MBA Essay Tips: Which aspects of your previous roles will form the building blocks of your new career and how you will develop the additional skills to shape your ideal role?

In this MBA admission essay, the adcom people are keen to know your career aspirations and your background preparations for the same. This essay requires a clear description of the aspects of your previous roles that will help as foundation stones for building your new career. A well-written essay should have these following components.

• A vivid discussion of your short-term and long-term career goals.
• Elaborated presentation of your past experiences and how will they work as building blocks for your new career. Eg. You work as an software engineer in an IT company, how you could transfer your skills and experiences to your aspired new role as an IT consultant. Here, you could discuss how your previous technical knowledge and project management skills would help you to add value to your clients by providing innovative solutions.  
• You do not need to limit yourself with only professional roles; you can discuss about your skills developed from your hobbies, interests and extra-curricular activities. Eg. You hold the position of the treasurer in your local club. Then you can possibly discuss about the fund raising skills and financial accounting knowledge in your admission essays. 
• In this MBA essay, the adcom wants to know what are your doing to bridge the gap between what you are up to and your career aspirations and how the MBA would be helpful for the same. The reason of your interest in the MBA program should be crystal clear . You have to show that you have set realistic goals for yourself and you are ambitious in reaching your committed goals.
• Further, you can discuss about Continuous Professional Development programs, professional clubs and certifications as helpful tools for fulfilling your career aspirations.

This essay emphasizes on your short-term and long-term career aspirations. For the MBA admission committee, where you aim to go is equally important from where you have landed up. They try mapping your career goals, past professional experiences, job responsibilities you held, professional skills and the school’s curriculum. In the essays, they want to understand that there are strong reasons that the school can add value to you and support your goals. 

Treat this MBA admission essay as a platform where you can portray all that you have dreamt of as your future. Communicate your career goals as an overall story of your dedication and commitment; clearly justifying how the MBA program would make sense for you to achieve your goals. Take utmost care to be as specific as possible about your career goals; do not get into providing a broad spectrum. Eg. It is better to mention that you wish to be a "M&A consultant" than just saying that you want to be a "consultant" after MBA. Stating your goal precisely makes you win half the battle and makes the reader believe that, you know what you want.

Further, do not discuss a career path in your application that you can’t speak confidently about. Your career goals should make sense in the context of your application story and should be compelling about answering the question of why you want an MBA to pursue that career path. You should also be able to discuss how your career goals will have an impact on an industry, individuals, or society in general. You may not have mastered all the desired skills; therefore, in this essay discuss the possible ways the MBA program will help you in developing additional skills to contour your ideal role. 

Further please bear following things in mind:

• Develop a good structure for the essay.
• Read it repeatedly and ensure that  it is absolutely free from grammatical errors.
• Get it reviewed by friends/peers/admission consultants.