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Need advice:Gap in work experience affecting MBA application

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by ally.pinto » Fri Apr 24, 2015 4:19 am
Hello - I have one small issue bothering me and would be grateful if you could help answer the same.

Will a gap(about 6 months-1 year) in work experience (if I resign to prepare for the GMAT) prove to be a significant disadvantage for me at the time of MBA applications - specially for Canadian Schools?

I'm targeting the Sep 2016 semester and my last working day if I resign will be at the end of Aug 2015. So there would be a gap of 6 months - 1 year.

Would be really grateful to have your expert advice on this.

Thanks and Regards,
Alison
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by CriticalSquareMBA » Fri Apr 24, 2015 4:50 am
Hi there,

Thanks for shooting over the PM with this question but I felt I should respond in the forum in the event others were facing a similar decision point.

I'm not going to beat around the bush - do NOT do this. The short of this is that it will seriously damage your candidacy. Doesn't matter which schools. Yes, if you were applying to the top 5, this would sink your application, but no matter where you apply in the world, they'll be comparing you to people who took the GMAT while working and rocked it. If you're telling the school you can't handle studying for the GMAT while you work, how are you POSSIBLY going to handle business school they'll wonder?

Not to mention, you're young - with a few years of experience, taking 6 or 12 months off could be up to 33% of your professional career. That's a HUGE hit to your resume!

Lastly, if you're not taking the for another 6 to 12 months, the thought that you would do significantly better having studied full time (and this is hardly the LSATs) isn't perhaps the right line of thinking. The chances of you doing better are slim at best. You could also do worse because you've over trained!

So no, don't take time off. For anyone reading this who is considering the same - don't do it. A few weeks (max) of sabbatical is ok if you feel you need it but that doesn't hit your resume which is the only reason I'm remotely condoning it.

Hope this helps!

Bhavik
Critical Square | MBA Admissions Services

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by fxMBAconsulting (Leah) » Fri Apr 24, 2015 7:05 am
I second that. Nobody should take 6 or even 3 months off to prepare the GMAT. It will hurt your chances of being admitted to your reach schools and furthermore if/when you do get into a program and you start recruiting for an internship in October-January of your first year...employers are going to see the gap and question it.

You're just going to have to find a way to work GMAT studying and application preparation into your current schedule :)

All the best,
Leah
Leah Derus
MIT Sloan MBA 2010
Independent MBA Admissions Consultant
[email protected]
fxmbaconsulting.com

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by mcbMcK » Mon Apr 27, 2015 6:29 am
Alison,

We just published a post on exactly this topic. This should hopefully clarify most of your dilemmas. Read here.
MG (Manish Gupta)|The MBA Crystal Ball Team

Website: https://www.mbacrystalball.com
Email: mcb at mbacrystalball dot com
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