For the HBS MBA Essay narrative on an applicant from Private Equity who transformed after a personal setback during covid, the career choice essay is more about the person’s evolution in values within private equity.
This narrative works for someone who has a traditional career path.
I have interacted with many clients who find it challenging to shortlist stories from their life if they are in a traditional consulting, investment banking, private equity or technology careers.
If you don’t have any spectacular moments of choosing a career, the Harvard MBA admissions team has knowingly or unknowingly included two themes in their essay question.
One by including business-minded in their essay sub-heading and two by phrasing the question as a career choice prompt.
If your career choice is traditional, your evolution in thinking, values and outlook from a business perspective should be captured in the essay.
For this example, the person had a strong family backing to get into Finance. So, I couldn’t use any narrative on hardship.
The second most common example is not following the family’s legacy.
This example works if your family runs a small business, or your parents are from the military.
Understand that these two themes are extremely common.
To stand out for Harvard MBA, which has the largest application volume, a better strategy is to find something personal and use that experience as a motivation to change your perspective.
For me, while drafting the essay for F1GMAT’s Harvard MBA Essay Guide, I was deeply aware of the overuse of covid narratives in 2021 and 2022. This was a once-in-a-lifetime challenge that we all faced across the world. So, the examples resonated. But if the admissions team is reading the 100th essay about an applicant losing a loved one to covid, it becomes extremely challenging to stand out.
Regardless of the challenge, I wanted to capture some tender father-daughter moments in the essay to humanize the person’s journey. But my larger focus was on demonstrating the critical role communities play in sustaining a business.
The reaction of the patrons and employees to the challenge the father faces is narrated to demonstrate how the applicant’s worldview on evaluating businesses just on quantitative criteria changed after the incident.
Community as a pillar for business in Harvard Career Choice or Business Minded Essay is essential if you are from Private Equity or Venture Capital.