Describe how your professional and personal experiences have led you to pursue an MBA at this time. Please share with us your short and long term goals and why the Texas MBA at McCombs is the program best positioned to help you achieve them.

Sample One


Through a diversity of experiences in the financial services arena, I have identified where my skills are best suited and determined where my future career path leads. While I thrive in a traditional corporate environment, ultimately I am an entrepreneur at heart and need to develop new skills in order to launch my own business. Consequently, I believe the first step to obtaining and honing such skills is a Texas MBA. Immediately after business school, I plan to join an asset management firm as a sales advisor to gain experience cultivating clients and running a business. Long-term, I will capitalize on the business development skills honed in the asset management industry, complementary operational business skills acquired in business school, and my lifelong passion for the outdoors to start a company that sells outdoor sports equipment.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, institutional clients in the asset management industry have become more sophisticated and diligent when making investment decisions. In my first role at AllianceBernstein, I witnessed this behavioral shift as I managed relationships with some of the most demanding Fortune 500 companies, such as IBM, Deere, and Ford. The Chief Investment Officers and their staffs relied on me for information and problem resolution on any number of investment or regulatory matters. Although communicating effectively with these sophisticated clients was critical, the content of the communications became increasingly important in building relationships. I had to maintain a wide breadth of knowledge of our investment products and the financial markets to intelligently respond to their inquiries.

Realizing my developmental limitations as a sales associate, I secured a position in AllianceBernstein’s Index Strategies team to expand my analytical skills and build technical knowledge of portfolio management. In this role, I again witnessed clients shifting assets to more sophisticated investment solutions. In particular, I helped develop a customized dividend portfolio that utilized options to enhance yield for a large private client. When the Global Head of Alternatives and Fixed Income invited me to partner with him in launching a new sales group, I excitedly seized the more entrepreneurial opportunity to directly market to prospects with an impressively high level of sophistication, specifically endowments and hedge funds. While I have honed a solid combination of sales and investment skills through these roles, I realize that I must also be well versed in all facets of both the financial industry and business management to build strong relationships and successfully grow a business. To be a successful sales advisor, I need a full quiver of skills: strong communication techniques, technical investment knowledge, and a global perspective. Similarly, to successfully launch and manage a healthy business, I need a versatile set of general management skills. Consequently, I recognize the limitations of my professional experience alone in helping me achieve my career goals, leading me to pursue an MBA. After attending a New York information session, communicating with current students and alumni, and conducting thorough research, I have concluded that McCombs meshes well with my learning style and offers the best MBA program for me to gain the skills required to actualize my goals. McCombs’ strong general management foundation and flexible elective curriculum will be paramount in building the framework of business knowledge necessary to be truly versatile both in asset management and as an entrepreneur. First, I need to develop my investment knowledge and hone my marketing and communication skills. To do this, I plan to be an active member of the Graduate Finance Association and collaborate with classmates in managing the MBA Investment Fund, a unique hands-on asset management experience. In the classroom, I plan to take a number of finance electives, such as Financial Markets and Institutions. Likewise, the Marketing Management core course and the Management and Marketing in the Global Arena elective will augment my existing marketing experience.

My conversation with David Busker, a 2007 graduate and SVP at Sorin Capital, confirmed that a McCombs’ MBA suits my short-term goal in the asset management industry. He noted that the coursework and practical learning experiences deepened his investment knowledge, which translated directly to his career managing asset-backed securities.

Most excitingly, McCombs’ robust entrepreneurial orientation will play a critical role in helping me achieve my long-term goal. To complement my marketing and investment knowledge, I intend to take the Supply Chain Management and New Venture Creation electives to gain broader general management expertise. To garner feedback on my plans for an outdoor equipment company, I plan to leverage Texas Venture Labs. Likewise, I intend to both collaborate with the vibrant network of student entrepreneurs in the Entrepreneur Society and leverage the venture-driven eco-system in Austin. Similarly, I will apply for an opportunity with the student-governed Venture Fellows program to gain insight into how startup businesses successfully raise venture capital. Finally, to blend my passion for the outdoors with staying abreast of current trends in the outdoor equipment industry, I aim to become a leading member of the Graduate Business Adventure Team. I will eagerly contribute my knowledge of rock climbing and road cycling. Additionally, to draw on my work with the Fresh Air Fund, I hope to incorporate a charitable element, such as involving at-risk youth from Austin in the club’s activities.

