- is it wise to quit my job to prepare for the CAT?
- will quitting my job have a negative impact on my profile?
- how can I prepare if I am working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week?
These are questions that many aspirants ask themselves since there is a huge premium on acquiring a degree from a prestigious college and an MBA is for most the last big shot that they can take to get a big brand name on to their resume.
There are other reasons as well ranging from a mind-numbingly monotonous IT job to a horrible boss, to the existential dread — what will become of me and my life if I am stuck in my current situation forever.
Also, there are many who have faced this situation this before as well when they had set their eyes for the first time on getting two more Is than what God brought them into the world with — the IITs.
For most of my colleagues, the answer is a simple NO. But I think under certain circumstances quitting your job might be the best option in front of you with the proviso that you quit at the right time and do more than just prep for the CAT.
If you quit, be prepared to face the music in every single interview
Before anything else please understand that if you quit, in every single interview that you face you will have to answer the question — Why did you quit your job?
This question is bound to be followed by others such as
- surely you did it just to prepare for the CAT!
- so it means you are not good at multi-tasking?
- more than half of our students have work-ex, do you mean to say that all of them had jobs that allowed them to put their feet up?
Forget at the interview stage, some institutes such as IIM-A ask this question in the FORM they send out to candidates they shortlist for the WAT-PI round — Do you have any breaks in your professional career? If YES, then please explain?
But you can rest assured that these questions have been successfully tackled by aspirants in the past and in IIM interviews at that.
But what is important is that you quit at the right time, plan your break to take up activities that enhance your profile and achieve things that will help you make a great pitch in the interview.
How will quitting affect your profile in terms of getting into an IIM?
First, let us look at the effect of quitting your job on your chances of getting a shortlist from a quantitative perspective.
There are colleges such as IIM-B and many others that give a weightage to work experience in the shortlisting process. In such cases, you will lose out on valuable points and will hence have to score higher on the test to get the shortlist than if you had stuck on in your job. So yes, there is a clear quantitative effect.
If you have two or more years of work-ex and the rest of your profile — X, XII, Grad Marks — is good you can on average score 0.5 – 0.75 percentile points lower than someone with no or low work-ex. But remember that this is only in the case of institutes that give a weightage to work-ex.
This quantitative effect as you will see will be negligible in the case of people with more than 30-36 months years of work experience since the points for work-ex are not directly proportional to the amount of work-ex in that they are capped after a point. To know more about IIM selection criteria you can read this post — The IIM Selection Criteria: Will I get a call from the IIMs?
The other way of looking at this question is from a qualitative perspective — in terms of how panelists will view you in the interview. Panelists more often than not feel that all MBA aspirants hate engineering and run after an MBA to make more money. So when they see candidates who have left what is on paper a promising professional opportunity, they tend to look at him/her in an unfavorable light and will expect them to justify the same.
How will quitting affect your profile in terms of the roles offered at top b-schools?
IIMs and other top-schools slot candidates into two categories for placements — regular and lateral.
Lateral placements are for people with a certain amount of work experience for roles that are above entry-level management roles. What is that certain amount of work experience?
It differs from college to college. Some base it on the absolute number of months such as 20, 22 or 24, others decide based on the average work-ex in the batch. Either way it usually falls into the 20-24 range.
Also, it is important to note that for some domains and firms having work-ex is a must-have and hence recruiters look purely at lateral candidates. What are the domains where relevant work-experience is a pre-requisite?
OPERATIONS roles, for example, most definitely go to people who have experience in shop-floor, product design, logistics, supply chain management etc. So engineers working in operations will do well to finish working for two years before entertaining thoughts of quitting.
IT CONSULTING roles for example again typically go to those with 2 plus years of experience in software.
Recruiters from new sectors such as e-commerce from firms such as Amazon also tend to look at candidates with a certain amount of work experience, usually IT or Analytics or technology.
General management firms such as Tata Administrative Services(TAS) and the Aditya Birla Group (ABG) also prefer people with work experience but they also take in freshers.
Roles in Marketing do not need work experience, with Marketing recruiters having a very strong preference for freshers or only those with very relevant work experience sales, marketing analytics, the same applies to HR as well.
For Finance your graduation discipline, the brand of the college you graduated from, and professional certifications such as CA, CFA, FRM matter way more than work experience. So if you are a Commerce Grad from a top-tier graduation college looking to build a career in Finance, work experience is not a must unless it is relevant.
For Consulting roles, the brand names on your resume matter more than anything else. It is not whether you have work-ex or not but firstly the brand value of the organization you worked with that matters more. IITian and NITian freshers with a strong academic profile stand a very high chance of getting shortlisted. Those from other colleges of national repute with stellar resumes in terms of academic and extra-curricular achievements also get shortlists.
Overall just to put things in perspective, about 30-40 percent of students in top b-schools are freshers.
How many months of work-ex makes it safe to quit?
So by now, it will be clear that quitting will not affect your chances if you do it after finishing 2 years of working, I would say around 24 months is maybe the ideal amount of work experience to have to go into an Indian b-school.
If you already have 3 years of experience and a relatively weak resume it makes sense to quit your job, prepare for CAT, and build your profile.
In what cases does quitting before 24 months make sense?
