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  • Career as a Teenager
    From: kangershum  Aug 18, 2012 Posts 6

    If I had been a consulting my family business regarding company vision and goals, management, and leading R&D efforts since the age of 16, should I discuss this in any of my essays or would this scenario be considered statistically too farfetched for the admissions board to believe? Should I simply understate the earliness in which these events started to make it sound more plausible?

  • Re: Career as a Teenager
    From: victormlee  Aug 18, 2012 Posts 2,531
    In reply to

    Statistically too farfetched? That's not even a consideration....

    If it was true and not exaggerated, then there is no problem referring to it if you think it adds to the story and picture of yourself you are trying to convey to AdCom. 

    If admitted, there will be an independent agent doing background/verification checks, so you shouldn't even worry about plausibility at the application stage. 

    To be honest, if I read between the lines, it almost seems as if subconsciously you might doubt what exactly the significance of your role was in your company at age 16, hence the misplaced concern and concerning thought of "understat[ing]" a fact. A confident, honest individual grounded in facts and reality should never need to worry about how AdCom perceives the factual accuracy of their messages; it will become plainly evident and clear in their essays and other application materials. Are you really worried about how AdCom perceives your points, or are you really more afraid of exaggerating your experiences?

    No offense intended, by the way; just being blunt to get my message across clearly (hopefully).

    Note also that, in a family business, it is not uncommon for young adults to be involved from an early age. Wharton is very familiar with this kind of background.

    -Victor

    WG '11

     

  • Re: Career as a Teenager
    From: kangershum  Aug 18, 2012 Posts 6
    In reply to

    I honestly and deeply appreciate your bluntness. 

    Perhaps I'm trying too hard to read between the lines of how AdCom evaluates applications. I admit that like all people, I am indeed afraid of what I do not fully understand. 

    However, your description of AdCom's stance and evaluation philosophy is almost exactly what I wanted it to be. 

    Thanks Victor,

     

    -Kanger

  • Re: Career as a Teenager
    From: victormlee  Aug 18, 2012 Posts 2,531
    In reply to

    No problem! Probably the hardest part for me during the application process was figuring out who I was and how to convey it effectively to AdCom. 

    Self-discovery is learned throughout one's life, in my opinion. I'm certainly still learning a lot about myself.

    Good luck!

    -Victor

  • Re: Career as a Teenager
    From: Fanaticalfan  Aug 20, 2012 Posts 1,159
    In reply to

    My take on this is slightly different from Victor's.

    Adcom are aware that it is common in family businesses to involve children fairly early on as an important learning experience, and also for trusted family members to be much more involved at an earlier age than 'outsiders'.

    But adcom are also aware that at age 16, you were presumably a full time high school student, with any family business involvement secondary to that.

    Even purely from a time perspective, it would seem infeasible to be DEEPLY involved in vision, active management, R&D, and being an outstanding student. The reader is probably going to conclude that the extent of your involvement at such a young age in so many areas is at least somewhat exaggerated.

    And the problem with exaggeration is that it can really cheapen the currency when it comes to other more significant experiences elsewhere in your application.

    My advice would be that rather than writing about the breadth of your involvement, select one area where you were more deeply involved, and go into more detail on that specific aspect.

    Also, you may want to consider the language you use here. For example, R&D implies a fairly technical process, with complex and advanced technologies, scientific testing, etc. Even in family businesses, 16 y.o.'s just don't get let loose to "lead" this stuff part time.  However, less complex companies still have the need to evolve their products and services - if you call it "new product development", you will probably have the reader more on side, and probably give them a more accurate idea of what you were doing. And if you did spend your summer's working in a genuine R&D lab, then write about it - but a summer working on a project in an R&D lab is not "leading".

    Bottom line: Don't understate what you were genuinely involved in, but be selective in what you write, and focus the reader's attention on what you were more DEEPLY involved in. Family business types are often passionate about their business, and it is often a key reason for wanting to do an MBA - and even if it was originally from your teenage years, if this is important in your development, then write about it.

    FF

S2S: Early Career