Software Engineer looking for advice to strengthen his MBA application chances

What’s going on, peoples. The message below is from a Java Software Engineer who feels like he’s stuck in that role and is looking for a way to break away from it…sounds familiar, right? It seems like my “hook” is helping out techies, but there’s a special place in my heart for the Java folks 🙂 I hope he finds my advice helpful.

By the way, I’d like to give some quick tips to folks who might email me with questions because some emails I’ve gotten lately have left me shaking my head. OK, so y’all know I respond to emails in my free time, right? And, given what i do for a living, I don’t really have a whoooooole lot of time available anyway…but i’m sure some of you know that and take that into account. And, I always try to give the best advice that I can…y’all get that, right? So, it seems that many of you understand these things and would probably understand my frustration when I get hit up by folks who don’t get it.

For example, if you’re applying a business school, it’s not cool to send me an email less than a week before the deadline date expecting thorough answers to your questions AND closing the email out by saying “the deadline is in X days, so I need a response soon”. I’m not alone in not thinking that’s cool, right? OK, good. Here’s another example…If you ask me a specific question and I give you a general answer that I think covers your question, it’s probably not a successful strategy to write a response saying that my general response isn’t good enough and trying to push me to give you the type of specific answer you’d requested. I mean, if I could give a specific response, I would do so, right? Alright, one more example before i let this go…I might have mentioned on here more than a few times that I can’t review business school applications, resumes, and other types of letters from readers anymore. I used to do it back in the day, but nowadays I just don’t have time because of my job. So, on the off-chance that I do review a doc for someone, back-and-forth emails requesting specific guidance, line edits, and additional reviews aren’t what I’m signing up for by taking the time to give it a quick read. I try to be cool about it, but y’all know how it can be after this sort of thing happens several times, right?

So, I’m bringing all of this up so people will keep these things in mind when they send emails and get responses from me. I’ve tried to respond nicely when things like this have happened in the past, but it’s gotten harder and harder to do so. OK, I’ll stop with the rambling now…all i ask is that people be mindful of what they’re requesting and expecting when they hit me up. Cool? Aight then…let’s go!

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PS wrote:
“Hey Marquis,
First off I would like to thank you to take the time off to answer my question and also that it is a pleasure to read your blog, it continues to give me a lot of important insight on the admission process and the decision to apply for na MBA.
So let me start by describing you my actual situation. I was born and lived nearly my whole life in Portugal, Europe. I graduated from computer science and took my MSc in computer science also, from the university of Coimbra, in Portugal. After the MSc I joined a startup tech/telcom company in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, after doing my master’s student exchange here. At this company I work as a Java Software Engineer, which seems like a very similar path to yours, correct me if I’m mistaken. I am currently 25 years old.
The “problem” at this point is that I feel the need to change my career goals and areas of interest. My initial thoughts point to consulting (Mckinsey..), investment banking or maybe even marketing. At this time I started considering taking on a MBA as a means for both learning and getting the necessary resumé to apply for a job in a top company in any one of these areas.
What I would like from you, and knowing that your background is similiar to mine, is what do you think I should do to strengthen my application for an MBA at a top BS school, either in the US or Europe, and what can I do to make my resumé look more appealing when I apply to a firm like Mckinsey? Should I pursue other relevant work experience?
I thank you again for all of your time and your hard work with the blog, it has been very helpful!
Best regards,
PS”

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My response:

PS,

Thanks for checking out my blog. Your path sounds exactly like mine, so, when I read your email, I was struck with a strong desire to give you some advice on your situation. It sounds like you’ve got two directions that you’re considering, business school and new work experience, so i’m going to try to give you some advice for both. I’m pretty sure that I’ve written several entries on both of these issues, so I’d recommend reading through the archived entries to see if you can get some additional info.

Strengthening your application for a top MBA is relatively straight-forward if you think about it in terms of the components of the application:

– Essays: The essays are probably the most important part of the application because that’s how the admissions people get a look at who you are, what your goals are, and why you want an MBA. It’s imperative that you write some great essays to have a decent shot at getting into a good business school. When I was applying, there was a great website that laid out the B-school essay questions for about 20 top schools over a three year period. Based on that site, I was able to start writing drafts of my essays about a month before the actual applications were released for that year because the questions didn’t change too much from year-to-year. I just searched for that site and couldn’t find it, but this one lays out some pretty good essay questions –> http://www.princetonreview.com/mba/apply/articles/application/essayBook3.asp. As you think about your applications, I would recommend writing drafts of these essays as soon as possible and seeking feedback on them from people with strong writing skills (law school students are great for this). You’ve got about a six month headstart on this, so take advantage of it. I wrote some entries about developing your “MBA story”, so you might want to look back at those for advice on your personal positioning.

