Who We Are: The Full-Time mbaMission Team
Susan McInerny
Senior MBA Admissions Consultant
HBS MBA and Yale admissions interviewer with 30 years of investment banking, private equity, consulting, and nonprofit experience
How I Can Help You
I completed my BA in economics and political science at Yale (for which I have been an admissions interviewer since I graduated) and my MBA at Harvard Business School. Over the past 30 years, I’ve been fortunate to work in investment banking at Morgan Stanley in New York and Los Angeles, in private equity in California, in consulting with BCG, and in the nonprofit sector to advance issues I am passionate about, including education and workforce development (with organizations such as DonorsChoose and Jobs for the Future). I’ve also had the privilege of leading collaboration, conversation, and curated counsel for private communities of Fortune 100 C-suite executives through my work at World 50. This variety of experiences has provided me with a great deal of perspective on the unique and dynamic nature of work and leadership in many industries, insight that I use to help candidates tell compelling stories about where they’ve been and where they want to go—especially when that may involve transitions across sectors.
I genuinely enjoy building relationships and connections, and there is nothing I look forward to more than getting behind resumes and CVs and into what applicants truly care about while helping them to see themselves in a new light. My own story began with my father—who was the first of my Italian family born in this country and who raised us on the pillars of hard work, education, and family—and has stretched to opportunities and experiences he could not have imagined for his daughter. I am passionate about helping others unlock the same kinds of opportunities and believe that the pursuit and achievement of an MBA can be a transformative experience.
I consider the opportunity to serve as a dedicated advocate for each of my clients a true gift, and I treat each application journey as if it were my own. I bring my passion, warmth, candor, and unwavering support to the process of customizing and communicating strategic guidance to every applicant, and in most cases, we both end up gaining a lifelong friend in the process.
Why Choose Me
I got into admissions consulting work as an outgrowth of my passion for mentoring young professionals, which I’ve enjoyed doing for the past three decades. In every industry in which I’ve worked—from investment banking to private equity to consulting to the nonprofit sector—I’ve met incredible young colleagues looking for informal guidance on their career and educational journeys. I cherished the opportunity to get to know them and help them clarify their own goals and paths, and over time, I found myself helping more and more of them apply to business school. Eventually, I realized that I had a far greater passion for enabling the success of those I mentored than I did for my “day job,” and I decided to dedicate myself to doing it full-time.
What I have learned after doing this for applicants from every part of the world and with every conceivable background is that everyone has a unique story to tell—and it is that authentic story that admissions officers are looking for. I’ve worked with dozens of candidates who didn’t believe they were special when we began but who, after completing their applications, had a new level of confidence and appreciation for their own strengths and contributions. There is nothing I enjoy more than helping students recognize the value in themselves and parts of their background that they had previously taken for granted or overlooked. The admissions process is as much about telling your story as it is about connecting the dots within that story in a way that brings you and the path you are charting from your past to your future ambitions into laser-sharp focus. I help my clients do that by listening carefully, probing deeply, and building a meticulous and cohesive strategy for every part of the application. Moreover, I do it in a way that allows them to feel calm and in control of a dynamic and competitive process that, for many, would otherwise become stressful and daunting
Susan offered truly exceptional support for my applications
Susan’s unwavering support was critical in gaining my admission
Susan is a fantastic human being and a pleasure to work with
Susan was an amazing coach and partner