Free UNC MBA Essay Samples
My job in companies such as ____ and _____ provided me an opportunity to work closely with cross-functional teams located in countries such as the US, Argentina, UK, Israel, and Germany. In ____, I worked on a product integration project that required full interdisciplinary participation. During my first release, I observed that each team was working in silos and as a result, there were gaps and conflicts at the time of product integration. To address these issues, I instituted a combined team SCRUM once a week so that we could identify and address any gaps at an early stage. Communicating regularly with other teams significantly improved the quality of the products and allowed people outside of their immediate specialization to gain trust and form personal bonds. I look forward to sharing these experiences when I take leadership roles in the UNC International Business Association Club and create a mutual learning environment for both domestic and international students.
I am passionate about contributing to the development of others. I still remember the inner satisfaction I felt when I helped a colleague who was going through the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) to save her job. Rather than giving up on her, I decided to explore the possible root causes of her poor performance. From spending time outside of the work environment, I learned that she was finding it difficult to adjust to the work culture. I began to invite her to lunch meetings with peers and encouraged her to speak up about her initiatives. After a few weeks of mentorship, I saw her confidence and work improve. In the next quarter, she even received recognition for outstanding performance. From this experience, I learned the importance of being sensitive to everyone’s individual situations and tailoring my mentorship style to bring out the best in every team member. I intend to carry on this spirit of mentorship by actively participating in the UNC’s Community Service Committee with a focus on youth counseling.
Even though education is a fundamental right of every Indian citizen, it is still a distant dream for many India’s children. India’s share in the global illiteracy rate is 37% (287 million or 26% of India’s population). Lack of quality education is the biggest hindrance in India’s development as it leads to other problems such as poverty and unemployment.
I am passionate about providing education to those who are less fortunate, much like community members from my childhood upbringing, to help them fulfill their dreams and overcome poverty. Long-term, I plan to start my own venture that will have a significant impact on the education landscape of India through digitization. Affordable education will provide our next generation with knowledge and skills to fight social disparity and enable India to progress as a nation.
My immediate post-MBA goal is to join a leading technology company as a product manager focused on smart education and eLearning. This experience will provide me with an opportunity to learn the intricacies of the industry while integrating my enthusiasm for serving others. I joined ______ as an intern and was one of the first members of the team. This gave me a rare opportunity to work closely with the Product Owner and get hands-on experience of each stage of the product lifecycle. My experience of working collaboratively with teams located in different geographical locations and time zones will come in handy while working as a product manager. Regularly talking to customers helped me better understand their needs and look at the product from their perspective as well, traits essential to be a successful entrepreneur. By starting my own venture focused on digital learning, I aspire to employ my passion for technology and provide quality education to everyone.
My career so far with companies such as Intel and Qualcomm has given me good exposure to the engineering side of a product. But to run my own organization, I need to acquire a broader skill set to incorporate the finest management practices. This is the ideal time for me to enroll in a top MBA program such as Kennan-Flagler so that I can build critical business skills and develop strategic thinking. UNC’s unique STAR Global program will allow me to apply what I learn in the classroom in a truly international business environment, similar to what I will get while working as a product manager. Networking is one of the crucial skills required to be a PM and career treks events of Business Technology Club will give me ample opportunities to do so. The Entrepreneurship Concentration will help me groom me as a leader and develop the mindset of a CEO, thereby facilitating my transition from an engineer to an entrepreneur. In case my short-term goal does not materialize, I would consider a role in business operations so that I can understand various business models and strategies behind them. This will also give me an opportunity to work with cross-functional teams. To keep myself apprised of the latest developments in the eLearning industry, I will attend seminars and conferences and network with the industry leaders.
I have always believed that a true leader is one who does not only spread the passion for work and inspires others but changes the ways how other people live and think. Billions of people have heard about Amazon, Facebook, or Tesla, and it took enormous effort and talent to establish these corporations and make them prosper. Everything rises on effective leadership, and, therefore, my long-term post-MBA goal is to become a visionary and make my own contribution to the global society.
