Motivation letter for MBA admissions

Motivation Letter

An MBA from the Maastricht School of Management will help me fulfill a number of different life and career objectives. This letter will outline why this is so important to me, what is driving me to pursue this course for my career.

First and foremost, I find that I am a natural leader, but there are always those situations where one must prove this, and in my culture a status market like an MBA is one of those ways. It is the key to moving in to upper management. What I have do so far in my career is established that I have leadership talent, that people respect me, and that I am competent in whatever role I\\\\\\\'ve been put in. I work hard, and people notice that. I have been told by a number of people that an MBA is important to help me move onwards and reach my career objectives.

This is with good reason. I\\\\\\\'ve spent some time thinking about that advice, and done a lot of research and it is clear that there are a lot of different benefits to an MBA, especially from a great school like the Maastricht School of Management. You learn a lot of the critical skills that are demanded of people in upper management – there is this entire level of operating that really demands a different skill set, which is what an MBA does for you. But then there are all the different contacts that you make during your time in the MBA program. In this part of the world, contacts are so critical for career and social development as you know, and the people you meet here will be your co-workers, collaborators, subordinates and bosses throughout your career. It is utterly essential that you take the time during the MBA program to not only acquire critical business skills, but build the networks both domestically and internationally that will help you maximize your potential for the rest of your career.

The MSM program will benefit me in both of these areas. It is a respected program from a strong international university, and as such will give me a high-level education on all of the fundamental principles of higher-level management. Ultimately, this is critical to my development, and is the reason I have chosen to apply at MSM above all else. There is a lot of competition for students among schools in the region, but MSM has everything that I seek in terms of my education and professional development. I have the opportunity to go with schools that are more domestic in nature, but I really wanted to tap into the Maastricht philosophy. There is this incredible history of Maastricht and the Netherlands with respect to commerce – one of the leading countries for centuries, and that is the sort of institutional knowledge that maybe does not seem extraordinary if you are from that culture but for someone like myself is entirely fascinating – I will learn simply be being in that environment and absorbing how people think, act and respond to different situations.

I wish to develop a few different skills at MSM. I have interest in leadership and finance, as those are two of the skills that take one further. I have a lot of basic level skills in business, but higher level finance is important because everything you do in business has a financial dimension. And in the Gulf, it is always international in dimension as well, so it is important to understand how international finance in particular influences the other decisions that are made in the other departments.

Senior leadership is different than lower-level leadership, so that is another skill that I wish to cultivate in particular. For example, I look at lower-level leadership as where you are inspiring and motivating people on an one-on-one basis, but senior leadership is not like that. You have to inspire and motivate hundreds or thousands of people, most of whom you will never meet. So this is entirely different from anything that I have experienced in the past. I anticipate that this will be one of the most valuable skills, taking the conceptual lessons of leadership and applying them in entirely different ways.

I think other people see me as a good leader because I am a good listener, and work hard to make my team better, not just individually but as a team as well. The success of others is my success. I am strategic in mindset, able to see the big picture, but also able to see how the little things work towards that big picture. I believe I am also viewed as flexible, in the sense that I am open to new ideas. In a world that changes as dramatically and quickly as this one, it does not make sense to just think you know everything and never need to change. If the external environment is always changing, then we must be prepared to change with it.

I am maybe less comfortable talking about my weaknesses, which I suppose is a weakness unto itself; in a time when being authentic is so important people might think that is a sign of lack of authenticity. I would also say that I don\\\\\\\'t know everything. I want people to think I am incredibly talented but I have much to learn , which is why I am applying MSM, to know more. A third weakness I would say is really not much international experience, again a reason why I\\\\\\\'m applying to MSM. I want more international experience, because I see in friends and family how important it is to success.