This content analyzes an MBA application essay, highlighting how a candidate effectively uses a personal anecdote and data-driven professional experience to demonstrate strategic thinking, creative risk-taking, and a passion for diverse storytelling, ultimately leading to a significant impact at a major media company.
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Hi everyone. I'm Liza Wheel, founder of
Gate House Admissions. And I'm Jeremy
Shanwald, founder of MBA Admission. And
today we're reviewing an application
essay from an MBA applicant who is
admitted to HBS. If you want to follow
along, use the link below to download a
free copy of our book of successful HBS
application essays. Today we're looking
at Suzanne, and we're going to start
with her businessminded essay. Let's
dive in. What's your favorite animated
movie? I like asking this question in
interviews because it can tell me a lot
about a candidate. My answer would be
Ratatouille. Specifically for the scene
where Ego takes his first bite of
Ratatouille and is transported back to
his childhood. Like great cooking,
strong storytelling can be transportive.
I want to bring great stories to life by
using my analytical skills and strategic
thinking to drive creative decision-m in
media and entertainment. One challenge
creative executives face is not knowing
what types of stories audiences want.
Netflix sees the greatest room for
growth internationally, but cost-saving
efforts reduced our international
content budget, and we needed to develop
a strategy to optimize our spend. I
worked with teams across APAC, EMA, and
LATAM to gather competitors viewership
data and benchmarked it against
Netflix's to identify gaps in our
content. In my analysis of engagement by
content origin country, I found that
Latam audiences engage with content
regardless of origin. Anime and Kdrama,
in particular, drove significant
engagement. This differed from
leadership's belief that latam audiences
favored local tel nollas. I presented my
findings to Netflix's content president
which empowered the international
content team to re-evaluate our
localization strategy. We're now
localizing more AP pack content for last
time and already seeing engagement
improvements. While such data is helpful
in identifying current content
consumption trends, I believe there are
also stories that people didn't even
know they wanted. It's empowering to see
my experiences as an Asian-American
immigrant represented in recent films
like Past Lives and Everything
Everywhere All at Once. I aspire to be
an executive who takes creative risks to
champion diverse voices because as Ego
says, a great artist can come from
anywhere. All right, Jeremy, you start.
What do you think? What an end.
You know, we've talked before about how
we don't like quotes uh or or or tend to
tend to feel like they're should be used
really sparingly, but I mean that's got
to put a smile on because I I don't even
recall who ego is. I do recall seeing
Ratatouille at a certain point, but um
you know that that that ending is is
fantastic. Uh it it's a great essay and
and the reason is it just it it
basically just proves itself out, right?
It's it's I always love simple but uh we
have an individual who clearly loves
media and and and genuinely loves it
like a heartfelt way who starts
something with ratuless you can really
love it and uh and then says that she
wants to use data to prove out a thesis
and and then shows us that she has had
massive success doing just that. like it
wasn't just that like oh I had some
insights she was meeting with the
content president at at Netflix that
there were actual films that could be
that that that have that or a strategy
shift um that that's occurred at a
massive leading global media company um
because of her insights. You know, this
is just it's such like a slam dunk win
and fits so perfectly with this and she
tells it in such a straightforward way.
It it's I mean it's a fantastic essay,
but it's only because it was a fantastic
effort and thoughtful effort for this
person. Um this person lived this
experience and just lets it tell itself,
but it just happens to be really
fabulous. But but al also is still told
with a little bit of humor and and and
engagement. You know, there's again no
bragging. This is a masterclass. This is
really just an absolute fantastic essay.
I agree. I also love um you know how she
starts. What is your favorite animated
movie? So again, she starts with a
quote, but the quote is used very
intentionally. So as as a tool to start
revealing what what movie really
inspired her, she's subtle with it, too,
because if you notice in the essay, she
she mentions that she uses this question
in interviews. I mean, how many people
who are applying to business school are
regularly interviewing people for roles?
It's so it's just a subtle way. You
know, you spoke about how she is moving
the ship at at Netflix and kudos to her
for using her analytical insights, but
we also very just it's a very subtle
reference like she's making some
decisions or giving input to um who's
being hired at the company and not
everybody who's heading to business
school has that experience at this point
in their lives, right? and and and this
is this is big experience and it's
really impressive and it's not that we
don't believe her because the details
are there, but we also know that this is
going to be corroborated by her
recommenders and that they're going to
talk about her in these terms and so
it's really going to get driven home
that she's an impact player at a global
at a global institution. And so like
we're talking about these essays in a
vacuum often without context from
resumes and recommendations. And of
course the whole thing is a portfolio.
And in this case, as long as her
recommenders are helping to even further
elucidate the story and talk about some
of the the ways that she, you know, has
driven this change. I mean, this is just
it's such a it's such a home run.
There's there's so much to like here um
about her about her experience and
um you know that the again the ability
to drive change, the ability to think
about things differently and also kind
of like a subtle like leftrain right
like I'm a I love the creative side and
I love the stories but there's also
another story going on that's there's
that analytical story and you know that
left brain right brain story might be
proven out by her GMAT or something GRE
but it's just it's it's discussed in a
thoughtful way in this in this essay.
Okay. So, this is I love this essay and
it's not only left brain, right brain.
It's also personal and professional,
right? We have the professional
experience and I I I always love it when
um when it's done well, I should say um
when applicants bury a success story in
the business-minded essay. It shows
them, you know, it shows the schools
that they have relevant skills to bring
to their future goals. but she also
mentions being an Asian immigrant um and
and that and finding connection with her
goals um given her own identity. So,
she's just done a really nice job with
both the rat tattooy mentions of her
personal her own identity um to really
round out the professional experience
that she captures so well in this essay
as well. I agree. It's a It's a great
captivating essay and I I can't help but
wonder how she tied it all together when
she was writing it to both come up with
the the opening and the ending and tie
it all together. But it's really
brilliantly and and brilliantly done in
a meaningful way. All right. Well, let's
see what Suzanne's going to tell us
next. So, stay tuned for our next video
where we'll look at Suzanne's leadership
focused essay. And be sure to download
our book linked below for more examples
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