Incredible Consultant and Human

Coming from a technical background in the oil industry, far removed from the business realm, I knew that an outsider’s perspective, especially one grounded in the MBA process would be beneficial to help my stories come across. (This meant ensuring that my technical resume and stories about technical projects were approached in a way that could be understood by a variety of audiences.)

Initially, upon speaking with friends who navigated the MBA process, I reached out to a competitor consulting firm and after an initial conversation with a consultant, she provided lofty claims that they felt that I would absolutely get into the top 7 schools and that given my lack of a job title change that was what needed to be focused on. The more I dug into the competitor company, I felt that it was too formulaic and I was just another applicant in their system. I wasn’t given options of who I’d work with (it felt like a very “behind closed doors” situation) or any more personal interaction aside from this short intro call, but instead was pushed a plethora of emails about their packages and links of their former success stories. While I recognize that certain MBA programs look for specific things, I wanted to ensure that my story was heard and my consultant cared about my success.

I’d read about mbaMission online, through P&Q, and it had been recommended to me by a family friend. When I reached out to have an initial conversation with the recommended consultant, she went above and beyond connecting me with 3-4 profiles of consultants who she thought I would best work with (as she was no longer working as a consultant for the time being). I ended up having another intro call with Julie-Anne ,who I felt matched my energy and was very open and honest that she aimed to highlight her clients stories in the best way possible—that the individual aspect was more important than explaining a lack of job position change. Her demeanor was very appealing as I could tell she was invested in her clients rather than just trying to snare new clients with claims of an M7 guarantee. (Note all of these conversations happened before I event sent mbaMission a single dime. I truly felt they were invested in the human side of things rather than just the commission. I think that is apparent on when you realize just how many free materials/guides that mbaMission offers, among many other aspects of their approach.)

While certain individuals reflect that they perhaps could have navigated the process without a consultant, by having family/ friends read their essays, I disagree. Julie-Anne knows how to navigate the process in a seamless manner and acts more than just an accountability coach, challenging you to make your essays better every single time. She also brings unbiased feedback to the table, unlike your family and friends. I think Julie-Anne Heafey was particularly helpful in helping me preserve my story while ensuring my tone was always upbeat and positive (which can be challenging during trying work stories). She also listened to my concerns that my essays weren’t coming across the way that I wanted to. She worked as tirelessly as I did to help fix that until the 11th hour—this was honestly due to my ability to preemptively work on apps due to an intensive work schedule. The difference was not only was it evident that she cared about me as an applicant, and abated my last minute concerns, she also gave honest feedback throughout the process. She was incredibly diligent and really helped me hone in not only on my stories and quantifying why specifically I wanted to go to a certain school/ dual program, but she did so in a manner that felt like I was her only client.

With Julie-Anne’s help, I ended up getting interviews at 5 of the M7 schools, including HBS. She’s an incredible asset to mbaMission and it would a mistake on anyone’s part to consider someone else or beyond those on the mbaMission team. I truly stand by this opinion and could not think of a better individual with whom I would trust my stories, concerns, and experience the MBA process with.