И каждый день одно и то же... Работа, работа и еще раз работа... Счастливы те, кому в повседневности удается разглядеть драгоценный опыт окружающих и перенять у коллег все самое лучшее. Способность учиться у других - ценное качество, которое может пригодиться вам в бизнес-школе.

Обратите внимание, насколько точно автор подмечает, что он ценит в личности своего коллеги, в манере работать, и что он позаимствовал у него. Становится понятно, что их встреча не прошла даром, а действительно оставила глубокий след в жизни аппликанта.

During my tenure at [Company A], I had the opportunity to work with and learn from the company's senior executive. [James]. Inside the structure of a small firm I was able to work closely with [James] on a daily basis and experience his management style.

[James] and I have very similar backgrounds and a similar outlook towards life. Although I am younger than [James], our lives have followed a very similar path. We both grew up in the same town, attended the same high school, and both went to [College C]. From our similar background and outlook. I was able to capitalize on [James's] management experiences and learn a management style that suited my own values and utilized my attributes.

Three principles from [James's] management philosophy have had a great impact on the development of my management abilities. The first and most frequently stressed principle was the necessity to never allow oneself to lose sight of the larger picture. The second principle was that a manager's success depends on how well they are able to utilize their colleagues" strengths and talents. The third principle was that in order to excel, you must consistently reinvent and improve yourself.


While working at [Company A]. I dealt daily with the analytical side of commercial mortgage backed securitizations. In my role it was very easy to become overly focused on the technical side of a project and forget the project's overall purpose. Early in my career I had a habit of becoming too focused on a particular issue in the securitization process and would not be able work past the issue until I had it solved. After a few frustrating weeks of spending nearly all day and night in the office in order to meet simple deadlines. I met with [James] to discuss my dilemma. [James's] approach was simple and quickly became part of my decision making process. His approach was to step back from the technical dilemma, look at the project as a whole and ask. "Does this provide value to the client?". This simple question helped direct me toward the issues that mattered the most instead of wasting time on the details that were insignificant to the outcome. [James's] big picture outlook also stressed the importance of a proper work/family balance. Even while committing himself to running the company. [James] never forgot the importance of quality family time. With the proper balance, he was able to spend significant time at work and still devote himself to the raising of his family. The family values that were demonstrated at [Company A] showed me that it is possible to find the delicate balance between work and family time.

Another one of [James's] strengths was his ability to draw from his colleagues' strengths and talents. There were multiple ways that [James] utilized his employees' talents, but there were two ways that I found particularly valuable. The first was his belief that there was only so much that could be learned from training and watching others. Under [James's] direction at [Company A], employees gained a substantial amount of authority very early in their career. His belief was that after a certain level of fundamental training, the best way to truly leam the process was to go into the field and implement the process for the client. He had a theory that if he hired good employees, they would be able to figure out the details on their own as long as he taught them the fundamentals. The [Company A] employee had substantial authority over client interaction and the final product sent to the investors.

The second belief was that in order to create a stronger company, he needed to make his employees well rounded. He wanted to expose his employees to as many different situations as possible in order to find out where their talents lay. If you were interested in a different part of the securitization process, [James] tried to let you have as much exposure to it as possible. For example, when I told [James] that I would benefit from more exposure to the investment banking side of the securitization process, he contracted me out to a client in New York. He rented an apartment in [Location B] and I spent a winter working with a large investment bank learning how a deal was run from a banking perspective.

The third principle that I learned from [James] was the need for continuous self-improvement. His theory was that self-improvement was a critical factor in being successful. At [Company A] there was typically a week or two of downtime when work was slow after the end of each quarter. [James] devoted these four to eight weeks per year to training. He implemented case studies. Employees were expected to run through difficult business deal scenarios in order to sharpen their skills. Employees were encouraged to enroll in real estate training classes via the Internet. On a one to one basis. [James] enjoyed teaching employees about different aspects of the industry and about the results of his most recent revelation. No questions were considered too basic to be asked and he made sure that there was always an atmosphere where employees felt comfortable enough to walk into his office to ask a question. [James's] patience and professionalism earned the respect of both clients and employees. His ability to give employees substantial authority and recognition resulted in a stronger team that produced a high level of success.

Both my work related and personal decision making skills have benefited from my time with [James], Whenever I face a decision, I am now more thorough in my analysis and pay special attention to how the situation fits into the context as a whole. As a result, my decision-making abilities have not only improved, but I find myself wasting less time on insignificant details and I have gained a more macro level viewpoint. I have been able to employ a similar employee development strategy to [James's] when I was put in charge of training new analysts in the [Location D] office. The result of the strategy was that the analyst spent a significant portion of their training in the field and was able to gain a much more practical understanding of their role. Finally, I have tried and am currently trying to follow [James's] example of consistent self-improvement.

I held the same principle of self-improvement before I worked for [James], but my time with [James] certainly helped it to grow. Under [James's] example of self-improvement I have been able to improve both my personal and work related skills. When I wanted to improve my financial skills by enrolling in the Chartered Financial Analyst program, he encouraged me by allowing me to stop traveling for the month prior to the level one and two exams so that I could both work and study out of the Memphis office. I am fortunate to have had [James] as a mentor. The skills that I have learned from him will forever impact my personal and business life.

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