As follow-up, do you have feedback on the following 2 issues:

1. If I choose the cover letter as one of the optional essays, would it be a good idea to focus on one single personal/background/non-professional area that I believe defines me to a large extent?

YOU COULD –AS NOTED, NO WRONG ANSWER, AND IF THAT AREA CONTRIBUTES W. REST OF YOUR STORY AND GIVES ADCOM NEW INFO ABOUT YOU, IT GETS DIGESTED HOLISTICALLY W. OTHER ESSAY ANSWERS (AND PEDIGREE, STATS) AS PART OF BIG PICTURE. YOU MAY NEED TO POSITION TALKING ABOUT IT AS ONE OF PRIM. REASONS YOU WANT TO GO IN SOME WAY, SO IT IS A NOMINAL COVER LETTER. OTHERWISE YUO MIGHT DO BETTER SHOEHORNING IT IN TO E.G. DIFFICULT DECISION, ENGAG. W COMMUNITY ETC.  BUT AS NOTED, THEY DONT CARE WHAT THE NOMINAL QUESTION IS, THEY CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY AND HOW IT ADDS UP.

2. For the accomplishments essay, could one of them be related to a very recent EC ( i.e. started this fall ), but that I feel particularly proud of in terms of both initiative and impact?

SURE. DONT OVERTHINK THIS, E.G. THEY WILL SMELL OUT THAT I JUST DID THIS B.C. OF APP.  READING APPS, ONE OFTEN DOES NOT TAKE THE ENERGY TO DEAL W. CHRONO (E.G. WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN) AND EVEN IF YOU SAY,

“LAST FALL, I STARTED XYZ ORG, ….” THE LAST FALL PART DOES NOT GET PROCESSED, READER IS PAYING ATTENTION TO ORG AND WHAT YOU DID.

HBS has published its new questions, see below & note the revised calendar for due dates –if you applying round one, the app. is due on October 15th. MY ADVICE FOR ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS IS GIVEN IN NEXT POST
http://www.hbs.edu/mba/admissions/writtenapplication.html

Essays:

1. What are your three most substantial accomplishments and why do you view them as such? (600-word limit)
2. What have you learned from a mistake? (400-word limit)
3. Please respond to two of the following (400-word limit each):
   1. What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?
   2. Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.
   3. What area of the world are you most curious about and why?
   4. What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

Amazingly, for the first time I can recall, there is no DEFINING LEADERSHIP QUESTION, which used to be the HBS calling card, not sure if this was oversight, or boredom, or what, but I always found that question to be pretty helpful way to separate the four-star restaurants fr. the happy meals.  Of course,  to the extent you have a defining LEADERSHIP exp. in a volunteer org, you can use it for that question. AND I STRONGLY SUGGESST THAT–WHICH MEANS YOU GO BACK TO OLD SCHOOL AND COME UP W. FOUR KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS [3 for Sig Accomplishments, and one defining Community Service accomplishment] + then do VISION. My guess is, that will be the most common template: e.g. the two optional questions will be Comm Service (aka Defining Leadership) and Vision.

OK, on a question by question basis: my take on the new optional questions are

Please respond to two of the following (400-word limit each):

What would you like the MBA Admissions Board to know about your undergraduate academic experience?

hmmmmmm, hard to get value add out of this unless you use it as an invitation to tell your life story: e.g I arrived at Dopey University [1. after being in US only two years; 2. as stary eyed pre-med student w. my doctor mom and dad monitoring my every quiz, 3. dead set on making sure that George W. Bush would never serve a third term, then I found out he couldn’t anyway, so I became a comic video maker ……………] where you fill in the family background of your story, to the extent that has not happened before in essays about mistake or accomplishments. Then you build off that to introduce growth or signature issues in your app/lofe. You dont have to write about ‘academic’ exp. per se, even tho the question says that, THEY DONT CARE, TRUST ME, they just want to find out what makes you tick, not how well you technically answer their questions. Sooooooooo, this question could be good for someone who has an interesting life story to tell, in addition to having 3 sig. accomplishments outside college. Or someone who had major shift in college away fr. pre-med towards micro lending etc. and why. I would NOT use this essay to discuss BORING drivel like how come, based on the arcane requirements of your major and distr. requriements in your department, you had to take course 1 2 and 3, and why those grades were B+ and not A, so actually gpa in your major SHOULD be 3.72 and not 3.59 etc. Altho MANY DO THAT, seriously. There is part in app. often question 13, where you can concisely (500 characters) discuss drivel like that.

Discuss how you have engaged with a community or organization.

