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Personal Goals

by freespirit_6984 » Wed Jul 08, 2009 4:03 am
Hi,

I'm a little perplexed by how to present my goals. I presently work in the airline industry and would like to continue working in the airline industry post MBA as well.

My long term goal, however, is to run a publishing house, even if it is only a small enterprise, because I really love books and reading. (I'd love it if it were MHP or Bloomsbury. :) ) Besides my love for books, I would like to run a low cost publishing house which can provide books/printed material for free to the mobile schools that are on the rise in India.

This year no school has asked for any "personal goals" but they always ask for long term goals, not to forget the creative essays at Chicago and Stern. Keeping all this in mind, I'd like to know whether
1. I should mention this goal or is there a visible disconnect between my short-term and long-term goals?
2. The goal is too noble to be believable?

Thanks a lot for your time!
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by mbaMissionJessica » Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:45 am
What an interesting question!

In today's economy, admissions committees are telling us that career changers face an additional hurdle and it's imortant that they mention a more realistic back up plan. So you could go that route, using the book publishing as a long term goal with the airline industry as a back up.

Alternatively, you could try to step back a bit and look objectively at transferable skills. You don't mention what it is that you do in the airline industry so I'm just guessing here, but possible transferable skills to running a publishing house could be: organizational/ leadership/management skills, understanding your customer base, marketing, motivating others, individual mentoring/coaching, technological advances etc. (I know these are vague; without knowing more about your current position it's hard to guess at what the transferable skills might be). Then you could write about working in the airline industry as your next step and describe the book publishing as a dream career, demonstrating how the skills you will have acquired from both the airline industry and your MBA transfer to a new setting. Don't forget to look for transferable skills from your extracurricular activities as well (knowledge of rural India, activities with children, etc.)

It's not going to be easy to do but it is possible. You could also position the publishing house as something you would do on the side, rather than as a career.

I wouldn't worry necessarily about sounding "too noble" - but you do want to sound credible, like there are substantive parts of your background that would lead to the publishing house being a reasonable option.

So there are a number of different possibilities you can explore. Best of luck!
Jessica Shklar
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mbaMission (www.mbamission.com)
646-485-8844

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by MaxPower » Mon Aug 24, 2009 4:41 am
Thank you both for sharing this information...
Facing same questions myself as I'm setting my sights on starting a small publishing house too... so now I know how to incorporate this into my application :lol:

Thanks,
Max
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