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&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;by EssaySnark&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;float: right; border: 0pt none; margin: 10px 7px;&quot; src=&quot;http://www.vault.com/VCM/sponsors/essaysnark%20logo.png&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; height=&quot;49&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Getting laid off is no fun. On top of being broke, a layoff can involve a hit to the self-esteem and a lot of self-doubt. It can also prompt some soul-searching. Sometimes, getting laid off motivates people to go back to school.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you&#39;re out of work and think you might want to go for your MBA&amp;mdash;or if you&#39;re considering quitting a job you hate to do so&amp;mdash;carefully consider your strategy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It&#39;s much easier to get into b-school if you have a job. &lt;/strong&gt;This is especially true right now, when the first-round application deadlines are still months away. If you apply in Round 1, you won&#39;t be starting school for a full year. That&#39;s an awful long time to put your life on hold. What will you do in between?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;The best approach with a b-school application is to show that you have clear goals and a plan for your future. Everything you do from now through b-school should be done to ready yourself for a post-MBA career. It can be difficult to explain a long stretch of time where you&#39;re not actively working. What new skills are you building? How is that preparing you for your goals?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;Even more important: What if you don&#39;t get in? You don&amp;rsquo;t want to bank on the hopes that you&#39;ll be accepted. That puts an awful lot of trust in forces beyond your control. You might end up waiting through months of applications, only to come out empty-handed at the end. It would be even tougher to land a job later, with nearly a year of unexplained unemployment on your resume. And even worse: By not seeking work now, you could be signaling to the adcom that you &lt;em&gt;expect &lt;/em&gt;them to admit you. That is a little presumptuous and could be interpreted in a negative way.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The best course of action is to go get a job, and &lt;em&gt;then &lt;/em&gt;focus on your MBA applications. &lt;/strong&gt;This will allow you to write your essays from a position of strength. Plus, you&#39;ll have some money in your pocket, so you won&#39;t be quite as stressed out during an already-stressful process.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;There&#39;s an obvious issue with this scenario, and that is an ethical one: How can you go get a job right now if you plan to be leaving for school next year? There are a variety of ways to handle this:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 60px;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.vault.com/VCM/blogs/Bullet_Point.png&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;8&quot; height=&quot;8&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;You could disclose it once you get to the &amp;ldquo;serious interest&amp;rdquo; stage of the interviewing process. You could tell the hiring manager, &amp;ldquo;Look, I just want you to know that I&#39;m interested in getting my MBA for these reasons. I don&#39;t know if I&#39;ll get in, but I will be applying to some schools to start in Fall 2012. This job is exciting to me, and I would not want to leave for any other reason.&amp;rdquo; This obviously has some risk, though many people would respond well to the fact that you were being upfront with them. Some employers could feel that it&#39;s worth it to have a great employee like you on for a year, even if you might be leaving after that.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 60px;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.vault.com/VCM/blogs/Bullet_Point.png&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;8&quot; height=&quot;8&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;Or, you could look for temporary or contract work.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 60px;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.vault.com/VCM/blogs/Bullet_Point.png&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;8&quot; height=&quot;8&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;Maybe a friend or family member can offer you a job for a time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 60px;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: large;&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.vault.com/VCM/blogs/Bullet_Point.png&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;8&quot; height=&quot;8&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;You could even start a small venture to bring in some income. Entrepreneurial activities are often received favorably by the adcom.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Volunteering is also a good idea, but it&#39;s probably better to seek out a paying position too. Then, you can present your new job as a stepping-stone in your quest for the career goals you&#39;re presenting in your MBA applications.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Great MBA programs, like Columbia Business School, for instance, will evaluate your entire application from the perspective of your career goals, your background, and your character. Bouncing back from a layoff or other setback can show the admissions committee that you&#39;re resilient, and being resourceful about seeking out the next opportunity can help them see that you&#39;re actively working towards your future today.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;To get more practical tips on how to approach your MBA applications, check out the SnarkStrategies Guides, currently available for &lt;/em&gt;Columbia&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;Harvard&lt;em&gt;, and &lt;/em&gt;Stanford&lt;em&gt;. And, be sure to return for additional advice from EssaySnark each week here on Vault and at our &lt;/em&gt;blog&lt;em&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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