The only reason to quit before 24 months is if you are very clear that you want an industry and domain shift. So if you are an engineer from one of the core departments working in IT and you want to do an MBA to get away from not just IT services but also technology then it makes sense to quit your job before 24 months of experience.
The more work experience you accumulate in your industry the more likely you are to get roles within than industry or domain.
What is the best time to quit to prepare for CAT?
The simple answer is that if all you want to do is quit and prepare for 8 to 10 hours a day, you will not need more than 3 months. So working backward, your break should not start before 1-August.
It might seem as if I am speaking about aspirants who are already at a particular level, say 85 percentile. It might seem that if you are someone who is very out of touch with Math, you will need more time. But these arguments assume that you will have done no prep till August, which is not the case. Even if we consider these concerns legitimate since you know yourself better than I ever will, given that I know the CAT better than you ever will, your break should not start earlier than 1-June.
So at most your break will need to start 6 months before the CAT, not before that.
What you should be doing if you quit before August
If after going through the post so far, you have made up your mind to start your break for CAT prep by June this year then you should do more than just prepare for the CAT. Else as discussed above, interviewers will have a great time turning you over on both sides on a red-hot grill.
In all the cases where my students have successfully made it to a top b-school despite a break of 8 to 10 months by the time they faced their interviews, the students had taken up things to improve their skills and profile.
What are the things they took up?
- Those who wanted to improve their communication & public speaking skills joined Toastmasters, cleared a few levels and got to hold a few positions of responsibility at Toastmasters.
- Those who wanted to get some diversity into their profile worked with start-ups for Teach For India or a while.
- Those who wanted to add some academic weight to their resume took up certification programs in their area of interest on Coursera.
- Those who lacked any social work-related activities on their resume took up working with an NGO
You need not limit yourself to this; you can take up anything that you have a strong interest in — learning a dance form or languages or singing or photography — as long as you invest quality time and have something to show for it.
For a more detailed insight on how you can improve your profile to align it to your chosen domain post-MBA, you should read — How to build your profile
Too much of anything, even CAT Prep can be harmful
Apart from resume building these activities also ensure that you do not become obsessed with the CAT and pile up the pressure on yourself leading to test-day.
They offer a good break from CAT Prep in terms of taking your mind off the test and also helping you peak at the right time.
Peaking at the right time is very important because if you are doing nothing but doing CAT prep for 8 or more hours a day, you will peak in about 3 months time and come test-day you will have exhausted yourself.
This is the reason why sometimes teams that do not start off well in a tournament such as World Cups manage to get their act together over a period of time and peak in the final (Australia in the 1999 Cricket World Cup) whereas teams that seem to be hot favorites crash out.
I have tried to be as extensive as possible in terms of covering all the things that you need to consider before taking a call to quit. Even so, I am sure that each one of you might have unique backgrounds and aspirations making it tough for you to take a call. Feel free to post your queries regarding quitting in the comments section and I will answer them or drop me a mail at tony@imsindia.com.
The CAT Writer 
Hello Sir,
I am a 2016 Civil Engineering Graduate from a reputed College in Mumbai. I have worked for 2 years in Larsen & Toubro at a Thermal Power Plant construction project. I left my job in July 2018 after completing 24 months of service. I wanted to know from you if I should solely focus on cat now and the focus on NGO/online courses etc after my cat or start doing these things from this point itself. For your information, I am scoring roughly 85% in current mocks(this well help you understand my current level of preparation). Please give your valuable feedback based on my present condition.
Profile
GEM(X/XII/GRAD-85/88/82)
Thanks in advance,
Bhargav Desai
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Hi Bhargav,
Once the CAT results are out, all schools send out forms to be filled before the PI. Certifications and NGO work and anything else that you take up should be before the forms come out around late January. You will also be asked about the gap during the interview.
So you need to have these ready by the last week of Jan.
Hope this clarifies.
All the best!
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Hello sir
I am a mechanical engineering graduate of 2018 batch, I have done many of extracurricular and cocurricular activities during my college days but I don’t have certificates for most of these activities. Is it necessary to have certificates to prove your participation as in many activities only appreciation certificates are given to selected people.
My 10/12/GRAD score are 92/93/64
Does low graduation scores makes any difference if I am planning to take CAT after 24 months of work experience.
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Hi Anurag,
Given your grad marks calls from A and B will be tough but you can expect a call from C and from a few other old IIMs.
Work-ex and Graduation Marks are separate categories, some colleges have marks for both and some, such as IIM-A, do not give any weight to work-ex.
You can get a detailed analysis here — https://thecatwriter.com/2016/06/08/the-iim-selection-criteria-will-i-get-a-call-from-the-iims/
For extracurriculars, you need to provide supporting documents at the time of interviews for schools such as IIM-A. On the whole, the marks given to extra-curricular activities is not very high. Even so when it comes to interviews, it helps if you have certificates. Else they will grill you enough to find out if you have genuinely done anything or are giving false information.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hello sir
I am a electronics & comm engineering graduate of 2016 batch, I have 2 years work experience in IT company and left my job in September 2018. I am looking forward to Cat 19 exam.
I have joined Time with their 1 year program for cat preparation.
Should i do NGO or other activities to strengthen my profile?
My 10/12/GRAD score are 88/77/84
Please give your valuable feedback based on my present condition.
