Interview with a Younger B-School Applicant

This interview is the latest in an Accepted.com blog series featuring  interviews with MBA applicant bloggers, offering readers a behind-the-scenes look at  the MBA application process. And now†¦introducing our anonymous blogger, â€Å"Pulling That MBA Trigger.† Accepted: Can you tell us a little about yourself – where are you from, where did you go to school, and what is your current job? Pulling That MBA Trigger: Ah, I never really know how to answer this question. An entire lifetime in a few  sentences? I’m way too chatty for that. Anyway, I’m 22 years old, female and fresh out of the college boat. Well, it’s been a year anyway, so I’m still not a jaded adult which is probably why I’m so gung-ho about this whole admissions thing. I’m from India and I went to a school that is probably not known to the rest of the world, although a recently appointed CEO did go here. It’s doing a lot for our street cred. I graduated as an electronics engineer and I’m working for a tech startup that develops web and mobile applications when we’re not busy working with big data analytics and all that jazz. I also founded my own startup in the education space, so yeah pretty exciting stuff! Accepted: Which schools do you plan on applying to? PTMT: I’m glaringly honest with myself and I know that my chances of getting into the top 5 schools are astronomically low. With that said, I’m targeting the lower 10’s and pretty much any school in the 10-20 range. I haven’t narrowed down the names yet, but I’m angling towards MIT Sloan simply because of their focus on entrepreneurship and the fact that they happen to like engineers from the technology space. I’m also considering Yale (Ivy League, nuff  said) and Booth (quant focused with a soft spot for younger applicants, or so I hear). I’m applying to a maximum of four schools and this is more strategic than anything else simply because if I get dinged from all four of them, I can reapply next year with plenty of options still left open. Accepted: What would you say is your greatest profile strength? Weakness? How do you plan on overcoming that weakness? PTMT: I guess my greatest strength lies in the fact that  I am an entrepreneur and a leader at heart, and this kind of spills over everywhere in my application. I have only ever worked for startups and I have founded a startup. I never felt the need for an MBA to take that plunge and I guess I would say that I’m ballsy. Not sure how I would put that on my application, but eh. Weakness is pretty obvious. I am very, very impatient. I can’t wait any longer to get that MBA and so I’m quite stupidly applying after having worked for only a year (or two at the time of matriculation). It’s going to be quite a challenge convincing schools that I’m emotionally and professionally ready to get an MBA. Accepted: So†¦how are you going to convince the adcom that you’re a candidate worth paying attention to with only one year of work experience?   PTMT: Honestly, I’m not even sure I’m convinced just yet! I’m just faking it as I go, maybe eventually I’ll actually believe that I’m someone worth paying attention to. But with that said, my plan is to focus on all that I have managed to achieve in such a short period of time, possibly as much as other people achieved in two years. Impatience has its own rewards, which is why I jam-packed my years in college and post-college with every activity imaginable and that is now paying off. I am mainly going to emphasize the success of my own startup (albeit on a modest scale) and my stint as the secretary of the student body in college. Accepted: Why do you want an MBA? What are some of your goals and how will an MBA help you achieve them? PTMT: In my current role as a software engineer, I’m  limited to my work as a code monkey and I have no exposure to how the company gets its clients, or how they measure the bottom line and success/failure. I guess this kind of points to a role in consulting post an MBA, simply because it would allow me to look at how different companies across different industries function, without slotting me into a role that is limiting in terms of what I’m able to learn (i.e. software engineer, product manager, marketing manager and so on). Long term though, I’d like to use all the consulting knowledge from watching other companies’ mistakes to set up my own company in the tech space. Accepted: What has the b-school application process so far taught you about yourself? PTMT: The b-school process has forced me to thoroughly  excavate my head. I had to visit corners I never wanted to revisit. It has been torturous at times and merely annoying at others. It’s taught me that I have a high tolerance for pain and that I should really get a commemorative tattoo when I’m done. Okay, okay. It’s also shown me that I have vast reserves of strength, resolve and motivation. I know I can pull through and even if I don’t, I know I’ll have the energy to do it again next year. I also think I’m a lot more interesting than I thought I was. I actually have interesting  stories to write down in my essays. Who knew?! Accepted: Can you tell us about your blog? Who is your target audience? What do you hope to gain from the blogging experience? PTMT: My blog is called Pulling That MBA Trigger and it’s no coincidence that I want to shoot myself in the head about once a day during this whole process. It’s basically a place for me to vent and document my thoughts before I go crazy. I hope it provides slight comedic relief to others going through the same thing and perhaps makes them feel better about their own chances of getting in. At the end of it, I want to be able to look back and think,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Ah, I’ve made it so far,† unless of course I get dinged everywhere in which case I’m going to nuke the blog off cyberspace and pretend it never existed. For one-on-one guidance on your b-school application, please see our MBA Application Packages. You can read more about PTMT’s b-school journey by checking out her blog, Pulling That MBA Trigger.  Thank you PTMT for sharing your story with us – we wish you loads of luck! Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best