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!