Admission Essay: Study Groups and the MBA
When considering my role in a potential group setting, I sometimes feel as though the variety of qualities that I bring to the table can be considered helpful and constructive for the group. As I have gotten older, I have had to learn to temper the qualities that do not lend themselves well to group discussion and interaction while enhancing those qualities that add to the discussion and interactions of the group. As an individual, I tend towards the introverted; because of this, I have excellent listening skills and am an active listener in all discussions and projects that a group is involved with. Similarly, because I am an active listener, I am highly aware of when my own expertise or knowledge could be utilized by the group as a whole.
In a study group, all members of the group are experienced professionals in their respective fields. I believe that my ability to listen actively and comprehend a considerable amount of information-- rather than merely waiting for my turn to speak-- is invaluable in an environment that contains a large number of professionals with vast amounts of experience between them. I have spent a lot of time ensuring that I am an active participant in discussions.
Similarly, I am an even-tempered individual with the ability to respect everyone within a group, regardless of their personal backgrounds. To get the most out of a group setting such as a study group, mutual respect and understanding of different cultures and viewpoints; to solve a problem, mutual respect within the group is necessary and I believe that I do an excellent job facilitating that mutual respect. I believe it is important to listen to each member's views on whatever the given topic for discussion is, and work together to achieve the common goal to the best of the group's abilities. I have worked for a large, multi-national company for the last three years, and during my time there, I was trained on how to interact in a professional manner with people of a variety of different cultures. This official training will, of course, help in a class or group of people with diverse backgrounds.
The diversity of both my personal and professional experience will benefit the group: I am a child of two cultures, having lived in both India and the United States. This allows me to navigate cross-cultural exchanges with much more ease, as I have a very personal understanding of the working world in two vastly different cultural spheres.
In addition to my highly-developed listening skills, I have many years of working experience in the finance and technology industries. These skills may seem unrelated at first, but they give me a wide breadth of knowledge on two topics that are fundamentally important to many people's lives, but are often not deeply understood. Working in the technological sector gave me the hands-on, logic-minded approach that allowed me to begin to excel in the financial sector; I have found that the skill set developed in the technological sector translates well into nearly every intellectual pursuit I have attempted thus far.
I work with complex excel-based financial models on a day-to-day basis, a practice which has instilled a high level of patience in me. I can help the students who are looking to learn about financial modeling or anything to do with project planning-- I have trained junior analysts on these models and the general day-to-day workings of a company in the past. In addition, I have managed offshore teams and can help the students understand the dynamics involved in managing an offshore team-- a task which can certainly be daunting at first blush.
It is evident from the class booklet provided in the package for the program that the students are selected from various industries. Each one brings varied experience to the table and each one's experiences shape their opinion about the topics that we will be discussing over the course of the program: I am particularly excited to learn from the diverse group of students in the class.
