State your short-term career goal immediately following graduation from the Georgetown MBA program. What skills have you developed on which you will build? What skills will you need to develop?

Immediately after business school, I plan to join an asset management firm as an institutional sales advisor. Through a diversity of experiences at AllianceBernstein, I have developed a balanced skill set and realize that I most effectively utilize it when helping prospective institutional clients achieve their investment objectives.

In my first role as a sales associate, I acquired effective communication and execution skills through managing relationships with some of the most demanding Fortune 500 companies, such as IBM, Deere, and Ford. Recognizing my developmental limitations as a sales associate, I secured a position on the firm’s Index Strategies team to expand my analytical skills and build technical investment knowledge. Most recently, I seized the more entrepreneurial opportunity to develop my marketing skills and gain a global perspective through collaborating with our geographically diverse sales force as part of the new Alternatives and Fixed Income sales group.

While I have honed a solid combination of sales and investment skills through these roles, I also need to be well versed in all facets of both the financial industry and business management to build strong relationships and grow a successful business. Consequently, I am pursuing an MBA because I have identified the limitations of my professional experience alone in helping me acquire a truly robust set of skills and ultimately achieve my short-term goal.

In conducting thorough research, I have concluded that the Georgetown MBA program is best suited to help me develop my general management and investment knowledge while sharpening my marketing, communication, and decision-making skills. Specifically, I plan to be an active member of the MBA Finance Club and collaborate with classmates in managing the Graduate Investment Fund. Academically, I plan to take a number of finance electives, including Alternative Investments, and marketing electives, such as Global Marketing and How to Build Strong Brands, to augment my existing professional experience.