TotalGadha GMAT

While working on profile enhancement topics, I realized that I have not covered anything on work experience. So here I cover the common questions regarding work experience:

1. 1. Why Business Schools want work experience?
2. 2. What kind of work experience is needed to be successful in a Business School?
3. 3. I have less than two years of work experience. How do I strengthen my Business School application?

1. Why Business Schools want work experience?

Although most US Business Schools do not define any specific minimum work experience criteria to admit candidates but no one can deny that work experience definitely adds the ‘wow’ factor in a Business School application. Students who either have low GPA/GMAT or extra curriculars can definitely consider highlighting their leadership, teamwork or managerial qualities through work experience to make their candidature strong. Let’s see what magic work experience creates.

Diversity: Business Schools are always looking for candidates who can add diversity to their school community. Students from different professional, personal, and cultural backgrounds are preferred. For example if there are students with work experience from sectors such as private equity, banking, teaching, consultation, sports, military etc., the conversation would definitely become enriched and take the entire learning experience to a different level altogether.  Schools like to bring class full of students who can bring different perspectives and solutions to various business problems and students who have already handled situations in the real world can relate to such problems better than students with no work experience.

Edge: Good work experience would give an edge to your application against the pool of applicants who have applied early and have not got enough chances as you would get to demonstrate your leadership/teamwork/managerial qualities. Admissions committee care about what you have learnt from your experience. If you can “intelligently” explain your experiences from work and life in a manner that makes you a unique candidate, you would definitely be standing ahead of the pool of applicants. Someone who has worked in a blue chip firm but has not been able to bring his unique story on the table is no better than a candidate who has worked in some XYZ firm at not-so-happening position. Experience from the real world my add edge to your application but it would be no good if you are not able to “flaunt” it in front of the admissions committee. Also, MBA is about turning theory into practise, someone with work experience would be able to comprehend the complexities of the real world better than the fresh graduate.

Competitive in Job Markets: Hiring a candidate in an organization is an expensive proposition and hiring a candidate with an “MBA tag” becomes even trickier for organizations. If you are a fresh graduate, you would be competing against the candidates who must have already demonstrated their qualities to cope with ambiguity, conflict, and adversity in the work place. Definitely a candidate with work experience would be able to position himself better by articulating examples from his past experience where he must have already demonstrated his people/ leadership/ managerial skills while it would be harder for a “green” candidate to convince the recruiters on the same grounds. The picture would not be rosy for a candidate who although must have had a long experience but must have changed jobs frequently. It raises an eyebrow over your motivation to move up in the ladder or your capabilities to be able to demonstrate enough capabilities. It is better that you stick to a particular job for a longer period of time and grab every opportunity that comes your way to demonstrate your skills.

2. What kind of work experience is needed to be successful in a Business School?

Both quantity and quality of work experience is important but more than quantity Business Schools want to admit candidates who have proved that they have been successful in whatever they have done so far. Also, you would have to bring your unique story on table explaining how you would apply your skills that you have learnt till now. Showing that you have had 5-6 years of work experience is not enough to convince the admissions committee that you are a worthy candidate and you can demonstrate abilities to become a future leader/manager. You don’t need to have a work experience from a particular background to become a successful candidate but while admitting you, Business Schools care about what you have learnt from your experience. Have you demonstrated any leadership quality? Have you tried to resolve any conflicts among your colleagues while working in a team? Did you bring any theoretical knowledge into practise during your work tenure? Have you secured any promotion or upward mobility in your organization? Have you volunteered for any work that demanded your uncut attention? Have you motivated your team members when required? Have you demonstrated excellence per se in any area of your work? Have you tried to resolve any ethical dilemma among your colleagues? How have you managed your own personal time? If you have switched many jobs in your career, it is best that you demonstrate in a way that defines as hunting a right career path for you than a sob story regarding the same. Focus on what you ahve learnt and how achievements that you have had during your tenure. Admissions committee want to bring a broad range of experience in their class because MBA is one degree which all people from various backgrounds come at one platform; in a good MBA you learn as much from your classmates as you would learn from your faculty members.

3. I have less than two years of work experience. How do I strengthen my Business School application?

There has been a growing trend among Business Schools accepting the candidates who are either fresh out of college or have little work experience. The simple reason being Business Schools do not want to miss the talented candidates. Although, early career applicants may not boast of their quantity of work experience but they can definitely highlight the quality part and how they can contribute to the school. Business Schools have relaxed their work experience requirements especially to add diversity to the class in hope of attracting more women and young candidates. With the relaxation in work experience, more women can think of establishing their post professional school careers before setting down for a family. Here are a few points that early career applicants should keep in mind while writing their application.

Why Now?: You would be competing against the pool of applicants who have already proven their worth in their work fields and have reached a level where they exactly know what they want to do with their lives. You being a fresher would have to clearly illustrate why you want to do an MBA at this point of your career. Your career goals should be practical to be able to make sense as to why you want to do an MBA now. If you have concrete reasons for not waiting to gain more years of work experience, you better spell all the reasons in your essays and interviews. Just make sure that your reasons sound definitive and not vague in a manner that B Schools end up tagging you as “immature”. Bring your unique career story about what you have learnt so far and how you would be using your experience in moving from one particular area to another.

Talented, Motivated, Leaders: As a younger applicant, you can especially use this area to make an impact in your application. Put together the samples of your work that are particularly proud of and the areas where you have demonstrated leadership. Show that although you might not have got enough time to demonstrate your leadership qualities because of your small tenure at your work place but you have successfully lead teams while at university/ during your internships. Bring strong examples from your internships or community service or extracurriculars to prove your credentials. For example: Did you lead your university sports team? Did you try to resolve conflicts among your team members and brings them to an amicable solution that was suggested by you? Did you convince your sports head that your team needs more facilities to be able to compete against the XYZ team and eventually you proved yourself right? Well for those who want to really understand what leadership means, watch Chak De India or Miracle. Leadership is not a tagline; it is more about having a vision, motivating others, resolving issues, sound judgement, identifying the talents of your team members, coming to the perfect solution, handling interpersonal communications etc. and if you have demonstrated any such qualities in your college years, weave them in an impressive story that can make you a strong candidate. Your experience should demonstrate the quality that you have gained in less time. Discuss about your promotions, career progressions, assignments, projects, clientele, volunteer experience, your unique contribution to the organization etc. in your essays. Make sure that your recommenders also talk on the same lines that can reinforce your outstanding professional growth.

Contribution To the School: While selecting candidates, Business Schools are not only looking from the prospect of the two years that you would be spending at the campus but also from the perspective that you would be representing the school as an alumni all your life. Each candidate is expected to contribute something unique to the class; you must evaluate your resources about your contribution. The contribution may not be in terms of academics but also from experiences from life, extra curriculars, and your past contributions. It is important that you browse through the school website thoroughly and see whether the programmes fits your needs and whether you would be able to contribute to the class discussions or school community. You would have to demonstrate that although you have had a less experience than others but you have XYZ qualities that make you stand shoulder to shoulder with the candidates who have had more experience than you.

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I wanted to handle 5 questions in this post but since I have already crossed my word limits, I have decided to break this post in two. I would be handling two more important questions on work experience in my next post.

Quick Updates:
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