You say you want an MBA, and we believe you.

But do you want an education?

Do you even know what they’ll teach you in the hallowed halls of Columbia or Kellogg or Cornell or whatever school you end up at?

You’ve read through the website enough to plug the name of a class into an essay to tell the adcom how much you want to go there.

But do you know what any of those classes are actually about?

Here’s a tip:

If you don’t, you may want to start learning!

Because if you make it through this arduous process and you land an admit or two, and you end up with your butt sitting in a business school classroom 11 short months from now…

Do you know what you’re in for?

We can guarantee you this:

If you’re only interested in bschool so that you can get the credential, so that you can have those three little letters “M-B-A” associated with your name, so you can get some plum job with a six-figure salary where you get to sit in meetings all day….

That’s fine, it’s not “wrong” and there are plenty of good people who think that way.

But.

If that’s your entire motivation and you have not thought through the whole possible scenario that involves things like studying and learning and hard subjects and tests then what you’re setting yourself up for is two years of h3ll.

Or at least, a solid one semester, and parts of another, and then a summer break in between where at least you’ll have an income again, and then another year of school that’s mostly electives and so shouldn’t be that bad…

But if you go into this only focused on that end result of having the fancy initials after your name (which honestly aren’t that impressive, you just are enamored of them now) and you forget the part about it being a CLASSROOM and maybe they even will force you to buy BOOKS though maybe not because these days books are overrated but who knows, and then you find yourself in a year sitting there staring at an equation on a white board and not understanding a single word that the professor has said in the last 20 minutes and wishing you actually had taken that class that you told EssaySnark yes you were going to take but hey you got in anyway so must not’ve needed it! Except that there’s all those Greek symbols on the board and you can’t remember which one means what.

And you’re not there because you WANT TO LEARN SOMETHING and expand your mind and get smarter and learn how the money supply is a lever of government and how interest rates work with inflation or what dual-entry accounting means and why it should matter or what the time value of money is and how it affects decisions and and and and and and and

If you’re unable to get motivated to push past the hard part of “OH HOLY F NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE WHAT HAVE I **DONE** I HATE THIS LET ME OUT” and actually do the WORK of learning…

You’re gonna have a rough go of it.

So.

All we’re saying today is that sitting on the “before” side of the picture where you’ve got this dream and you’re fixated on winning and it’s all you can think about and you’ve already done all this work and the GMAT is over and some essays were written and you clicked Submit on a number of apps…

And all the schools hype up their international travel and the culture and community and happy hour and how much FUN!! everyone has…

If you don’t find a way to get motivated on THE LEARNING as well then, well, we just don’t think it’s gonna be what it could be.

It takes a certain level of maturity to embrace learning for the sake of learning alone. Not all subjects are fun, and not all professors are interesting. Doing school full-time is a massive opportunity and what a luxury and an advantage, and a privilege to even have a quality of life that you can be considering it. You’re taking a break from Real Life for two full years to go focus on building yourself.

It’s not just the job and all the recruiters that will want you. It’s not just living in some fun new city for two years. It’s all of those things, but it’s none of them.

It’s what are you going to put into it?

That’s what you will get out of it.

And in order to know that, and be truly prepared, you need to know WHY you are doing this.

Is it just to coast through so you can get rubber-stamped and spit out the other side?

Or is it to LEARN STUFF?

We’ll tell you, LEARNING STUFF is hard. You’ve been out of school for awhile — and this is graduate school. This is no Intro to Econ or whatever.

Do you want to do it because you’re actually interested?

If you can’t say you’re interested, that’s okay too, but can you still motivate yourself even if you’re not?

If the answers to these questions are “Hmm” or “Never thought about it” or “Now that you ask…” then you may want to do some self-reflection. Be ready for what you’re pursuing.

Maybe even start by taking a class now. Like a practice one. To get in the groove, to remind you.

Were you someone who loved school so much that you were able to self-motivate for the thrill of it? The achievement of a good score on a test could make you hit the books like you needed?

Or was each class like pulling teeth and you were the clock-watcher scrunched down in your chair at the back of the room, praying you wouldn’t get cold-called?

Just be honest with yourself.

If you haven’t been in school for awhile, look to Coursera or some other MOOC to get back in the swing of things. Find a way to challenge yourself, if that’s not a habit you’ve had just lately.

Remember that what you experience in school (as in life) depends at least the orientation and attitude. It’s not just about showing up. It’s about doing the work.

