The Application Process

Hello Friensd, Can someone tell me weather the following achievement of mine can serve as an example of leadership trait as well.

Job offer from Barclays capital: I had a long cherished dream of joining an investment bank as a full time employee. By the time I could get visa for UK and be in London to hunt a job, it was middle of year 2008, when the recession was at its peak and the job market was frozen. Changing employer in such a bad economy was quite a challenging proposition. Rather than succumbing to the circumstamces, I stayed aggressive and continued searching for a new job. Before I could expect an interview call, I needed to have more skills and an excellent command on them. I started acquiring new skills through self-study, exercises, tests and mock interviews available on internet. Besides this I would skim through job portals everyday, to make sure that I do not miss any job opening. After four months of unrelenting struggle, I got the first invitation for an interview from Barclays Capital. I did well in interviews and got the job. This achievement of mine served as an inspiration for my friends and family. Through this success, I tought them to remain unnerved in any situation.

While it is a good story and it definitely shows perseverance and other valuable skills, I believe it is a bit of a stretch for "leadership". An admissions committee wants to see how you act when leading others (peers or those junior or senior, but, other people must be involved!). It could be leading a large team or leading one other, but, I think it is almost impossible to write a good leadership essay if it doesn't involve any interactions with others.

HOWEVER, with that said, you could absolutely still use your Barclays job search example as a support. For instance, perhaps there is another leadership situation in your life in which you decided to gain more knowledge and improve your skills rather than act hastily or out of fear - maybe you learned to have confidence in yourself and your (eventual) ability to reach your goals because of what you went through with your job search. Maybe being faced with the adversity (recession type environment) made you more willing to work hard as a leader in another situation, etc. Obviously, I don't know what other example you want to use, but, I'm just trying to give a broad example of how you might be able to incorporate the story successfully.

And, don't worry about it being a purely work related story. The leadership experience doesn't necessarily have to have been successful - you can write a good essay about a less than perfect leadership time as long as you write about what you have learned since and how you would be more effective as a leader today.

I hate to send you back to the drawing board, but, I'd try to rework this answer! Hope this helps.

Best of luck to you!