MBA admission and work experience

The type of job experience you have, matters equally as the amount of work experience you bring to the table of the MBA admission committee. Most of the B-schools have increased the average number of work experience required for an applicant to apply. The number has spectacularly risen from two to around five. And it is forecast to keep rising. 

Although some applicants are exceptionally bright and do well on the GMAT, but still very few of them make it into top-tier programs, the reason being, lack of adequate work experience. MBA admission officers, who reject inexperienced applicants, have their own justifications for doing that. The purpose of assembling a business school class is to put together people who can share unique experiences from their industries. If you have two years in your industry and another applicant has five years in the same business, the admission officers will enlist him for sure, even if his GMAT score is marginally lower than yours. What matters more is his ample experience, thus contributing to his wider knowledge.

If you have 760 GMAT, 3.8 GPA, and two years of full-time work experience, and you are expecting to get into a top MBA program, then you need to analyze your statistics once again. Be patient. Wait until you have four years or at least three years. One cannot deny that students have got into top MBA programs with only two years of experience, but they were the exceptions to the rule. Majorities of inexperienced applicants get rejected every year and have to reapply the following year with a lame story about why they were rejected previously. By the way, you do not have to apply from ground zero the year after you have been rejected. At many schools all you are asked is to submit is an updated information form and a single essay explaining what has changed in your life since you last applied. 

What if you have changed Jobs?

Changing jobs is definitely not a problem, especially if the change involves some kind of promotion. But frequent job skips will not be appreciated by the MBA admission committee because the admissions people want you to have more than just a surface understanding of your industry. You need to bring a certain amount of expertise to the classroom, and changing jobs every six months will make it difficult to develop an in-depth understanding of a specific industry.

Try to stick with one industry for an adequate time. Otherwise you will not have much to offer your dream school.