MBA Admissions: Chapter 2, Part 1 — Assessing Your Profile: Work Experience and Academic Aptitude

The MBA Admissions Guide from A Former MBA Recruiter

Business school is a lot like dating — it’s all about finding the right match. Schools are looking for the right candidates, and candidates are looking for the right school. So with this in mind, let’s look at the criteria programs are using to find their Mr. or Ms. Right. We’ll turn the tables in the next section, but for now let’s jump into what you bring into the potential relationship.

In this chapter we will talk about the components of your profile, and specifically, what business schools are looking for within each category.

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

• Identify the components that make up your profile.
• Understand the importance of each of these components.
• Identify any weaknesses in your profile.
• Start strategizing.

The Big Five

The five things that every program is going to be interested in are:

• Work Experience
• Academic Aptitude (Transcripts and standardized tests)
• Goals
• Extracurriculars
• Blights and Infractions

Know that having this set of criteria actually works out in your favor, as admissions committees look at candidates as a whole; thus the “right fit” is a balance of all of these factors. Let’s have a closer look at each of these components.

Component #1: Work Experience

What are programs looking for and why?

MBA programs want to build a diverse student body across different functions and industries. Why? Because again, the nature of an MBA program is practical, i.e. hands-on, participative, and applicable. Your work experience is what will provide you the perspective to actively contribute to class discussions and enable you to contribute as a member of your team. It’s also the basis upon which the lessons you learn in class become more than just theory.

How much and what type?

Programs are looking for candidates with at least a few years of solid work experience. It doesn’t have to be in a traditional corporate sector or role, but it does need to be solid. What exactly does that mean? It means that you’ve been with a company, in a specific industry and function, long enough to have an impact, and to have given you a strong basis from which to draw quality insights and experiences. These insights and experiences will act as the bridge between theory and practice.

The desired amount and quality of experience can vary between program types, for example Executive MBA programs are looking for different quality experience than Full-time MBA programs. Generally speaking, full-time programs will be looking for a minimum of two to three years of experience, executive programs five years or more.

What if I don’t have any work experience?

Remember, the nature of business school is to teach practical application of some pretty complex concepts in business. Business school is all about the practice, and if you’ve not had a job, there’s going to be very little practical experience for you to apply the knowledge you’re learning. You will also find yourself in the position of having very little to offer in terms of examples and contributions that will help your classmates relate the material in a meaningful way. So you’re at a disadvantage to both yourself and the class.

If you’ve not had solid work experience, it may be worth it to hold off on applying for a year or so, and gain some more significant work experience. This is especially true if you are young and less than three or so years out of your undergraduate degree. If you insist on applying without the requisite work experience, don’t be surprised if your applications are less than successful.

What if I’ve changed jobs?

Changing jobs isn’t actually a problem, per se, especially if the changes have been due to a natural progression in your career (i.e. promotion). The problem that could come from changing jobs is if you’ve changed so often that you’ve not been able to gain any real depth or insight into your function or industry. A superficial level of exposure is not going to be enough to provide the depth of insight valued by MBA programs. You can perhaps make up for this if you’ve worked in industries not regularly represented in business school, but even then you’d better play up your experience and highlight the diverse industry perspective you bring.

If you’ve done a lot of job changing, be prepared to demonstrate a logic and benefit to the changes, and to dissuade any perceptions of unstable job-hopping.

What else does my work experience say?

Your work experience is also going to give schools an idea of what kind of performer you are on the job. Natural questions that come to mind are: Did you experience promotion and growth? What were the results of your involvement in projects and in your previous roles? Did you stand out? Did you take on leadership roles? The answers to these questions are important because it shows business schools the degree to which you’ve already established good professional habits and a trajectory of success. While MBA programs can teach you skills to increase your success, you should be coming in with successful habits already established.

Questions to ask yourself:

When thinking about the type and quality of your work experience, ask yourself the following questions:

• What did I accomplish in my previous roles?
• What were the impacts?
• What functional knowledge do I have to offer?
• What industry knowledge do I have to offer?
• Do I have any leadership experience in these areas?

The answers to these questions should frame the story you convey throughout the admissions process. We’ll go into this a bit further in future chapters, but for now, get in the habit of thinking about your work experience in these terms.

Now let’s talk about your academics…

Component #2: Academic Aptitude

While business school is indeed practically focused, don’t doubt for a moment that it’s not intensely vigorous academically. With this in mind, programs are looking for a gauge of your academic aptitude. There are two main areas committees look to for insight: your transcripts/educational background and your GMAT/GRE test scores. Both are important, and unless you’re still in a degree program, accept that you really have control over only one of these. Let’s first talk about your educational background.

What does my educational background say?

