Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out! Apologies for the delayed response – it’s been quite busy at
Vantage Point with Round 1 deadlines around the corner. I’m sorry to hear about what happened at your previous job. But it sounds like you’re doing the best thing you can – you’ve reflected on the experience, you’ve certainly learned from it, and are taking advantage of the time off to pursue a passion.
In terms of your MBA plans, you are slightly on the older side for the top full-time programs but not completely out of range (typical timing is 4-5 years of work experience). The key for your applications will be really defining and putting together a tight story around what you want to do professionally after business school and why. And you’ll really want to prove that this is your true plan/vision/passion for your career, and not something that you’re doing simply because you can’t get another job in your field. You’ll definitely want to directly address your job situation in the Optional Essay with an honest assessment of what went wrong and what you learned from it. It’s hard to tell how the adcom will perceive that (it really depends on the person) but in general, they are fairly understanding of failures if you truly acknowledge the error and can showcase how you learned from it.
Your documentary production company is interesting and certainly helps in differentiating you from other similar candidates.
You have a nice range of schools on your list - a few reach as well as a few target schools. Your GMAT is within range for all the schools you listed although your GPA is a little on the low side. If it’s only dragged down by 1 semester, it will be pretty easy to mitigate.
I wouldn’t advise you to take a job just for the sake of having something unless your financial situation requires it. Of course, if the right position comes along, take it, but I suggest being thoughtful about where you want to take your career in the long-run and then ladder back to some reasonable things you could do now to help prepare yourself for that long-term goal.
I hope this was helpful and gave you some more clarity on next steps. If you’d like to chat further about your specific situation, you can email me at
melody@vantagepointadmissions.com or you can sign up for my firm’s free 30 minute consultation
www.vantagepointadmissions.com. And if I don’t hear from you, best of luck with whatever you do next!
-Melody