a marketing career Vs a consulting career

[nazlysaey]

Dear Stacy,

i was just reading a friend's successful college application essays (he got into harvard, columbia, chicago, and stanford.) The essays kept going on about how consulting enabled him to have a great impact on society; affecting millions of lives, and i couldn't help but compare myself to him while i was reading.

I am an assistant brand manager at a fast moving consumers good conglomerate and in terms of giving back to society through my job, it doesn't even compare to his consulting career. it makes me wonder how i should go around this in my essays (in 3-4 years) and what the Adcoms would think when they compare marketing backgrounds to hundreds of consulting backgrounds who undergo social projects everyday as a part of their work (plus social activities outside of work assignments.)

Thank you in advance, Stacey.

Regards,
Nazly

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear Nazly,

Schools do not generally compare work experience amongst candidates in terms of what you do versus someone else. They look at each applicant's work experience for what it is. Ideally, schools want to see quality experience in your tenure, demonstrating a depth of knowledge in your field, with career progression and a successful track record. Jobs in different industries and in different functional areas are different, so it would be unfair to compare work experience from the perspective of "this applicant saved 50 lives with his research and this applicant only made the company $50,000 in the last year". The best thing you can do is to ensure your application highlights how you have added value to your company and progressed in your career.

Good luck,
Lisa

[nazlysaey]

Thank you, Lisa. This definitely helped.