With the admission process in full swing I wanted to take a break from my usual "Why Anderson" posts and help out Anderson hopefuls.
Planning for success seems sequential but as I recently learnt after reading the "Startup of you" that is not always true. To achieve success in our new chaotic, interconnected and increasingly competitive landscape we need to constantly evolve. Entrepreneurs have learnt this lesson the hard way and have become increasingly aware of the what-if scenarios. The What-if scenarios force you to focus on your shortcomings and prevent you from indulging in wishful thinking.
As you navigate the admissions process embrace the new adage - "Fail fast and fail often". If you have started the process it's imperative to get a lot of feedback at this juncture so that you have a strong foundation to build upon. Start off with an initial draft of all your essays and get as many eyes on it as you can as opposed to waiting towards the end. Get your colleagues, friends and family to review your half-baked essays and keep making iterative changes.
Use the online resume tool Vmock to upload your resume to ensure it's upto the mark. Quantify your accomplishments and showcase the results of your work. Find resume books of students at b-schools and model your resume on the acceptable format. Recommendations are another critical component that need be tackled early on. Connect with your recommenders and remind them again of your accomplishments, career growth and leadership potential before they put pen to paper. Send your recommenders a short summary of your successes, and even failures, so that they can portray you as accurately as is possible.
As a software tester I learnt the art of exploratory testing - explore a system, analyze results and create a plan of attack based on information gleaned. In a similar vein, the MBA process needs to be structured and explored because your time is finite and in order to get the best ROI on your effort it's important to address the areas that need the most improvement.
Best of luck!