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Yeah, you should take up at least 3 different activities — Social Work, Online Certifications and any other area of interest.
You cannot tell them that you have been only preparing for CAT for more than 12 months. Please go through my post on this blog, how you build your profile for an MBA to get more information.
All the best!
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Sir I had quit my job in August after working for 6 months in BYJUS where I had a significant package of Rs 12 lakhs. Following that, I prepared solely for cat and xat in the subsequent 3-4 months but had taken up a part-time teaching role in an academy for aptitude. The academy is a startup by a friend and they don’t give salary slips though I have an appointment letter for my joining. Do I put this on my work experience too or leave it? Also would leaving a job with good package and opportunities put me in an unfavorable light with the panel?
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Hi Abhishek,
You can mention the work-ex as part-time.
As I mentioned in the post, you will be asked why you quit your job and you should be able to convince them that at that stage of your career that was the best long-term decision. There is no unfavorable light, they will put you on the spot.
All the best!
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Hi Tony,
I have to say, your blog has been of great help to resolve many of my queries. I would like to ask you for a bit of advice. I have quit my job in October last year and have attempted CAT 2018. I can see that there is a high chance that I will have to give CAT 2019. I am interested in pursuing HR Management and am already pursuing a 4-Course specialization on Coursera. Could you please tell me how else I could strengthen the gap, as it is, unfortunately, a few months greater than what you have recommended.
Kind Regards,
Vivek
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Hi Vivek,
I think another gap might become too long. Cracking TISS this coming Sunday should be your first priority if HR is what you want to specialise in.
I think you should take up a job, if not a regular one then one with a non-profit or NGO, if you want to take CAT 2019.
Also if HR is what you want to target don’t even bother with CAT, focus on SNAP, XAT and TISS.
All the best!
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Hi Tony,
At the outset I would really like to say thank you for your blogs.
I have a 34 months experience, I quit my job on 5 Oct 2018 and appeared for CAT 2018 and other mba entrances. What if I go for CAT 2019? Will that be a too big to justify?
When you say “gap” does this refer to gap after graduation or any gap during your entire education .e.g. school ?
Thanks again.
Regards,
Anshu
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Hi Anshu,
When I refer to the gap, I mean the gap after graduation.
If you continue on to prepare for CAT 2019 then by the time of the interview you will have a gap of 16 months.
You need something really solid in terms of profile building to justify that.
You have to position it as wanting a different life/work experience and hence taking up an assignment with an NGO or a not-for-profit or say achieving some specific skill such as mountaineering or picking up a CFA.
All I am saying is that 16 months cannot be filled with minor stuff.
All the best!
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Hi Tony,
Thanks a ton for posting such a wonderful article. I need a bit of advice: I became a CA in July 2018 and have been working since then under Treasury function of a bank, it’s been 6 months so far. I wish to pursue CAT 2019 for MBA in Finance. My profile is majorly academic oriented and i do not have any co-curricular or any other thing.
I was thinking whether i should quit my job and diversify a bit since this job is monotonous and I am worried about my CV as well.
Please help.
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Hi Saloni,
I wouldn’t advise you to quit your job for the following reasons. Your profile is unique in that you have gender diversity, educational diversity, and a professional degree. If you add your work-ex as well it will be pretty formidable.
You could have quit if you had 18 plus months of work-ex but at 6 months you will be shooting yourself in the foot by not maximizing your work-ex.
Continue working, join CAT classroom prep, take up courses on Coursera, and work for an NGO part-time on the weekends, during the first half of the year. During the second-half, you can focus more on CAT Prep and cut down on other things.
A boring job can be a blessing since it leaves your mind free for other pursuits.
All the best!
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Hi Tony,
I quit my job in mid of August 2018, after working there for 21 months, as a market research associate, to prepare solely for CAT 2018.
I have secured decent percentiles in various exams and secured multiple calls from top 25 colleges. Now I am worried about how to justify the gap. In the meantime I have started volunteering with an NGO from first week of December 2018, during weekends. Additionally I am even interning with a startup by working at home starting from October 2018.
Can you please help me out. what is the best answer I can pitch when they ask me why you left your job? What are the things I should include in my answer to make it convincing for them ?
Regards,
Harit Agarwal
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Hi Harit,
You have to make a case that given your background the logical career progression for you was to get into Marketing or General Management and for that an MBA was a must. So to ensure that you got into a good b-school and gain some different experiences you quit your job and worked with a start-up and an NGO.
Before they are convinced you should be convinced that the way you spent your last 6 months have taken you much closer to your dream than if you had continued to work. If you are convinced then no one can convince you otherwise.
All the best!
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Sir, I am reading this post now. I had quit my job in June but i have achieved no call till now. I feel too lost sir what do i do
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Hi Fenny,
I think we had corresponded on mail and I had told you that I if I were you, I would leave the quitting for the next year.
It is okay if you haven’t got calls this year, I would suggest that you take up the CFA and prepare for CAT if you want to get into Finance or take up a job and prepare again if you want to get into Marketing.
I hope you have applied to enough colleges for there to be some hope left this year.
All the best!
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At the very outset, thank you for sharing the above info.