When learning switches on it’s totally awesome and you get fired up, even if it’s a subject you don’t like. And when it’s resisted and you’re trying to just get by then it can be a nightmare of days. Either is your choice.

Just remember what you’re signing up for.

 
 
You may also be interested in:

• “An MBA from School X will give me credibility.”

In the world of bschools, leadership has been the byword for at least a couple generations now. Used to be, business school prepared you for management. The first business schools were created in the era of assembly lines and automation and they needed workers who were kind of like cogs in a machine; everybody needed to make sure everything else went smoothly. But then places like Harvard and Wharton and everywhere else elevated their game and said, “No, we need leaders in the world and we’re gonna task ourselves with preparing them.” And that’s been the focus since like the 1950s or so. And then in the 1960s and ’70s there were all these self-actualizing hippies especially out in California and lo and behold, Stanford started pushing personal development and interpersonal skills and all that touchy-feely stuff, and slowly that took hold and now you get empowerment type content at most every school out there. Heck, lots of bschools even teach mindfulness now!

And our new cultural era is about being happy at work. There’s a gazillion books out there, some in the Business aisle, many more in the Self Help section, all telling you how to be happy.

Full disclaimer: EssaySnark loves that stuff. 😉

There’s a Happiness Consultant on twitter (our term not hers) who posted this recently:

It's extremely simple. We deserve to be happy at work. And while leaving your job may not be your first option, perhaps reconsidering how to make the position a better fit for you is. Learn more at https://t.co/aAs7ucKjzE. #HappyAtWork #ProfessionalDevelopment pic.twitter.com/BzunwTff2S

— Annie McKee (@anniemckee) June 5, 2018

 
 
And EssaySnark must encourage you, at this important crossroads in your life, as you’re thinking about embarking on this very big adventure to mix things up and create change, and move from the path that you’ve been on, to a totally new path…

We need to remind you that you’re doing all this because on some level you’re not satisfied.

Right?

Whether it’s being dissatisfied with the basics like your level of income, or being dissatisfied with the direction you’re on and feeling like you’re stuck, or being wholly miserable because you work for the boss from h3ll and you want a way OUT…

Or maybe you’re so miserable working for that person that you’ve vowed to learn how NOT to be such a terrible manager, and that’s one reason you’re looking for bschool, in order to not repeat the mistakes of the past or inflict such misery upon any other person.

Regardless of the motivations, you’re looking to change.

You’re looking to go for a big jump, to improve your life.

You’re looking to go back to school and learn stuff.

Yay you!

Or…..

There’s also a possibility that you’re not.

There’s this chance that you’re only interested in the MBA because that’s what everybody else is doing and you figure it’s kind of expected.

Maybe you worked for two or three years in a traditional pre-MBA role in finance or consulting, and it’s a kind of up-or-out environment, and you’re not entirely confident you’re going to get an offer to stay, and even if you did, you know in your gut you don’t really want to, because you can’t stand the place…

Yeah, we’re back to not liking your boss. 😀

Hopefully the “I hate my boss!” feeling is only happening in a small minority of you, since that’s an awful mindstate to be working in and if you’re only starting the process of applying then most likely you’re going to be in that same place for another full year — in which case, we do hope you’ll take steps TODAY to fix the situation! (That’s a post for another time, though we have blahgged about it before, so we’ll try to dig up some reference posts for you to review now…. OK, here’s one semi-related, and this other one at least is coming from the same perspective… Basically if you can’t stand your boss, then there are things you can do to be proactive in making adjustments to how you interact with him or her, and being brave enough to have an honest-to-goodness conversation to find out the core of the issues between you… So that’s the tl;dr of how to deal with and now we don’t have to write another post on it, right?)

The reason for today’s post is it’s important to stay focused on the WHY of this project.

Not just now, as you’re coming up with your fancy schmancy talk about what are your career goals and why do you want an MBA that you’re planning for your maestro essays of brilliance.

We mean, as you go through each step of the process to keep reminding yourself of the WHY.

Part of this means not getting sucked up by the FOMO of bschool, which is often an instant recipe to lose your own core objectives and forget why you’re there.

It means not comparing yourself to everyone, and not going along with the crowd. If you know today you want do pursue ABC goals through the bschool experience, to not get sidetracked into the XYZ things that other people are doing.

It’s fine to change direction and adjust plans, and it’s totally okay if you end up throwing away all original intentions.

Just make sure you’re doing it intentionally, for a reason.

