What Mark Zuckerberg told Harvard about MBA essays

[Thurston]

Facebook CEO and noted dropout Mark Zuckerberg gave the commencement address at Harvard's graduation this year, and he left the graduates with an important nugget of advice for applying to business school. If you weren't paying close attention, you may have missed it.

Here is the full video. The quote in question comes at 5:58:

Here is the quote:

One of my favorite stories is when John F. Kennedy visited the NASA space center, he saw a janitor carrying a broom and he walked over and asked what he was doing. The janitor responded: "Mr. President, I'm helping put a man on the moon".

What did the Janitor do in his reply to strike a chord with the President? In a word, he offered a purpose for his work.

Say one of the Janitor's Window Cleaner peers applied to business school. If we were on the admissions committee and came across his resume, we might see lines such as "expertly cleaned all glass surfaces with 10% fewer streaks and peers" or "implemented new harness safety program, dramatically reducing falls."

Now let's consider the Janitor. What might his business school resume say? Maybe, "Enabled the success of the moon-landing by providing clutter-free work spaces that enabled calm, decisive mission management" or, "Aided the President's key national priority by maintaining safe, clean, and functional work spaces that top engineering talent would want to work in."

Why do we find the second resume more compelling?....
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