I’m a civil engg and working in a reputed firm, I’m planning to quit my job since I can’t find time for study. I have 18 months of ex till Jan 2019. Ideally as discussed above, I complete 24 months of work ex by 31st of July 2019. I’m working in a city where I can easily join a classroom program but we have uncertainity with transfer at any time and coaching institute has got super long batch till exam. So, what shall I do ?
Other que is whether it is better to have classroom program or online ?
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Hi Safal,
I suggest you join a coaching program if it is your first attempt (unless you feel that you are really solid in all three areas). You can look at the IMS Program in your city and you can always take a transfer to a new city and continue with the IMS center in that city. The program will only end once the whole GD-PI process ends and you make it to a b-school.
You can quit post-July and move to whichever city is convenient for you and continue your classroom in that city.
Online programs are better for repeat-takers or test-takers with a very high aptitude, first-timers will benefit from having a good mentor. Let me know which city you are in and I can connect you to the right mentor.
Also, once you quit you have to ensure that you take up some work with an NGO and do a certification with Coursera or Udemy; you just can’t go into a PI without having done anything.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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I appeared for CAT2018 and scored 75%ile. I didn’t take any class or coaching material. Just gave a few mocks that too 2 months ahead of exam and just appeared for the exam.
I currently stay in hyderabad. I would like to join a course wherein I ll have to take coaching from Feb to July and latter prepare from home by quitting the job. By the time I ll have work ex of 24 months.
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Okay. The jump from 75 to 85 can happen with more self-prep but from there to a 95 -plus will not be that easy, so I suggest you meet one of our mentors at IMS Hyderabad, Durga Sankar Sir with my reference. You can write to him at durga.sankar@imsindia.com to fix up an appointment.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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it was great reading your blog
I am a civil engineer graduated from IIT Kharagpur. currently working in shapoorji pallonji as a management engineering trainee. currently, my project is situated in a village in Punjab where I don’t have facilities to prepare for CAT. Should I leave my job before 3 months of CAT.
I joined in july 18 and appearing for CAT 19
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Hi Shubham, As I wrote, it depends on the area you want to work in post your MBA. If it is operations then definitely get 2 years of work-ex, else you can go ahead and quit as you have planned.
All the best!
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Hi ,
I am really impressed by the way you have addressed all the relevant issues.I’m glad someone could put it up in an effective way.
Coming to the point, I am a female engineer graduated in 2018 working for one of the IT sector companies in Hyderabad with 11 months of work experience now. I am planning to quit my job and solely prepare for CAT 2019 with all the extra circular activities which you have mentioned of course. My 10/12/GRAD scores are 92/83/83 respectively.
Can you please guide me if quitting is the right choice I am making because with my current job it is not possible for me to prepare.
Thanks in advance 🙂
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Hi Ashi,
As I write, if you want to build a career in tech then you should complete 24 months of work-ex. Else you can quit as you have planned. Also, female students have it a tad easier at b-schools since firms do not dissect profiles as much as they do for male candidates; the firms have diversity targets as well.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hi,
I cleared my CA final in January 2019 and did my other ICAI mandatory trainings till Feb mid. Now I am preparing for CAT since some time. I did my articleship of 3 years (out of which 1 year was post graduation) with a big 4 in audit. I was wondering if should join somewhere for a job or should I prepare for CAT along with CFA level 2 in June 2019 and German Maxmueller course considering post IIM I want a good consulting or investment banking role or private equity role.
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Hi Kasturi,
Since you want to get into I-banking a CA should more than suffice, a CFA L-2 will be the icing on the cake. Look at working if it is high-quality work-ex that will be very relevant to an i-banking profile in the future. Else you are better off getting more diversity into your profile and personality.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
I attended your last mile session in Hyderabad for CAT18. I am working since January 2018 at Infosys. By July 2019 i will complete 18 months of work ex and i am thinking to quit and want to dedicate completely to CAT19 from 1st Aug onward. As you mentioned the things like toastmaster, online courses, if i will start from August off course i will not be able to do all these. Will it affect my interviews or there are ways i can still manage interviews?
10th: 95%, 12th:62%, Btech:67%, CAT18: 78 percentile. Categ: OBC. Suggest me is it wise decision for me to quit in July because i really don’t want to leave any stone unturned and want to get into a top bschool next year at any cost. For CAT18 also i decided the same but because of job timing i couldn’t give my best. Please advice me!
Thank you
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Hi Mayank,
Firstly, with 78 percentile, you will only get colleges at the lower end of the spectrum. So there is no option but to give it another shot.
Quitting is not a bad option if you want to ensure that you get into a good b-school.
Where I don’t agree with you is that you will need 12-14 hours every day for 3 months to prepare for CAT.
Even if you do not do all the profile building activities I feel you should take up at least the odd course on Coursera and some NGO work for a few hours a week.
They will ask you why you quit and if say CAT prep then you have to come up with a compelling reason why you needed so much time.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Sir,I am a mechanical engineer 2014 pass out,Having 3 years experience with MNC and a total of 4 years+ experience.I am planning to take a break from my job and start preparing for CAT meanwhile i will be taking a pipe designing course and Six sigma certification course in order to add on to my profile will it be helpful ?
Please help me..in deciding if it is the right time for Doing so ?
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Hi Nitesh,
Given your work-ex, you can definitely take a break. Doing a 6-Sigma certification will help from an MBA perspective but not pipe design.
