MBA Career Goals Essay That’ll Help You Succeed in Admissions

Writing a perfect long term goals MBA essay can significantly increase the chances for success during the admissions process. But students are often confused with this issue, as they do not know for sure what to write. As a result, some applicants often just skip this point in their MBA essays, which is a big mistake. 

That’s why we created a guide on writing a long term goals essay and getting accepted to a desired Master’s program.

What Do Long Term Goals Mean?

Long term goals are usually career goals for approximately the next ten years. They define your overall target, the peak of a professional path. Imagine that you answer a question like: “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” The main aim of MBA long term goals is to show the admission committee your motivation and career plans referring to the graduation program.

Thus, the applicant should thoroughly research the industry to choose the companies you want to work in. Finally, the long term goals in your MBA essay should demonstrate that you will have a backup plan if the ideal vision of a career does not work.

List of MBA long term goals main characteristics:

• The time frame is ten or more years;
• Can include both aspirational and inspirational objectives;
• Should explain the motivation supporting the more precise goals;
• Demonstrate the alternative vision of the future plan;
• Correlate with the student’s values;
• Are linked with past experience, MBA, and post MBA intentions.

How to Frame Long Term Career Goals for MBA Students?

Defining perfect long term career goals is 50 percent of success. It is better to apply a SMARTi approach, which helps set up a long term goal easily. This method involves several features of a perfect career goal. Let’s look through them in detail:

1. Specific: the goal should be clear and reinforced by strong arguments;
2. Measurable: quantify your intentions to evaluate the achievements;
3. Attainable: the goals should correlate with your past experience and skills;
4. Relevant: your intentions should be linked to a graduate program;
5. Time-framed: set up deadlines;
6. Informed: it’s also possible to demonstrate the awareness of the chosen industry.

Example: In the nearest 15 years (time-framed), I would like to start my own business (attainable and relevant) and head a prospering consulting firm (specific), which will be in the list of the top 100 best US companies (measurable).

Does Formatting Matter for Long Term Goals MBA Essays?

Formatting is one more important issue to consider. The applicant should know how to organize the long term career essay professionally, as it may affect the overall impression of you as a fitting candidate.

Here are the main requirements for a long term goals MBA essay:

• Choose the 5-paragraph essay format;
• Pay attention to the font (Arial or Times New Roman are the best variants) and its size (11 or 12-point);
• Set one-inch margins to make the document well-organized;
• Make sure that there is a logical linkage between the paragraphs;
• Choose formal style; do not use colloquial language;
• Avoid writing long sentences; they can confuse the reader.

Strong Career Plan: Main Secrets

This table will be helpful in developing a strong career plan that works.

Winning Formula of a Long Term Career Goal

It is possible to compare an essay describing long term goals for MBA students with a personal story of an applicant. What are the main parts of a personal narrative? Right, the description of past, present, and future. The same is in a long term career goals MBA essay.

The important requirement is to make all these experiences/goals/skills linked to the grad school program. So, you can use this formula for writing a winning MBA essay:

One more necessary thing is making a linkage between these components. We recommend structuring your essay this way:

1. A paragraph with your past experience;
2. Then, a paragraph with your future plans and long term career goals;
3. Finally, your aims for the MBA program (implying present).

Click here to see some essays with long-term goals examples for MBA students published in our blog.

Effective Long Term Career Goals Essay Sample

Here is an example of merging and acquisition long term career goals essay MBA by one of the students who applied for the grad program this year.

“My ultimate goal is to finance the expansion of renewable energy sources as a stable and dominant power source for American energy security. There is a huge need for renewable energy sources in the US, and the deregulation of the energy market and potential of offshore wind power are great opportunities if tens of billions USD investment can be realized. I’ll lead this movement as a leader in Atlantic Capital, bringing together the government, power companies and international financial institutions into a global business consortium financing and bringing leading-edge technology to plants.

I’ve gained finance and corporate management skills through 10-years of experience and now I need to learn how to lead a diverse international team bringing finance and technology innovation to American energy industry. 

Through my own experience in the Berkeley short program “Leading High-Impact Teams”, I was impressed with how strongly participants (competent leaders from all over the world) concentrated on how to make the team’s atmosphere collaborative and positive to make a difference. From this I learned that in the Berkeley MBA I can best foster such a collaborative leadership style through intense communication with peers under the collaborative culture the this program respects. 

