The HBS essay is descriptive in its story-telling. They are asking for “experiences,” which translates into “stories to tell.” Use adjectives and concrete details, even while trying to keep each essay’s word count down.
Try to choose to write about stories that are really unique and usually recent. For this reason, a story about the lessons learned on an international exchange trip, for example, would be too similar to others' stories.
The Secret Sauce to the HBS Essay May Be Humble Humor: I have noticed that the people who tend to get interviewed are those who seem to have a bit of humor about themselves and/or their situations.
Example: "I am not the stereotypical Patton-esque Army officer who leads with charisma and bravado. My personality is more laid back and quiet than what is normally expected from military officers. My deep, commanding voice is counteracted, as my subordinates have pointed out, by my strong resemblance to Ralphie from A Christmas Story."
Example not from an essay but the application section where you are asked to share any additional context about your family background: "I grew up around our family farms. My father, as a third-generation farmer and breadwinner, lived to work. Every summer day as a kid, I had to wake up at 6 am to learn the value of hard work. As a boy, I was not much help. I just played with the pigs until one day they ran over me - then I started to take my job seriously. To this very day, I jump over the fence if I see a bunch of pigs running at me!"
Prompt: Briefly, tell us more about your career aspirations. (500 CHARACTERS maximum)
Describe a definite, specific, and ambitious purpose for pursuing an MBA, beyond the simple "I will go up the career ladder" or "I want to switch careers."
Prompt: Please reflect on how your choices have influenced your career path and aspirations. (300 words maximum)
The question asks about
In addition to your writing about the experiences that motivated you to make certain significant choices, this essay wants to you delve into how you make decisions and potentially what you have learned, good and/or bad, from the choices you have made.
Keep in mind that HBS likes a story that shows
Note: Last year, HBS asked for connections from your career and aspirations to how you would make an impact in the future, specifically on business, an organization, or a community. This year, I would recommend that you reflect on your hoped-for impact when you write about your future aspirations, not simply career goals that you can achieve at any business school.
So, when you write about the choices that you have made that influenced your career path, you should include the motivating force, for example,
Your past career path choices should relate to your future career aspirations, which in turn should relate to the impact that you want to have.
What Not To Do
Prompt: What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (250 words maximum)
What experiences have shaped how you invest in others and how you lead? (250 words)
This is an extraordinarily short essay, so what you write about should not be a lot of different things, but just one important thing that demonstrates who you are as a person and a leader. It is true that the essay asks about experiences, as in, more than one. However, I don’t believe that you will be able to create a meaningful essay if you don’t spend most, if not all, of the essay focused on one major formative experience.
Your story might be about success and achievement, or it might be about a failure from which you learned something that brought later success.
"Invest in others" strongly suggests that HBS seeks leaders who are not egocentric, self-centered, and self-congratulatory but instead are attuned to those around them. Coaching others, mentorship, and volunteering to train people are all examples of investing in others, as is voluntarily spearheading organizational changes that improve inclusion and/or support for other people.
As always, HBS doesn't want to just hear a leadership story from you but also the motivations and thoughts behind your actions. What very important or interesting background / formative experience to your leadership do you have that they would not otherwise know about you? It can be your past experience with a person who impacted you, your culture, an unusual tradition, an event that impacted your entire life, a habit or activity that you've done your entire life. Alternately, you can write about a something that you pursued with great difficulty that made you the person whom you are today (again, something that exemplifies who you are as a leader). Ideally, choose a leadership story that won’t just repeat what they can already see on your resume.
As well as leadership, your essay should reveal additional traits about yourself, such as humor, honesty, or resilience. For example, one of my clients wrote about a pivotal leadership moment that not only changed him forever, but also, in describing the event, showed how other people naturally gravitate to him to solve problems in times of stress.
Prompt: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (250 words maximum)
"Curiosity is much more important to an enterprise’s performance than was previously thought. That’s because cultivating it at all levels helps leaders and their employees adapt to uncertain market conditions and external pressures: When our curiosity is triggered, we think more deeply and rationally about decisions and come up with more-creative solutions. In addition, curiosity allows leaders to gain more respect from their followers and inspires employees to develop more-trusting and more-collaborative relationships with colleagues." - Francesca Gino
Read "The Business Case for Curiosity" on Harvard Business Review.
This is a situational question that you should answer by telling a STAR-I story.
Choose one good story!
What should you write about? According to the HBR article describing why curiosity matters, when your curiosity is triggered, you are less likely to make assumptions and stereotype people. Curiosity also generates more innovative ideas and positive changes in both creative and noncreative jobs. Curious people view tough situations more creatively.
Have there been times that you asked questions?
Have there been times when you proactively sought out new perspectives?
Have you shown interest in other areas beyond the scope of your own work?
Have you independently pursued ideas?
Do you have a natural learning mindset?
Prompt: Please use this section to share any additional information about your family background. (250 CHARACTERS maximum)
You may decide to share aspects of your family background – social, cultural, good or bad – that has influenced your perspective, values, motivations, and/or actions.
Prompt: Please share additional information here if you need to clarify any information provided in the other sections of your application. This is not meant to be used as an additional essay. Please limit your additional information to the space in this section. (75 words maximum)
You do have the option to explain any questionable information in your application, which can be anything from a low GMAT/GRE score or low GPA to a career gap or your choice of recommenders. HBS says that it does not want an additional essay, which I interpret as keeping your explanation short and sweet.
If you address honestly and openly, and tell them what you learned from your "failure" or stumble, you have the potential to turn an application weakness into a strength.