I suggest you take online certification courses related to business management. The activities taken during your break should signal an interest to learn and move towards management.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best.
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Hi!
Thank you for the well-worded and articulate article. I quit my job in October 2018 and have one-year work experience in the field of healthcare. I am also a freelance writer that I have been doing for over 4 years (still do). In addition, I am going for an internship abroad for 2 months and will be going for a digital marketing job (given my experience in content writing) after I return in August. I am a female graduate in BSc with 90/84/77 in academics. Should I be doing more?
Thank you!
Swetha
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Hi Shwetha,
Your profile is quite diverse both in terms of work-ex and your content writing experience. Given that you will be taking up a Digital Marketing job it should make your profile pretty competitive. The only additional thing I can think of is some NGO work if time permits.
All the best!
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Hi sir ,
My profile is as below:
Xth- 83.40(gseb)
XIIth- 65.33% (gseb)
B.Tech – 71.2
I am currently working in supply chain department and will complete 2 years of work experience on 31st may,2019.In this 2 years of work experience consist of 0.5 year of maintenance(mechanical) department and 1.5 year of supply chain. In cat 2018, i got 75.92 overall percentile and in varc 28,Dilr 94.5, quant 88.77. So i am planning to take a drop. But i have a few queries.
My Specific queries are :
1) Should i quit my job since 1st july,2019 ?
2.) do i stand a chance to IIM-A/B/C? If yes then how many percentile require for it and same for new iims and baby iims.
3) do i stand a chance to top colleges other than iims like FMS/MDI despite of average academic?
4) i have not any achievement and extra curricular activity are also less.so how much these things will impact on my chances to get admission ? and what should i do at this stage for it?
My first preference will be of marketing and second will be of operation.
Please share your thoughts and help me.
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Hi Ashish,
Given your poor academic record, an old IIM is definitely out of the question even if you score a percentile in excess of 99.
You can take a shot at the other tests such as IIFT, SNAP, XAT, and NMAT so that you have a shot at other good schools.
Marketing might be a tough ask since you have core Ops work-ex.
So you can quit your job after you finish 24 months and prepare for all of these tests. You can view the post on how to build your profile to learn about the things you can take up during your break.
All the best!
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Hi Tony,
Thank you for your blogs.
Even though you’ve stated in your blog on work ex, I’d still wish to clarify my case. I have 32 months work ex (till date)as a process engineer at an engineering consultancy MNC. I wish to take up Ops. I had attempted CAT last year whilst working and got 90%ile.I will be giving CAT again this year .Should I be quitting my job to prepare this year? If I’m aiming IIM A/B/C , Will it be a problem to quit? And ideally when should I quit?
Acads
X-91% XII-86.17% grad-75%
Extra curriculars – Not much
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Hi Aditi,
What you need to ask is not — should I quit my job?
Firstly, do you need to quit your job because it is not giving you time to prep?
If you feel that there is no way you can work and prep at the same then you can quit and it will not create a problem since you already have more than 2.5 years of work-ex.
24 months as I said is always the yardstick and since you have 32 it should not be a problem.
Also, as mentioned in the blog, you have to ensure that you take some profile-building activities.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hi!
I am working as a digital marketing executive at a startup since Jan 2019. I have 2017-2018 year gap due to demotivation and depression. My academic scores are 89/64/82. I have a bachelors degree in Botany. What should I do to improve my profile? And for CAT 2019, should I quit my job in June or August?
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Hi Radhika,
If you want to build a career in Marketing then work-ex is not a major requirement. In your case, it will not make a difference whether you quit in June or August since you will have less than 12 months of work-ex in both cases. So you will have to take a call based on your prep needs.
Also, quit your job if you feel you cannot manage work and prep, quitting is not mandatory!
As far as profile-building goes, you can go through this post — https://thecatwriter.com/2018/04/09/how-to-build-your-profile-for-an-mba/
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
I just gave my final semester exams(engineering) in may 2019.My academic scores are 84.55%,74.31%,60%(10th,12th,graduation). I don’t want to take up job right now due to CAT preperation.I want to do specialization in Marketing/HR. which certification courses should I pursue and how can I improve my profile?Will this gap of 6-7 months affect in getting a call from top IIMs,FMS,SP JAIN,IIT BOMBAY?
Which Internships in the respective field should I look for in Mumbai to make my profile better? Or some any other better alternative to justify my gap duration
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Hi Harsh,
You can read this post to get an idea of the things you can up to build your profile — https://thecatwriter.com/2018/04/09/how-to-build-your-profile-for-an-mba/
Go to Coursera and do courses in Marketing/HR offered by Wharton.
As far as an internship goes, take them up in the area you are in interested in more — Marketing or HR — you are likely to find them more in Marketing rather than HR.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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If you want to do a more in-depth certification you can try this — https://www.proschoolonline.com/digital-marketing-course
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Hi sir,
I have a good academic record 9.7/10 in 10th, 94% in 12th and 8.9/10 in B.Sc. I’m currently working as a sales agent in a Travel service startup. I am the only employee at the sales desk. If I quit my job in August, I will have a 9-month work ex. Is it wise to quit? Do I have a good chance of getting into top B School? I don’t have any extra certifications. Please advise.
