Work vs Non Profit Experience

[Guest]

Hi Admission Consultants,

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.

I'm confronted with a dilemma between my work and non-profit experiences. I've heard and read from various sources that it is important to use work examples in your essays. Unlike most candidates, I have more to say about my non-profit involvement than my work experience. My concern is that my disproportionate examples from non-profit would discount the merit of my application, given that non-profit should be a 'secondary' source of information, not the primary.

Some Context to My Experiences

Work
- 3.5 years full time work experience. Intend to apply Round 1 2009.
- Worked for 2 global consumer packaged goods companies
- Nature of job rather tactical in nature: performed analysis, managed ad hoc projects, troubleshoot tactical issues related to recent company merger
- Won awards from both companies for my work
- Despite receiving positive feedback, I am not particularly proud of my experience. What I do is not rocket science, it's a very standard set of responsibilities.
- Can quote examples from work, but I feel a 'strong' example from my work experience would be considered a 'mediocre' example compared to my non-profit experience

Non-Profit Experience
- Been involved in a non-profit for seven years.
- Non profit dedicated towards fostering leadership among youths, entered the non profit as a 2nd year university student.
- Particularly drawn to it because as a undergrad business major, I wanted to apply and test some of the theories I had learned at school.
- Was among the founding members of this non-profit, as a result, developed strong ownership and passion towards the organization
- First couple of years in the organization was tactical. Organized a local festival, generated about $70K for local charities since inception. I used to be responsible for PR so I started teaching myself how to issue media kits through reading a book - and it worked. I saw the festival receive print and television coverage for the first time ever.
- Latter part of my involvement opened my eyes to people management and the softer aspects of the organization.
- Learned everything through trial and error. Made a lot of mistakes along the way.
- Started to clearly see impact of vision, passion, and common goals.
- Started working with leaders with varying leadership styles and I can clearly articulate how I differ and what I learned just through working with my counterparts.
- Breeded a generation of successors who focused on execution, midway through the transition, we realized how we failed to train the newer generation to think long term, which was a reflection of our inability to do so as well. Spent the latter 2 years shifting many people's mindset away from just.. 'getting the tasks done'.
- Eventually, I had a major ideology difference with the Board. I never thought I needed to manage 'up' over the years because my focus was always on the people that volunteered for the organization. The major ideology differences resulted in the mialignment of goals. It created trust issues. I would like to talk to this in my 'failure' essay

Overall, I can quote countless examples from the non-profit, these are examples that I can write passionately about. With work however, I really don't think I've made enough of an impact to write much, and the stories I have from work pales in comparison to my non profit experience. I am interested in HBS for its reputation in general management.

Is it acceptable to have more non-profit examples in my application? Or do I have to come up with what in my mind would be less convincing stories about my work?

Thank you for taking the time. Truly appreciate it.

Jess

[MBAApply]

You want to play to your strengths. If that means most of your strong examples come from your nonprofit work, then that should be what you can focus on in the essays, so long as you aren't consciously excluding any work-related examples (which may not be absolutely fatal if your nonprofit examples are strong, but can still raise at least half an eyebrow).

Alex Chu
alex@mbaapply.com
www.mbaapply.com
http://mbaapply.blogspot.com