Types of Candidates MBA Admissions Officers are Looking for

Having considered the types of business schools you should apply to, consider the needs of the MBA admissions officers who are looking at your profile. They […]

Having considered the types of business schools you should apply to, consider the needs of the MBA admissions officers who are looking at your profile. They will be asking themselves whether you will have the right impact on their MBA programme, including the learning and social environment and the post-MBA recruitment process.

You can improve your chances of success by developing strategies to highlight your diverse experience, level of maturity, academic excellence, team-building expertise, networking skills, and of course, your potential in the job market. By doing so, you will push both yourself and the admissions committees into a win-win situation.

What Can You Bring to Your Fellow Students

In speaking of her diverse background, Jonnah Kelly, who was admitted to Cranfield School of Management in September 2008, said, “I hoped that my variety of experience in the not-for-profit sector would add weight to my professional contribution to the students in my class. How many times does Cranfield get applications from someone working for a de-mining charity in ex-Zaire?!”

While not all students have held down such unusual jobs as Jonnah Kelly before they apply, most students have something about their background that makes them stand apart from their peers. MBA recruiters need to know what makes you different and what you can bring to the student body and the fast-paced networking environment.

Maturity is also a quality that should not be underestimated on an MBA programme, particularly EMBAs where the average age and number of years of experience is greater than for other types of programmes. MBA recruiters look at your personal maturity to gauge your potential for developing new skills and competences alongside experienced faculty members and peers. According to the Graduate Management Admission Council, a candidate with five to six years’ work experience before embarking on an MBA programme offers more in terms of maturity, effectiveness, and professionalism.

Gudmundur Kristjansson, who was admitted to the Rotterdam School of Management in September 2008, said his background as an IT consultant was successful but he wanted to add something very different to his profile. As a result, he discussed an early invention of his childhood that arose out of a health issue. “When I was just 15 years old, I designed an educational application for dyslexic children. It was based on my own experience as a dyslexic child. I sold the distribution rights two years later. Ever since then I have looked at obstacles as opportunities. I have since managed to conquer my dyslexia, which showed me that through hard work and strong belief in myself, I can succeed in what I want to do.”

In order to demonstrate the key qualities appreciated by MBA recruiters in essays and interviews, you should expect to spend at least one to two months in in-depth preparation. At this critical point in the application process, many prospective MBA students turn to professional MBA service providers to enlist their know-how and support. How to highlight so many key attributes, from cultural diversity to job potential, without losing confidence in yourself or blowing yourself out of proportion is the challenge facing you. At this key stage, you can learn from professionals who have years of experience in helping MBA candidates in similar situations.

The Kellogg-WHU EMBA programme attracts candidates from a wide range of academic and industry backgrounds. By industry, 20 per cent of the students come from the financials service sector, 18 per cent from the consulting business, 15 per cent from the telecommunication industry, 11 per cent from the technology sector, 8 per cent from the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industry and the rest from a wide range of other sectors. A full 35 per cent majored in business and economics at university level, with 29 per cent in engineering.

“There really isn’t an average profile of a Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA student,” said Bernadette Conraths, Director, Kellogg-WHU Executive MBA. “We recruit with diversity in mind because we know it’s important to have a mix of nationalities, business experiences, and industries represented in class. To me, it is part of the attraction and strength of our programme.”

What Faculty Are Looking For

As you prepare your list of business schools to apply to, one of your considerations will be the quality of the faculty, especially those in the general management programmes. In the 2008 Financial Times rankings of 100 business schools, Harvard is ranked # 1 for the quality of faculty research as measured by the number of articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Wharton and London Business School are ranked # 2 and # 3 respectively. Such top-ranked b-schools will also expect high standards of their student body as well, and consequently their admissions officers are going to consider your GMAT score and academic background in the application process. They are looking for highly motivated students who either already have the skills to follow the coursework, or have the motivation to get up to speed quickly.

