How to Overcome Weaknesses In Your MBA Profile

UPDATE: This article was originally posted on May 13, 2020. It has been updated with new information and tips below. 

As the saying goes, nobody’s perfect. 

Yet when applying for an MBA, weaknesses in your profile are not just “background information” but are major areas you should take into account when developing your MBA application strategy. 

That’s because the competition is tough. Harvard Business School, for example, receives over 8,000 applications per year for just ~1000 spots. 

However, weaknesses do not mean your application is doomed from the start. Instead, by carefully and critically evaluating your application’s weak points, you’ll be able to develop a strategy that offsets these issues and demonstrates your ability to thrive in your target MBA program. 

That’s why we’ve compiled the following list of three weaknesses that can seriously derail your application, as well as tips on how to overcome them. 

 

Weakness #1 – Academic Preparedness 

Though the MBA offers unparalleled opportunities to build your network, participate in clubs, and take part in global treks, at the end of the day, the MBA is still a Master’s degree. 

As such, it is essential that successful applicants demonstrate they are academically prepared to take on the rigors of the MBA program. 

Academic preparedness is measured in two key ways. 

First, the admissions committee looks at your undergraduate (and graduate, if you have them) transcripts. They are both checking to see if you pushed yourself in university by taking a range of challenging courses and, of course, if you earned good grades in these courses. 

Second, they also look at your GMAT or GRE scores. Though the test is just one aspect of your application, obtaining a high score is important to reinforce that you still have the academic prowess you’ll need to thrive at a rigorous, top-ranked program.

 

How to fix it

If your college grades were on the lower side (as compared to the average admitted candidate at your target school or schools), you will want to make sure to study extra hard for the GMAT/GRE. By earning a high score on this exam, you can demonstrate that you have the quantitative aptitude the schools are looking for. 

If you have a low GMAT/GRE score – and cannot retake the exam for some reason – you should work hard to demonstrate a track record of excellence for the rest of your career and life. By focusing on how you’ve consistently stood out and by crafting winning MBA admissions essays that highlight what makes you irresistibly unique, you’ll give yourself your best chance of passing through to the interview phase. 

In either case, we recommend you consider writing an optional essay to discuss any reasons behind your less-than-stellar academic record or low GMAT/GRE score. Though we don’t suggest making excuses, explaining meaningful reasons behind your low performance can go a long way to better understanding what you bring to the table. 

 

Weakness #2 – Years of Work Experience

When researching your target programs, we suggest that you look into a number of different factors that make one program completely unique from others. These might include location, class size, and even the strength of the alumni network in your home city or region. 

Another important factor you may come across is the average age or the average number of years of work experience the graduating class at a program had. Though no two applicants are the same, in general, admits at top business schools tend to have between 4 and 6 years of work experience. 

But why is this the “perfect” window, and what does it mean if you have more or less experience than the average admit?

First, one of the most important benefits of an MBA is your ability to use your business school degree as leverage to earn a higher salary and land a more senior position. 

However, as you get older and advance your career, promotions are less frequent. This is due to the simple fact that most organizations have few people at the top calling the shots, meaning it may take years for you to nab an open C-Level position. 

On the other hand, if you’ve recently graduated and have less than 2 years of work experience, it can be hard to gauge factors like how prepared you are to pursue your career goals and how much you’ll be able to contribute to the classroom environment. 

 

How to fix it

If you’re on the more experienced side of things…

If you are on the older or more senior side of the applicant pool, a 1-year program might be a better option for you, as it allows you to return to the job market more quickly than you would if you attend a 2-year program. 

This was the advice we gave Mark, an MBB consultant whose quick promotions and frequent international cases meant he was quickly approaching 30 yet still had not completed his MBA. Considering his intention to stay in consulting, a 1-year program was a much better option as it would efficiently allow him to build the skills he needed to quickly and successfully step into a Manager role while staying ahead tenure-wise of peers who had joined the firm after he did. 

If you’re on the less-experienced side of things…

If you are a college senior and are sure that business school is right for you, you might want to consider applying for a deferred enrollment program. Now offered by schools like Harvard, MIT Sloan, Kellogg, Stanford, and many more, deferred enrollment programs allow you to apply now and start later. This gives you the peace of mind that you have already been admitted into a top program and a few extra years to build relevant work experience before hitting the books again. 

