Recently laid off and have a question....

If you reasonably feel as though you will be with a company for 1 year then I don't think you have to disclose your plans. You likely won't be asking for a letter of recommendation anyways. Unless the company explicitly states that the role is a multi year commitment then etiquette deems one year of service to be adequate time for the company to recoup the costs and time of hiring you. At that point two weeks' notice is customary and they need not know that you were on your way out since the moment you came in.

No problem...and I'm a madame.

If you need the work, I would work.. the problem you are going to come accross is by withholding information from your employer they might be slightly angry. But honestly, unless you plan on going back to work for them in the future, or with rely on them for recommendations... you really have to do what is best for you.

You can also consider applying to school the following year to allow you more time at a current company... more experience might even help your application..

I would be up front and honest with them. Maybe look for some freelance/contract work.

The ironic aspect of the whole situation is that I was on the due diligence team leading to the company being acquired. New management came in and tossed out all existing managers. I was the Accounting Manager/Controller for two years and knew that I was going to be laid off.

Was hoping to be starting at Georgia Tech this fall but did not have adequate time to prepare for the GMAT.

I am applying to start in 2013.

I was wanting to start this year, sorry for the confusion.

No problem hfbamafan..

With that out of the way, can you please clarify your question again?

I interpreted your first post as - is it bad if you work until school starts next fall and will it be considered rude (by someone). Pretty sure I interpreted it wrong because the obvious fact is that you HAVE to work until school starts next fall. I have no idea who would consider you earning your livelihood as rude..

I think the original question is one I have struggled with as well...is it unfair to take a job without disclosing that you are applying to school and would likely be staying less than a year? If you were being upfront about it, most employers would pass and go with someone else. I may be biased because I tend to work in companies where people stay for a long time. In other industries, things are more fluid...people are in and out, no big deal. But at my current company, someone was promoted in the fall and then left to go to grad school in June...and people HATED him for it. We'd spent all this time training him (it was a bit of a jump in seniority for him) and it was all out the window. I'm not saying we were right, but that was the overall feeling.

My situation is a little different in that I am looking to leave my current job and find a new one...I could stay where I am, but I don't want to. Hence my dilemma. The OP is without a job, so I think it is totally reasonable to go and find the best job you can, and if you end up leaving to pursue your MBA in the fall, so be it.

Of course.

I was laid off of my job at the end of February due to a M&A. I spent a couple months studying for the GMAT to see if I could squeeze in an MBA starting September of 2012. As of right now I have not been able to find a place to work, but I have a feeling that I may be employed within the next few weeks.

The situation is basically whether I should withhold this information to take the new position and not disclose to management that I may be leaving within 15 months for a full time MBA. If I take the job offer without fully disclosing this information does that make me the scum of the earth.

And I am in accounting and I am not 100% sure whether I would have the time to manage a department.

That is what I was thinking as well. A appreciate your input and +1 to you sir.

Thanks

Thanks for clarifying. And NO, it definitely does not make you the scum of the earth by any means! In fact, this cannot even be construed as withholding information since you do not even have an admit at this stage. Your plan to pursue an MBA is just that, a plan at this stage, which might work in your favor (hopefully) or might not. When we get into new jobs, we don't broadcast our plans for the next 2 years to all & sundry unless there's some certainty around them right?

So don't worry about this aspect too much. You should definitely go, find a great job and work as long as you like. Hopefully the MBA thing shapes up the way you want it to and then you can decide when you want to call it quits!

Hope this helps!

The simple and convenient answer is that 'it depends'. If you have an admit, then you have to be upfront with your employer. If you have just started thinking about an MBA or are in the middle of an application, there's no need to broadcast your plans.

As I said in my previous post, you cannot say with any amount of certainty whether an app will result in an admit or a ding. When you are yourself not sure how its gonna pan out, why would you unnecessarily shout about it and restrict your potential opportunities? Look at it this way - people are networking all the time and are always on the look out for better job opportunities. Do they keep saying this to their current employers in interest of full disclosure? Now if someone was recently promoted, and happened to find a better opportunity outside, he/she will take it! There's no reason why he/she should not take it up! I know the example is not completely analogous to the case at hand but I hope you get the idea...

I understand that in your example, people were grieved that their effort came to naught. But I think that's just the way corporate life is. Now consider two cases and let's call your guy Jim -
1. Had Jim not left and if say, the company went bankrupt suddenly, and he was laid off, what do you think people would've done? They would've sympathized with him for a bit and then carried on with their lives. Who would've given a **** about Jim two months later?
2. Had Jim told everyone that he was planning to pursue his MBA, he would not have been promoted. He also finds out later that his MBA did not work out. Would anyone have sympathized with him or given him extra perks & compensation for being upfront about his plan that never worked out? I think not..

At the end of the day, for corporations, its just about their $$$. And hence, individuals have to take the best decisions in their personal & professional interests. No one is indispensable at the end of the day. The firm will find someone to replace you but if you think more about your firm than yourself, then you might feel shortchanged at the end of the tunnel..

There's a famous quote by Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys, that I completely agree with and it goes something like this -
"Love your job, not your company. Because you never know when your company might stop loving you"

You make very good points, Scorpionz, and ultimately I think I could make a move and still keep my conscience clear. Until you have an acceptance, there are no guarantees.

Again, only speaking about my own situation...the only wrinkle I would add is that I work in the nonprofit industry, and the rules aren't always the same. When someone leaves, it isn't uncommon for a position to be empty for weeks or months while the higher ups hem and haw and try to figure out the minimum salary they can pay the replacement, or even better, consider whether that person's work can just be divvied up and given to existing employees. Maybe it is just my experience, but nonprofits seem to take staff changes a bit harder than other industries.

Of course, my motivation for getting an MBA is to help nonprofits learn to run more like traditional companies...so maybe I could soften the blow by calling my departure a bit of tough love

**Editing my post to add that Essay Snark has some good recent posts on this very topic -- very helpful!

Yep..I like the tough love argument!