EssaySnark

($) Career goals ideas, if you honestly don’t know what you want to do with the MBA

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Warning: We are not suggesting that you plug these goals into your essays and call it a day! We’re simply offering some ideas of career paths that the MBA is a great preparation for, where there are plenty of jobs coming to campus to attract high-quality students like you will be, which pay well and which you may find interesting enough to research further.

The keyword there is “research further”; these are meant as suggestions for you to consider! You’ll need to find out if they’re actually good ideas for you personally! This comes from learning about what the career is/does, by talking to people who actually do these jobs, and learning about the day-to-day functions and what type of work is involved.

Today’s post is a follow-up to our Spotlight On: Career Goals post from a bit ago. You may want to start there if you’re new.


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Your career goals are likely to change, but you need to start SOMEWHERE at this point in the process
 
 

 
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As always, we will end this very long post with a shout-out to how to get more help from The ‘Snark: Our Career Goals App Accelerator is designed to teach you what needs to be in your goals statement, and offers two rounds of feedback on the goals you produce.

You can also just geek out on the posts here on the blahg on such topics as this. We go by the teach-you-to-fish model, and do our best to offer tools and information for self-education, so that you can fully own your own process and become empowered by what you yourself produce.

We’re talking about your future, right? You don’t want to adopt wholesale what some other person thinks sounds good as an idea for your life.

Again, it’s likely that your career goals will change as you go through the process of earning your MBA. You’re going to be exposed to so many new ideas, people, and paths. That’s expected. The point of the schools asking you for goals now is that they can see how you’re approaching this, what your ideas are today, and how you’ve come up with the plan that you have. It’s not set in stone or a lifelong commitment. It’s your best strategy, based on known facts today. If you can justify it and rationalize it and support it with reasons, you’re good to go. That’s all that’s necessary* for a compelling pitch to the schools.

 
 
*Granted, easier said than done.

 
 

 
Oh hey also: Bruce DelMonico at Yale SOM posted a down-to-earth article about the importance of developing goals that are meaningful to you (with an unfortunately clickbaity title).

($) The “So what?” question

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We’ve said before that good drafts are not written, they’re assembled.

As you are gathering your inventory of soundbites and examples and ideas and bits of content together, and you start compiling them into actual outlines, you’re going to have to take a step back multiple times, to make sure you’re really on track.

One of the most common problems we see in essays is — believe it or not — that the essay does not answer the question.

You may think that’s impossible, or that it doesn’t happen as much as we claim that it does. But you would be wrong.

How do you make sure that it does not happen to you?


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How to vet your ideas and make sure you’re constructing meaning in your essays
 
 

 
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These are true #goals, Brave Supplicant: To have logical, clearly written statements, that all combine to make a meaningful and easy-to-read presentation that delivers insight to the reader about who you are as a person, based on how you have answered the question.

The EssaySnakr

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The EssaySnakr!

What on earth could that mean?

Maybe it means:

We are the snakr of essays. Yum yum!

Or perhaps we’re trying to tell you that:

You will need many snakz ready as you start to take up camp in the essay-writing zone.

These both may be true!

Mostly though what we are bringing into your consciousness with today’s cryptic message is this:
 

It is very easy to introduce silly sentences into your essays!

 

Your process of essay development will loosely resemble this diagram:


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Oh look! A diagram!
 
 

 
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If that essay development diagram made you feel like maybe you’re doing it wrong, we can help! Our Complete Essay Package walks you from start to finish, through these phases of writing, on basically like a guided tour of all that you need to identify your best ideas and assemble them together into an optimized end-product. We named it the Complete Essay Package because it contains all that you need to get from start to finish on your first set of essays — and, because it helps you to actually COMPLETE them! Sometimes what stops us from progress is standard levels of procrastination, when it’s a Really Hard Thing that we’re setting out to do. And sometimes, it’s because we just don’t have a clue how to begin. The Complete Essay Package helps to offset the challenges that come from both of those issues. You’ll have the support that you need, and you’ve got plenty of time to take best advantage of it!

