GMATTERS: Layoff Your Worries
Happy New Year from Manhattan GMAT! We hope your 2010 has gotten off to a good start. In our first GMATTERS of the year, our friends from admissions consulting firm mbaMission discuss an issue currently on many b-school candidates' minds: How should you approach business school applications if you have been laid off? Whether you experienced a layoff in the tumultuous economy of the past year, or simply want to have your bases covered, read on for valuable and honest advice directly from b-school admissions reps. Remember that all friends of Manhattan GMAT are eligible for a free consultation with an mbaMission representative.
Don't forget to take a look below at the list of free GMAT events coming up this week. If you don't see your city listed below, take a look at our website for additional dates and times. You can also check out our weekly Challenge Problem below.
Layoff Your Worries...If You Use Your Time Well
What could be more nerve-wracking than applying to business school without a job? After all, how can you reveal your strong management traits if you are struggling to manage your own career? Well, your internal voice need not be that cruel. Thousands upon thousands of people—and indeed, thousands of MBA applicants—have been negatively affected by the implosion of Wall Street firms, the decline of the automakers, the real estate bust and more. If you had been laid off and unable to find a job during the boom, that might have made a statement about your desirability to employers and thus as an MBA candidate, but this is 2010, and having been laid off now is hardly a scarlett letter. If the top MBA programs were to shun anyone who had been laid off and then gotten back on his or her feet, or anyone who has been laid off and has not yet found his or her new path, then they would certainly miss out on some tremendously talented and accomplished people.
Remember, admissions offices are governed by self-interest. The admissions committees want the best candidates, period. So, you should not overly concern yourself with your layoff and attempt to hide it. Rose Martinelli, director of admissions at Chicago Booth, told mbaMission,
“Bottom line: we all understand that people have lost jobs for no reason other than the economy …. People just need to be honest. This is a very unusual time, and B-schools haven’t seen this type of situation across so many sectors, so we are learning, too. I think honesty and transparency is the best that we can hope for from one another.”
And Soojin Kwon Koh, director of admissions at Michigan Ross, added a little more perspective by saying,
“We understand that great employees at all levels within an organization can get laid off … We’re going to look at an applicant’s entire professional history and not just the last year. And we’re going to look at all the pieces of the application, not just the work history.”
Indeed, we have spoken with several admissions officers on this point, all of whom emphasized that a layoff itself is not an issue and that unemployed candidates should certainly still apply to their preferred business schools. However, they also stressed that they would want to hear that such candidates did not simply take the time off but instead made the most of that time. Darden director of admissions Sara Neher explained that candidates need not fear taking a professional “step down,” stating that she was impressed by a particular candidate who rolled up her sleeves, quite literally, when she found herself out of a job:
“I had someone this year who got laid off but knew she wanted to start a restaurant someday. … So she ended up working as a waitress and then got into the kitchen a little bit and got to do some managing, and spent five months working in a restaurant. … It wasn’t for the money; it was to learn something on the ground that she could put into practice. … She fired people, she hired people, she dealt with a lot of interpersonal issues, and that will be good fodder for class and for learning.”
MBA applicants need not interpret “staying active” as gaining immediate employment. According to Peter Johnson, director of admissions at Berkeley-Haas, those who are stifled in their job hunt should consider undertaking informational interviews, job-shadowing and/or unpaid internships; doing so can send a significant signal to an admissions committee about a candidate’s determination and resiliency. Further, many admissions directors pointed to community leadership as a clear way for applicants to prove that they have remained engaged and spent their time productively. While the time one spends laid off can undoubtedly be trying, the admissions officers we interviewed seemed to regard these tough times as somewhat of an unfortunate test. The Admissions Committees want to see that unemployed applicants are still building their cases and shoring up their candidacies, even as the economy is in retreat, so that they will have a story to showcase and be poised to excel when the economy recovers.
This Week's Challenge Probelm
If 1/(x – 2) = 1/(x + 2) + 1/(x – 1), which of the following is a possible value of x?
(A) –2
(B) –1
(C) 0
(D) 1
(E) 2
Last Week's Challenge Probelm Solution
Let’s call the number of people in the group n, and let’s call each contribution $x. Then we know from the stem that 36 = nx. We are asked for n, which is equivalent to asking for x (because of the equation we are given).
(1) SUFFICIENT. This statement tells us that n = x. We can substitute into the given equation:
36 = n2
Since n represents a number of people, only the positive root makes sense, and n must be equal to 6.
(2) SUFFICIENT. This statement requires more work. We are told that if the number of people increased by 3, the contribution would fall by $2.
In other words, the new number of people is n + 3, and the new contribution is x – 2. The product will still be $36.
Thus, we know that 36 = (n + 3)(x – 2). We also still know that 36 = nx, or 36/n = x. Let’s expand the new equation and swap out x.
36 = (n + 3)(x – 2) = nx + 3x – 2n – 6
Since nx equals 36, we can substitute in 36 for nx as follows:
36 = 36 + 3x – 2n – 6
6 = 3x – 2n
Now substitute in 36/n for x:
6 = 3(36/n) – 2n
6 = 108/n – 2n
2n2 + 6n – 108 = 0
Now, we need to try to factor this quadratic equation. At first glance, we can set up the following template:
(2n ...)(n ...) = 0
Since the 108 in the distributed quadratic equation has a minus sign in front of it, we know that one of the missing numbers is negative and that the other one is positive. This means that one of the solutions for n will be positive, while the other one will be negative. We could stop here, since only one positive solution exists.
If we wanted to keep going with the factoring, we could observe that 108 = 3×36 = 33×22. We need a pair of factors relatively close in value to each other, since their difference (after multiplying one of the factors by 2) is only 6. The pair of factors that works is {9, 12}, as we can see by trial and error.
(2n – 12)(n + 9) = 0
n = 6 or n = –9
The negative solution is impossible, so we know that n is 6.
The correct answer is (D). EACH statement ALONE is sufficient.
