Many business school applicants struggle to communicate their career experiences as valuable aspects of their profile. Even people who have had rare experiences, such as those working in niche industries, can find it challenging to sell their domain knowledge, experiences, and skills as having prepared them for advanced business study and positioned them to achieve their career goals.
Take a solopreneur – an entrepreneur who starts a business independently and performs all duties related to the company – for example. How might this person describe the experience of being both their own boss and employee? Should they celebrate being a specialist or point to the practical value of being a generalist? Which aspects of the experience should they focus on – successfully founding the company, creating a product, client services, sales results, operations management, skills growth, or personal growth?
Running a business all by oneself is a truly special professional experience, but conveying that through essays and interview questions requires critical self-reflection and strategic storytelling. Here’s how a solopreneur can successfully communicate the value of their experiences as well as their personal philosophies and career vision in a way that will persuade admissions committees of their worthiness for admission to an MBA program.
How Did You Leverage Your Strengths?
Nearly all solopreneurs start out as specialists, such as technologists, designers, or consultants, for example. Describing this foundational element of your background will help admissions committees understand your previous studies and knowledge base. Don’t shy away from telling the story of how you turned your specialization into a business. Sharing that you noticed a market inefficiency or demand for your skillset demonstrates your awareness of business problems related to your area of specialization.
For example, after completing her computer science studies, Sara noticed that her family business struggled with logistics because their shipping needs were not large enough for traditional cargo companies. When she realized that other small businesses faced the same challenge, she built a platform to facilitate group shipping as a way to allow smaller businesses to work together to access the cargo shipping they needed. Sara was able to turn this example into a strong impact story in her MBA interview.
What Did You Learn?
Out of necessity, the solopreneur often has to develop new skills. A management consultant is likely to need to learn accounting and data modeling. A designer might need to improve their project management skills. A technologist may not have any experience with client management. Self-motivation and a growth mindset are key traits that business schools look for, so be clear about which skills you added, how you developed them, and what level of proficiency you achieved, if it’s notable.
Beyond the skills needed to run a business, the solopreneur will accumulate invaluable life lessons that will inform their career vision. If you are seeking an MBA after running your own company, clearly you can see something that you want but feel unable to attain on your own. Writing about how you developed preferences for working on certain kinds of projects and problems shows strong self-awareness. Go beyond preferences and indicate which skills you need to develop and refine in business school in order to reach your next career goal.
How Has It Shaped Your Career Vision?
Wearing many hats and doing various work functions is a great way to understand what kind of work one does and doesn’t find fulfilling, rewarding, and worthwhile. If your one-person venture has been a catalyst for you to delve deeper into your specialization, explain why that is and why you need this degree. Conversely, if your time as a business owner is inspiring a career pivot, make those motivations clear and back them up with your qualifications for making such a change. Owning a business is an education in itself, so expressing that what you have learned from this experience informs the next stage of your career is a way of revealing what you have learned from entrepreneurship.
A Note About Recommenders
As a solopreneur, you may not have had the experience of being hired as an employee or working with a supervisor, so identifying recommenders requires a different strategy. Professional recommendations for solopreneurs often come from mentors who have an ongoing advisory or working relationship with the applicant. If you are still within 3-4 years of university, a professor may fit as one of your recommenders, but you will want to make sure that this is someone you have an established relationship with, and ideally is someone who is following your career. Lastly, a solopreneur might consider asking a long-standing client or other business owner with whom you partner for a recommendation.
[Conclusion]
Business ownership is a strong background for MBA studies. The successes, failures, and diverse learning opportunities presented by running one’s own company are likely to guide you to form realistic career goals and an understanding of how an MBA or other graduate business degrees will help you achieve them. To write essays that will earn you admission to your target programs, you will need to convey your career vision through relatable, believable stories about your experiences. To learn how Transcend Admissions works with clients to plan and craft convincing essays and interview strategy, schedule a free 20-minute consultation today.