My life goal is to become a Senior Manager of a large multinational corporation that manufactures goods, and I dream of becoming a CEO who drives organizational changes and ensures sustainable growth of the company. I truly believe that becoming a leader of a large corporation that operates in the education sector, transportation, or manufacturing industries will let me discover all talents, realize my full potential, and contribute to the growth and prosperity of society.
However, I have a clear understanding that a long journey begins with a single step, and right after getting an MBA, I plan to start working as an associate consultant in one of the global management consultancies like McKenzie or Delloitte, which would let me improve my problem-solving and business management skills. At the same time, my plan B is to get a position at a company that offers business advisory services so that I can gain more experience and an extensive background in the field to reapply for the position in a global consulting firm.
The main reason I strive to get an MBA is that it is the next step for me to take to reach my long-term goals; I have already developed certain skills and gained a deep knowledge of various business processes in real estate and construction sectors, and it is high time to take the step out of my comfort zone and find new challenges to overcome.
Becoming a member of the MBA program will definitely become a great challenge, by overcoming it I will become a better person and a greater professional. I am currently looking for a career move so that I can expand my horizons and gain a broader perspective to effectively run a large company in the future.
I have been working as a Project manager and a business development analyst, and this professional experience helped me gain a clear understanding that initiative and self-direction of a leader are the crucial factors, which have a direct impact on the overall performance of the company. I learned how to utilize statistical pricing models and enhance profitability through improving collaboration between different departments, but I lack the business education to form my own vision on how to run companies and gain competitive advantages over rival firms. Moreover, I need to gain a deeper understanding of various business concepts, develop managerial skills, and expand my business network to become an effective leader who is able to drive the company toward success.
I am certain that MBA is an appropriate degree that will help me open the doors to new opportunities. At the current stage in my career, I face limits to growth, and to further develop my talents, I need to find new hurdles to overcome. The man who never tries will never win, and I am ready to devote all my time and effort to get an MBA degree that will help me make the next career step and a big move in my life journey.
Following graduation from Kenan-Flagler, my goal is to work as Development Associate at a firm, such as Tishman-Speyer or Related, and specialize in real estate acquisitions and ground-up developments. I plan to work within the firm for 3-5, gaining as much exposure to as many different deals as possible, both domestically and internationally, all while exploring potential investment properties for the company I founded, MRE Ventures. Eventually, I plan to run MRE Ventures full-time, with the goal of giving back to the community, by acquiring and improving residential assets and introducing sustainable building and living environments, using emerging technologies, like modular construction.
Real estate development requires expertise in 4 categories: Planning & Engineering, Construction, Finance, and Tenancy. Currently, I lack formal training in finance, and so I am looking for a program that will expose me to case studies and repetitions in underwriting, all while rounding off my teamwork and project management skills with a holistic business school education. With the Real Estate Club, ten real estate electives, the Wood Center for Real Estate Studies, and more, Kenan-Flagler offers me a tailor-made experience. I’m particularly interested in the Kenan-Flagler Business School Foundation (KFBSF) Real Estate Fund. It will provide both the platform to practice the skills I will learn in classes like Real Estate Fund Management and the opportunity to collaborate with classmates from diverse industries. I look forward to sharing my experience from the world of construction management and development management while learning best practices from the worlds of banking, architecture, consulting, and more. As well, in a recent conversation with Jim Spaeth, Wood Center for Real Estate Executive Director, I learned about the UNC Real Estate Development Case Challenge hosted by Kenan-Flagler. I will get to apply skills gained in courses like Real Estate Law and to focus on a development project – the real estate niche that most interests me.
Should my short-term goals not transpire, I would seek a position as an Associate at a consulting firm. I believe that my engineering degree, technical and analytical skillset and over 5 years of project management experience would make me a desirable candidate. After spending 3-5 years in consulting, I would either focus full-time on MRE Ventures or join an emerging start-up. Personally, I am eager to fine-tune my decision-making and strategic skills at Kenan-Flagler, with courses like Data Analytics and Decision Making and Business Strategy. This will be invaluable when the time comes to decide on which property or asset is best to pursue and how best to expand MRE ventures. As an outdoor enthusiast, I am eager to join the MBA Adventures Club, an opportunity to bond with some of my classmates outside the classroom. Finally, as I became engaged to my fiancé in June of 2019, with our wedding scheduled for 2020, we are truly looking forward to this exciting new chapter in our life together. We couldn’t think of a better place to begin than Chapel-Hill.
