Welcome to F1GMAT’s Ask Atul Jose series. I am Atul Jose. Today’s question is a challenging one when you are applying for top schools. The question is:
Q) Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the poor demand in the travel industry, I was laid off. There is a gap of 5 months in employment. How can I justify the gap without giving any excuse for my MBA Application?
Atul Jose (MBA Admissions Consultant, F1GMAT): A few months back, when my friend called me to share about his layoff from a Fortune 500 company, my immediate response was, “was it the bottom 20%”. I could sense that he was offended. But I didn’t say that out of any malice. It was an instinctual reaction without evaluating market trends or even considering his position in the job market. This is a common perception that you have to fight and persuade either in the optional essay or while cleverly integrating the experience into the failure or essays on post-MBA goals.
Most demand-driven layoffs affect a wide-range of candidates regardless of their skillset, or seniority, or IMPACT. The layoff will be uneven, depending on the industry or the company’s strategic fund allocation, for the quarter. It is a big hit to your confidence when you are out of a job for 5 months. The exhaustive job application process and finally integrating to a new company culture would take the momentum out of the application process.
Once you go through the troughs, it is not easy to write confidently about the IMPACT you had before the layoff. This is especially tricky for applicants who have worked with just one employer.
You must overcome the cognitive dissonance of explaining your IMPACT and the layoff that followed with clarity.
The admissions team will have a wide range of data on candidates who were laid off but got back into the workforce. The turnaround time to get back to your feet could be judged as your ability to network – a skill that would have a huge impact on your admission chances.
Let us assume that 2 months is the least possible period to get back on your feet. It again depends on when you were laid off. In some countries, regardless of the economy or the company’s financial health, there are periods where the recruitment activity will be the lowest. Explaining this trend with a balanced tone would help you justify the gap.
If you are part of a known brand and the layoff news was published in popular media that could be easily searched, then it makes sense to explain and correlate the demand drop with the pandemic. There are, however, some strategic maneuvers that companies adopt to streamline the profit. During such decisions, the management typically let go of candidates with replaceable skills. That experience could be used to explain why an MBA is essential to build on your foundational skills and be recession-proof.
Business Schools will receive a wider range of applications this year, especially with the GMAT becoming optional for many schools or the retake schedule getting extended. So how you explain your uniqueness and demonstrate that the gap is just a blip in your otherwise impressive career growth will determine your admission chances.
To strategize, brand, and creative narratives compensating your employment gap, Subscribe to F1GMAT’s Essay Review Service.
