Ask Stacy Blackman

Hello Stacy

After studying finance at undergraduate level, I took up work as an audit clerk in a public accounting firm where I worked for a year. I progressed to work at a global investment bank in the role of a financial controller. The responsibilities I held were equivalent to an analyst but my position was that of an Trainee (one of the 20 trainees who formed a part of 500+ strong finance controllers department). After completion of the year long training, I was offered a full time position based on my performance during evaluation period.

It was at this point that I found out that core finance was not where I wanted to be. Though I knew I had requisite skills and aptitude to excel in Finance, I found myself to be more fond of learning about the operational aspects of a business. For instance, while analysing the performance of investments in a hotel investment, I was more interested in learning what was the cause of change in performance than whether the financial statements were in compliance with Accounting Standards.

Honestly, at that point the question did crop up in my mind - "What if I take up an entry level job in operations and two years down the line, I don't find it interesting?" Flustered about the vision ahead, I consulted with family and friends. Post discussions, I concluded that I needed to gain a complete business experience where I could expose myself not just to Finance/Accounting aspects, but also other aspects such as operations, strategy, marketing and human resource management. Since our business size was small (turnover ~ $400,000) and young (~ 3 years) then, I knew I would be able to experience different aspects of a business. It's nearly a year and a half since I started working in the business (54 months up to Sept, 2013). Our turnover and bottom line has increase by roughly 50% and 65% since then. The entrepreneurial (as I see it) experience has brought me a sense of satisfaction and certainty in my career vision ahead. Since the past year, I volunteered at an national entrepreneurship promoting initiative where I had the opportunity to interact with fledgling as well as seasoned entrepreneurs having ventures in diverse fields such as healthcare, energy, accounting, FMCG etc. Currently, I contribute towards strategic decision making for the initiatives at the city level and I also play an advisory role to fledgling entrepreneurs.

To accelerate the development of my management skills and gain a deeper insight in the field of logistics, I intend to apply to business school this fall. I've selected target schools which have a great focus on entrepreneurship (I guess almost all schools today have an entrepreneurship department) and provide a diverse set of courses/resources to gain knowledge of the logistics industry. My target schools (in descending order of preference) are MIT Sloan, Darden, Kellogg, Duke,INSEAD.

My GMAT score is 710 (92nd %ile) QA 51 (98th %ile) Verbal 34 (69th %ile) AWA 5.0 (59th %ile) - the verbal score is not truly reflective of my verbal aptitude and I am hoping to improve on that when I retake the GMAT next month. Nonetheless, I'm hopeful one of my recommenders (the supervisor at the entrepreneurship promoting initiative) can comment on my verbal skills as I have written reports and other material for the group's activities.

Having said that, I find that my decision to change career paths (finance to family business) is an inflection point and I feel it should be explained. Considering individual target schools, I've selected potential places where I can include this story as follows

MIT - Though the shift in career seems to qualify as an 'extenuating circumstance' for the cover letter, including this would leave me with very less space to showcase my accomplishments. What would be your view if I took up this aspect of my career for the Essay 2 : "Please describe a time when you overcame a personal setback" - the indecision about the career path being the setback - guidance from family, mentor and friends, own research and reasoning to move past the setback.

Darden - Use the supplemental recommendation option and ask my mentor to write for me

Kellogg - Use the additional information section

Duke - Use the Optional essay portion

INSEAD - Use the optional section

I request your opinion on the above. Also, from your diverse admissions consulting experience, what attributes/aspects should pre MBA career changers focus on to prepare a strong application for business school.

Appreciate your help with the above.