In sum, I believe McCombs provides a solid academic and extracurricular foundation that is enriched by its collaborative, diverse and student-driven culture. Given the opportunity, I will take full advantage of the education that McCombs offers.

Sample Two

We all live in a branded world. Although we might not always realize it, every product on the shelf and every advertisement on television represents a brand. Brands define our society, and I am determined to become an integral leader in brand management. My passion for analyzing consumer behavior and forecasting sales trends has led me to pursue a career in brand management post-MBA. I am attracted to the quantitative analytics, big-picture strategy and innovative approach that this career path provides. Brand management combines my interest in studying both national and international societies, and their behavioral and market consumer trends, with my zeal for remaining one step ahead of the competition. My short-term goal is to be an Assistant Brand Manager at a top consumer packaged goods firm, namely Proctor & Gamble, The Coca-Cola Company, or Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. I seek to provide consumers a sense of home, hospitality, love or health when they purchase a product. I plan on expanding the ethnic branding potential at my company, as there is huge sales potential in this population as their market share exponentially increases with time. As I progress, I will master the Assistant Brand Manager and Brand Manager duties, such as overseeing the marketing budget, supervising marketing staff, forecasting demand, and managing qualitative and quantitative marketing research projects. In due course, I aim to advance to Marketing Director, where I will manage a portfolio of brands, and ultimately become the President of one of the company’s major divisions, such as female beauty or homecare.

During my sociology courses at Tufts University, I discovered my interest in analyzing behavior and trends. Surrounded by diversity, I gained insight into the purchasing and behavioral trends that varied across cultures. I spent the fall of my junior year living in Madrid, Spain. This experience, combined with my diverse upbringing, provided me with an aptitude to comprehend and value the significance of international business markets, and the nuances of global consumer trends. My summer internship at ProfitLogic exposed me to the marketing research tools that companies utilize to make educated forecasting decisions, and how retailers or product manufacturers can use historical data to identify trends and make calculated sales and inventory predictions. During my tenure at Stanley Korshak, my direct customer interaction led me to make well-informed purchasing decisions that marketed directly to the targeted customer base. Most recently at Fossil, I have had the ability to sharpen my analytical skills, leading my team to have the most productive inventory assortment of any Fossil merchandise category. Moreover, I have been able to polish my communication and teamwork skills with my exposure to domestic and global executive teams and company strategy. Because of my team’s mastery of delivering the right product to the target audience and unmatched precision in sales and inventory forecasting, we have experienced unparalleled market success, posting same store comparative sales of +33% in Q1 2010, +34% in Q2 2010, and +35% in Q3 2010 in the Fossil Watch category.

While I have learned a great deal about forecasting, brand strategy and consumer analysis, I lack the general management and formal marketing research skills that are necessary to be a successful Brand Manager. An MBA is the critical next step in my career development. A McCombs MBA with a marketing concentration will provide the crucial framework and skill development to become a global leader in the consumer packaged goods industry.

There are many organizations within the McCombs School which I intend to leverage during my two years in the program. I aspire to be selected for the CCIMS Marketing Fellows program which will expose me to real-world consulting projects and specialized education. Through this program, I will sharpen my leadership and strategic decision-making skills by directly interfacing with company executives and top professors, and further maximize my internship and full-time employment opportunities. I am also eager to participate in the Hot-Seat Marketing Challenge. The down-to-the wire mentality that this project has, combined with the opportunity to work with noteworthy sponsors such as Walmart, American Airlines and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, will be invaluable practical exposure to the marketing industry. When visiting campus this September, I spoke with Patrick Ong, a second-year Brand Management MBA student. He noted the crucial market experience he gained during this one-night challenge and further inspired me to participate in this opportunity.

Furthermore, I plan on utilizing the MBA+ program to take part in the Year in the Life of a CPG MBA. I am certain that this opportunity, with key courses such as Analysis of Markets, Consumer Behavior and New Product Design and Marketing, will be fundamental to my career success in brand management.

With McCombs’s hands-on educational approach and variety of marketing and brand management experiential opportunities, I will gain invaluable real world learning experiences that can be leveraged during the crucial internship and career interview process. With the flexible framework and extensive leadership opportunities, I will gain the essential skill set to develop and manage an effective brand and learn to utilize market research data to gain a competitive advantage. A McCombs MBA will provide me with the fundamental business and leadership skills to successfully launch me on my new career path.  

