Free MBA Feedback Essay Samples

After graduating from my Master’s program with flying colors, I took up a role in the Advisory Services of a multinational professional services firm.  As a fresh graduate in my first full-time job, I envisioned taking the consulting world by storm and impressing my managers and partners beyond anything they had ever seen.  Owing to my naiveté and impatience to excel beyond my peers, I overloaded myself with more project tasks than I could efficiently handle and still volunteered to lead additional side projects. Though I completed all tasks, I was quickly burning out and was not even close to achieving the superior performance of the impressive consultant I wanted to be.

I proudly submitted my recommendations for my first project but was unpleasantly surprised to discover that my engagement manager was highly critical of the quality of my deliverable. My recommendations were not tailored to the client’s industry and deviated from the methodology outlined by the firm. Being used to people praising my work in school, my pride in my work had made me ignorant to the needs of the client and resulted in my manager’s having to cover for gaps in my recommendations.

This experience shook my confidence and compelled me to reflect on how I could improve. A deep self-analysis of my performance led me to a big revelation – to be successful, I had to put myself in my customer’s position and think backwards to create an effective solution!

I took this feedback and resulting revelation to heart and decided to select projects where I would be most impactful. I focused on the industry-specific solution delivery methodology to ensure highest quality.  I learned to politely say ‘no’ to opportunities, when my schedule did not permit, to ensure that I dedicated enough time and energy to perform at a high level on projects I was working on.  I started managing my time efficiently and set daily goals while communicating the status to my managers, ensuring that I was always in control of my schedule. In turn, this actually allowed me the flexibility to pick up extra projects I was passionate about. Also, I made it a point to connect and collaborate with my peers instead of competing with them. I learned to ask for help and leverage their knowledge to successfully deliver solutions and to help them when I had something to contribute. Finally, the most important change that I made was my attitude towards feedback: I solicited feedback more often regarding my performance to ensure that I was constantly improving my skills. I never wanted to be surprised again.

These changes helped me bring a sharp improvement in my performance on future projects, and soon my managers and partners rated me as a top performer on the team. In the following year, I received three ‘Bravo’ awards, awarded to top 10% of performers on every project. This change in attitude towards work has helped me the most in being successful as consultant.