One of my strongest personal qualities is being decisive for the greater good amidst uncertainty and ambiguity.
At a very young age, after a number of farmer suicides in our region due to financial stress, many people reacted and arrived at our region to document our livelihood, but none of them directly helped us or improved the situation. After high school, even though I got accepted to one of the top elite universities in the world, I planned to research soil conditions and potential markets for our agricultural produce in order to improve the lives of farmers in our region.
With this experience, I learned to lead teams suffering from futile conditions and to respond rather than react to an alarming situation. In the last two years, my agricultural model has been used in many neighboring regions to improve the lives of small household farmers, increasing their income by nearly 300%.
The second characteristic that distinguishes me is being empathetic and driving my team for results against challenging conditions.
My ability to understand the emotions and problems of my team members helped me to solve many disputes, disagreements and to motivate our contractors to stay on course amidst these hard times.
With these experiences, I believe I have acquired unparalleled problem-solving and leadership experience that would add great value to my peers and the Study Team at Kennan-Flagger. Beyond the academic work,
My short-term goal is to start working as an Associate Consultant in one of the global management consulting firms such as McKinsey or Bain right after getting my Kenan Flagler MBA. In this role, I aim to learn how various large-scale organizations manage and strategize to solve current business problems, optimize the course of actions, and innovate ways to improve business performance.
This experience of decision making and creating a huge impact through real-world cases would set me on track for my long-term goal – driving organizational changes and ensuring sustainable growth of the Automotive Industry towards utilizing renewable energy resources. After gaining enough exposure to various industries, I would like to lead the strategy department of an Electric Vehicle manufacturing company that is setting its footprints across the globe such as Tesla Inc., managing cross-functional teams and developing data-guided corporate strategies. Eventually, I would like to lead this transition in emerging markets, focusing on developing strategic models to build necessary energy-efficient infrastructure in India and many such developing countries.
By leading small household farmers of Jujjivaram and increasing their income by nearly fourfold within a year by leading as an example, I was able to inspire and drive nearly a hundred farmers to adapt to the current agricultural demands. By managing diverse teams to shield and create millions of dollars in revenue through difficult times as Qatar – Gulf crisis, I managed to develop strong analytical, data-driven decision-making skills and leadership abilities.
In my journey so far, I have already developed analytical skills and gained a deep knowledge of various business processes in the real estate and construction sectors. However, I feel I need to gain a deeper understanding of various business concepts, develop managerial skills, and expand my international business network to become an effective leader who can drive a company towards success. I am currently looking for a career move so that I can expand my horizons and gain a broader perspective of the key economic sectors, mainly the Automotive & Transport Industries. I believe that a consulting career will offer me a broad skill set, help me get exposure to a multitude of companies and industries, and let me improve my problem-solving and business management skills, the next step for me to take to reach my long-term goals. Standing at the crossroads of my career, I am certain that the MBA is an appropriate degree that will help me open the doors to new opportunities and hone my decision-making, analytical, and leadership abilities while stepping out of my comfort zone and finding new challenges to overcome.
An alternative route to my career goal would be joining the automotive industry at a Senior Financial Analyst, in which I would gain better insights into the design of infrastructure across different regions. The unique career concentration approach at Kenan Flagler will equip me with the toolkit for corporate finance and management consulting paths. Moreover, the unparalleled ‘Carolina Culture’ and peer experience will help me decide and take my future journey steps.
Though I have graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, with a major in Chemistry, I have equally worked hard to develop analytical skills needed for business throughout my last couple of years. Added to my regional and national math Olympiad experiences is my ability to explore advanced statistics – Inferential and Descriptive, Bayesian statistics and game theories, and calculus – surface integrals at a very young age.
During my organic agricultural project, I was clear that my career path, so I spent most of my free studying advanced statistics by myself. As an autodidact, I was able to navigate across books and many online resources learning about advanced applications of Game Theories, Statistical Linear models, modeling Normal Distributions, and Discrete Optimization. Although I didn’t spend much time on programming, except for developing some basic understanding of python, I was sure of what analytical tools I needed to master.
