The Discussion of the Professions for the University of Cape Town - Admission/Application Essay Example

Running Head: MBA Application Essay MBA Application Essay [Institute’s MBA Application Essay Alternative careers considered: Discuss the vocations or professions, other than business administration, which may have seriously considered Faced with a world where every single field promised adventure, reward, and personal growth, my decision of a career path was a difficult one. The intrigue and risk of business beckoned to me, as did the reward and interesting nature of medicine. I could not bring myself to choose one and leave the other, given how much they both interested me. I decided to pursue each of these careers to a certain extent. This decision led to consider the field of medicine first. The two career paths within this field, which appealed to me the most, were biokinetics and physiotherapy. In fear of simply repeating the details that my resume already reveals, I will not go into the fine details of the course of action I adopted in pursuit of these careers, such as the education and work experience I obtained. I would, however like to mention the immense reward and satisfaction these careers have given me so far. Being a physiotherapist for over 6 years gave me the opportunity to work with numerous different organizations, each of which contribute to society in a manner which made me proud to be part of them. It also allowed me to help several people, which was a reward within itself. My interest in the research-related side of medicine was fed by my research in biokinetics, which rewarded me with the opportunity to get my research published. Thus, I can happily claim that my exploration of the other career paths that I have considered so far, were fruitful and successful. With these accomplishments under my belt, I look forward to now pursuing the other career path that managed to strike my fancy. 2. Having chosen to do the programme, what steps have you taken to prepare yourself academically for the programme? One requires several types of preparation before entering a program of such demanding nature. This partly refers to the academic and skill-related preparation, which is required in order to facilitate the learning process that is involved in the Masters of Business Administration program. However, it also refers to the mental preparation and the background research that one needs to do before embarking on such an intense journey. I endeavored to prepare myself in each of these aspects before entering the program. I believe that my Mathematics refresher course at Kaplan has contributed to my academic and skill-related preparation, as has my GMAT preparation course. Apart from this, I consulted several professionals in this field for advice as well as mental preparation about what to expect from this program. This advice was especially useful coming from some of the UCT MBA alumni whom I spoke too. Each of them had several tips and advice to share with me, and they assured me of the rewarding experience that it was, mainly due to its challenging nature. After this thorough preparation in both mental and skill-related aspects, I feel equipped to embark on this journey and look forward to the experience. 3. Why do you feel a business school education will help you fulfill your plans for the future? As I mentioned above, I have always found much interest in the fields of business as well as healthcare and medicine. Thus, my plans for the future are to incorporate each of these into my career. Keeping this in mind, the ideal career, which I have chosen to pursue, is business consultancy in the healthcare business sector. This plan requires an expertise in the healthcare sector, which my years of education and experience as a physiotherapist have given me. However, in order to utilize my knowledge in healthcare for this purpose, I also need to possess an expertise in business management. This education will teach me the reigns of business administration, so that I am able to venture into this business sector with full confidence and the needed knowledge. For this reason, I am applying for the Cape Town MBA program, and I am hopeful to be granted this chance of getting closer to realizing my dream. This program will fully equip me to earn an honest living by equipping me to channel my experience, skills, and interest into a career, which I have been working towards since the start of my education. 4. What are your goals in life? Where do your work goals fit into this? How would you like to be remembered? I have designed my life goals around my desire to achieve excellence and make use of my full potential in life. Having regrets is inevitable for a person, but I wish to know that none of my regrets will be founded by not having pushed myself into achieving the most that I am capable of. In relation to these goals, I have planned a career for myself, which will incorporate all my interests, and give me a solid career plan for which to work. Jim Collins’ Hedgehog concept is also relevant to my goals. He states how you can choose your vision by finding a career, which is relevant to your interests, possible for you and lucrative enough for you to depend upon. Using these guidelines, I have been able to single out the career which I have mentioned above, one for which I will need an MBA to be successful in. I also aim to contribute to society in a tangible manner, to be remembered as a valuable part of society. My consultancy business will help me make this contribution, and thus makes me even more willing to dedicate my time and effort into its pursuit. 