ESSAY A*(Required) 
What are your short term and long term goals? How will a Tepper MBA help you achieve these goals? (Please include any information regarding what steps you have taken to learn more about Tepper.)

2008 was hell.  Our consulting firm shed 65% of its workforce over a ten month span.  Half our building was empty; most of the desks look as if someone went out to lunch and never come back.  I remember thinking that our office looked oddly like a scene from the History Channel show “Life After People”.  But I knew something no one else did.  The economic environment was only partially to blame for the mass lay-offs that occurring at ConSol, our company.  Luckily for management, it was easy to explain the cutbacks by restating the obvious; our firm heavily relied on revenue from residential and commercial construction in the U.S. southwest, an industry absolutely gutted by the seized capital markets.  But that wasn’t the primary cause of our company’s misfortune.  Only several months after a promotion, in which I became a direct report to the CEO, did I begin to understand the true reasons for our recent downsizing.  Shortsightedness, poor execution, inability to capitalize on opportunities and a general lack of time management were all traits I gradually began to observe in the company’s senior management.  Tougher still, was accepting the heart wrenching truth that our CEO, my father, was nothing like the ideal business executive I had idolized since my youth.

Raised in a home where both parents were business owner-operators, I grew up with dinner table conversations revolving around cash flow deficits and employee issues instead of little league baseball and Disneyland.  By high school, and even though my only real contribution to either parent’s company was landscaping their building fronts, I felt I had a pretty good understanding of the inner workings of a small to medium sized business.  But in college, I moved away from my parents business interests and focused on aeronautical and mechanical engineering with the intent of one day working for Boeing or Hughes Aerospace.  During college summers, I took an intern position as a liaison engineer at Applied Aerospace Structures Corporation (AASC), an aerospace manufacturer in my home town.  Although I was promoted to Project Team Leader in a record eight months, my experiences at AASC left a sour taste for engineering.  Very quickly, I learned that engineers, at least, the ones I worked with, were not the most outgoing, forward thinkers.  I struggled with this and ultimately moved on from AASC after college graduation.

After a three month European backpacking trip, a graduation gift to myself, I came home to find an entry level engineering position open at my father’s firm, ConSol.  Immediately, I was given the opportunity to prove myself on the firing line, leading a team of designers, presenting my work to clients and representing ConSol at engineering engagements all over the West coast.  Over the next 30 months, I designed over 120 mechanical projects while managing a design team that consistently billed 25-40% more per man-hour.  Although my interest in engineering was waning, for ConSol’s benefit I pursued Professional Engineering licensure, passing the rigorous 8-hour exam, allowing the company to follow lucrative contracts and grants in states it wasn’t previously licensed.

In early 2008, I was promoted to a “Project Engineer” position, a misnomer since I was removed from engineering responsibilities almost entirely, and worked directly for my father, ConSol’s CEO.  Initially, this was a dream come true.  Since youth, I had admired my father’s perceived sense of leadership, passion for continual improvement and ability to think strategically and execute thoughtfully.  Working closely with him, I developed new avenues of service, performed extensive financial and competitive due diligence, and formulated legal strategy.  Although I genuinely enjoyed working closely with my father, the mental honeymoon I had initially been blinded by soon faded.  Only after several months of close proximity did I understand that he was not nearly the business powerhouse I had envisioned.  Lack of long term goals, strategic positioning, and revenue diversity were all areas he didn’t have a fundamental grasp of.  This was made clear to me, in excruciating detail, following the financial collapse of 2008.  Times were tough in 2008, but mediocre high level decisions unnecessarily lost company revenue which ultimately led to the lay-offs of my most experienced colleagues.  Knowing the true reasons behind these needless cuts ia a burden I still carry, but in them I found new focus and motivation for the next steps in my life.

My short term career goal is to switch completely from one-off “Special Project” tasks into a more full time role of business development and strategic planning.  This will allow me to further hone my management skills while still playing a principal role in developing new service and business opportunities.  More importantly, it will help prepare me for my long term goal of replacing my father as the CEO of ConSol.  An MBA would accelerate my career by providing an environment where I could immerse myself in a diverse group of individuals who are also searching to enlarge their intellectual and practical business knowledge.

Although I have learned an extensive amount in post collegiate financial studies, I need a more solid foundation in the fundamental pillars of business to reach my potential.  Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business and Institute of Technology would provide the perfect environment for me to absorb the business fundamentals I need to be a successful leader at ConSol.  Professor Peter Boatwright’s course on “Integrated Product Development” would ideally blend my product and service development enthusiasm with my background in engineering.  Tepper’s mini-semester system is a fantastic way to expose myself to nearly different 40 courses during my two years at business school.  On the other hand, once arriving to and acclimating to Tepper, the MBA Tracks option may prove itself most useful for my scenario.  After enlightening conversations with Endurance Club’s Jay Sizemore (class of 2011) and the Energy Club’s Ryan Lefkofsky (class of 2011), I have no doubt of my participation in some of not many of Tepper’s Student Clubs.  I view these as opportunities to continue the learning environment well beyond the classroom.

At its core, Tepper will provide me with the critical thinking skills and fundamental business framework required of any thoughtful executive.   Tepper’s commitment to creating high-impact, entrepreneurial business leaders who can harness information and technology to produce sustainable economic growth is exactly what I’m looking for as a future CEO.  However, I’m not naïve enough to believe any business school could prepare me to the point of avoiding every downfall my father endured.  But, if my son or daughter so chooses to follow in his or her father’s footsteps, I believe Tepper will provide the mold from which I would be proud to pass the torch.