GMAT Essays (AWA)

Question : The following appeared as part of an editorial in a campus newspaper:

"With an increasing demand for highly skilled workers, this nation will soon face a serious labor shortage. New positions in technical and professional occupations are increasing rapidly, while at the same time the total labor force is growing slowly. Moreover, the government is proposing to cut funds for aid to education in the near future."

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion, be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion. (used with permission from mba.com)

My response :
The argument follows the supply-demand economic theory. It says that when the demand for the labor increases, there will be a shortage of labor force. However, countries like India and China, have proved that even though demand increases, there is no shortage of labor force. The argument concludes that the goverment is contemplating to cut educational funds at the same time. In my opinion the argument mistakes correlation for causation. Hence, the argument is not well reasoned. Let's see why.

Firstly, the argument fails to provide any statistics about the country where the analysis was done. If it's India or China, where the population is exploding, the supply of cheap labor and skillful labor will never decrease. It's a known fact that during the dot com bubble, there were a lot of technical and hardware firms that flourished in India and China. The dot com bubble did affect the two nations in terms of reduction of demand of skilled labor, but, in general, the economies were not affected by the shortage of supply. Also, it's worth noting that the government never had to cut any educational funds. In fact, the educational funds provided by Indian government increased considerabl. Today, we see a lot of technical and management schools flourishing in India.

Secondly, if we consider developed nations like United States of America, even though there is a shortage of skilled labor, the government didn't have to cut educational funds because of shortage of labor. The educational funds were cut in my college because of global economic recession, which is different from what is described in the argument. Moreover, the American government has increased the number of H-Visas (skilled visas) in order to fill the labor gap. Highly skilled people from countries like India, China and Mexico are employed for a short duration of time. Moreover, the government is not obligated to provide them citizenship or permanent residency after the employment. Hence, this tactic has proved useful for the American government in general. There was a research study done at Harvard Business School that confirmed that H Visas creates more jobs in the country than the number of jobs held by H Visa holders.

Thirdly, if we look at the statistics of the educational workforce, USA still provides world's best education. America feels pride for having 15 universities among the world's best business schools, as per the latest research conducted by Businessweek! Even though there is a shortage of labor force in the country, the educational system or the educational funds have not been impacted. There has been an increase in the tuition rate not because of the reduction in labor force but because of the inflation and global recession. On top of that, foreign skilled laborers sign up for courses in the country and help the universities to get more tuition funds. It is a known fact that international students pay a higher tuition rate than that paid by local residents. Hence, skilled employment, in turn, helps the country to bolster more educational programs.

Lastly, the argument fails to elucidate demographics of the skilled workers and professional occupations. Is it an automobile industry or a manufacturing industry ? There is no clear depiction of the type of industry under analysis. It's a known fact that different industries have a different supply-demand relationship because of multitude of variables involved. Automobile industry may not be facing a labor shortage overall, but financial industry may be facing shortage of computer professionals. Hence, we cannot generalize our observation across all industries.

Hence, the argument fails to provides necessary statistics, type of industry under analysis and any remediation actions taken by the government to fill the labor gap. Thus, the argument is completely flawed.

Essay #2 : "Too many people think only about getting results. The key to success, however, is to focus on the specific task at hand and not to worry about results."

What do you think this piece of advice means, and do you think that it is, on the whole, worth following? Support your views with reasons and/or examples drawn from your own experience, observations, or reading. (used with permission from mba.com)

Answer - In my opinion, this is a very sensitive topic. The validity of the argument depends on an individual and what matters to him or her the most. For some, it may be the results, while for others, it may be the means. From my experiences, the argument is well reasoned to some extent and a person should undertake a task without caring too much about the results. Results do matter because they help a person to undertake a specific activity. But, results shouldn't be the only driving factor. Let's see why.

Firstly, the holy book of Hindus says "Do your actions and leave the results of those deeds to Me." The book says that if you spend the majority of your time worrying about the results, it will reduce your efficiency. For example, my childhood friend Martin joined Google in 2004. He concentrated on his office work without worrying about getting into the business school. He worked hard and received accolades for his leadership, technical expertise and volunteering activities. He never intended to go to the business school. To my surprise, after five years, he met one of our alumni who went to London Business school (LBS). He got inspired and applied to LBS. To my surprise, he got accepted! On the other hand, James, my classmate, had a dream to pursue business education from LBS right from the first day of college. He got recruited in the same firm as Martin did but James used to spend the majority of his time cribbing about the business processes and dirty politics in the company. He ended up nowhere in the end. He did score well on GMAT, but his other deeds were nowhere near to what Martin did.

Secondly, we if we look at the other side of the coin, at a more granular level, then we will realize that every individual actually cares, if not worries, about the results. I drove to Pearson's testing center today in order to take the GMAT. I had my goal ahead of me. But, did I worry about getting into a business school before driving to the testing center? No. Hence, in my opinion, having an understanding of what one needs to do and which path he needs to follow, is very essential to complete the task. Martin used to have a clear understanding of what he wanted to achieve by writing a convoluted computer program. But, did he have an intention to get into the business school ? No. Hence, in my opinion, one should care about the past results or very short term goals and learn from them without worrying too much about whether one will achieve long term goals.

Thirdly, our brain is a highly intricate neural system. It learns through experience. Hence, in order for us to succeed, in any sphere of life, one has to remember the path undertaken to achieve result X. It may be possible that result X may not be something we may have wanted in first place. But, we can learn from our experience and try to change the result X to result Y.

Fourthly, I was reading an article about "How to get into the business school." The student asked a question to London Business School admissions officer, "What profiles do you like to have?" The admissions officer chuckled with delight and responded, "Well, if you care more about the profile than about who you are, you will never get into London Business School!" She intelligently conveyed the message that one should focus more on who we are and on representing ourselves to the admissions committee rather than painting a rosy picture about someone and trying to fool them. It won't help.

Hence, in my opinion the argument is well reasoned at a low level -- for achieving our day-to-day goals or short term goals -- but not at high level: long term goals. One cannot deny that results are important and play integral role in our success, but they shouldn't be the defining factor of the path undertaken by us. Above all, worrying about results hasn't helped anyone and never will.