramming 15 slides worth of info into 3 for a presentation this Monday, I’ve started the painful process of data-mining my life, all for the hope to finding the tread that binds all of my life experience together to substantiate my obsession with HBS…

 

This reflection process is a crucial first step towards crafting my application theme. To borrow from Stanford GSB’s Dean’s Corner entry on writing effective essays:

“Essays are not a marketing exercise but an accounting exercise. This is a process in which you look inside yourself and try to express most clearly what is there. We are trying to get a good sense of your perspectives, your thoughts on management and leadership, and how the business school can help you realize your goals.”

Ah, that’s why I hate writing these essays… they remind me of my awful accounting classes I took during my final year in uni! Joking aside, I do think that in order for you to intelligently market yourself, you need to know yourself first, and the only way of effectively doing this is by accounting all significant events in your life that have had an influence on who you are today.  In other word, good book-keeping is a pre-requisite to great self-marketing!

The way I look at it, I have 3 areas (or books) that I need to fill up with relevant stories:

1.       Professional Life

2.       Personal Life

3.       Student Life

Professional Life:
I have about 5 years of work experience in 2 major firms. At the moment, I don’t have anyone reporting directly under me but I’m leading various small teams and initiatives. I’m comfortable leading as well as being a proactive team player. I’m comfortable with numbers and in my analytical ability, I live by a set of principles and never compromised on them. I’ve lived in the UK for 4 years, and I’ve worked with people from various cultural backgrounds. And as an added bonus, I speak 3 languages. So I think coming up with good examples in my professional life to highlight my leadership impacts, teamwork, motivation, ethics and diversity will not me a major hassle.

Personal Life:
Ah… the elusive life outside of work! I volunteered a lot. But mostly on work-related event – stuff like leading an event management team to organise an engagement session. Problem is, these involvements are so intertwined with my work that I find it difficult to categorically put them either under the professional or personal life banner… I’m a coach to my alma mater’s debate team, I enjoy running marathons. And I used to play a lot of MMORPG… but I bet business school doesn’t want to know about my video gaming hay-days! This is certainly an area that I really need to think hard about to get any substantial evidence of leadership, ethical values, diversity, teamwork and management experience… anyone knows of any good leadership volunteering opportunity online or around KL?

Student Life:
Ah… now is where the trouble begins…
The four years of my university life was the “lost years”. Really, I was completely burnt out by the time I made it to university. You guys know how it works in Malaysia – in order to get a scholarship to study overseas, you pretty much have to mortgage your childhood to the devil (fortunately with way better interest rate than say, Freddie Mac…) and commit yourself to various leadership and extra-curriculum activities while you were in primary and secondary school. I’m not ashamed that I did it all – I played hockey for my school, I was a nationally ranked debater and captain of my debate team since form 3. I won every single academic prize offered by my school, I was on top of every exam list, I was a prefect AND library monitor. I represented my school to almost all academic events, quizzes and completion. I served the community as a St John’s Ambulance volunteer and for a short while I was in a band… and I started doing all these when I was 10 years old! So pardon me for being lazy during the university years… all I could think of during that time period was traveling around the world, enjoying different cultures and meeting as many different people as possible.

***

5 years after graduation, I’m f**ked!

Lucky for me, I have 3 – 5 months to improve my candidacy!

Trend of Admission Essays...

I think I wanna close the night by commenting on the recent trend of admission essays by top US business schools and reflecting a bit what my gameplan is moving forward with the application season this year...

Last year when I applied to HBS, I had to wreck my brain to answer 4 questions:

• Essay 1: Tell us about three of your accomplishments. (600 words)
• Essay 2: Tell us three setbacks you have faced. (600 words)
• Essay 3: Why do you want an MBA? (400 words)
• Essay 4: Answer a question you wish we had asked. (400 words)

Essentially, HBS asked each applicant to share with them 6 short stories about themselves, through their accomplishments and setbacks, their short, mid and long term goals for pursuing an MBA degree and a really wildcard question that they hope the applicant could reveal more about their unique traits and why these traits are relevant for their business career... total word counts for the applicant to capture the admission committee's short attention span is 2000 words.

