There was an interesting Q&A in our thread on the BusinessWeek Forums yesterday that we thought was worth sharing here. The applicant that posted was curious about how candidates who are looking to use the MBA to change careers should approach the admissions process. In this case, the applicant comes from a non-traditional industry and has a desire to get into finance.

Here are some excerpts:

Applicant: I am still not sure how to attack the [career goals] essay. One [way] is to keep it open, stating I want a career change and want to explore opportunity during [the] MBA. It might sound vague as [if] I have not zeroed in on your post-MBA goals. But then again if I say ‘finance’ then why is it that I would like to go for finance? I have not done any courses or [had] any work experience related to it (apart from personal reading, I haven’t done anything).

Clear Admit: It is never a good idea to give the admissions committee the idea that you may be using the MBA program itself to figure out your career goals and ‘discover your path’. This is a common mistake made by applicants. The admissions officers look for students with well-defined goals. There are several reasons for this:

1) MBA programs are short. By the time the average student has a moment to catch their breath from the demands of foundation courses, the recruiters have already shown up on campus and are looking for summer interns (2-yr programs) or offering full time jobs (1-yr programs). The admissions officers feel that students who show up for business school with a clear plan will typically get the most out of the program.

2) In some ways, business schools are graded on their ability to help graduates find employment. If an applicant cannot define a clear path (that fits with their background and skills in some way), then the admissions office may want to steer clear (for fear of taking on a student who will not succeed in the job hunt).

It is also probably not a good idea to indicate a career goal that is a change in both ‘function’ and ‘industry’ from the professional experiences you have had in the past. For example, the consultant who wants to go into investment banking might point out that they have worked on numerous consulting engagements with financial services/investment banking firms – and that during these engagements they developed a passion for the world of finance, etc. (So they would argue that while their function has been ‘consultant’ for the last few years, they have been serving the finance ‘industry’ – meaning that their new role would only involve a change in function). Similarly, the marketing director for a TV station might express a goal of doing marketing for a healthcare firm (changing industry, but not function).

Of course, the exception would be if the interest in the path you are proposing is evident in your formal outside activities – for example, if you were a computer programmer who spent all of your free time purchasing apartments, fixing them up and renting them out, you might be able to make a case for a move into a real estate career (despite no formal employment in the industry or the function you propose).