Over and over in our essay feedback, we counsel Brave Supplicants on being more specific and offering more details on what they want to do in the future, and what they’ve done in the past that qualifies them to pursue those goals. Specifics are the name of the game in bschool essays. Specifics are like…
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levieillard says
My take:
Does this person have their heart set on this one role at McKinsey? What if they don’t get it? Would they consider other roles in McKinsey? Other firms? Maybe they are trying to sound impressive, but haven’t actually done their homework.
This short-term goal would have to be be backed up by stellar stats and a killer application, including a compelling reason for McKinsey’s strategy practice, otherwise I might think they are naive, thoughtless, or even a bit arrogant.
altralazer says
+1
Snark, what if the applicant was more specific about the actual practice he intends to join but gave an alternative to McKinsey, such as: “…want to either join the Oil&Gas practice of McKinsey or the Energy practice of Bain”?
essaysnark says
@altralazer, you’re on the right track with this and as long as the profile supports M/B/B, then yeah, this type of targeting can add a lot of value. Designating the area of focus is one of the main ways that “more specific” can be better, especially in this instance, since consulting is soooooooo common as a goal. So this helps you stand out from the crowd of generic wanna-be consultants, at least a little.
We’re continuing our discussion of goals further here on the blahg – feel free to hit us up again if you have more questions on any of it!
EssaySnark
essaysnark says
An implicit +1 from us on this too since we quoted you on our subsequent post. 😉