poojaarora1818
Hi,
I am an Indian Female with 10 years of work experience in the HR domain. I have a huge career gap in my profile. Due to some personal and medical problems, I had to quit my last job. Presently, I am preparing for Gmat and my target score is 760. My query is if I want to pursue some volunteer jobs. Can I work as a volunteer at two different non-profit organizations? If yes, how does it impact my resume?
Thanks,
Pooja
poojaarora1818 Great question, and one that is often on the minds of applicants who are planning to apply to top business schools but may be concerned about not being able to present a well-rounded profile. Please note that a just-in-time strategy of joining volunteer activities before you apply for an MBA is not going to add a lot of value. The admissions committee is great at gauging your "true" motivation for these volunteer jobs. And honestly, they understand why you may not have been able to take these up early on in your career. If you will not be employed by the time of the MBA application (also something that will require a good explanation), you could also take up activities that can help you become better at a skill that you have identified as a gap. For example, if you are targeting a career in management consulting post-MBA, how relieved the adcom would be to learn you are taking a preparation course for consulting interviews. If you are targeting a product role post-MBA, it would be great to pursue product management internships or learn basic programming skills. Similarly, you can also take certified courses in mindfulness activities if that's an area of interest. If you have decided to become involved with multiple volunteering jobs, that's good too, but joining two of those all of a sudden isn't necessarily going to sway the admission decision in your favor if the other areas of your profile are weak.
There are several other ways in which you can demonstrate a well-rounded profile. Here is an old write-up of mine where I have shared some ideas from successful applicants who did not have many ECs.
How to put together an impressive ECs narrative when you don’t have many?Many applicants panic when they are suddenly faced with a dedicated ECs question in their dream B-School application. Having spent a lifetime chasing academic and professional triumph in extremely competitive environment, people often put their interests and leisure pursuits on backseat. If you are someone who has come to realize the dearth of Extra Curricular activities in your profile, take ideas from the following successful examples to weave a narrative that still shows you created broader perspectives and developed a well-rounded personality.
1. Begin by talking about your formative yearsBeginning your narrative with some context of family situation and social environment helps the admissions committee to create a character sketch of you as a child or young adult and evaluate your involvement in school activities objectively. For example, a successful applicant once talked about making extra effort to adapt to her continuously changing schools due to her family’s relocations (shows adaptability). She went on to say that she pushed herself to participate in debates, elocutions and public speaking to overcome her intrinsic shyness and lack of self-confidence (shows persistence).
2. Small actions make big impactAnother successful applicant talked about helping her family during financial crisis by taking up odd gigs such as organizing coaching/tuition classes for neighborhood kids, starting home-made snacks business she marketed through social media connections and starting a women’s dress boutique at home where she worked with artisans on profit sharing basis. Through her undertakings in adolescence, her entrepreneurial bent of mind is evident even before she started college.
3. Show that you took a stand on social issues in your society/communityA successful applicant talked about participating in theatre and dramatics during her college days. She set the context well saying she comes from a conservative and regressive rural society where vices such as female infanticide, domestic violence and AIDs are prevalent but frowned upon when discussed openly. She decided to create awareness on such issues by writing and directing street plays which her team performed in villages to echo a strong message.
4. Are you an inclusive team leader at work?If your time is all consumed at work and you do not have any active interests outside of office, talk about how you make your office a better place for others. Another successful applicant talked about creating an apprenticeship program for women employees to make the onboarding process more women-friendly in a highly male dominated field sales team (his LOR also substantiated this). Another successful applicant talked about organizing book club events in her US office where books from economically emerging countries were read and discussed to develop deeper perspectives and better inclusion at an extremely diverse workplace.
Profoundly thinking about your actions in hindsight is a great way to uncover aspects of your personality that created a strong impact on people around you. ECs need not necessarily be be about continuous community involvement or hobbies, rather, bringing a unique frame of reference through your occasional but strong stance on issues can also help you make a strong impression.
Get a free one to one personalized advice session tailored to your specific situation. We do not cap discussion hours with our applicants.Best wishes
Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD MBA alum, former INSEAD MBA admissions interviewer)Founder, MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn |WEBSITE:
https://mbaguideconsulting.com/| Message(WA): +91 9971200927| email-
mbaguideconsulting@gmail.com
Thank you so much for your feedback. It is really helpful and your advice is always practical and meaningful to me. I do understand that part I should take up those volunteering jobs or pick up short-term courses during my career break that align with my post-MBA goals. As in my case my post-MBA goal is to secure a job at the World Bank or any non-profit organization. That's why I have decided to go for volunteer services with non-profit organizations only. Well as advised by other consultants I must supplement my resume with some short-term quantitative courses like Statistics and Calculus in order to showcase my quantitative skills which is quite essential in my case as I am from a non-math background. Thanks again for your feedback. Would you like to add on if I have missed any part of it.