IE SPAIN MBA Sample Essay 1

Essay 1: Think about what you would like to transmit to the admissions team and the format in which you’d like to do it (essay, letter, etc.). Once you have this clear, you’ll be ready to start writing. 250-650 words

“Life is about accepting the challenges along the way, choosing to keep moving forward, and savoring the journey.” ― Roy T. Bennett. I believe this describes the best journey which I have embarked on.

My NTPC career started with a lot of surprises. The new-found struggles of staying in a remote location in NTPC’s hostel at Singrauli, and the simplicity of village life changed my perception of life and I became more self-reliant and confident. In 2015, when I was posted in Farakka, the laborers staged a massive agitation for a wage increase, forcing us to stop three 500MW capacity units. The plant executives were unable to reach an agreement with the labor union. I understood their main issue was the maximum number of days for which they could earn wages. I raised with the senior management and finally the number of working days per month was raised from 22 to 26.

Then came the legislative assembly election of West Bengal in 2016, when I was appointed micro-observer for two polling booths in a Bangladesh-bordering village. The community was so politically charged that the booths were given special forces protection. On the news of nearby booths being attacked and voting machines being damaged by a gang of masked men, I quickly mobilized a few policemen to patrol the village to discover and curb all mysterious activities immediately. After a few arrests, finally, the process ended peacefully for my booths.

My transfer to Lara, Chattisgarh in 2018 became another milestone in my people-skills learning. While laying the pipeline for the water-pump house, I managed the local villagers’ severe opposition fearing damage to their farmlands. In the commissioning phase, I witnessed several unseen problems that contributed to my individual and professional growth.

Doubtless, my core technical skills and people management skills have been heavily bolstered throughout my employed years at NTPC. As I grew in my profession, I developed a fascination with strategic aspects of operation management and the larger spectrum of functional planes that must cooperate to make the business viable and robust. Moreover, being a part of the commissioning team of the 1600MW-capacity Lara project, I have realized the criticality of the supply chain function in the success of an enterprise. The Covid-19 era has strengthened this conviction in me while it has also exposed the scope of optimization in this domain. Hence, I see tremendous potential in this domain. Also, while working with sophisticated consultants from Doosan, Hitachi, and Yokogawa during the erection phase of the Lara plant, I was inspired by their higher-order thinking, finer people-management, and decision-making skills. Hence, to successfully achieve my future goals I must learn the holistic financial, strategic, and sales aspects of an enterprise. I believe that a formal MBA can best address these gaps. My immediate post-MBA goal is an Operations and Supply-Chain Management role with a prominent firm like GE Power. In the long term, I will grow through the managerial hierarchy to take up a strategic leadership position in the operations domain.

The IE Full-Time International MBA with a cutting-edge curriculum inspires the student to think, apply, and learn. A comprehensive plethora of modules, with electives such as Operations Management, taught by stalwart professors like Rodrigo Alegria Huerta and Marco Caserta will introduce me to the several business administration nuances. I plan to leverage the International Exchange Program to learn different cultural and community perspectives. Moreover, the Immersion Labs will allow me to get an in-hand experience of the industry while immersing myself in real-world business problems. The  IE clubs will sharpen my intellectual abilities, helping me to improve my team skill, while giving me an opportunity to connect with people from different countries. The diverse cohort esteemed faculty, and alumni base set IE apart as an exceptional brand which I want to earn. Hence, I am convinced that the IE MBA can help me achieve my career goals.