5. How will you complete the programme and at the same time carry on with and successfully manage family/personal commitments over the period? What will be your greatest challenges and how do you plan to cope with them? The struggle to balance and work and personal life has for many years, made the pursuit of careers a complicated task. Ever since the industrial revolution, the responsibilities of a student of higher education as well as a career person have increased immensely. Thus, it has become increasingly difficult to manage a personal life alongside such a busy lifestyle. However, I am currently single, and thus do not have the sort of family commitments which often necessitate one to find such a balance. I will thus be able to focus most of my energy into my work and education currently, which will increase the probability of achieving the results that I desire. Apart from this, there will be smaller personal commitments, which I will no doubt have. However, these will be smaller in contrast to large family commitments, and thus I foresee no problem in managing them alongside the MBA program. These personal commitments, such as those with friends or my parents, will probably be the largest challenge that I will face whilst trying to strike such a balance. However, I do not consider these a potential threat to my success in this program, as they are manageable commitments, which I have so far been able to manage easily alongside my education and career. 6. You will have to work in groups during the programme. What do you think you can offer the group process? What do you think you need most to work on over the next two years, in terms of helping you to work with others in groups? Working in the medical profession has given me plenty of opportunities to be part of a group, as well as a team. The difference in these two, according to my understanding, often affects their success. While a group is a collection of people who share a common goal, a team is a group of people who sharing a common goal, the success of which depends on the degree to which their skills complement each other’s. My contribution to a team, as I have observed, is greatly related to the skills, which I have obtained in my education and experience. Being a serious professional, I find it easy to contribute to a team that requires my skills to complement theirs, and have thus been able to perform successfully in the teams with which I had the pleasure of working throughout my career as a physiotherapist. I understand, however, that one needs more than knowledge and skills to be a member of a group. Working in the medical profession, I have observed that successful patient management must involve efficient Multi-Disciplinary Team (of which I am a member) interactions. I am a good communicator (both constructive and an active listener), treat others with respect, am willing to help and am flexible, adaptable and reliable. The proof lies in the several successful MDT patient discharges to which I have contributed. I thus feel confident in my ability to work in a group, and look forward to doing so in a business setting. 7. Please give a candid evaluation of yourself, discussing in order of importance to you the personal characteristics you feel are your strengths and those you feel are your weaknesses. I do not believe that there is ever a reason for a person to stop growing and improving. Achieving excellence is all about using your strengths to attain your goals, whilst also improving upon your weaknesses. Thus, I plan to continue striving for success in my goals with the strengths that I possess. I believe that my determination to achieve goals and willingness to work hard are the main reasons why I have gotten where I am today, and why I continue to aspire for my future. Furthermore, my interpersonal skills allow me to function successfully in a social surrounding. These skills include being approachable, an effective communicator, a good team player, and leader. In addition, I am hopeful that I will be able to conduct a successful venture, due to my insistence to integrate honesty, integrity, and conscientiousness in the work that I do. My weakness of being direct with people may cast me with a certain disadvantage, as business is a field that requires tact and diplomacy. However, I realized the extent of usefulness of this trait while working in the culturally diverse NHS, and work on improving my approach towards more sensitive people without diminishing my directness and honesty. 8. Please describe one or two situations in which you felt you had some final responsibility for decision-making. These situations may be taken from school, business, or community life. Describe how the situation developed, your own part in it, the outcome, and what you learned from this experience. I thank my experience as a First-Line Practitioner for teaching me some valuable lessons in decision-making. This was a post which my career as a physiotherapist led me to, and required me to make important decisions regarding patient management on a daily basis. The frequency with which I was required to make decisions gave me practice in doing so, and made me a more confident decision-maker than I would have been without this experience. Furthermore, this responsibility as well as the continuous decision-making equipped me with some useful knowledge, which I feel will be helpful to me even in my planned career as a businessperson. One of the most useful lessons that this situation taught me was the importance of being a client-oriented consummate professional. It taught me the high degree of responsibility that one possessed at a position of authority, and the necessity of providing clients with a service that goes beyond the regular stated requirements. This, I learned, is the key to providing a quality service and having satisfied clients, a lesson that will assist me greatly in conducting a business. 9. Why have you chosen to study your particular programme at UCT? I have had the pleasure of obtaining my BSc (Med) (Hons) in Exercise Science – Biokinetics from University of Cape Town. Thus, being a UCT alumnus I have had the chance of observing the high level of quality education that this university has to offer, due to which I wish to pursue further education from the UCT Graduate Business School. There are several aspects, which attract me to this program, all incorporated in the unique learning experience that it offers. These especially include the private preparation, syndicate groups, and plenary sessions, as I have found in which I came across in my previous learning experience. Each of these aspects has aided my learning greatly in the past, and thus I look forward to them being part of my future learning experience as well. My research shows that the UCT Graduate School of Business appears to be a business school with solid foundations and excellent values, characteristics that I find invaluable. For all these reasons, I find the UCT MBA program to be the most suitable for me, and I humbly request the opportunity to be part of it. Read More