Sample Three


The personal and professional experiences that have led me to pursue an MBA at this time revolve around entrepreneurism, community involvement and finance.

Entrepreneurism has been a big part of my life since birth. My parents and extended family run eight different small businesses near my small, dusty hometown near Minneapolis. We’ve been called an entrepreneurial beehive; everyone is always doing something to add value. Most of the businesses originated in my youth, so no one was surprised when I launched my own plumbing company at 18 to cover college expenses.

I ran that business for over four years before starting a career in finance with Morgan Stanley. During that time I performed financial planning for local business owners and a few nonprofits, which added new depth to my entrepreneurial perspective. That perspective continued to grow when I moved to California to join Dixon Paths as an Account Manager. The small company was growing rapidly which provided opportunities to contribute horizontally across the business. I frequently worked side-by-side with the head of the firm, tackling an array of business challenges while exploring growth opportunities. My current position with Knoxland Global Services is a bit removed from the entrepreneurial arena; however the experience has provided valuable exposure and insight to global debt markets, information and communication technology, and international financial operations on an institutional scale.

Lessons I learned growing up in an entrepreneurial family taught me about self-sufficiency, but it was my family’s propensity for civic engagement that taught me to value, and to add value, to my community. Throughout my youth I watched my grandfather and father host various city council, charity and political meetings in one of their restaurants. To this day, my parents serve on the boards of local nonprofits and utilize their businesses to organize community volunteers and fundraising. From my perspective, bridging factions of government, business, and philanthropy to add economic value is a concept that originated decades ago in a diner outside Minneapolis, somewhere between my grandfather’s famous black bean soup and my grandmother’s cream-filled cannolis.

My own civic engagement began in high school and has carried on to this day. Witnessing widespread teen homelessness in New York compelled me to take on leadership roles with the Teen Project. As a board member, I recruit and train volunteers, mentor teens, manage our outreach program, and assist with fundraising and donor retention. In the spring of 2008, I was honored to receive the Life Circuit’s “Volunteer of the Year” Leadership Award for my efforts to change our outreach model from one that focused solely on aid distribution to one that emphasized regular follow-up, ongoing support, and long-term success.

While I value all of my experiences, my ultimate career goal is to create significant and lasting opportunities in underserved communities by merging my passions for entrepreneurship, finance and philanthropy. I believe as future generations of ideological investors enter the market, pools of social venture capital will continue to grow, fostering the community-based, economic redevelopment needed to help aging cities and communities rebound from urban decay.

I want to help inventive social entrepreneurs deliver transformative solutions to longstanding social problems. To that end, my short-term goal is to work as a portfolio analyst with a socially-oriented VC firm or foundation such as Good Capital, Austin Social Venture Partners, or the Calvert Foundation where I’ll conduct due-diligence and performance analysis by evaluating business plans and strategy, growth potential and funding opportunities. As my career progresses I’ll take a more active role in managing and originating investments by serving on boards, recruiting investors and launching new funds.

The final stage of my career will be about giving back. I’ll maintain a presence within my firm but will focus my energy on launching a boutique, nonprofit consulting firm for social entrepreneurs. Ultimately, my business will help them position and market themselves to potential investors.

I’m seeking an MBA for the opportunity it presents to advance my general management and leadership skills, and for the industry experience and knowledge I’ll need for my career transition. There are many reasons why McCombs stands out as the ideal program; the school’s outstanding academic reputation, the student leaders it attracts, a strong local economy in Austin and Texas’s thriving venture capital community are just a few. I’ll use my time at McCombs to prepare for a career in social capital by enrolling in elective courses that fall under both the social enterprise and investment management concentrations. Classes like Financial Strategies and Portfolio Management and Security Analysis will advance my investment management abilities. And I’ll look to classes such as Nonprofit Strategy and Entrepreneurship to learn about key issues and opportunities for social entrepreneurs. McCombs is also is appealing because I’m looking for an academic experience that blends theory with practice through experiential, hands-on learning. To that end, I’ll explore opportunities with the MBA Investment Fund, the AIM Investment Center, and the Venture Fellows Program.