I am convinced that combined with my professional experience in finance, the Berkeley 1-year opportunities are crucial for my goals as it offers the chance to build the collaborative leadership style needed to unify different organizations, a global perspective and eye for creating and harnessing innovation.”

Let’s analyze this essay to find out why it works. First of all, the author clearly defines the motivation and sets up an ambitious goal to grab the attention of the committee: “My ultimate goal is to finance the expansion of renewable energy sources as a stable and dominant power source for American energy security.”

Next, the applicant highlights the central long term goal: “I’ll lead this movement as a leader in Atlantic Capital, bringing together the government, power companies and international financial institutions into a global business consortium financing and bringing leading-edge technology to plants.”

Finally, the student mentions the correlation between long term goals and the MBA program: “I am convinced that combined with my professional experience in finance, the Berkeley 1-year opportunities are crucial for my goals as it offers the chance to build the collaborative leadership style needed to unify different organizations, a global perspective and eye for creating and harnessing innovation.”

Hence, the writer followed all the necessary steps to write an MBA essay that clarifies career goals.

Tips for Defining Long Term Career Goals

Apart from long term goals examples for MBA students, it will be useful to use several tips for writing a perfect essay. Here are the main ones:

Tip 1: Tell why education is important for achieving your career goals.

As is mentioned above, explaining the scholarship’s importance for your career is a prior aim of the MBA essay. Thus, focus on their linkage to persuade the admission committee that you are the fitting candidate.

Tip 2: If you decide to mention several goals, highlight the central one.

Of course, it’s great to include Plan B. But, if you are writing about multiple goals, emphasize the long term goal you suppose is the central one in your long term career plan.

Tip 3: When you mention challenges, you need to write about them in terms of solutions.

While describing past experiences, you need to show problems themselves and your ability to overcome various challenges on your professional path.

Tip 4. Make sure that you put everything in logical order.

The events should be put in chronological order. Make sure that the sentences and paragraphs are logically connected. For this purpose, proofread the text several times.

Questions to Answer in Long Term Career Goals MBA Essay

Here are several questions that can help you define your career goals in a long term goals for MBA students essay.

1. Why did you decide to choose this business school?
2. What do you expect after an MBA application?
3. Describe your past experience and how it helped to grow as a professional. Why do you believe our graduate program affects your skills and career growth post-MBA?
4. How will your long term goals help you build a successful career?
5. How is the MBA program related to your career plan?

If you have no idea what to write in each paragraph, ask yourself the question from this list. This way, you will maintain the logical flow of the sentences in each paragraph of your long term goals MBA essay.

MBA Long Term Career Goals Outline

Look through this outline for a long-term goals MBA essay sample, which demonstrates the typical structure of this admission paper.

Outline Sample

1. Introduction.

• Creative methods to grab the attention of the committee;
• A strong statement describing your central goal.

2. Main Body.

• Paragraph 1. Describe what affected your career decisions and plans. Tell about your experience, educational background, and challenges you overcame, and the skills you’ve got.
• Paragraph 2. Write about your career goals in detail. Be as specific as possible.
• Paragraph 3. Describe how the MBA program can help you achieve your career goals.

3. Conclusion.

• Summarize everything and highlight the importance of the graduate program for your career one more time.

Key Takeaway

To conclude, your MBA career goals essay is a chance to apply for your dream university. That’s why you need to put all effort you can to write a perfect sample MBA essay on long term career goals. Here are the main recommendations discussed in this review to achieve this aim:

• Be specific while describing your long term career goals;
• Make connections between your past experience, plans for the future, and the MBA program;
• Consider the structure of your essay;
• Ensure that there is a logical connection between the sentences and paragraphs;
• The events should be put in chronological order;
• Format the MBA essay according to the basic requirements.

In case you still have some questions related to admission essays, you can search for more information on our blog.

Applying for MBA makes sense only if you have a clear career plan and know how this degree can help you achieve your goal. When we do MBA application essay editing, we always pay attention to how students’ career goals are described. Are you sure you sound convincing enough? Let us revise your paper, and we’ll answer you.

Information prepared by EssayEdge editor

Robin Wilson

10+ years of experience

Our editors on College, Graduate, Medical, MBA, and Law admission documents help you with brainstorming, proofreading, and editing to make your writing concise, persuasive, and original.