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Hi Ranjith,
Whether it is wise to quit or not depends upon what you want to do post your MBA. For example, if you want to get into Finance or Ops, then this work-ex is not useful, but if you want to get into Sales & Marketing or General Management this will come in handy and it will be wise to continue for another year and quit once you get around 22 months of work-ex.
Please understand that admission is not your goal, getting s great job aligned to your profile or interests is the goal.
You have great acads and with good work-ex at a start up you will stand a great chance next year.
Change the goal-post, college and education are a way, the longest thing you will engage in is work. So even though it’s tough, put in the yards, learn as much as you can, get recognition.
Start your CAT Prep next year but MBA Prep this year by going through this post – https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/thecatwriter.com/2017/04/22/preparing-for-an-mba-and-not-just-the-cat/amp/
All the best!
Hope this clarifies
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Sir
I have 45 months work ex as of now in operations in power sector and have xim-b and IIM Nagpur as options this year.
Profile: 91/81/9.3
Should i take up one of these this year or quit my job to prepare for cat 19.
Thanks
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After 45 months of experience, another shot at a 2-year program is not a good idea since your work-ex will be more than what most firms recruiting from 2-year programs are look for. So if you want to take another shot, you will be better off taking the GMAT and applying to 1-year programs.
As far XIM-B and IIM-Nagpur go, it depends on your aspirations versus what they can offer. So that will be a call you have to take.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hey!
I’ve completed my graduation this year in the month of may and started preparing for CAT 2019 by the end of may and have done internship of 2.5 mnths (no certificate) now I’m focusing full On CAT as i feel somewhat low in concentrating…
Should I join internships (work from home) to gear up my CV or profile to get admission in top B-schools
10/12/grad- 74/80/72
Please tell me!
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A few good and diverse internships will not hurt. So if can manage internships and preparation for CAT, go ahead.
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Hello Sir,
I am a 2017 B.E pass-out and have been working at Reliance Industries Limited in a maintenance profile for 2 years now.My academics are 10/95.4/8.58 I am also a poet.
I am planning to quit post the completion of 2 years. Will I have sufficient time to get a NGO or online certification done before the interviews if I leave the company by October end after serving the notice period?
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Hi Supratik,
Your interviews will be in the month of February, so before then you will just about have time to do a Certification course since they are usually 12-16 weeks in duration. As far as volunteering goes, it depends on whether they will give you a certificate or letter for the work you do and that might depend on the NGO and your interaction with the team.
Anyway, both of these will be useful for your summer placements.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hello sir. I have been following your blog for a while now and gaining some wisdom.
My record-
91.2, 93, 65.217 (X, XII, Graduation)
Graduation- Literature, University of Delhi (2018)
2018 CAT- 94.3 (did not take admission)
I kept working as a freelance writer. In April this year, I joined a company and started working as a writer. On this 8th, it’ll be six months since I started working. As far as my preparation goes, I have not made much progress, with less than three months to go. Should I quit my job to prepare?
Considering that I did not start working after graduation and waited for CAT, so that’s a gap as well. Then, this would be another gap. Will all this be justifiable in the interviews?
Thanks in advance.
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Hi Aayush,
You will have to justify the gap for sure, whether the GAP itself is justifiable depends upon how well you can make the case. If you have an OA of 94, you are about 20-30 marks away from a 99-plus score and 50 marks away from a percentile close to 100. This essentially translates into 5-6 questions more per section, I am not sure whether this will require you to quit your job since it is more a function of test-taking strategy than ability.
I am coming down to Delhi to take the Last Mile to CAT session, if you are an IMS student, you should attend the session. The session itself should give you enough insights to make the jump in scores.
If you feel that quitting is the only way left, try to wrangle a 1-month sabbatical from your firm, if you are prepared to quit your job then you take a chance and apprise them of your plans and that you will be with them till June next but you need a 1-month break. Give them the option that you can work from home without pay during the said period handling a certain quantum of work or for certain time. Do not feel shy or be on the defensive about this when you make this pitch.
If none of this works out only then quit and in the interviews you have to find a way to convince them that you would not be sitting in front of them if you had not quit, playing the literature student card and the card that the work-ex was not something that will amplify your resume for a career in management.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Thank you sir. Do you think that stating that I was working as a freelance content writer would support my cause in terms of justifying the gap years?
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Yeah, it can but you need to think of justifying why you took up freelancing.
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First of all thank you very much for covering all the major points ,I was really looking for such guidance.And btw I have bachelors in Biotechnology in 2018,and I was pity active in extra caricular activities during college days,sir currently I m working as an Medical rep and will complete 1 yr by the end of September. I m very much interested in switching my profile and Getting admission in good b school,but I haven’t appeared for cat exam till date though I have partially started studying.Sir my query is I wanted to quit my job and go for preparation ,is it right decision to take a gap.
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As I said, it depends on all the things that you take up during the gap, if not before CAT-19 but after the CAT and before the interview. you read more about the things you can take up for profile-building after the CAT — https://thecatwriter.com/2019/03/18/how-to-build-your-profile-for-an-mba-2/
They will not look at you negatively in the PI just because you have quit your job and automatically give you low marks if that is the case me students would not have got through. As discussed in the post they will ask you why you did it and you have to give an answer that is aligned with your long-term career goals.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hi Tony,
Thank you for putting up points together.
