Applications -- Some dos and don'ts

I did not get an admit this year but learnt lots of lessons. My stats were well above median for all my target schools. Be it the GMAT, GPA, Work ex, career progression, extra currics, i had some stellar numbers. But i failed to write a good story {and here i am aspiring to be a writer}. Following are some tips that "might" help others:

1. Career Goals -- I have a crystal clear picture of my career goals. But clarity alone doesn't help, i failed to show why i am so passionate about my goals. Since my goals were entrepreneurial, i also failed to show viability of my goals.

Learning: Know your goals {short term , medium term, long term} -- reading career literature or visiting the websites of your post MBA target companies is a great help. Go to the career sections, most of the companies share the typical career paths and also the associated skills, competencies and job responsibbilities. You will get a clear idea of what you will be doing and which skills you need to hone.

Why are you passionate about your goals: Don't just say i am passionate about marketing and hence i want to get into a marketing role. SHOW PASSION through some of your actions. I first got acquainted with marketing while working at college fest. I was responsible of marketing the fest to corporates and other colleges. I learnt x, y and z. i enjoyed doing a, b and c. despite of challenges m,n and p i did my job and fest was a huge hit. {This is just an example...you dont have to go back to college .. you can start with your last job or some extra curric that you re pursuing for a long time}. The basic idea is to link your goal with your passion.

Why is your goal feasible: I want to establish a company that will build golf clubs that will have analytics augmented in them. such clubs will automatically gather the data of your swings/hits/misses and once you push the analyze button, it will tell you your flaws and will guide you to a perfect swing. In the next decade there is going to be an increase of 50% in golf playing population and this club will have a huge demand..i envision that such a club can also help sportspersons and take the game to next level...blah blah...{obviously you need to put all of this succinctly...something that i consistently fail to do}

2. Leadership essays: one of the friends told me that best way to appraoch this essay is to prepare a MS Excel sheet. In one cloumn you write down all the leadership qualities that you possess and that you want to highlight in your essays. In second column put down all the stories from your life where you acted as a leader. Now play a mix and match...the story that can highlight maximum number of qualities should be your answer...SHOW THAT CHALLENGE -- HOW YOU RESOLVED IT -- WHY YOU BEHAVED IN THIS PARTICULAR MANNER -- WAT DID YOU LEARN -- WAT SKILLS YOU HOPE TO DEVELOP...

3. Never start writing an essay without having a good idea about your story....work on the plot first and then write the narrative...

4. School research does not mean listing down courses, faculty names, clubs etc,. again it shud be abt you..wat do you hope to develop thru a particular course/lab/club and how you will apply it in your post mba career...i made this mistake of simply listing down a lot of things i was excited about...better approach is to list few things and write about them in detail and how they are related to you...

Suggestions/Feedbacks are most welcome...