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by paulsbodine » Sat Feb 05, 2011 8:39 am
kamalakarthi,

At U.S. schools the 'ideal' is probably between 4 and 5 years, with some U.S. schools skewing a bit younger, and European schools skewing a bit older. Schools don't value duration of work experience by itself (indeed, applicants with say 10 or more years of experience at are at disadvantage to some extent), but rather the quality of the experience. So your 6 years of work experience is fine, if not 'ideal', for U.S. schools but probably 'ideal' for European schools.

Hope this helps,
Paul Bodine
Author, "Great Applications for Business School," "Perfect Phrases for Business School Acceptance," "Perfect Phrases for Letters of Recommendation"
https://www.paulsbodine.com/
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by bizschoolprep » Sat Feb 05, 2011 7:22 pm
kamalakarthi wrote:Hi All, I would like to know the ideal work experience for MBA. I have more than 6 years of experience. Will it be of good help. Thanks a lot for all your help.
There is no "ideal" work experience for MBA. While the "average" work experience is around 4-5 years, business schools easily have a lot of students with work experience similar to you. Whether you have 2 years work experience, 4 years or 10 years, it doesn't matter as long as you can convince the adcom why is this the right time for doing an MBA at a particular school.

Business schools encourage the business perspectives that students get into the classroom through their work experience, and hence most of the B schools in the US and Europe requires one. However, while there are lot of 2 year MBA programs in the US compared to more 1 year ones in Europe, more experienced candidates (who are open to the international locations) and hence, who are earning more and have higher opportunity cost, prefer a 1 year over 2 year. Hence, it may not be true that European schools prefer more work experience but it could be just a function of the input!

Bottomline - don't worry on your work experience. It is completely fine as long as you can tell why is this the right time for your MBA and infact, use it as a strength rather than getting worried about it.

Good luck!
-BizSchoolPrep, MBA Admissions Consultant
www.bizschoolprep.com , Know what makes us different!
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by kamalakarthi » Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:35 pm
Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply. Does that mean that I am of any dis-advantage when I go for admissions in US schools. How will my application look when compared to people who have 4-5 years experience.
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by paulsbodine » Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:47 pm
kamalakarthi,

Assuming you will have about 7 years of work experience when you matriculate, that would put you in the sweet spot in terms of age for European schools but make you somewhat older than the typical U.S. matriculant. However, you would still be in the acceptable zone so as long as (a) you tell the schools why you have waited until now to apply and (b) you meet the schools' higher expectations regarding your career pace (i.e., you have 2 years more experience than the typical applicant so they will expect more leadership, more impact--you will be held to a somewhat higher bar).

Hope this helps. Feel free to shoot me your CV for a closer look...
--Paul
Paul Bodine
Author, "Great Applications for Business School," "Perfect Phrases for Business School Acceptance," "Perfect Phrases for Letters of Recommendation"
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