[Personal Branding]Essay strategy and tips 81110

Whys: Why MBA, Why Now, Why this school
Long-Term and Short-Term Goals
and Persoanl Uniqueness

-You need to go much deeper on your whys

and be analytical, not just emotional expressions with adjectives

use fuctional and skill terms such as "advanced market forcast skills, sharpen negotiation skills, learn pricing strategy and fundamental finance analysis, also quality control on supply chain."

-More specific on your goals, and more details on what you needs

"to thrive my career to senior supply chain manager in 3 years after my mba, I need more strategic mindset on external partnership management, while supervise and motivate my team on efficiency control, also delegate subordinate on bahalf of senior executives, I need xxx MBA's 'Competing Through Supply Chain Logistics,' 'Procurement and Sourcing Strategies,' also 'Leading The Strategic Change Process.'"


-your long-term career aspiration needs to come our from your personality and soul

and supported by anecdotal stories and track evidence

"when I was in college club running xx charity event, my classmate Nancy accidentally notified that I was good at logistic details, and I was always good on interpersonal communications. Since then, I focused my career on supply chain management and have been constantly promoted 3 times in 4 years to a department supervisor."

-For your why now, you need to explain clearer about the urgency

"When my VP promoted me to this position and expected me to take bigger responsibility on executive level in 3 to 4 years, I felt empty on corporate strategy and cross-business negotiation, and I don't see the systemetic training in company to prepare me for senior position in short run, so studying an MBA now is a better opportunity cost for me."


-Need to show your uniqueness through your diverse background and personal experiences

and you need to walk adcom through the details with stories, at least 2 to 3 levels down

or you can see most people say the same thing as your statement

it should be like this: "coping with 6 countries across Europe, Asia, and South America shaped my unique personality. The enthusiasm from Brazil partner, the strictness from Japan supplier,and the emotional Euperean-style negotiation experience taught me how to manage unpredictable schedule. One time when I led the outsourcing project with Japanese partner, I....."


-For long-term aspiration, it needs to be realistic and feasible through specific short-term steps.

"When I discussed the outsourcing strategy with my CEO, I felt I could see through his vision with more systemetic on risk management, and also more strategic on competition...To be a supply chain executive focusing on East Europe strategic alignment, I know I'm lack of turing vision into corporate policies, and also I need more social skills on both networking with senior business partners and also time management. Also on capital raising and finance optimization, I need to improve those skills from my short-term goal "senior supply chain manager in Asia regional market first."

It needs to be much deeper from the "invisible motivation," "underlying reasoning," and your "seasoned personality"