Monday Morning Essay Tip: Long-Term Career Goals
September 22nd, 2008 | Posted in Monday Morning Essay Tips, Blogroll
Many MBA candidates struggle as they try to define their long-term goals. While short-term goals should be relatively specific, long-term goals can be broad and ambitious. Regardless of what your short- and long-term goals actually are, it is most important that you present a clear “cause and effect” relationship between them. The MBA Admissions Committee will be confused by a long-term goal that lacks grounding. Still, you should not interpret this to mean that you need to choose one industry and state that you will stay in it for your entire career. You can present any career path that excites you, again, as long as there is a logical path to achieving your goals.
Many candidates discuss ambitions in Management Consulting—could an individual with such aspirations justify any of the following long-term goals?
A) Climbing the ladder and becoming a partner in a consulting firm
B) Launching a boutique consulting firm
C) Leaving consulting to manage a nonprofit
D) Leaving consulting to buy a failing manufacturing firm and forge a “turnaround”
E) Entering the management ranks of a major corporation
The answer is that this candidate could justify any of these long-term goals (and many others), as long as he/she connects them to experiences gained via his/her career as a consultant. When it comes to your goals, you need not feel constrained—you just need to emphasize that your goals are logical/achievable and ambitious.
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