Career goals - need some clarification on what to write

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I'm filing out the Personal Organizer from Montauk prior to deciding how much consulting I need (comprehensive plan or hourly) and I hit the career goals section. I divided it in to long-term ( > 10 yrs.) and short-term ( < 6 yrs.) goals, and then added a column to describe how an MBA is needed to achieve this. However, I am not sure how much detail would end up being needed in the admissions essays (i.e. how much thought do I need to put in to this).

Right now I have some general roles with short descriptions of the responsibilities for short-term: Technical Manger, Program Manager, Product Management. Long-term goes in to things like heading up new business development initiatives, VP of engineering, Tech. strategy leader.

Where I am getting a bit lost is how much detail I need to back these up - or how much more thought I need to put in to it.

Questions:

1.) Do I need to specify an industry? Is high tech. enough? Or do I need to just guess at more specific things, such as avionics (my current field).

2.) Do I need to specify exact positions, or can a general role/area be enough? For example, Product Management has a lot of pieces to it, and depending on the organization I may end up doing all or a specific piece of it.

Any help is greatly appreciated! When I last purchased some hourly time with Stacy Blackman, I was told I needed to better develop my "story," so that is what I am trying to do with the Personal Organizer from Montauk.
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by Lisa Anderson » Sun May 17, 2009 3:05 pm
Dear claures,

1.) Do I need to specify an industry? Is high tech. enough? Or do I need to just guess at more specific things, such as avionics (my current field).
2.) Do I need to specify exact positions, or can a general role/area be enough? For example, Product Management has a lot of pieces to it, and depending on the organization I may end up doing all or a specific piece of it.

It is best to specify an industry if possible and a functional area (i.e., marketing, finance, operations, etc.). You don't have to have an exact job title or a company selected, but you do have to write about a desired career path in your essays and how the MBA will help you move from your current experience to your new career. So, product management in the high tech industry is specific enough, but if you can narrow down within the high tech sector or aspect of product management, that might also be helpful.

Best of luck,
Lisa
Lisa Anderson
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Stacy Blackman Consulting

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