If you’re anxious about a gap in employment history in your MBA application, take heart. The admissions committee members are human beings who will empathize with someone who has faced a layoff or firing and lived to tell the tale.
You should address an employment gap lasting longer than three months in the optional essay and in the application data forms, if requested. Ideally, you’ll show that you did more than just look for a job during that period and demonstrate what you learned from the experience.
Never say that unemployment has motivated you to apply to business school. And if you’re currently unemployed, definitely don’t say you’re working on your MBA applications in lieu of finding a job.
The biggest mistake you can make is leaving that period unexplained and up to the application reviewer’s imagination. By addressing the elephant in the room head on, you’ll avoid the admissions team unintentionally developing negative conclusions.
[Avoid these 10 common mistakes in MBA applications.]
Here are three ways to address a job loss in your MBA application.
— Don’t blame anyone, including yourself: You’re walking a fine line here, since you don’t want to appear bitter or willing to throw your previous employer under the bus if you were laid off or fired.
You also don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to your possible shortcomings by blaming yourself for the loss. The key is keeping the tone matter-of-fact and acknowledging what you may have done wrong.
Perhaps you picked the wrong company to work for and it folded. You may have erred by not communicating enough with your team, not making your work accomplishments more visible to your supervisors, not taking initiative or not completing a project well. Steer clear of any negative tone, and quickly move on to the next, crucial step toward counteracting those drawbacks.
[Learn how to own up to past mistakes when applying to business school.]
— Discuss what you learned: As I’ve covered in this blog before, self-reflection and personal growth are critical elements of the MBA application journey. We often learn more from our failures more than we do from our successes, and the ability to process your mistakes and move forward to better and greater things is an invaluable skill.
Take the opportunity to demonstrate how you can or already have incorporated those lessons learned going forward. Whether you realized the hard way that you should be more discerning about your employment selection , learned the importance of speaking up and showing initiative at work or improved time-management skills that later led to better performance, an honest assessment and sincere effort to improve will go a long way to persuading the admissions committee to take a chance on you.
[Showcase these five key qualities in your MBA application.]
— Show how you have bounced back: Resilience and being proactive are the hallmark s of successful business people. Every client I’ve worked with has approached the challenge of an employment gap differently.
Some may have used the time away to travel extensively; others dove into volunteer work that allowed them to hone their business skills while giving something back; and still others used the time to give life to their entrepreneurial dreams.
One client, Christian, had been laid off from his position as an analyst at a large social media website that ultimately couldn’t compete with Facebook. Other than his unemployment, Christian was a strong MBA candidate with a 3.7 GPA from Emory University and a 740 GMAT score.
While unemployed, Christian was working on a niche retail website in his spare time and volunteering with an organization called Taproot to keep his strategy skills fresh. Christian wanted to pursue his MBA to give him a foundation in marketing and accounting that would help him operate his own company.
The key aspect that helped us shape Christian’s business school profile was that he had remained busy and optimistic. Christian saw his layoff as an opportunity to pursue a dream of entrepreneurship. His volunteer work gave him an opportunity to cite recent teamwork and also showed that he was interested in giving back, even while he went through tough times himself.
Overall, Christian demonstrated that he had the grit to persevere through a difficult experience — a quality in high demand within MBA programs. Christian ultimately attended the University of California– Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he made the most of the opportunity to become an expert on marketing and accounting for his startup.
Admissions committees repeatedly stress that no single element of your application will make or break your admissions chances, so try not to fret too much about your interrupted resume. Relax and have confidence in both your career successes and detours, knowing that it’s all in how you paint the picture.
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3 Ways to Explain a Job Loss in MBA Application originally appeared on usnews.com