I’m a BSc Graduate in 2017 and I have 24 months of consulting experience as of now.
This is my first attempt for CAT.
So, I was actually planning to quit my job in Dec or Jan 2019 and sit entire one year for my second attempt.
Should I give up that thought and work till May 2020?
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Hi Srujana,
I suppose you are planning to take 2020.
I would suggest working till atleast March 2020. You can start your prep in April and be ready to take mocks by June.
An entire year will be a bit too long, unless you want to take up some interesting thing with the extra time –
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Hello Sir,
Firstly, I would like to thank you for providing such a very informative content.
I am a electronics & comm engineering graduate of 2018 batch, I gonna get 16 months work experience in IT company in October 22 2019 and planning to quit the job then. I am looking forward to give Cat 19 exam.
Is it advisable to quit the job, as it’s becoming tough to prepare for CAT.
My 10/12/GRAD score are 93/94/81
Please give your valuable feedback based on my present condition.
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Hi Mani,
As far as the CAT goes, your work till July is what be considered as part of the application, so quitting won’t have any numerical impact on your application. You will still have to answer the question of why you quit your job and by the time you attend interviews in February if you have at least one certification from Coursera or Udemy, it should come in handy.
The catch will be in your being part of lateral placements if the college you get admission into has a concept of laterals. Colleges which have lateral placements usually need around 22 -24 months at least to be considered for laterals, which is nothing but mid-level roles instead of entry-level roles given to freshers. In that context quitting might not be a good idea.
Even if you quit in October, you will only get 4 weeks for CAT Prep, you might as try to get a long-leave for that duration. If that is not possible and you want to get into a good school next year, then quit.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
I am a computer engineering graduate of 2016 batch, and I have 28 months of work experience in an IT company. I joined coaching for CAT in May and I really found it difficult to get time and focus due to the hectic work schedule of my company which was a startup and required me a hour and a half of travelling daily. I was let go of my job in august end due to company restructuring. I am planning to give CAT this year but have not prepared much since then.
Will 2 months be enough for cat preparation?
Or should I get another job / course immediately and keep trying side by side?
Also I want to switch my domain from tech to finance. Is this possible? Or should I go through any course/ certification before getting into MBA?
My 10/12/GRAD score are 89/77/57
Can I expect a call from the old and the new IIM’s?
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Hi Pranit,
Getting a call from the old and new IIMs is a bit tough given your academic profile.
I would suggest taking a shot at NMAT, SNAP this year targeting NMIMS-Mumbai and SIBM-Pune and IIFT, XAT as well. If you get through any of these colleges then go ahead an join, else you can join a job and start preparing again.
As far as Finance goes, please go through blog post — https://thecatwriter.com/2019/03/18/how-to-build-your-profile-for-an-mba-2/
All the best!
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Hello sir,
I am planning to quit this dec, after that i will have experience of 17 month working on shop floor. I m quitting bcoz of toxic work environment. I completed my btech from electrical engineering from one of the nit. I secure 87.4 percent in 10th,72.2 percent in 12th and 70 percent in btech. I am planning for cat 2019. I want to ask is it right decision for me.
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Hi Atul,
Just stick on till you get 22 months of experience or at least finish 20 months in marks since it will help you qualify for lateral placements as well Ops specialization of SPJIMR.
Else there is no issue with quitting.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Actually that was 2020,not cat 2019. Now plz tell me is it ok sir.
Thanku so much sir,
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I’d still say finish 20 to 22 months, March end should work fine since the first SimCAT happens towards the end of April.
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Hello sir,
I am planning to attempt cat 2020 for the first time, preferably through online coaching from march. I am planning to quit my job in 3rd july which will complete my 19 months of work ex. And post that prepare full time for cat. I have 9 months work ex working with ecommerce firm and rest 10 months in insurance sales for banks.
I completed my btech from electrical engineering.
My scores are 9.4/77/67 in 10/12/b.tcheh. I want to go for operations profile. Can you suggest me the right thing to do.
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Hi Konkona,
As mentioned in the post you can quit your job safely if you have 22 months of work-ex, 19 might be a bit on the shorter side so quit with 19 months unless it is absolutely unavoidable.
And as mentioned you have to take up some certification courses to bolster your case during interviews and to show that you did not just quit for CAT Prep but to take concrete steps towards a career in management.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
I am having 24 months of work experience in Major IT Industry and I am planning to quit my job and continue with my CAT preparation for CAT 2020 from May, 2020. Will It be a good Decision?
Academics- 10th-82, 11th-73, Grad-75
Work Exp- 24 Months
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Hi Akash,
As I mentioned in the post, 24 months is good enough experience to have and you can quit your job provided you are clear that you are doing this not just for CAT prep but for professional advancement and thus take up online certification courses, and/or other things cited so that you can face the interviewers with confidence.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hi sir,
I’m currently working in a Fin-Ops company but have always been interested in HR and am planning to pursue MBA in the same.
I currently have 10 months of work ex and I’m planning to quit my job after 3 months such that I’ll have one year of work ex. I’m mainly doing this to prepare for CAT / XAT since I’m a non math student.
Any suggestions?