HBS 2012/13 application essays:

• Essay 1: Tell us about something you did well. (400 words)
• Essay 2: Tell us about something you wish you had done better. (400 words)

This year however, HBS dramatically cut their essay requirement to TWO with total word counts of not more than 800 words! Thats a 60% reduction in word counts!!! Of course they include the post-interview memo-style reflection but given than HBS only interviews about 20% of its total applicants... not a lot of people will get the chance to have their "final say"

And as a testament to HBS' leadership in MBA branding, most other top business schools follow suit with their own changes to either their essay word count, no of essay, or the application components itself.

Stanford reduced one essay required from 4 to only 3 and reflected the change in their word counts as well.

Last year Stanford GSB asked:

• Essay 1: What matters most to you, and why?
• Essay 2: What do you want to do—REALLY—and why Stanford?
• Essay 3: Answer two of the four questions below. Tell us not only what you did but also how you did it. What was the outcome? How did people respond? Only describe experiences that have occurred during the last three years.
• Option A: Tell us about a time when you built or developed a team whose performance exceeded expectations.
• Option B: Tell us about a time when you made a lasting impact on your organization.
• Option C: Tell us about a time when you generated support from others for an idea or initiative.
• Option D: Tell us about a time when you went beyond what was defined or established.

...and the word limit was 1800 words total, 200 less than HBS'.

This year Stanford GSB asks:

• Essay 1: What matters most to you, and why?
• Essay 2: What do you want to do—REALLY—and why Stanford?
• Essay 3: Answer one of the three questions below. Tell us not only what you did but also how you did it. What was the outcome? How did people respond? Only describe experiences that have occurred during the last three years.
• Option A: Tell us about a time in the last three years when you built or developed a team whose performance exceeded expectations.
• Option B: Tell us about a time in the last three years when you identified and pursued an opportunity to improve an organization.
• Option C: Tell us about a time in the last three years when you went beyond what was defined or established.

...and the maximum word counts for all of the essays combined is 1600 words. That's double HBS'! This year it looks like they combine last year's Option B and C to create Option B. Logically, if you generated support for your brilliant ideas to make a lasting impact on your organisation, of course you'd have pursued an opportunity to improve your organisation... I guess a lot of applicants in the past answer both question in ONE single essay and this could well trigger the admission to reword their Option B!

And Kellogg also completely revamped their essay for this year...

Last year, Kellog asked:

• Essay 1: Briefly assess your career progress to date. Elaborate on your future career plans and your motivation for pursuing an MBA.
• Essay 2: Describe your key leadership experiences and evaluate what leadership areas you hope to develop through your MBA experiences.
• Essay 3: Why would you and your peers select you for admission, and what impact would you make as a member of the Kellogg community?
• Essay 4: Complete one of the following:
• Describe a time you had to inspire a reluctant individual or group
• People may be surprised to learn that I…..
• The riskiest personal or professional decision I ever made was….

This year, Kellog asks:

• Essay 1: Discuss moments or influences in your personal life that have defined who you are today. (500 word limit)
• Essay 2: What have been your most significant leadership experiences? What challenges did you face, and what impact did you have? This is your opportunity to explain how you Think Bravely (personally and/or professionally). (500-word limit)
• Essay 3: Imagine yourself at your Kellogg graduation. What career will you be preparing to enter, and how have the MBA and Kellogg helped you get there? (Please answer in terms of your program choice: One-Year, Two-Year, MMM, JD-MBA) (500-word limit)
• Essay 4: (For MMM applicants only): How have you redefined yourself, your business environment and community through the pursuit of design and innovation? (400-word limit)

...and owh, they have this really cute tweet-like essay that you have to answer in 25 words or less:

“What one interesting or fun fact would you want your future Kellogg classmates to know about you?”