– GMAT/GPA: Your undergradaute and graduate GPAs are the one part of your application that’s set in stone, so there’s nothing you can do to change them. In my case, my undergrad GPA wasn’t stellar, I chose to enroll in a grad program prior to applying to business school with the aim of getting a great GPA and proving that I could perform well at the graduate level. I’m not recommending that others do this because going through a grad program is no easy feat, but it’s an option if you have concerns and won’t be applying to business school for a couple of years. The GMAT is a place where you can prove to the admissions offices that you can handle the rigor of a business school program. Whether the GMAT is an accurate indicator of how one would do in Bschool is up for debate, but it has become the standard differentiator, so you should put as much effort as possible into doing well on it. Studying for the GMAT is a a MUST-DO and you must be willing to devote serious time into getting ready for the test. Some people are gung-ho about taking GMAT courses, but I found them to be too expensive for me back in the day, so I went with the self-study option. I used the Kaplan GMAT prep guide with CD-ROM (2008 version can be found here) and found it to be a fantastic resource for self-study. Getting a rockstar GMAT score isn’t a requirement for getting into a top Bschool, but it sure does make it a lot easier to get admitted into one.

– Extracurriculars: As a Software Engineer, I imagine that you might have a rather standard work schedule that allows for some free time after work every day. If so, then I’d recommend participating in some extracurricular activities outside of work if you’re not already doing so. I had a passion for community service, so I was involved with a lot of stuff while I was working and attribute this to portraying me as more than a guy who sat behind a computer plugging away at code all day. Don’t run out and start volunteering your time just so you can get into business school though because that’ll make it seem like a hassle and you likely won’t have fun with it. So, chose activities that interest you, have fun in them, and hope that they’ll show an additional dimension about you in your Bschool applications.

– Recommendations: This is a VERY important part of your application, so you’ve got to be careful about who you ask to write your recommendations. Choose people who know you and your work well, can be relied upon to complete the recommendations on time and in a high quality fashion, and think highly of you to ensure a strong set of reco’s. One tip that I received while I was applying was to create a “recommendation info packet” containing a copy of my resume, an overview of the school(s) for which I was requesting a reco, a summary of my “MBA story”, and a bulleted list of the qualities that I hope the person would highlight in the reco. I’ve written a few reco’s for folks since graduating and that task would have been much easier if they’d provided me with a “recommendation info packet” before I started writing…so, you might want to think about doing that too. Finally, don’t be afraid to check in with your recommenders regularly leading up to the application deadline date because, although they committed to writing the reco, it’s your responsibility to make sure that all of your application components are submitted on time.

I don’t think anything I’ve said above would be considered as ground-breaking insights, but I’ve found that, if you think about something in a simple manner, it stops becoming such an insurmountable challenge. I might be underestimating how difficult some of these things are, but it all seemed somewhat basic when I thought of it in this way.

Now, let’s get to your question about how to make your resume look more appealing…I don’t know if you’ve seen the case interview prep guide that I wrote a couple of years ago, but I’ve got a slide in it about how candidates can update their resumes to make them appeal to consulting firms with the following advice:

“- Without a prior banking or consulting background, you will likely have to tailor your resume to appeal to the Consulting firms
– Instead of focusing on the “must have” skills for your previous industry, emphasize the following:
–—> Analytical abilities
–—> Experience in teams
–—> Communication skills
–—> Leadership/Management experiences
–—> History of achieving results
– Use the “Additional Information” section to bring out qualities/interests to differentiate yourself”

I wrote the above apply to folks from any career background, but, since I have an idea of what your job would entail, I can be a little more specific. Usually, one would want to go into detail about programming languages, databases, application servers, etc. in a resume when applying for a Software Engineer job, but that’s the wrong way to go when gunning for a consulting firm. You’ll want to describe what you’ve done at a higher level than you’d usually do and be sure to focus on results that came from your work. For example, instead of writing about developing code in C# or Java that interfaced with an ASP front-end and an Oracle database on the back-end, describe how the code that you wrote added some key functionality for an online business that earned an additional $1M in revenue as a result. Of course, I came up with that off the top of my head, but I hope you get the idea. I’m not sure if you would need to pursue other work experiences before applying to a consulting firm, but I’d recommend that you talk to recruiting staff at some of your target firms to get their perspective on your question. I’ve never worked as a recruiter before and don’t feel comfortable advising you on that topic.

I hope the advice I’ve given above has been helpful in the way you think through both of these issues. Good luck with your business school applications and job recruiting process…whichever you choose to do first. Take care.

-Marquis