Getting into business school: Career Goals Matter

Getting into business school: Career Goals Matter

Let’s talk about your career goals, which is the bedrock of a business school application. You’ve got good goals if they’re realistic and relevant. By realistic, I mean you can absolutely change function and industry. Most people are. Otherwise, why else would you go back to school? But it can’t be something that admissions would just sort of roll their eyes at. For instance, let’s say that you’re in a very technical role, no client interaction at all, and you write that you want to be a venture capitalist or go into PE. That’s just not going to happen. Maybe long-term, down the route, but you need to stop at a big bank first and do some investment banking. It’s hard enough to get into banking let alone into PE or VC. So, I’d be really careful to not make your goals too lofty. You can have fun and be lofty with your long-term goals, but keep those short-term goals a bit more realistic. You also want to make sure that your goals are relevant. Relevant meaning that an MBA is required for them. If you look online, you can see the actual titles at your target firms and it says an MBA is preferred or required. Technology is a huge sector that doesn’t necessarily require or value MBAs. You just want to be careful that the goals you put forth make sense.