It would SUCK to end up another ten years down the road, looking around at another job that you truly hate, wondering how you got there and what happened to your life.

NOW is this incredible opportunity. You have this energy at your disposal and this interest in change.

Do some reflection. Ask yourself questions. Figure out what’s important to you.

Make adjustments as necessary but don’t sell yourself out as you go through this process.

If you don’t know who you are, start learning!

And don’t settle.

You don’t need to know where you’re going to end up in ten years. You just need to be clear on what you’re doing next, and why.
 
 
 

It’s so easy to let things slide.

One way to make sure that you advance yourself every year and get better and better as a person, and closer to your own specific goals, is to place a priority on those actions every week.

If there’s something very important to you, that keeps getting pushed off into the future, then make a point to accomplish a baby step on that project every day.

If you’re applying to bschool this Fall, then it’s too easy to say, “There’s nothing for me to do now, since deadlines aren’t till September.” And then you stay a lazy bum all spring and summer, until you go into Panic Mode in August and have a life of h3ll for two months.

Instead, you could be making progress even starting now, by making it a priority to get something small done every week.

For example, identifying your short list of schools, and being clear on the reasons why. This can only evolve through the concerted effort of school research.

There’s lots of steps you can be taking today.

However, today’s post is more general in nature. We’re not talking only about applying to bschool. We’re talking about improving yourself as a person.

Say you decide you want to learn how to program. Now that’s a big goal!

Maybe you get started on it. You take a class and learn about HTML. Or you have this great idea for a website that you actually began working on in college with a buddy, but you both let it lapse when you graduated.

Or you’re a musician, and you love writing songs, but just lately, you haven’t had the time. In fact, maybe you didn’t write one since August.

Or you want to start a blog — or you started one, but it hasn’t been updated since 2015, and you don’t think anyone ever reads it…. And now it’s become like a big downer. A huge ugh. You don’t even want to think about it since it makes you feel like a slug. One more datapoint for how you don’t get stuff done.

But every time you’ve ever made progress on this heart project you’ve got, you’ve felt SO GOOD about yourself.

But maybe it’s tough to get started.

There’s always something else pulling on your time.

Well here’s an idea: (ohnoyeswe’regonnasayit) JUST DO IT.

Meaning, do SOMETHING today – even right now if you can – to advance yourself towards this goal.

Even if it’s just SCHEDULING a time in your calendar for sometime in the next 24 hours where you CAN go do it. ‘Cuz right now, while you’re reading EssaySnark, you know that you really should be preparing for that meeting with your team in 20 minutes, and you don’t have time to do something for yourself at this very moment.

What you can do is set up a reminder in your calendar for later today or tonight (or better yet, tomorrow morning) where you will have the freedom to do it.

And then make it happen!

If there’s something that only your FUTURE SELF will benefit from, it’s all too easy for your NOW SELF to blow it off. Usually your NOW SELF is all about responding to the immediacy, the urgency, the I-just-want-to-take-a-nap-ency. Your NOW SELF is an enemy of your FUTURE SELF.

And what happens, when you live long enough, is you start to look back over the years accumulating and you realize, “Dang, if only I’d started this when I first had the idea, I’d actually be done by now.”

Instead, we blow stuff off and blow it off, and we don’t change. We stay the same.

But if you’re interested in getting an MBA, there’s something about you that’s driving you. That wants to be different.

Why not honor that self?

For many people, the most precious time of the day is the morning. If you make a commitment to yourself to do something – ANYTHING – to further your own personal project as your first task of the day, then that’s guaranteed to let you actually make real progress on it over time. You need to be vigilant. Carve out the time. If it needs to happen before you leave the house for work, then find a way to do it – even if it’s only 5 minutes at first. Even 5 minutes is valuable.

The trick is to establish that as part of your routine. If you ALWAYS take 5 minutes, every morning, for two weeks, then you should be able to easily enough expand it to 10 minutes.

If you’re working on something for 10 minutes in the morning, then you’ll be thinking about it on the commute to work, and you may get some spark of inspiration that hits you during lunchtime, and then you’re so excited to implement that idea that you go home from work and you do more on your personal project that night.

Then the next morning, your 10 minutes grows to 15 minutes, and you’re on a roll with it! And you are so jazzed by it that you actually wake up before your alarm the next morning (omg that never happens!!) and instead of going back to sleep you’re wide-eyed and bushy-tailed and you GET UP and you go to work on your big idea.