Once I have joined ______, with the help of my senior management team, I have managed to develop a deeper understanding of analytical tools and languages – SAS, Tableau, R, and SQL.
For years, I was able to analyze and visualize data worth millions of dollars concerning our clients, helping our management to make better decisions. With these strong analytical abilities and a deep understanding of advanced statistics, I am excited rather than worried about the academic quantitative rigor of Kenan-Flagler MBA. I am positive I will be able to present strong data-supported conclusions at the various case competitions, helping my Student Group!!
My Short term goal, post MBA, is to join Bain & Company as a real estate transaction consultant in the U.S. I have worked on creating business plans, pricing transactions and preparing exit strategies, and in Bain I would like to build expertise in deal generation, due diligence and building strategies. This experience will bridge my gaps in the areas of investment life cycle and will help me reach my ultimate goal to become a leader in a real estate private equity.
In order to succeed in consulting and real estate, I believe three specific skills are imperative– real estate knowledge, consulting skills and teamwork and leadership abilities.
First, I plan to pursue a concentration in real estate. I have evaluated investment opportunities through complex cashflow model and I want to expand my knowledge in real estate. Through this concentration at Kenan-Flagler, I wish to build my understanding of real estate laws, funding real estate projects and analysing industry trends. Finally, I plan to implement these knowledge as a manager of the Real Estate Student Investment Fund. I want to leverage involvement in the fund to enhance my skills in identifying investment opportunities along with exposure in asset management through continued surveillance and reporting.
Second is building necessary consulting skills such as researching, analysing information and strategizing. Through STAR – Student Teams Achieving Results – I want to work on real-world projects which involve understanding business problems and presenting solutions to clients.
I have worked on processing and analysing information, and STAR will enrich my skills in structuring and presenting solutions to clients by providing a platform to work with senior executives and accomplished leaders in consulting such as Paul Friga. I also passionately follow F1, and I would like to join a STAR team on projects such as advising NASCAR. Racing as an entertainment is gaining a lot of traction in U.S., especially F1 with the U.S. now contributing to 2 races on the calendar.
Third is to enhance my team building and leadership skills. Consulting and asset management both require great team work and leadership skill, and UNC puts great emphasis on such skills through various student experiences such as student clubs, Legacies and study groups. I plan to pursue a leadership role and become the VP, Corporate Relations of the Real Estate Club. In this role I will put to work my relationship with the Managing Director, European Commercial Real Estate Debt at Alliance Bernstein and invite him to speak with my fellow students and provide us with career advice as part of a real estate career panel.
I overcame cultural differences when I worked in London. In my country, the norm is to get executives’ opinion first. My client in London, however, preferred that I first discuss an idea with my direct manager. I needed to adapt to this cultural change as this gap hindered my communication. I reached out to my manager and my client to better understand their expectations. I also sought to understand the approach of additional stakeholders to discussions. This support from the client and stakeholders helped me to adapt and add meaningful contributions.
I also made a difference when our househelp’s daughter was struggling with depression. Her family members were hesitant to seek an outside help and feared the reaction of the society. I understood their problems and offered the family access to educational materials that exposed them to different ways of dealing with depression. With their consent, I found a mental-health organisation that provides online sessions and respects privacy. This initiative helped to quash their hesitancy and made a difference in the daughter’s life.
These experiences reinforced my desire to care for others and emphasized the importance of adapting to different cultures and working styles. I plan to keep learning and contributing in both fronts at Kenan Flagler and beyond. As a future leader in consulting and real estate, I plan to implement communication practices I have developed such as inviting colleagues to de-brief sessions to ensure every voice is heard. At Kenan Flagler I plan to encourage my study group peers to capitalize on the group’s diversity of opinions, backgrounds and ways of doing business by actively seeking for feedback from all participants and applying my skills as a careful listener.
My immediate goal post-MBA is to join a leading consulting firm, with a focus on projects related to energy management. I believe that working there would allow me to deepen my understanding of various facets of an organization, such as growth, operations, marketing, etc., and also fine-tune my decision-making skills. After acquiring 3-5 years of experience at such a firm, I then plan to shift to a strategy lead role at an energy company, which would further strengthen my business management skills and help prepare me for my long-term goal: to start a venture providing accessible and affordable energy solutions to every Indian.
