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MBA INSIDER: SAMPLE APPLICATION ESSAYS Toronto (Rotman): Essay 1 QUESTION: Please give an example of an instance or challenge in your professional or personal situation in which you failed. How did you deal with this failure and what lessons, if any, did you learn from this experience?
The Canadian cycling publication, [deleted] magazine, each year prints an annual buyers guide edition that describes in detail the 1500+ new bicycles available each year. After five years of writing freelance articles for [deleted], I was offered the job of compiling the buyers guide for the first time in 1998. Still an undergraduate, I accepted the offer based on both the generous pay scale and my overly optimistic expectation of the time that would be required.
The project was to deliver a comprehensive spreadsheet with the required data for the guide. The method for generating this spreadsheet was to manually enter data collected from varied and dissimilar sources, including manufacturer catalogs and CD-ROM, price lists, websites, faxes, and personal communications. My time spent on the project was divided between data entry and managing the collection of heretofore missing information. At the outset, I failed to correctly assess the tasks required. Midway through the project, I realized that I was in danger of missing the deadline. I pushed myself to work harder and longer hours, rather than seek assistance I could easily have contracted. I did complete the project by myself, but it was delivered late and imperfect. I was often working when I would otherwise have been studying, socializing, or attending classes; sleepless nights were not uncommon. When the project was finished, I was neither proud of what I had produced, nor did I wish to repeat the same process. However, rather than admit defeat in the face of these imperfections and missed deadlines, I asked for the assignment again the following year. Equipped with my newfound knowledge of online capabilities, I convinced the magazine executives to let me orchestrate the transition of their process from manual entry to a highly automated web-based procedure. I hired and managed a 3-person team with the goal of developing a website to collect the desired information online. The teamwork I had initially avoided now created a success story that was universally accepted by the manufacturers we designed it for. By providing each company with a secure and easy method to deliver the requisite information in a format consistent with our style guide, the site essentially automated the collection of data. With minimal editing, the website data was exported directly to print, creating a guide that was more complete, more consistent, and more correct than any [deleted] had ever printed. In contrast to the same job done the year previous, I was proud of the result. Furthermore, annual reactivation has been faster, easier, and far more manageable. Through this experience, I developed the understanding that project management does not entail the assumption of every responsibility, but rather, the synthesis of extant resources into the most appropriate and scaleable solution. 
BW MALL
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