Essays are one of the most critical admission steps in the MBA submission process. Business schools also give a decent weightage to these essays.
What are your long term and short term career goals — an essay question that is frequently asked by most business schools. If you an MBA aspirant, it is a must for you to prepare to answer this question in one or another essay.
Though it might seem like a simple and straight-forward question, it has many layers to it.
However, firstly, you need to understand the meaning of short-term and long-term career goals. The goals or career aspirations that you have set up for yourself right after graduating from the chosen MBA program can be referred to as short-term goals. Short-term goals will help people understand what significant changes you want in your career path after the MBA. Typically, these goals are what you can achieve in a period of 3 to 5 years. You can categorize something like ‘wanting to be a CMO of a major corporation’ as a short-term goal.
On the flip side, a long term goal would a career objective you have set for yourself that would at least take you 5 to 10 years to achieve. It is a common misconception that a long-term goal is an aspiration with a time frame beyond one year. Also, don’t confuse your long-term goals as objectives set for farther in the future like post-career or retirement plans.
Now that we have understood what short term and long term goals are, let us look at a few best practices, you need to follow while attempting to write your career goals essay:
Make your goals time-bound:
Give a time frame to your goals while writing the essay. By quantifying the goals with the years, by when you want to achieve them will reflect the clarity of your thought process. If your goals are not time-bound, they would just be aspirational statements without any value.
Clearly differentiate your short and long term goals:
When you get separate questions for short-term and long-term goals, you will have to narrate them differently. However, if your question doesn’t specify the period of the goals or if asked about both of them in a single question — be careful to distinguish them in your essay clearly. The best way to go about this is to divide them into different paragraphs or list your goals chronologically ( from long to short or vise-versa).
Stick to the question – don’t overindulge:
It is easy to move and will be talking about your career aspirations. However, as most questions come with a word limit, it is crucial for you not to divulge. For instance, if the question only asks you to list your long-term goals, stick to it, don’t give the whole career path starting from your short-term goals.
Don’t mention ‘What-ifs’ :
It is very common for us to have a Plan-B in case an aspiration does not materialize. However, you can’t talk about your either/or strategies in your essay. Mention only one goal and the path you have set out for yourself to achieve it. Giving more than one option for your short or long term goals might come across as a lack of clarity in thought.
Ensure to include why and how:
Only mentioning your goals is not going to make the cut, the crucial part is how are you planning to achieve those goals and why you have set these goals for yourself. You can depict your personality, attitude, and planning skills in this part of the essay. Anyone can have goals, but what makes you stand apart is how you are planning to achieve them and how much effort you are willing to put in to do so.
Keep these above-mentioned points in mind while writing your career goals essay. Stick to the basics — try to answer the questions asked, and you are safe.
Good luck!