Decision to QUIT job..GOOD or BAD

Question

Hello to all the GMAT aspirants.
I am new to this forum and plan on taking GMAT this year.
Just went through few posts which say quitting your job is not a good idea for preparation.
I have resigned 1 month back from TATA Consultancy Services after having around 4 years of experience because:
1.I never wanted to be in IT(I was a very bad coder) and joined only because I had no other option at that time.
2.I have been trying to manage both job & studies for 2 years but with increase in experience the job responsibilities increased due to which I got less time to study.
3.It became kind of a do or die situation for me this year(family issues) and hence I thought that why not leave from where I never wanted to be,where I never enjoyed 
working and start preparing.
I plan to take GMAT sometime around August.I just wanted to know whether my decision will affect my Personal Interviews(provided I get a good GMAT score of 720+).
Any thoughts and inputs are welcome.

AbhiJ · Answer

Try to do some NGO work at a reputed organization(get it on your CV

) so that you can spin a story in your essays you were disllusioned by corporate and want to get in non profit sector.

shuvayan86 · Answer

Hey Abhi,
Thanks for the suggestion.I have some plans for NGO work after I prepare for GMAT.But can I also say that I did not see growth as a developer after around 4 years and didn't want to wait for 9-10 years to be at a managerial position and keeping in mind that I am having around 6 months before I take the GMAT(I am also preparing for other MBA exams like CAT) I decided to quit.

AbhiJ · Answer

I perfectly understand your point of view. The work culture in IT rewards mediocrity and politics. However MBA Admissions will question your time management skills and think that you will have trouble managing both MBA studies and job search at B School. Or they may think that you quit because you could not handle pressure etc.

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Posted from my mobile device

bb · Answer

Not having a job is a not a great point on your resume. You do need to show professional growth, career advancement, and leadership skills since that's what MBA is about. Also, your letters of recommendation will be weak since the people writing them would have known you only for a few months or would have been your former bosses.

As to studying, assuming you speak English well, you should not need more than 3-4 months @ 2-3 hours a day. That's how much I have spent and was able to improve from 540 to 750. I think you sould be able to do it too as long as you do it early in the morning when your mind is still fresh and you are not distracted/multitasking.

P.S. I don't think you should be unemployed and just professionally preparing to the GMAT - most of us could get 800 that way if we were able to spend our days flipping books and having no pressures or stresses from work.

There is no reason you should work at a place you hate - you are welcome to what you love and what your calling is, but you can't just be a GMAT bum, not for US schools at least.

shuvayan86 · Answer

I perfectly understand your point of view. The work culture in IT rewards mediocrity and politics. However MBA Admissions will question your time management skills and think that you will have trouble managing both MBA studies and job search at B School. Or they may think that you quit because you could not handle pressure etc. Thanks a lot Abhi..Along with NGO work I have thought of doing some online courses: 1.Statistics, 2.Economics 3.Innovation&Commercialization Please let me know if they will be of help.I will be doing them anyways

Also apart from all these what more can be done to enhance profile and basically to show the AdCom how I have utilized the free time apart from studies

shuvayan86 · Answer

I have decided to work for an NGO in the time being.But most of them are volunteering jobs.Now it is not a problem for me,but will it be considered as a job by AdCom?

bb · Answer

Unless it is a leadership position, not really.... it will be more of an extracurricular activity.

shreister · Answer

LIke the posters above mentioned, quitting your job just to prepare for the gmat is pointless. What are you going to do once you get into a top program. There wouldnt be anywhere to hide. You will have juggle a lot of different things, things which you dont like, at the same time.

Quitting a job you dont care for is a great idea but why don't you wait until you get accepted into a program?

Quitting a job you dont care for is a great idea but why don't you wait until you get accepted into a program?

shuvayan86 · Answer

Haha..Ya u can be in bench in TCS for a year if you are a fresher.After experience of 4 years you can't stay in bench for that long my friend. Anyways thanks for the info :wink:

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Decision to QUIT job..GOOD or BAD

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