0:02 Hi everyone. I'm Liza Wheel, founder of
0:04 Gate House Admissions. And I'm Jeremy
0:06 Shanwald, founder of MBA Admission. And
0:08 today we're reviewing an application
0:10 essay from an MBA applicant who is
0:12 admitted to HBS. If you want to follow
0:14 along, use the link below to download a
0:17 free copy of our book of successful HBS
0:19 application essays. Today we're looking
0:21 at Suzanne, and we're going to start
0:23 with her businessminded essay. Let's
0:26 dive in. What's your favorite animated
0:28 movie? I like asking this question in
0:30 interviews because it can tell me a lot
0:32 about a candidate. My answer would be
0:34 Ratatouille. Specifically for the scene
0:36 where Ego takes his first bite of
0:38 Ratatouille and is transported back to
0:41 his childhood. Like great cooking,
0:43 strong storytelling can be transportive.
0:45 I want to bring great stories to life by
0:47 using my analytical skills and strategic
0:49 thinking to drive creative decision-m in
0:52 media and entertainment. One challenge
0:53 creative executives face is not knowing
0:56 what types of stories audiences want.
0:58 Netflix sees the greatest room for
1:00 growth internationally, but cost-saving
1:02 efforts reduced our international
1:04 content budget, and we needed to develop
1:06 a strategy to optimize our spend. I
1:08 worked with teams across APAC, EMA, and
1:10 LATAM to gather competitors viewership
1:12 data and benchmarked it against
1:14 Netflix's to identify gaps in our
1:16 content. In my analysis of engagement by
1:18 content origin country, I found that
1:20 Latam audiences engage with content
1:23 regardless of origin. Anime and Kdrama,
1:24 in particular, drove significant
1:26 engagement. This differed from
1:28 leadership's belief that latam audiences
1:30 favored local tel nollas. I presented my
1:32 findings to Netflix's content president
1:33 which empowered the international
1:35 content team to re-evaluate our
1:37 localization strategy. We're now
1:39 localizing more AP pack content for last
1:40 time and already seeing engagement
1:42 improvements. While such data is helpful
1:43 in identifying current content
1:46 consumption trends, I believe there are
1:47 also stories that people didn't even
1:49 know they wanted. It's empowering to see
1:51 my experiences as an Asian-American
1:53 immigrant represented in recent films
1:55 like Past Lives and Everything
1:57 Everywhere All at Once. I aspire to be
2:00 an executive who takes creative risks to
2:02 champion diverse voices because as Ego
2:04 says, a great artist can come from
2:06 anywhere. All right, Jeremy, you start.
2:09 What do you think? What an end.
2:10 You know, we've talked before about how
2:13 we don't like quotes uh or or or tend to
2:16 tend to feel like they're should be used
2:18 really sparingly, but I mean that's got
2:20 to put a smile on because I I don't even
2:22 recall who ego is. I do recall seeing
2:25 Ratatouille at a certain point, but um
2:27 you know that that that ending is is
2:31 fantastic. Uh it it's a great essay and
2:33 and the reason is it just it it
2:35 basically just proves itself out, right?
2:39 It's it's I always love simple but uh we
2:40 have an individual who clearly loves
2:44 media and and and genuinely loves it
2:45 like a heartfelt way who starts
2:46 something with ratuless you can really
2:49 love it and uh and then says that she
2:52 wants to use data to prove out a thesis
2:56 and and then shows us that she has had
2:59 massive success doing just that. like it
3:01 wasn't just that like oh I had some
3:02 insights she was meeting with the
3:04 content president at at Netflix that
3:06 there were actual films that could be
3:08 that that that have that or a strategy
3:10 shift um that that's occurred at a
3:13 massive leading global media company um
3:15 because of her insights. You know, this
3:18 is just it's such like a slam dunk win
3:20 and fits so perfectly with this and she
3:23 tells it in such a straightforward way.