Your educational background tells a lot about what kind of student you are/were, and ultimately lets admissions committees know how prepared you are to take on the coursework of an MBA program. Again, your previous degree does not have to be in business, but whatever you did major in, hopefully you’ve done relatively well.

How much do grades matter?

This is a tough question, as programs are looking at more that just your grades. That said, if you’ve recently finished a degree program, expect that those grades will naturally carry more weight. What does this mean exactly? It means that if you just graduated and barely passed your classes, you’d better be prepared to convey some major growth in your studiousness. Conversely, the further from your previous performance, the less weight past grades carry — though they will still carry significant weight!

Beyond your grades, admissions officers are also looking at the type of classes you took, and the institution that granted your degree. Average grades from an M.I.T Physics major could carry more weight than perfect marks from a Julliard Dance major. This doesn’t mean one degree or school is seen as better than the other, it just means that one could be more preparative for the challenging coursework you’ll see in an MBA program.

What if my previous academic performance isn’t stellar?

Your educational background is one of those things you can’t change. The grades you got were the grades you got and the classes you took were the classes you took. Period. If you find yourself well under the average GPA of a program’s typical intake, you can take a few college courses to demonstrate growth and a newfound ability to perform well academically, and/or focus on a stellar performance on the GMAT/GRE. (Though if looking to compensate for a very low GPA and taking courses aren’t an option, my recommendation is to take the GMAT rather than the GRE. We’ll talk about why in the chapter devoted to these tests.)

Whichever route you choose, make sure that you address your past performance in your application. You don’t want to leave the admissions committee guessing at an explanation or operate under the assumption that it will be missed or that you will have a chance to explain things during the admissions interview. It won’t be missed, and depending on the competitiveness of the program, the committee will be neither inclined to guess at an explanation, nor invite you for an interview. So be forthright and open and leave nothing to chance.

What are admissions committees looking for in GMAT/GRE results?

Now that we’ve touched upon the first half of your academic profile — transcripts — let’s look at the second half of the academic equation, your standardized test results. We’ll go much further into the specifics of these tests in Chapter 4, but for now, let’s look at what the admissions committee is looking for from these tests.

Programs will be quite open about the average GMAT/GRE score of their typical classes, and may even provide a range of scores. What must be realized, however, is that the overall number reported, say 700 on the GMAT, is a cumulative score. Within this cumulative score, however, is a breakdown of the individual sections of the test. These breakdowns are what admissions committee will take into consideration, not simply the overall score.

Both tests have breakdowns of a quant and verbal score. There are other section scores as well, but for now these are the important ones. What programs want to see is a balanced score, meaning you performed relatively well in both the quant and verbal sections of the test.

What if my scores are unbalanced?

The answer to this question really depends on your overall score. If you scored in the 90th+ percentile overall, you can look to transcripts to balance things out. If you’re in the unbalanced 600’s or below, perhaps consider a retake, especially if you’re aiming at a top 10 program. My strong suggestion would actually be to make contact with the admissions staff from the program you’re interested in and get their advice.

With a specific score and a specific program of interest established, it’s far easier to get useful advice on how to go about dealing with the imbalance. If you’re in the situation then save yourself the worry and ask outright.

Does the balance really matter?

Actually it does — somewhat. I’ll be candid, there are those of us behind the scenes that know that there is little correlation between overall performance on a standardized tests and overall performance in a program (and heaven forbid, overall performance in your future career). The exception, however, is with the quant section. This can be the most scrutinized section because if you perform poorly in the quant section of the test, you’re likely not ready to handle the math you’ll tackle in an MBA program.

MBA programs are quant intense. Between accounting, economics, finance, and business analytics courses alone, you can expect to touch upon math topics as advanced as calculus and statistics. Programs don’t want to see you set up for failure, and neither should you. If you’ve performed poorly on the quant section of the GMAT/GRE, you’re strongly advised to even consider enrolling in a college level statistics or calculus class, rather than re-taking the tests several times. This isn’t to say that you won’t need to re-test, but the strategy should be to fill the quantitative knowledge gap, rather than just trying to bolster your test scores.

The important thing is to realize that it is all about balance. If your GPA is less than stellar, you need to balance that with a solid test score. The test score needs to be balanced as well, however, so you need to do well on both sections of the test.

Ultimately, it comes down to conveying that you are prepared for the vigorous study ahead. It’s better to actually be prepared than to somehow get in under the wire. Remember, you have to actually perform well to graduate and it will be touch if you’re not academically prepared.

Take Away

We’ve just gone over the first two of the components that make up your profile. In the next section we’ll go over the other three components that admissions committees are interested in. These are: your career goals, your extracurriculars, and any blights and infractions. (Background checks are common in many programs, so be prepared!) Check out part two below:

And if you missed Chapter 1, be sure to check it out below: