Not ready for an MBA right now..

I know the title will come as a surprise to many, but after careful deliberations, I’ve decided against apping this year..
Had gone in dormant state for some time now.. (that is as far as blogging is concerned) These days were days of deep introspection, b-school research, networking, essay-analysis and what not!! Add to that regular pressure of office work

Anyways, coming back to the title of the post, I’ve postponed my application process by a year.. It was a very tough decision for me on a personal level; putting off the applications by a year means I’ll be graduating in 2011, That’s about four years from now!! Postponing apping looks like postponing life by a year!! Convincing my parents was even a tougher job.. But finally managed to do so..

Coming to the reasons behind this whimsical decision (many of my friends do say that it’s crazy), there are many.. (In no particular order )

1) Chances of getting in:: Though I understand that GMAT 770 is a wow-factor in my application.. But is that enough to get into a good B-school.. Surely not.. In fact, as my cousin puts it:: Any B-school that buys you out just on your GMAT score is not worth going to.

2) Maturity (to be reflected in the essays): I know I’ve an okayish profile for a low-experience candidate, but what do I write in the essays.. Essays of almost every school want to listen to leadership, entrepreneurship and maturity stories.. As an example, one of the school asks for a time when you’ve managed a crisis in your team.. In two years of my professional life, I’ve been able just to create crisis in my team.. (Kidding off-course; hope no B-school adcom sees my blog ) One year later, I still may not have many managerial tales to share, but at least I’ll be closer to the statistical average of most of the schools… And one more year of corpo-life will surely add at least something to my profile.

3) Finances:: As the regular visitors to the blog must be knowing, initially no US B-schools was in my list due to budgetary consideration.. But with time, the love for an international MBA grew and finally I’m eyeing only international B-schools. But for that, I need schol and savings..(plus loans) Adding a year will add to my savings and also better the chances of a scholarship..

4) Goal-clarity:: Perhaps this is the most important reason that makes me feel I’m not ready for an MBA right now.. As of now, I neither know which colleges I really want to apply to, nor do I know what interests me most for post-MBA career. Do I want to make a big career switch and go to finance or do I want to play it safe and return to technology. Or may be Consulting or I-banking?? But wait; am I even very clear what consulting (or for that matter I-banking) is? I mean I do have an idea, but for such major decisions just having an idea hardly suffices. Further the selection of my targets was mainly based on the one major criteria:: achievability.. Interest and the elusive “fit” weren’t actually coming into picture.

There were some more reasons (which I won’t like to share here), but finally the decision is out:: Not applying this year..
So what next?? One year of planning, research, profile building, pursuing my interests and living life freely. I do hope that the decision pays off.

Coming up next on my blog:: my experiences from the B-school events in Delhi in September..