($) Want to go into consulting? Here’s a tip to increase the chances of a successful pitch.

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Last week we talked about venture capital as a goal in an MBA application. Let’s turn our attention today to the most common post-MBA goal that we ever see in BSers’ essays: Consulting.

Today’ss advice is offered both for pitching consulting in your MBA apps — where it’s exceedingly difficult to stand out from the crowd of other wanna-be consultants — and for planning your actual career. (These two tasks should not be considered separate — the things you say in your MBA essays should, literally, be what you’re currently planning to go do post-MBA — but we recognize that many people get advice to craft their applications in a way that they think will get them in, rather than actually, literally, authentically saying in the essays what they actually plan to go do.)


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More focusing on goals – because goals are so important!


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And of course yes, we have an app for that! The Career Goals App Accelerator gives you two chances for feedback from EssaySnark on the idea you have put together for pitching the MBA adcom in those essays. Want to go into consulting? Lay out your ideas in this App Accelerator and we’ll let you know how they sound!

Plagiarism is just foolish.

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In the midst of commencement season this past May, one University President apparently decided that it was too much trouble to write his own speech. He stole chunks from someone else’s.

That didn’t go well. (tl;dr: He resigned within days.)

We speak regularly about ethics in MBA apps, and we’ll drill down a bit more specifically today on the topic of plagiarism.

You were probably taught about what is plagiarism back in college. There are lectures you get in your first year where the librarian or English teacher walks through how to cite sources and what’s an appropriate amount of paraphrasing or what have you. When it comes to writing your MBA essays, it may seem like none of that even applies, since you’re answering questions about your own life, and not researching someone else’s work to digest it.

However, plagiarism still occurs, and cheating in a wide number of forms, including people paying for someone to write the entire essay. Not even sure how that could work out, given what we’ve seen of those essay farms on the internet, but yeah, apparently that’s what some people try.

But that’s rare. That type of plagiarism, we’re guessing you don’t plan on doing.

However, plagiarism might still occur, inadvertently.

Most applicants don’t decide to plagiarize. That final result usually comes about based on a number of smaller, incremental bad choices.

One way that inadvertent borrowing of ideas happens is from reading other people’s essays — which is why we don’t tempt fate, and don’t provide any sample essays to read.

If you read someone else’s essay and you think that it’s “good” you’re likely to want to crib parts of the “good” essay into your own. It’s pretty natural for that tendency to arise — especially if you’re feeling totally stuck and unsure of where to even begin.

Plagiarizing someone’s witty social media post is also pretty lame, and that’s more in the category that we’re talking about today. Say you read something on Twitter that makes you chuckle, and you switch over to Facebook and post it yourself. That’s victimless plagiarizing, perhaps, but it’s still stealing. If you’re a comedian, this is taken incredibly seriously. Stealing jokes is the most unethical thing of all you could do.

The schools built in plagiarism detectors to their online applications because of this very problem, so even though you may be sitting disbelieving us that it’s an issue, it really does happen. Apparently quite a lot.

Is it “plagiarism” if you borrow someone’s approach to an essay question? Like, what if the question is (making this up) What is your favorite color and why?” — and instead of writing about “blue” someone writes about “the sky” and very creatively never names the color at all. And you read that essay and go “Dang, that’s slick” and you decide to do the same thing, but you write about “fire.”

Is that plagiarism?

No, not technically, but it seems like you’re stealing.

Lots of times, cutting corners and sneaking shortcuts doesn’t result in consequences. “No harm, no foul” as they say. It’s also true that there are no unique ideas in the world (or so they say) so is it ever possible to write an MBA admissions essay that wasn’t already written at some point before? No, not likely.

But copying someone else’s ideas, and especially copying someone else’s words — like maybe you brother got into bschool three years ago and he’s shared his essays with you now… That’s not what the schools have in mind when they ask you to write about what matters most.

