Soft Skills - Ask a Wharton MBA
Develop Soft Skills – Work Smart & Live More
Which one are you – “cardboard” or “sponge”? I guess most of us are a bit of both. I personally hope I will be a “sponge” for most things in life. What am I talking about?
I am talking about our ability to learn new things as we get older in life. Take two people, let’s say they have very similar skills and experience, but ...
My daughter is 1 year old and just started walking. I am amazed how relentless she is at learning how to walk. Every day she would fall down many times and then get right back up again to try again. Her face is full of excitement as she takes more steps and now only after a few weeks, she has gone from only walking a few ginger steps slowly to practically running down the corridor. ...
Timing is everything and this is true as well when you think about when the optimal time to go to business school. Most people go after having 2-8 years of experience.
If you work in consulting, anytime between 3-5 years is optimal. If you work in corporate, it really depends on your experience and how well you can build a good case for your readiness for school. The average years of experience for top schools are around 5 years for all students (3-4 years for consulting or banking folks and 6-7 years for corporate folks). ...
It is not a simple answer. It depends on where you are in your career and what you hope to achieve with a business school degree. Business school is a huge investment of time and money and your reason for going should be more than just all my friends are applying or have a MBA (although I know plenty of people who went for that exact reason). ...
A friend visited me today and said he is applying to business school. I told him I would be glad to give him some advice if he needs it. This made me realize that I actually have a lot to say on the topic of business school.
I graduated from Wharton in 2001 and got plenty of invaluable help from friends and mentors in my application process. I have also written recommendations for colleagues and reviewed numerous essays for others since graduation. It’s a pleasure to help others who is considering this important step in their career. So look out for more posts on this topic ...
I am also not immune to have doubts once in awhile, despite my own advice. It’s human I guess. As I look at my blog posts, I think is the tone too preachy? would it help anyone? does it sound practical? Initial doubts can then easily lead to de-motivation if I indulge on them – what if people think xyz? what if this is a waste of time? what if ….? ...
Job search does not have to be all work. It can be fun too. There are plenty of things you can do for your job search while sitting at a cafe drinking a hot latte. Here is one of them.
Cafe Exercise: Dream Your Dream Job
Part 1: Go to a nice cafe and get your favorite drink. For the next 30 minutes, just write down a list of things that you would want in your next dream job. It can be 3 pages long, the more detailed the better. Don’t worry about how you will get this job. Assume you will find a Genie who will grant you whatever job you want, and just brainstorm all the characteristics of that job. Here is a sample brainstorm list ...