And voila, in no time at all, you’ve changed.

Now you’re someone who has energy. Who’s inspired. Who’s excited by life. Now you’re working towards something.

One of the hardest parts is GETTING STARTED.

So today is an invitation.

GET STARTED.

Make tomorrow morning your first day of 5 minutes.

How will you use the time?

It happens.

The spike of adrenaline and rush of endorphines around getting an admit.

The frantic phone calls to family, and high-fives around the office.

All of that subsiding over the course of the next few days to a happy hum of contentment: YOU DID IT!!! You got into bschool! A top MBA program actually accepted you!!

And then…

Fast-forward a week or two, or maybe a month, or maybe it doesn’t hit until you get on campus for the excitement of Welcome Weekend (or Admit Day or whatever your school calls it)… And suddenly you start to feel oddly uncomfortable.

Maybe it first hits when you meet some kind of superstar admit like an Olympic athlete who’s now going to be going to this school, and then a White House aide, and then the next woman already has her own business that’s the top seller on Etsy. And you meet like 15 people in a row who work on Wall Street or McKinsey or Google. And pretty soon, you start to not look forward to new-classmate introductions, when you have to keep telling them what your job is.

Or maybe it happens when you overhear someone casually say that their company offered them a $50,000 raise if they’d stick around at their job instead of leaving for bschool… and your entire salary is only a little more than that right now.

Then the thought pattern starts:

“Wow, they’re all so much better than me.”

“Sheesh, it seems like everyone has a 770 GMAT.”

“Dang, how am I going to keep up with them?”

And then:

“I think the adcom made a mistake.”

BSer, please don’t let this thinking sabotage you.

What you’re experiencing is super common, and it’s something you’ll want to become aware of, and not buy into.

Your own thoughts can completely derail you – and all of those thoughts are NOT TRUE.

What this is describing is a phenomenon called Imposter Syndrome and it happens to lots of really successful people. Women may be more prone to it but it’s an equal-opportunity brainf@ck. It creeps in and takes hold of you, and it can make you absolutely miserable. If you’re not careful, it can suck the life out of you, taking away all motivation and making you feel worthless.

This post is to alert you of this phenomenon so that you can be on the lookout.

It’s natural.

It’s normal.

It happens to lots of people.

That Olympic athlete? Oh yeah, you betchya, they’re comparing themselves to everyone else and thinking, “Oh CRAP I’ll never survive here, what was I thinking, applying for business school?!???? I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT BUSINESS! I’m doooooooomed!!!!!!!!”

That entrepreneur chick? She’s probably sweating bullets about whether she’ll be able to afford bschool at all, given that she’s been on a shoestring salary for a year already, trying to bootstrap her business, and she’s nervous about every single happy hour where she has to pull out her credit card in front of everyone, in case it might be declined. She thought that the MBA might be her salvation to take this business to the next level, and now she thinks the whole thing might be yet another colossal mistake, especially when she hears about everyone else who wants to start a company through bschool, and their ideas seem so much better than this little thing she’s been trying to make happen.

That Wall Street guy? He’s feeling paranoid that he’s never going to be able to make it out of finance – which he hates. All he can think about is the competition he’s seeing, and how much better-positioned YOU are for the type of post-MBA career jump he’s trying to make.

Everyone is dealing with their own insecurities. Everyone thinks that everyone else is better than them. We can guarantee you, lots and lots of those super impressive future classmates you’ve met have been thinking the same kind of awe-struck thoughts about YOU and your incredible story as you’re thinking about them. It happens all the time.

The bottom-line truth is, if you were accepted to bschool — ANY bschool — that means you’ve done something right. You’ve worked hard and gotten somewhere in life already. You DESERVE the spot they’ve offered you in their incoming class. The adcoms do not make mistakes.

If this imposter thinking happens to you, please don’t let it take you out. Talk to your friends and family. Simply voicing the feelings and saying them outloud often dissipates their power. Maybe you can even laugh about it.

Or maybe the school did make a mistake, and your 700 GMAT looked like a 780 when they viewed it on their computer screen, and oh sh!t anydaynowtheyregonnacallyouupandtellyouitsallovernowyoureonthestreetgetouttahereyabum and your life will be in ruins.

Nah. Prolly not. You’re prolly safe from all that happening. 🙂

If you’re headed to bschool in the Fall, Congratulations, Brave Supplicant!! The rollercoaster-ride of MBA admissions is not yet over even once you have that admit in hand.