I won't be surprise if next year these schools adcom asks applicants to just tweet their "essay"...

 

My GMAT Experience

I personally felt that the most stressful part of my MBA application last year was the GMAT... only because I gave myself 1 month to familiarise with the format and study the key concepts of the test. Now, before I share my GMAT prep experience, it might be worth mentioning why I only had 1 month to prepare...

I've been looking for the right time to pursue my MBA education ever since I joined the workforce, way back in 2008 but I never really started any research on the whole admission process until about a year ago and the only admission process that I bothered to check was HBS'. Basically, I just know that I need to fill in an online application form, sit for GMAT, write essays to recap my achievements and why I want to study MBA at a particular school.

Last year, without going into too much details, was not a good year for me. I was part of a product development team (engineering team lead) who managed to deliver stretched results but was sideline during the annual appraisal cycle because my new line manager "didn't know me well enough" to vouch for my contributions to the project (he came to the project AFTER we completed and passed all of our internal review for funding). Well, things like this happen every day in the business world, but to me, it was really the kick that I needed to start considering MBA seriously.

That happened way back in October, so at the end of the month, I decided to submit my application to HBS for 2012 intake.... and yea, I know... I was way unprepared!

From my readings, applying in R3 is not advisable, and you might as well apply in R1 for the following application season. By end of October, R1 deadline had already passed, so I was hard-pressed to submit my application in R2, and the last date of GMAT offered by the only test centre in Kuala Lumpur was in the middle of December, before the Christmas holiday rush and the next available appointment was in March, after the Chinese New Year holidays (!)... hence why I only had 1 month to prepare for my GMAT!!!

Cue drama...

But if it wasn't for the extremely strecthed and ambitious timing that I set for myself, I don't think I'd have the discipline to actually study GMAT in a structured way. From the moment I booked my session, I diligently spent 3-4 hours after offfice hours to revise for GMAT. In a month, I clocked a total of 130 hours of revision time, so that averaged at 4 hour 20 mins -ish a day (I read somewhere that said the top scorers put at least 100 hours into revision).

OK, here's the obligatory disclaimer - putting more than 100 hours into your GMAT study doesn't automatically guarantee great score (and on that subject, what is a great score?). I think, I was being extremely paranoid about my own Quant performance that I spent more hours than necessary into revising the Quant portion of the test, whereas I only spent half a day going through sample AWA anwers and I scored 6.0...

The point I'm trying to make is, before you start any study plan, know your weaknesses... I was a trained engineer and my ego let me think that I don't really need high Verbal score and low Quant score on the other hand would really hurt my reputation... clearly I was misinformed...

If you're aiming for a high overall score, pay more attention to your Verbal skills. Apparently, people who scored 99% in Verbal and only in the low 70ish% in Quant have overall score of 730++... whereas those who scored close to 90% in Quant and 80ish% in Verbal can hardly break 700...

OK so back to my experience, I went to the test centre on the fated day, feeling completely horrified after doing a last online test and received a 640 score from the official GMAC tool... to make matter worse, I had to guess last 3 questions in the Quant section and my paranoia-o-meter just shot up the sky... I was completely sure that I just messed up my 1st attempt at GMAT...

So during the break, I had to recollect my thoughts and had to pull every shred of motivation that I could muster to focus on the Verbal section. Ironically, I became calmer and managed to finish the Verbal section well on time. Now come the dreaded decision time - should I cancel my report or press the submit button?

I thought to myself - what the heck?!! I spent countless hours worrying about this and I was not about to chicken out at the last minute, so I chose to submit my result... and....

Imagine my relief when I broke the 700 barrier!

I think my GMAT test day was one of the most intense days of my last 3 years... it almost gave me a heart-attack!

In the next post, I'll share my revision plan and the resources that I used to help me break into the 700 club... I seriously need to give a lot of people credit for my GMAT accomplishment!