ISB PGP MAX Application Tips and Best Practices

The ISB PGP MAX is a Global Executive MBA program designed for experienced professionals/executives or business owners. This program is specifically designed to help professionals with 10–15 years of work experience advance in their careers. The main objective of the program is to prepare individuals to become global business leaders and maintain long-term career success. It aims to develop analytical, strategic, and leadership skills that are essential to navigate in today’s complex and evolving business world.

Since it is an Executive MBA Program, it is important that the applicants demonstrate strong leadership experiences, how they have advanced in their careers, and how they are planning to leverage the learnings from this program back to their work.

What influences your Selection?

The PGPMAX office and the admissions committee evaluate each applicant on several criteria to ensure that the participants selected for the program are well-rounded individuals. Each component of the application and the interview are important. The selection of participants will be made considering a combination of many factors including:

• Quantity and quality of work experience.

• Evidence of professional success.

• Strong communication skills.

• Likelihood of benefiting from the program.

• Business leadership potential, track record, traits, attitude/mindset, etc.

• Motivation to participate in the program.

• Undergraduate degree performance.

• Performance in the interview.

ISB PGP MAX Placements:

In most cases, the Executive MBA for an applicant is sponsored by the organization they are currently working for and so they want to return to the same organization after this program. Therefore, there isn’t a dedicated placement cell for the PGP MAX program, and companies do not come for campus recruitments. However, there are a lot of networking opportunities with organizations, and senior alumni from the PGP MAX program. You should be skilled enough to create recruitment opportunities for yourself. ISB will provide will all the avenues for you to be able to create such opportunities for yourself. ISB has a career advancement cell that will help you prepare your resume, Alumni mentorship sessions to help with feedback on your resume or cover letter, etc. At the end of the day, it is you who has to step up and make use of networking with coveted organizations.

Tips on how you can approach the Essays for the ISB PGP MAX Application:

Essay 1

What is the driving factor for you to do PGP Max at this stage of your career? How do you think ISB can help you achieve your professional goals? (300 words Max)

Here you can talk about your career goals and what roles you are looking forward to in your professional life. It is very important that you have a clear vision of your goals post the program with regard to what roles you expect to get into and what organizations you are planning to be a part of. ISB wants to know what skills you currently lack (eg. lack of global perspective and management, etc.) that you aim to cultivate with the help of the ISB PGP Max Program and how it would help you get ahead in your career. This will let ISB know that you understand the value that this program will add to your career and that you have a solid career plan.

Essay 2

Describe your experience during a challenging time in your professional life. Explain briefly the actions you took and the impact it had on your professional and personal life.

Typically everybody applying for PGP Max has an experience of 12 to 15 years so this challenge should really be a tough professional challenge. It shouldn’t be something trivial like a team member left or you had to fill somebody else’s shoes. The challenge should show that you had to do a complete turn-around of your organization or a department, you had to build a product from scratch, etc.

You have to explain the context of the challenge. The best way to go about this is to follow the framework of S-T-A-R, Situation-Task-Action-Result. You can start by giving the context and then explain why the particular situation was a challenge or what were the challenging aspects of the situation. Then discuss how you were able to tackle the particular challenge and finally what impact you were able to create. Keep in mind that the question asks about the impact on both professional and personal lives. You can mention how you were able to get a new client, generate profit, or create a new product due to this challenge as an aspect of your professional life. You can mention that personally you now had the temperament of taking on uncharted territories and gained a lot of confidence.