Career break & MBA: Will it harm my chances?

Question

Hi  mbaMission  - thank you for your time! Profile in brief:

Education:
* Engineer from Tier 2 college in India
* Post Grad in Liberal Arts
* Decent scores (79% and 3.4/4.0 with all As in leadership/business classes)
* GMAT not given yet

Work Ex:
* 1st job: Mgmt Trainee at Fortune 500, promoted within 1 year to Assistant Manager
* 2nd job: Project Management (more like vendor management, unfortunately) with a tech giant - 6 months in
* Worked in Berlin in a short stint (~2 months) on a consulting project in creative strategy

Extra curriculars
* Started social entrepreneurship venture in college
* Decent Scholarships and awards

Contemplating a career break - voluntary resignation - to
* Pivot - I truly hate my job in Vendor Management, work culture of the team is unhealthy
* Take a break - mentally & physically burnt out

Application timeline:
* I have ~2 years of work experience as of September. Want to work for 2 more years before applying - so, 2022

Concern:
I'm aiming for the top BSchools - Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Stanford. Can I explain my career break in the truest sense? Can I say it was due to CoVID related restructuring - would that be better? Will I be rejected basis this?

Please help? Thank you!

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mbaMissionJA · Answer

Hi  AspiringMBA14 , you know, it's hard to say, but most schools will tolerate career gaps that are for reasons outside your control as long as you apply yourself to something meaningful during that time frame (preferably that provides leadership opportunities and development) and the gap isn't too long. Your situation sounds a little different to me. I do sympathize with what sounds like a job you don't like very much...my only concern is that it seems risky to willingly put yourself on the job market a time when many others might be already out of work involuntarily, but you have to make the decision that's right for you. I do think that the higher ranked the school, the fewer red or yellow flags on the application they generally tolerate, though, so since you're aiming high, you might want at least to try to find a new gig before quitting...just a thought.

Best of luck!
Julie-Anne Heafey
Senior Consultant
mbaMission

AspiringMBA14 · Answer

Thank you so much for the advice - it truly does make sense. My problem at the moment is that I feel so disengaged and burnt out that I think I would not be able to do justice to any "exciting" or "impactful" opportunity that I take up - the likes of which I should be looking at. What do you suggest can be done at the moment? Any ideas would help. Thank you!

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mbaMissionJA · Answer

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, AspiringMBA14. This is a bit outside my area of expertise. Only you can decide what to do. I think it's understandable after a tough assignment that you might take a month off or so. If it goes on terribly long, you might have to come up with something, even classwork, volunteering, to fill the gap. Usually for b-schools, you'll need to address work gaps. Some schools don't ask, some ask but don't specify what qualifies, and others will say to describe what you did for gaps of 3 months or longer. So, a month or two off might be OK but you might need to address it on some applications (health reasons, covid, whatever) - beyond that, you might need some sort of assignment, volunteering, school work or job.

Best of luck!

Julie-Anne Heafey
Senior Consultant
mbaMission

Best of luck!

Julie-Anne Heafey
Senior Consultant
mbaMission

AspiringMBA14 · Answer

That gives me a lot to work with - a good game-plan is all I need. Thank you so much for your time, Julie!

Posted from my mobile device

Career break & MBA: Will it harm my chances?

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