Essay for MBA application

Dear All.

I am applying for MBA at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. To complete my application I was asked to write short essays-answers to following questions (copied directly from application form):
1. How will this MBA degree help you to achieve your career goals? Please outline your career objectives and how the MBA will help you to achieve them.

1. Why did you choose the Aalto University School of Economics MBA program? Please discuss the primary advantages and disadvantages.

1. Describe both an achievement and an adverse experience from your professional or personal life. What have you learnt from those incidents about your strengths and weaknesses regarding setting and achieving goals, and working with others?

1. Describe an ethical dilemma you have experienced. How did you manage the situation and what were your feelings about it?

Here is the first essay:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After working as a technical engineer designer, now I’d want to expand my knowledge in managerial and financial issues. At the moment my ultimate goal is to become an investment adviser or other position, related to decision-making, of a financial institution in Scandinavian region, which is involved into promotion of cost-effective ways to reduce the environmental pollution all around the world and an MBA is apparently right option for me in achieving that.

Over the next decade, I am planning to round out my managerial skills in the energy sector, particularly in promotion and implementation of clean technologies and development of renewable sources of energy. Even more importantly, I aim at learning about related areas of business, particularly finance, marketing and strategy. Doing so will help me to supplement my technical background with knowledge from social sciences and become a well-rounded manager who is able to deal with uncertainties of the dynamically changing world.

The MBA business project will provide me with an opportunity to apply what I have learned, with exposure to the practical issues of a real-time business, and to strengthen a professional relationship with the organizations, which I’d like to work for in the future.

umber of investigations made at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, USA, revealed that even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15 percent of one’s financial success is due to one’s technical knowledge and about 85 percent is due to skill in human engineering, to personality and the ability to deal with people, to express ideas, to assume leadership, and arouse enthusiasm among people. That finding equally with the said above supports me in my plans to attend the MBA. I do believe that management education can help me to develop vital soft skills essential to my standing as a professional through dedicated programs, teamwork, and other practically oriented experiences. For example, I will benefit from the opportunity to further polish my public speaking ability and hone my skills as a negotiator.

During my years in school of economics, I will likely meet many people, some of whom may prove to be valuable contacts later in my career. The establishment of a broader network of contacts is one of the reasons why it is important to attend an MBA.

Also, I have had limited experience working outside Finland, and feel that an international education will equip me with the skills necessary to deal with foreign suppliers and customers.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Could you kindly check and identify mistakes and weaknesses of my essay?

Yours sincerely,

Pavel Nesterets