Note it says a community or organization, –so you can, I imagine, talk about being a guru in the Grand Theft Auto 4 community, even tho there is no organization per se, just a bunch of wingnuts in a discussion group, where you have become respected as the master blaster (hmmmmmmmm, this is beginning to sound like me on this Forum), but as a rule HBS really does like ORGANIZATIONS w. names, tax-exempt status, hierarchy, and boards of directors (ahem, to take one example, HBS itself) where they can see you working and thru others, making an impact, standing up for your ideas, etc, etc. or even over the course of 3 years, having a defining leadership experience. THIS IS A GOOD QUESTION TO ANSWER IF YOU GOT THE GOODS AND SHOW IMPACT, GROWTH, PUBLIC SERVICE, BLAH BLAH

What area of the world are you most curious about and why?

Dudes, don’t answer this question unless your interest is based on solid contacts and accommplishments, this is not a trivia game, or contest to see whose passport has the most stampls. My guess is, this will be the least answered optional question,and WITH GOOD REASON. If you have a solid interest someplace, you can probl. do better working that into Career Vision, and why meaningful, and tell us in a more concrete way why you plan to become the Charles Schwab of China (or Central Asia) b.c. of emerging trends in that area where middle class are beginning to invest, etc. or why you plan to start low cost medical treatment centers in Indian Villages, blah blah, you’d do better working w.in framework of career vision. IMHO.

What is your career vision and why is this choice meaningful to you?

Hmmmmmmmm, folks, this is an obvious question to answer, but guess what, THE VAST MAJORITY OF ACCEPTED KIDS LAST YEAR ALSO ANSWERED THIS QUESTION AS AN OPTION, AND DUH, THEY GOT ACCEPTED. SO DON’T DOUBLE THINK THIS, ANSWER IT. UNLESS YOU GOT A POWERFUL REASON TO WORK W. OTHER QUESITONS. There are lots of ways to skin this cat, but lemme give you a tip: dont talk about WHY HBS, that is just wasted verbiage. Kids got in last year who did that, but it was because of other things in their apps, the why HBS part never moved the ball forward one inch. A way better answer is to announce some goal that makes sense given your background and positioning, sound like you know what you are talking about, refer to others in the field, and then personalize WHY SIGINIFICANT based on your drives, experiences, hopes, calling etc. etc. 

hbs-career vision essay–this was a question submitted by BW poster:
Is it a dealbreaker to skip the “optional” career goals essay for HBS?  I thought I might go with “Is there anything else you want ADCOM to know?” in my application and talk about career goals in the interview, if I get one. 

To kick it out a notch: I’d say like ~70 percent of the apps they get will have leadership and career questions as 2 out of 3 of the optionals, and, dudes, I’d think a long time before not doing that yourself, dont get cute, it dont work, unless you have a very good reason. Beyond that,

it is pzzble in Undegrad Q to actually explain something, or provide context for you entire app. by esp. explaining who you were like when you entered school, and what happened there.

it is pzzble in what else to tell some charming pwerful story about birth in poor, violent place, and how that has impacted values blah blah and score,

it is pzzble in Global issue to link some global issue w. your own accomplishments and dreams, altho DO NOT WRITE SOME POTTED PLANT HERE about global warming etc.

it is pzzble in culture shock to say something smart and revealing, esp. if you have been victim and did something about it, but even w.out that kind of drama, just capturing how you felt in alien enviro and how it recalibrated values can be a plus.

You kinda have to think which pzzble gain best suits your story. The choice is often not so impt as it seems, the HBS admit process is dense and holistic, your deal usually comes out in the wash, and that is what they are looking for.

ESSAY 4 — Changing The Family Business

In 1995, during the second year of my internship with Mogul Investment Bank (MIB) in New York, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer, and told he had 6 months to live. My father owned a sporting goods store in Queens. In the next two months, I was able to hire a store manager, add a bill paying system, and educate my mother to run the store alone. My father died four months after the initial diagnosis.

I first used contacts at MIB to obtain a definitive diagnosis of my father’s cancer from world-famous specialists at Sloan Kettering Hospital. After consultation with them, my family elected to peruse a ‘care’ not a ‘treatment’ course for the cancer. That decision gave us more time to focus on preparing my mother to take over the business rather than ‘fight’ the cancer. Through a local priest, I located a recent immigrant from Greece (our own ethnic heritage) who was smart and happy to have the manager’s job. He was a lucky hire.