And anyway, these things do seem to have a way of being found out.

Like back to our University president.

 

Apparently that esteemed leader of that institution just didn’t have his head in the game or his heart in the school any longer. Because besides lifting a paragraph from a Navy General’s speech for his address to the graduates, this happened too: He messed up the name of the school when he offered his congratulations to the students.

Maybe there was some guilt lurking in the unconscious that caused him to slip up?

Live a guilt-free life. Pay your taxes. Don’t cheat on your partner. And write your own essays for business school.

 

($) The best way to choose your SECOND recommender

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You know the basics: The MBA admissions teams prefer to get a recommendation from your current direct supervisor.

Is that really the best person for you to choose? Maybe, maybe not.

Many applications ask for two recommendations. Who is the right person to serve in that second spot?


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Your recommendations should work together. As should every part of your app.
 
 

 
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If you want even more in-depth guidance on who to pick as your recommendation letter writer and how to prep them, EssaySnark’s Letters of Recommendations App Accelerator is exactly designed for that!

($) It should be called the HARD ESSAY not the HARVARD ESSAY

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This post could also be titled: Why you will have less hair on your head and possibly bruising on your forehead when you make it to September the 8th.

(That’s because you will either tear your hair out in chunks, and/or hit your head rhythmically on your desk multiple times, and/or you will age so much with the stress of it all that your hair will fall out, before you are done with this essay.)

How can this be so hard? Especially when this very ‘Snark has made cheeky posts like The secret to get into HBS.

The question itself sounds simple enough.

What are you missing?

“As we review your application, what more would you like us to know as we consider your candidacy for the Harvard Business School MBA Program?”

OK then. What more do you want them to know?


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Let’s be real about what you’re facing with HBS

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Shameless plug: There’s an app for that! The Essay Ideas App Accelerator might be particularly useful for Harvard. And of course, there’s the HBS Essay Decimator, so that we can help you see why your first drafts probably aren’t working so great, and figure out ways to move forward to second drafts that are.
 
 
You may also be interested in:

 
 

EssaySnark's Guide to the HBS MBA Application

 
 

($) Here’s a vivid (we hope!) explanation of the critical essay-writing technique of show don’t tell

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If you’ve gotten any feedback on your essays and apps from The ‘Snark, you’ve likely been told you’re not doing it right. No, that’s not what we do; we point to sentences that aren’t helping you, and we try to explain what the issue is. It is likely experienced as “You’re doing it wrong” but we don’t leave it at that; we give lots and lots of commentary around WHY it’s not a great way to write, and even more commentary on what works better. Integrated within all of that, you almost definitely heard us referencing this elusive thing of “show, don’t tell” that you need to be doing.

What in heck is “show, don’t tell”???


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Oooo there’s some good stuff today!


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That is the show-don’t-tell advice in a nutshell.

There’s a whole bunch of posts in the category of writing essays > “show, don’t tell” which may be the most important of everything we ever write about here. It’s also one of the hardest things to get the brain wrapped around for most people.

It’s definitely a process to learn this!! That’s why we offer daily posts here and a whole ‘snarchive of topics to explore, because it’s likely to require some mental wrassling before you figure it out.

Once it clicks into place, you’re going to be golden with your future essay writing tasks!!!

If we can help: Lots ‘o services to do that!! We’ll be around to support you on this journey, BSer!!