Over the past few decades, India has grown rapidly in terms of urbanization, population, and wealth creation. A WHO report highlights that 14 out of the world's top 15 most-polluted cities belong to India. I've long been passionate about finding and implementing a plausible solution to switch to the usage of cleaner energy resources. As India stands on the cusp of a major transition to newer mobility solutions, I aim to be part of the revolution to deploy business models that promote the use of clean energy, provide safer modes of transport and reduce dependence on energy imports.
Early in my professional career, I worked with one of the National Oil Marketing Company. As a part of the Corporate Strategy and Business Development team, I worked with some of the leading companies in the electric mobility landscape and deployed new energy solutions for the Indian market. This experience exposed me to the nascent e-mobility industry and clean energy space, which sparked my passion for being a part of this energy transformation. Now, I wish to transition into a career that can expand my horizons and deepen my understanding of key economic sectors, like the Energy and Automotive industries.
Since Kenan Flagler is uniquely positioned regarding the energy sector, its MBA program would open a multitude of industry-focused opportunities in line with my career goals. It would specifically provide me with the right tools to sharpen my problem-solving and business management skills and introduce me to an international network of current and future leaders in the energy sector.
At Kenan Flagler, I would acquire industry-specific knowledge and develop skills, to transform into a business leader. With access to the Energy Centre, Energy Club, and more than 10 select offerings in the program's energy concentration, I would gain the right exposure that aligns with my career goals. Also, the option to merge two concentrations would allow me to pursue my interest both in Consulting and Energy.
If the goals that I have mentioned don’t transpire, then I wish to pursue an opportunity in a strategy/new business initiatives role with an automotive firm. This will enhance my understanding of the energy transition process from the point of view of an automobile OEM and remain relevant to the overall energy transition scenario.
Inclusiveness and communication have always been important to me. Never more so than while I was leading the pan-India program management for the roll-out of delivery kitchens in November 2019. During this time, I had to frequently communicate with vastly different people all over India, ranging from corporate stakeholders to local business owners, all of whom spoke different dialects and languages.
India has a uniquely vast demographic – 1.3 billion Indians speak between 22 officially recognized languages and 720 dialects. Although nearly 40% of Indians speak some form of Hindi, this diversity of language that's used to communicate becomes more obvious as one moves towards the southern part of India. The project executives and the on-ground real estate team are mostly locals who speak Hindi and are also well aware of all the industry-specific regulations. On the project front, we were struggling then to craft a playbook that would help us speed up our expansion activities across all the target cities. Different cities have different rules and regulations about lease agreements, license applications, etc. A one-size-fits-all template that we could apply to all the cities was not the solution, though; we needed ground-level input to craft city-specific templates and checklists to speed up our efforts and improve the shortlist ratio.
To do this, I requested the on-ground teams to attend a meeting with the central team and provide their input. After a couple of sessions, I realized that on-ground was largely hesitant to speak and provide their input. I talked to one of the senior team members about it who is a Bangalore native, and he mentioned that on-ground teams are most comfortable working around people who belong to their community and speak their language. They generally avoid speaking in the corporate setup because they are afraid that they may not be able to communicate their ideas properly in English and hence try to avoid an embarrassing situation.
To tackle this issue, I introduced a setup in the next meeting where a group of 2-3 field executives was tied up with a member from the central team who spoke their language. This central team member would discuss the possible solutions to improve our expansion efforts with them and then translate them for us. This would provide the executives with a familiar environment to work in and will also boost their confidence. I implemented the same solution for our Hyderabad and Chennai teams as well where this issue existed. As a result, we got a lot of valuable input and with assistance from our legal team. We also curated our city-specific requirements and identified measures to tackle issues that we may encounter in license applications as well.
Through these experiences, I have come to realize the importance of adapting to different cultures and finding solutions that are inclusive of every stakeholder. As a future leader, I plan to implement these learnings and keep contributing and learning from my peers and the diversity of opinions, backgrounds, and experiences that they bring along with them.