I spent a month training the new manager and going through the old records. (I took an unprecedented three-week leave from MIB and moved back home.) My father was able to help a little, but he soon became too sick. I computerized the bill paying system, and concluded that computerizing the inventory was not worth it. My mother had worked in the store in the past (as had I), and I was able to make her feel comfortable about taking over by making her a collaborator in the reorganization. Also working in the store was a way to take our minds off my father’s illness, and my father was pleased to know that my mother would be financially secure and the store would go on. [word count–297]

CHANGE ESSAY 3 — Savvy IT Consultant With Perhaps Too Much Attitude

As an Information Technology consultant to a major state’s Department of Motor Vehicles [DOMV], I led a 22 person cross-functional decison team (technical and management) in selecting a single vendor (from six) for a $10 million ‘call center’ upgrade.

My first hurdle was credibility. I was a twenty-eight year old consultant and most of the DOMV managers were older, sometimes by 10 years or more. I was extremely respectful to everyone, even going so far as to call senior people ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms’ until asked to use their first name. I also made it a point of meeting individually with 10 leading managers my first two days on the job and personally asking for their help. Many Motor Vehicle senior people were ‘political’ and I made it a point to respect that as the ‘corporate culture’ (it helped that my Dad had been a state ‘lifer’ although not in this state). But I also confirmed from my consulting company that the very reason we were brought in was to make a merit decision. (This is not always the case.)

After ‘earning’ some good faith, I then made it clear, through weekly memos, technical reports, and meetings, that I was firm about reaching an objective decision. I actually made the process more quantative than strictly necessary. The danger of running this ‘wizard’ show was not getting full information about each department’s needs, but I tried to do that informally. Also, my clear objectivity ‘freed’ up the internal technical people, who proved very helpful.

When disagreements emerged, I resorted to an ‘objective scoring process’ to build consensus. At one point, I had to initiate a second round of scoring. I could have been more of “a people” person but given my age, the internal culture, and the limited task, the ’super straight arrow’ model worked. [word count –303]

CHANGE ESSAY 2 — Same Situation - Turning Salesmen Into Consultants - Seen From The Trenches

In 1991, Monitor Software’s (MS) management understood that real growth was going to come from adding the sale of ‘consulting services’ to their core product: specialized data-base software. As one of four consultants from Condor Consulting assigned to help make this transition, my challenge was to guide the government accounts sales force into selling consulting engagements as well as products.

Because the government account sales force already perceived itself as successful, the first thing I had to do was explain why a ‘relationship building’ approach was needed for long term profitability. I met with each member of the 30 person sales force in person for one-hour and from these meetings I developed a 10-day “Change In Mission” training program. Also, as the field specialist, I accompanied sales people on sales calls and showed them how to qualify sales leads into real consulting opportunities.

Because closing a consulting ‘contract’ was more complex and prolonged than selling a product, I also suggested a new profit plan to accommodate the changes. I also built in other standard ’salesmen’ incentives such as premiums, bonuses, and prizes which were new to MS. In two years, the software consulting practice at MS grew from zero to $ 8 million. Looking back, one key was redesigning the compensation package, and selling that idea to MS management. Management thought the package too ‘rich’ but I stressed that they were asking the sales force to ‘change’ dramatically, and this also required some radical ‘re-thinking’ on their part. They still balked, and I suggested a pilot program for volunteer early adapters. That worked, and soon the benefits became clear to the sales staff and management. [word count– 272]

CHANGE ESSAY 1 — Turning Programers Into Consultants

What specifically have you done to help a group or organization change? (300 word limit)

In 1990 as a senior associate at Condor Consulting, I headed a four person Condor team for two years at Monitor Software (MS), a mid-size firm which sold data-base management software products. Our mission was to convince 120 key MS programmers and engineers to sell MS consulting services as a new ‘product,’ in addition to their old engineering and programming tasks. These valued and long-term employees were not sales oriented and were comfortable with the status quo. Also, they were committed to finishing their current projects, not adding to them. I helped plan several company meetings and question-and-answer sessions to share the company’s new vision. I explained the need for MS to change in order to remain competitive. But many MS programmers and engineers, at the end of our first orientation ‘phase’ (6 months), were not committed to the change. After carefully assessing these meetings with my own ‘change’ team, I told senior management the original plan would take 3 years instead of 15 months. We had to hire new people, deal with winning over more recruits, and craft an exit strategy for those unwilling to join.

Over the next two years 70 percent of the initial target audience signed on, and 30 percent were transferred, quit, or let go. The new consulting ‘business’ became 25 percent of MS’ total revenues.

Executing lay-offs at the same time as making new hires was hard. So was integrating new hires into this roiling environment. My team’s success was based on (i) open communication, (ii) a willingness to change the first plan, (iii) hiring outplacement and recruitment experts (after a failure of trying this in-house) and (iv) constantly sharing the new vision and benefits. Although we revised the ‘change’ plan, we never waivered in our ultimate commitment to it–and it showed. [word count– 300]