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eminent · Answer

Your situation is more common than you think. I would make sure that you have a good story about what you've been doing over the past five months (community service, extracurriculars, travel, consulting work, internship, etc.). Maybe consider getting an internship that relates to your future career goals. If you take a new job, make sure that it ties into your goals -- if it seems random or one-off, that won't represent you well.

And overall, you should be competitive for everything outside the top 5. You have 4.5 years of work experience. If you only had let's say 2, I would say your chances would be much more slim.

GoBruin · Answer

I think this year may be the best year to apply while being laid off since you have some harvard MIT IB bankers who are also laid off applying. I think not having a job isn't gonna hurt nearly as much.

miccarlo · Answer

As long as you got laid off and not fired, you should be fine

. I definitely agree that this downturn in the economy is going to put a much larger percentage of applicants in your situation so it isn't anything to worry about. As long as your application is strong, you should be fine.

unhedged · Answer

Bumping this thread for a similar question. if you got laid off DURING the application process, should you contact all the schools you've already applied to let them know? Is it going to adversely affect chances?

shadow · Answer

i dont think being unemployed will automatically rule you out from b-schools. ive been unemployed since mid-august (from a small company) and i'm still in the running for my #1 school. i imagine there are thousands of other applicants who have similarly been laid off due to the economy. as long as you can get recommenders from your last company to vouch for you (which would show that the lay-off was non-performance related), then i think you should be fine.

as far as addressing a lay off that takes place during the application process, i would be as open as possible with the adcom. try to secure an additional LOR from your employer if you're let go during the process, and then pass that additional LOR on to the b-schools so that they are aware of the lay-off, but also are aware that you performed well and were not let go due to performance reasons

miccarlo · Answer

I don't think you need to contact your prospective schools to let them know of the lay off. At the time of submission, your application was all factual and correct. It may be possible to mention it during an interview, but only if it makes sense (I wouldn't start off the bat and say it).

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