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Hi Akshaya,
You can quit your job without too much of an issue since HR recruiters do not look at work-ex as a pre-requisite. You can also justify quitting on grounds that it was not aligned to your aspirations and that you needed to prep given your non-Math background.
What you should do though is not just prep but do at least a few other things: do a certification course online in subjects related to HR such as these — https://www.coursera.org/learn/organizational-analysis, https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-people-analytics; get some NGO or social work experience; and learn a language or any other hobby you want to pursue.
If you do all this I think you will hold yourself in god stead to clear the interviews as well.
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
I a CA with 15 months of work ex in the field of Valuations.Currently, due to hectic work schedule I am not able to dedicate time for study on weekdays as much as i wish to and even weekends go by in classes and work as well.I wanted your advice regarding whether I should leave my job to focus on my exam preps and whether the no of months of work ex will suffice during interview stages?
10th – 93%, 12th – 86% and Graduation(Bcom)- 72%
Thanking you in advance.
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Hi Sanika,
My advice would be to finish the 24 months of work-ex and given the CA degree as well, you will really maximise your chances of getting a call; also it will ensure that you qualify for lateral placements.
So this year, work, prep, and give the best shot you can, quit when you complete 24 months of work-ex and then go ahead full-steam for CAT 2021, graduating in 2023 will also eliminate all the uncertainty about the economy.
All the best!
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Hi,
Thank you for this article.
I am in dilemma since a long time, I have been stressed whether to quit my job or not. I have completed a year as a research associate in a small organisation.
I have completed my engineering, there are no breaks after graduation however, I wish to quit my job and focus solely on the preparation of CAT, as I am not well versed with studying and its curriculum.
I have average academics marks in Graduation, XII and X.
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Hi Nupur,
You can quit your job and prepare for the CAT as long as you do not just prepare for the CAT and take up profile building activities as well.
All the best!
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Hi Tony,
This article is very much helpful
I have completed more than a year now in IT Industry. As I am from mechanical background i really don’t want my career in coding. I am preparing for CAT 2020 at my best. If I didn’t get into iims this year can i quit my job by December(20 months of work exp) and start the preparation again as I don’t want my current IT career and in that time can I prepare for CFA as well?
My Acad Scores are 97/93/74 (10/12/grad).
Thanks in Advance
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Sounds like a good plan, Vishnu. You can go ahead with it.
All the best!
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Hi sir,
I have a work ex for 2.3 years as of now. Was planning to take up CAT this year to analyze the paper and my weaknesses as i have prepared too less. I have also joined IMS to appear CAT 2021.I am a little skeptical because with work studies get a bit difficult . However , the reason for me being skeptical is that by the time I appear for CAT’21,I would be having a work ex of 3.4/3.5 years. Would it be any good to my resume or something could you suggest.?
Scores: X/XII/UG-83.28%,85.4%,72.58%
Thanks.
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Hi Tony,
I have gone through your blog, felt really motivated towards it. However It would be really happy if you could help me evaluate few decision, as have completed my graduation in 2015 sored 58% and I have 4 years of experience working into HR operations, I will be quitting my job in July to prep for CAT, SNAP,XAT and TISS-NET what would you suggest the best way to for me to do a FULL TIME MBA. is it right way that I am going on, please advice.
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Hi Pooja,
Since you have enough work-ex, it would be okay to quit your job and take up a full-time MBA, without which you realise that you will not have any growth opportunities going forward. So, it is the right time for you to take up an HR MBA.
All the best!
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Hello Tony,
I am a mechanical engineering graduate and will complete a year of working in an IT firm by January ’22. I joined the online E-catapult program somewhere around in April ’21 and have been trying to consistently learn and attempt the mocks. But the fact of the matter is that I wasn’t able to get the desired time for my preparation even after joining the program way back. The project that I’m currently working on is super hectic. To put things into perspective, I work for nearly 10 ~ 11 hours on a daily basis and even on most weekends. There were even months when I had to work for nearly 21 straight days without a day’s break. This took a toll on my preparation and had to respawn after sometime. I was hoping to quit my job after completing one year and focus on CAT/XAT/GMAT and other exams. But I am a bit skeptical as to whether this will add up to be a good reason when asked about during the interviews. So kindly advice me on what do at this point as I only have a year of experience. It will do me a world of good. Cheers and thanks in advance.
Scores : 9.6/92.8/8.33[10/12/UG]
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Hi Sarath,
As I wrote in the post, it all depends on which sector you want to get into post your MBA. If it is Marketing then quitting should not make much of a difference — but as I wrote in the post — you will be asked about it and you should show the efforts you have taken to help you build a career in management that go beyond CAT Prep.
If you want to work in Consulting/IT/Tech then you will be better served working for two years.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
I am a Computer Science Engineer with 3 years of work experience by 23rd July, 2022. I have 86% in 12th, 88% in 10 and 77.8% in Btech with Honors, I have huge experience in NGO and have been a President of Rotaract Club for three years with lot of experience on Event Management and team management.
Now I am planning to take a career gap starting from 8th August to take some time from IT and Prepare for CAT 2022. Is it the correct decision provided I will have 3 years of work experience by July 2022. Please Guide.
Thank you!
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Hi Anant,
As I wrote should not be a problem with 3 years. Just ensure you take something up in terms of certifications.
All the best!
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