Career Goals

[mobenny]

Hi,

I am still deciding between two totally different career paths. One is quantative finance which is a logical path from my background in real estate finance and equity trading. And the other is apparel/fashion brand mangement, which has been an interest and passion of mine since I started a clothing company during college. How do I handle the career goals question? I am leaning towards pursuing my passion in fashion post MBA, however, I realize that the quantatative finance career goal is a more logical step to explain given my background.

I am thinking about attacking the career goals question by saying that I have always acceled in mathmatics both in school and in my career. And I am interested to consider a career in quantative finance capacity. However, I been drawn to apparel and fashion for a long time and I would like to explore this passion during business school. For example, I know that Stanford offers its MBA students the opportunity to do two summer internships between there first and second year. They allow for two internships to give students the opportunity to choose between possible career options. I could go on to say that I believe that exposure to both fields in an internship role would allow me to choose and carve out a specific program during my second year, for example at stanford.

Would the adcom look positivly on someone who is aware of two different interests and is looking to carve out a clear career path during the first part of his mba experience?

Thanks in advance for your take on my question.

Best regards,

Mo

[mbamission]

Your career goals essay can work for either path, as long as you show that your goals are plausible (given your background/passions/interests) and achievable. If you choose to write about fashion, then you need to relate this to your prior company and your passion for this industry. What niche are you looking to fill? Why do you need an MBA to achieve this goal? How are you going to make an impact with this business? These questions should be addressed in the essay.

For the finance route, obviously, this is a logical next step, so if you can talk passionately about your plans, you can make this work as well. Neither career path is necessarily better since they both relate to your background. Since these goals are quite unrelated, I recommend that you only write about one path for your essays. Please review our free personal statement guide for more tips on approaching this essay:

http://www.mbamission.com/docs/mbamissi ... _guide.pdf

Best of luck!

Monica Okrah
MBA Mission
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