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You first need to consider what the GMAT tells the admissions officers, and what your university transcripts reveal. If you have done well on the GMAT, all that really means is that you have demonstrated the ability to learn the types of subjects and tools found on MBA programmes, such as finance, accounting, economics, statistics, and spreadsheets. But you may in fact know nothing about these subject areas before you start the MBA (not to worry, this is the whole point of a general management MBA!).

Students who are admitted need to be able to communicate effectively with their finance, accounting and marketing professors in the core phase. As a result, business schools often suggest, or require, that some students attend a boot camp on quantitative analysis before the MBA programme begins. If you do not have a good grasp of quantitative skills, you should consider taking a refresher course, or you could find yourself struggling in the first term.

Developing Leadership Skills

Candidates sometimes underestimate their own strengths, thinking that MBA development officers are looking for a whole range of soft and hard skills, including leadership, communication, international experience, all wrapped up into one single profile. These skills can often be acquired and demonstrated from the team-building that goes on during the MBA and beforehand. For this reason, students are advised to understand what types of leadership skills they have already acquired and what they are best suited for.

“Some students are more suited to working in a smaller company where they might have a much greater influence on the company’s development than working in a large trans-national corporation,” says Sean Rickard, Director of MBA Admissions at Cranfield School of Management. “We go to considerable trouble using tools such as psychometric tests, assessment centres and career workshops to help students understand the value they can bring to an employer and also the value that a particular type of employment can bring to the quality of their life.”

Leadership skills and international experience are characteristics that prospective MBA candidates should strive for. But even if you cannot show evidence of them on your CV, you should be able to demonstrate them at the interview stage. “Openness to total diversity and global business practices is essential,” says Kirt Wood, RSM Erasmus MBA Programme, Recruiting and Development. “But we are looking for candidates who acknowledge that they wish to undertake our programme because they have a desire to increase their understanding of global business practices and manage in a diverse world, as well as demonstrate strong motivation and career plans in this direction.”

Indeed the self-knowledge that you acquire during your MBA experience will be crucial to your goal of getting a rewarding job before or upon graduation. Your self-confidence will drive your career forward. Many firms in the consulting area that are continuing to hire MBAs, such as Bain & Co., have reported an increase in applications of more than five per cent in 2008 compared with the same time last year. As a result, recruiters are paying far more attention to the quality of applicants, ensuring that they are truly interested in the consulting industry as opposed to seeing it as a stop-gap measure while they wait for the financial services industry to pick up again. Lesson: Know who you are.

Making the Case for International Experience

MBA recruiters are looking for candidates who are not averse to relocating outside of their home country or even their continent for the sake of participating in and learning from a diverse international environment. Their programmes will benefit from candidates who are willing to move out their comfort zones and into new areas of thinking that span location, industry and function. Recruiters want to raise the bar on their student profile, so that the class as a whole can understand the challenges ahead in a global context.

Each MBA candidates comes before the MBA recruiters with a unique cultural point of view and an agenda that shapes their international outlook on best practices. It is the job of the admissions officers to ensure that you can share best practices and contribute to them with students from other countries and continents, and other industries and sectors. A multicultural student body, led by an international faculty, is the sole guarantee that a top MBA programme can provide its admitted students. You need to prove that you can contribute to an exciting learning environment

MBA Programmes Responding to Your Needs

It is not just prospective MBA candidates who are adapting their profile to the needs of MBA recruiters. Business schools are constantly tweaking their programmes in response to the quick pace of the job market.

RSM is a case in point. After taking a hard look at its 15-month full-time MBA, the decision was taken to introduce a 12-month accelerated MBA programme. “The amount of actual tuition time remains, but the one-year MBA is much more effective because it is more concentrated, and can be better integrated than the 15-month programme with the internship break,” said Ken Robertson, Director, MBA Marketing and Admissions. “In short, it is a higher-quality return for the same investment and less opportunity cost for the time out of the workforce.”

If anything can be drawn from the RSM move, it is that MBA recruiters, in accessing your application, will analyze carefully your potential to enter the job market upon graduation. The way you present yourself and show your motivation will have an impact on their admissions decisions. In short, getting admitted is similar to getting a job: both depend on your preparation, presentation and motivation.

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