Explaining the Essay Ideas App Accelerator

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Many years ago we came across this interview on Knowledge @ Wharton with a speechwriter from the Obama White House who had this to say about her writing process:

“A colleague once said to me, ‘You know Sarah, you just kind of spill out a bunch of total nonsense on a page and then spend a week editing it,’ which was harsh but he was right to some extent. I’ll take the transcript that I’ve made of the meeting [with Mrs Obama about what she wanted to say in her speech] and add my own notes and ideas and things to it. That’s just really stream of consciousness notes. Then I’ll start arranging that into an outline, then into specific paragraphs. Then I’ll go through and edit each of those paragraphs. I sometimes get stuck, and when I get stuck I just move on. I don’t allow myself to get writer’s block because sometimes I won’t know what I’m trying to do in paragraph three, but I’ll know what paragraph four is going to say so I can go and write that. There are many times when I’ve written the end of the speech before the beginning. I’m not a super linear writer, but I do stick to an outline that’s very well-structured so I know exactly where I’m going.”

(emphasis added)

Today we’re going to talk to you about outlining, and how super valuable it can be as part of your process of developing strong essays.

The main benefits of outlines before drafts are:

  • It’s more efficient
  • You can test out your ideas before committing to them
  • You can see the structure that you’re trying to put shape to
  • You can more easily step back and evaluate your argument as a whole
  • It’s way less painful to throw away an outline and start over than it is a full draft

It’s much easier to redirect your essay strategy at the earliest stage, when you’re coming up with ideas — rather than discovering that you were off target later on, after you’ve sweated bullets (ha ha see what we did there?) writing out complete drafts that you have to throw away. EssaySnark’s Essay Ideas App Accelerator gives you critical input at the earliest stage of essay development, helping you define a strong scaffolding upon which you can best build out your messaging and theme. Starting with the Essay Ideas App Accelerator is the most efficient way to develop your strongest MBA essays.

The Essay Ideas App Accelerator does not tell you what your ideas should be. This isn’t about dictating your strategy. (Hint: Our school-specific essay guides can be invaluable in figuring out that part!) Instead, the Essay Ideas tutorial gives you insights on how to shape your topics into logical essays that flow. After studying the tutorial, you’ll submit your ideas (one school only, up to 500 words) for a personalized review from EssaySnark.

We always see great value in the Essay Decimator, since we get the (ahem) privilege of reading the first drafts, and then we see where the BSer gets to with revisions – and then we often later hear if they got in! The improvement from draft 1 to draft 2 and beyond is evident. Anecdotally, we’ll also share what one BSer said last season, after getting in to a Top Top School with a massive scholarship with essays that they’d gone through the Essay Decimator with us on, yet either getting an outright rejection or a waitlist from the other apps that they did on their own. So, yeah, the Essay Decimator can affect your outcomes, for sure.

However, just as much value if not more could be gained by a diligent BSer leveraging the Essay Ideas App Accelerator instead. It’s way cheaper, but the idea is the same:

What are you saying in this essay, and how are you saying it?

Today’s post is to introduce you to this App Accelerator — yet even more, it’s to suggest that you take time for outlines, before you start writing.

Outlines are your friend.

Outlines help you figure out what you’re trying to say, the cheap and easy* way.

 
 
 
 

*Well…… Technically there is no such thing as “easy” in this business of applying to bschool. But you already knew that. Hopefully this will make it easy-er!

($) “I collaborated with the team on the project.”

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This is the kind of post that many people reading it when it goes posted will shrug their shoulders and say, “OK ‘Snark whatever” and go about their day.

Because most of you aren’t in essay-writing mode right now (though you should be!!!).

And even if you are in essay-writing mode, the point we’re going to talk about today is likely going to fly straight over your head unless you are knee-deep in essay-writing h3ll where you’re trying to REALLY make an incredible essay when EssaySnark keeps telling you that the drafts you’ve been submitting are not it.


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Oooo there’s some good stuff today!
 
 

 
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This is the type of post that EssaySnark will be likely sending along as a reference to many many BSers in the future.

For now, if you’re reading this at the time it was first published, and you’re a member of the EssaySnark blahg, you might want to click that little “favorites” button here at the bottom, to keep this post in your list for later on. You may realize as you’re knee-deep in essays when the deadlines are hitting in a week, that you need to be reminded of why not to tell your reader that you “collaborated” on something, and find new ways to phrase it instead.