If you aren’t a college senior, have little work experience, and still want to apply, make sure you demonstrate that the years of experience you have accumulated have allowed you to quickly develop impressive achievements that demonstrate your leadership potential, intellectual horsepower, and community engagement. 

Furthermore, make sure your goals are rock solid, so the admissions committee can clearly see you are ready to take the next steps in your career. 

 

Weakness #3 – Undefined Goals 

Adcoms are looking for applicants who can show that they have clearly thought out how to create meaningful and realistic impact – this is the easiest way for them to see whether you will use your spot at their school wisely and purposefully. You want the readers of your application to come away thinking, “Wow, this person’s goals are really important!” 

While it is important for you to demonstrate your strengths and capacities, none of this means much to adcoms if those ideas don’t work towards a bigger purpose. That bigger purpose is both what motivates you to pursue your career and also what motivates them to open one of their limited spots for you, so you can go forward and give their school a good reputation.

Considering that you are competing against thousands of others for a selective spot, it’s important that you give a very clear picture of what you want to do with your MBA and how that will have some kind of notable impact – this will be essential in helping you stand out from the rest of the candidates.

Therefore, it’s essential that you think long and hard about how to communicate your goals as actionable tasks that are solving a specific problem or targeting a certain issue.

 

What makes a goal clear?

Your goals should be clear and focus on an achievement, not just something you’re interested in, as they are your most important argument for your application. 

Clear goals are concrete and specific. Your goals should express exactly what you will do with what your school(s) of choice can provide you. 

For example, “My goal is to become a leader in tech to drive innovation” is quite abstract and unclear, whereas “My goal is to become a product development partner at McKinsey, pushing for integration of automation into top financial firms’ systems to ease customers’ experience” paints a vivid picture of what you will be doing.

They are also realistic. If you have strengths in analytics with an engineering background, it doesn’t make sense for you to have a goal relating to employee engagement within the human resources department. Stick with goals that align with your previous experience and strengths unless you can find a way of justifying a big switch by discussing your lessons learned in a meaningful way. 

Similarly, they are actionable. This means that you recognize that you understand your position as an individual and that large-scale impact will require you to work alongside teams and within networks to achieve change. It doesn’t make sense for you to argue that you will single-handedly solve climate change; however, it is more believable if you say you will lead disruptive transformations that reduce companies’ emissions by integrating a new kind of technology into their production process.

Goals are also clear if they come off as sincere. Showing that you are passionate and motivated about what you want to do will prove to the readers that you will remain driven to achieve your goals in the long run. 

For example, compare “In the short-term, I want to work in a startup focused on providing accessible housing opportunities, as this is an important issue in my region” to “In the short-term, I want to work in a startup with demonstrated impact on housing equality in my region, such as Housing Lives, utilizing my strong negotiations skills to attract long-term angel investors who can ensure that our social impact can grow healthily.” 

 

How to fix it

Luckily, this is the easiest weakness on the list to fix! 

If you’re not sure if your goals work for your profile, or even if you’re not sure what your goals are to start with, we have prepared an article dedicated to helping you think through how to develop and present your MBA goals. Though it adds a bit of extra work, ensuring your goals are clear and consistent with your personal brand is a great time investment that will add a tremendous amount of value to your application. 

 

Get expert help

Self-reflection of any type is challenging. 

It can be a complex task to identify weak areas of your profile and then develop a surgically precise strategy to address these weak spots and how you’ve worked to overcome them in your application.

If you’re not sure exactly how to do this, we’d be happy to help you analyze your profile in-depth to ensure your application strategy gets you admitted. 

At Ellin Lolis Consulting, we pride ourselves on offering personalized solutions to ensure you tell your best story. Perhaps that’s why we have a 98.9% success rate placing comprehensive consulting clients in top business schools around the world. 

As our client – and successful CBS reapplicant – Pedro Kuczynski said, “In a nutshell, Ellin Lolis Consulting is the X factor in preparing for any MBA.”

Whatever your challenge, we look forward to being the X factor in your application. Apply to work with us today to add more value to your application than you ever thought possible!