3:25 It it's I mean it's a fantastic essay,
3:27 but it's only because it was a fantastic
3:29 effort and thoughtful effort for this
3:31 person. Um this person lived this
3:33 experience and just lets it tell itself,
3:34 but it just happens to be really
3:36 fabulous. But but al also is still told
3:38 with a little bit of humor and and and
3:41 engagement. You know, there's again no
3:43 bragging. This is a masterclass. This is
3:46 really just an absolute fantastic essay.
3:48 I agree. I also love um you know how she
3:50 starts. What is your favorite animated
3:51 movie? So again, she starts with a
3:53 quote, but the quote is used very
3:56 intentionally. So as as a tool to start
3:58 revealing what what movie really
4:01 inspired her, she's subtle with it, too,
4:02 because if you notice in the essay, she
4:06 she mentions that she uses this question
4:09 in interviews. I mean, how many people
4:10 who are applying to business school are
4:13 regularly interviewing people for roles?
4:16 It's so it's just a subtle way. You
4:18 know, you spoke about how she is moving
4:20 the ship at at Netflix and kudos to her
4:22 for using her analytical insights, but
4:25 we also very just it's a very subtle
4:27 reference like she's making some
4:29 decisions or giving input to um who's
4:31 being hired at the company and not
4:33 everybody who's heading to business
4:34 school has that experience at this point
4:37 in their lives, right? and and and this
4:39 is this is big experience and it's
4:41 really impressive and it's not that we
4:43 don't believe her because the details
4:45 are there, but we also know that this is
4:46 going to be corroborated by her
4:47 recommenders and that they're going to
4:49 talk about her in these terms and so
4:51 it's really going to get driven home
4:53 that she's an impact player at a global
4:55 at a global institution. And so like
4:56 we're talking about these essays in a
4:59 vacuum often without context from
5:01 resumes and recommendations. And of
5:03 course the whole thing is a portfolio.
5:04 And in this case, as long as her
5:07 recommenders are helping to even further
5:09 elucidate the story and talk about some
5:11 of the the ways that she, you know, has
5:13 driven this change. I mean, this is just
5:16 it's such a it's such a home run.
5:18 There's there's so much to like here um
5:21 about her about her experience and
5:24 um you know that the again the ability
5:25 to drive change, the ability to think
5:27 about things differently and also kind
5:29 of like a subtle like leftrain right
5:31 like I'm a I love the creative side and
5:33 I love the stories but there's also
5:35 another story going on that's there's
5:38 that analytical story and you know that
5:39 left brain right brain story might be
5:41 proven out by her GMAT or something GRE
5:44 but it's just it's it's discussed in a
5:45 thoughtful way in this in this essay.
5:48 Okay. So, this is I love this essay and
5:49 it's not only left brain, right brain.
5:51 It's also personal and professional,
5:52 right? We have the professional
5:55 experience and I I I always love it when
5:57 um when it's done well, I should say um
6:00 when applicants bury a success story in
6:02 the business-minded essay. It shows
6:04 them, you know, it shows the schools
6:06 that they have relevant skills to bring
6:09 to their future goals. but she also
6:12 mentions being an Asian immigrant um and
6:14 and that and finding connection with her
6:18 goals um given her own identity. So,
6:20 she's just done a really nice job with
6:22 both the rat tattooy mentions of her
6:25 personal her own identity um to really
6:27 round out the professional experience
6:28 that she captures so well in this essay
6:30 as well. I agree. It's a It's a great
6:33 captivating essay and I I can't help but
6:37 wonder how she tied it all together when
6:38 she was writing it to both come up with
6:41 the the opening and the ending and tie
6:43 it all together. But it's really
6:46 brilliantly and and brilliantly done in
6:48 a meaningful way. All right. Well, let's
6:49 see what Suzanne's going to tell us
6:51 next. So, stay tuned for our next video
6:53 where we'll look at Suzanne's leadership
6:55 focused essay. And be sure to download
6:57 our book linked below for more examples