Joining and leading McCombs clubs and participating in other co-curricular activities will also be an important part of my MBA experience. I’d be eager to take on leadership roles in Net Impact and to help local nonprofits in Austin through the Board Fellows Program.

The vibrant student-led culture, the emphasis on collaborative leadership, the innovative classes and opportunities such as the Venture Fellows program, all infused with countless avenues to grow academically, personally, and professionally make McCombs the ideal school to pursue my goal of reviving blighted communities through social and philanthropic capital.

Sample Four

After much soul searching and opposition from friends and family, I made a life-altering decision in the spring of 2002. I gave an oath to serve my country and left North Carolina to begin the long process of becoming a Naval Aviator— a truly terrifying leap of faith. Four years earlier, I had been a typical college student with a personal penchant for reading Fortune magazine and playing online stock picking games, leading me to major in economics. Since the hectic pace of a trading floor didn’t quite fit my personality, I planned to pursue a job after graduation at a small asset management firm. However, all this changed in September 2001, the start of my senior year. Following the terrorist attacks, I was motivated by a new found sense of duty. At the time, you couldn’t turn on the TV or read a newspaper without being bombarded with patriotism, but I wanted to do more than just talk. So to satisfy this sense of duty, I embarked on a military career and set aside my aspirations for a career in asset management.

I have to say that my military career has been the most rewarding and demanding experience of my life. I have gained valuable skills through both leading and following in the air and on the ground. Developing complex combat mission plans has honed my analytical and problem-solving skills and giving mission briefings and debriefings has perfected my presentation abilities. As the assistant administrative officer of my squadron and the officer in charge of a training detachment, I have even been a manager tasked with staffing, budgeting and resource planning. Modestly speaking, my career has been both challenging and successful. I’ve exceeded my duties and risen to the top of my field while garnering pride from serving my country. Nevertheless, I still have goals outside of the military that I plan to achieve, including a career in asset management. If I were to remain on active duty, I would owe the Navy an additional twelve years of service. While these twelve years would surely provide me with a wealth of experience, they would do little in moving me towards my goal of working in asset management. So, as I sit at another fork in my career road, having fulfilled my personal sense of duty, I have decided to take another leap of faith and rejoin the civilian ranks.

An MBA is essential to facilitate this transition from the military back to the private sector. Although I’ve developed a fair amount of leadership, problem-solving, teamwork, and analytical skills, I now face the challenge of translating those skills to a corporate setting. In the military, leadership is often giving orders and demanding results, while in the private sector a leader must envision a path, influence others to take that path, and then reward them for a job well done. On top of adapting my current leadership skills to a new environment, I must bridge the knowledge gap that eight years away from the private sector has formed. My knowledge in finance, marketing, and economics has eight years of rust on it. An MBA will equip me with the skills to expand my leadership knowledge in areas where I lack experience and solidify my academic base, both of which are essential to reaching my short-term goal of working in asset management. My long-term goal is to be an executive in a decision-making role at an asset management firm in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I want to envision that path towards success and directly lead the firm down the path while personally adding value to the organization.

The Texas MBA program, with its collaborative environment and emphasis on hands-on learning, is a good match for me. Learning by doing in a team-oriented atmosphere fits my education style, and I have excelled at it in the past. Specifically, the MBA Investment Fund is the ideal vehicle for me to develop both the academic knowledge and practical experience I need to reach my goals. The knowledge gained from the school’s outstanding finance curriculum and contacts established through the school’s robust network in the state of Texas will prove invaluable as I work towards both my short and long-term goals. Conversations with current Texas MBA students have confirmed my opinion that the Texas MBA is a good fit for my learning style and goals. Additionally, my personal life has led me to pursue my next career in the great state of Texas, making the Texas MBA a perfect match for reasons beyond the MBA Investment Fund, finance curriculum, and industry connections.

Throughout my career, I have learned that working on teams with the best and brightest people brings out the best in me. In flight school, the program was designed to teach by doing and showed you how to work effectively in a team environment. The best performers were then funneled into the jet community. I excelled and finished number one in each phase of training. A Texas MBA will mirror this experience as I will interact with the exceptional student population, sharing experiences, discussing concepts, and engaging in practical applications—all within a team environment. Working with the caliber of people found at Texas will motivate me to be better and expand my awareness beyond the military. In short, a Texas MBA is not only a perfect fit, but also the perfect investment.