Work Experience

Question

I'm a little confused about work experience. I started off my career by enlisting in the military where I served for 5 years. After I was discharged I went to school for two years and got an associates in construction management and went to work full time as project engineer. After working there for about six months I realized that I wanted to move more towards the finance and development side of the business so I started going to back to school to study business. I continued to work full time while attending school in the evenings. Now two years later I have a bachelors degree. I see on most application that they ask for post graduate work experience. Do my two years as a project engineer or five years in the military not count? Then I'd be essentially 28 with one year work experience at matriculation :shock:

.

rhyme · Answer

they absolutely count... don't worry. You should list them. As you have a different background, you should explain why you chose to go back for your BA, what motivated you and why you now need an MBA - just like you've done here. In fact, I'd say that, notwithstanding the somewhat "late" matriculation, its a pretty mature and compelling story - and certainly suggests a high level of "awarness" and introspection. It takes a lot of guts/maturity/willpower to go back to school for a bachelors after you've been out in the workforce for a while. Congrats.

Short of it .... don't worry -- all those years do "count".

aaudetat · Answer

Yep, I would say so too. For most students, they don't count your part-time job during school (or even full-time) as real work experience. But for you, I definitely don't think that definition would apply. Sounds like you've got a good story.

gixxer1000 · Answer

That's very comforting to know. So what do I put down for years for work experience? For example I officially graduated with my BS last month. I was filling out a form to attend a diversity weekend at one of my school choices and I didnt know what to put down as the answer to that question. In fact when I first accessed the form online I still hadnt officially graduated. 

My other question was how do I handle my GPA. For example my AS GPA was 3.57 and my BS GPA is 3.90. Should these be averaged considering most people would have all these grades as the same college?

aaudetat · Answer

Hmmmm...You've got a special case. I think I'd ask the school. 

If I had to guess, I would say add up all the full-time work you did. 

And I guess average the GPA? Less sure about that one.

gixxer1000 · Answer

well here's an update for anyone in a similar situation. I emailed one of my schools they told me to include my full-fulltime work experience while attending college. So essentialy my work experience after my associates degree counted but my military experience didnt. Although they told me it will be taken into consideration for decision purposes.

ishcabibble · Answer

That's really interesting that your military experience didn't count. I would have thought that they would have counted that before anything else.

I'm not surprised that they told you to include your work experience while you were in school. I have a similar situation (worked full-time during most of undergrad) and was also told to include it.

gixxer1000 · Answer

Well I'm glad that they atleast considered my full-time work experience during college. If not I would be 28 with 1 month work experience :shock:

rhyme · Answer

LOL

CoeDar · Answer

This has been very encouraging finding this post. I'm in a similar situation and feeling frustrated that schools may not look at what I've accomplished with different start-up companies with which I've been involved.

kryzak · Answer

the schools will definitely look at your startup experiences. Just make sure you talk about what you learned from them, how you "led" the effort or worked in a "team" (key words in ""), and how it guided you to your path of seeking an MBA. You should do fine.

Work Experience

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards