One of the questions that I am often asked and is most relevant at this point in time given that some of you might be looking at re-taking the CAT after an underwhelming CAT last year and others might be desperate to crack this year’s CAT.
- 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 for many, an MBA is the last big shot that they can take to get a big brand name on to their resume.
There might be 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 “I“s 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 easy 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 (unless there are some extenuating personal or professional circumstances).
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.
The CAT Writer 
Hello sir,
This is Sabari.
I’ve done my ug in BBA logistics which a challenging course when compared to any other BBA/B.COM., The course structured in that way which includes 14months of apprenticeship training along with the curriculum. In that I’ve worked with two logistics firm as an apprentice(paid) for 1.6yrs combined, during my programme itself. After my graduation i got lot of offers from TIER II logistics companies. since I worked as an apprentice for more than a year, those offers doesn’t excite me. Then I joined my father’s company which is an oil mill (edible). Here am learning the core business & experimenting and experiencing the things.
1. will it be counted as a work ex.?
2. is this a wise decision, that i tured down those offers and joined my family business for work ex?
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Hi Sabari,
Your family enterprise stint will be counted as work-ex if you have all the formal documents for the same:
1. Appointment Letter
2. Salary slips
So, it’s not a bad decision.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hi Tony,
I had a more general query about my profile. I am 27 years old and have 2.3 years of work ex in Unilever R&D. I have an MSc in Biotech (graduated in 2020 from Manipal University). My academics haven’t been that great overall but I’m banking on my CAT score, which I’ll be appearing for this year and my work ex. I was wondering if there was something I could do to improve my profile. I am primarily interested in a sales&marketing role after my MBA and I was wondering if those doors are still open for me, since you mentioned in your article that freshers are preferred for those roles.
Thanks in advance!
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Hi Tony,
I had a more general query about my profile. I am 27 years old and have 2.3 years of work ex in Unilever R&D. I have an MSc in Biotech (graduated in 2020 from Manipal University). My academics haven’t been that great overall but I’m banking on my CAT score, which I’ll be appearing for this year and my work ex. I was wondering if there was something I could do to improve my profile. I am primarily interested in a sales&marketing role after my MBA and I was wondering if those doors are still open for me, since you mentioned in your article that freshers are preferred for those roles.
Thanks in advance!
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Hi Achyut,
While Sales and Marketing firms prefer freshers, they do look at with/ex candidates with a good profile. The Unilever on your resume should fetch you S & M shortlists.
You can take up certification courses in Marketing to bolster your profile.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
I am a Bcom graduate specializing in finance. I graduated just last year in 2022 and started working in Bayer even before my graduation as i got this job through campus placements and figured it will be good to use as work ex. I am writing CAT this year and i am considering quitting the job but of course i know i do not have enough work ex ( just over 12 months).
Is it advisable to just quit and focus on CAT entirely or should i just keep the job for at least another year?
Does it look bad on my resume quitting a job in less than 2 years?
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Hi Katherine,
As I wrote in the post, work-ex becomes important in domains such as Ops and IM. In other domains it’s not critical.
If you quit your job, it should because you know that there is no way you can handle both. If you can handle work and CAT prep, there is no reason to quit your job. If you can manage a four-week break sometime during the prep, preferably September or October, and are regular in your prep that should suffice.
If you do end up deciding to quit your job, as mentioned in the post, ensure that you take up enough profile-building activities.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hi Tony. I am a b.com graduate from DU (2020 pass out) and currently have a 1.5 years of work ex in finance domain. I have recently made a shift to an MNC with hybrid mode of work. My shift here is going to be a night shift here at the new company and hence, I am having difficulty in managing time for my preps as i will be sitting for CAT for the first ever time this year. Do you suggest i quit my job by September end so that i can have at least 1.5 months entirely for my revisions? But that would make my total relevant work ex on about 22 months (and not minimum 24 months that’s required). What do you suggest?
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Hi, wonderfully explained article. I am a b.com graduate from DU (2020 pass out) and currently have a 1.5 years of work ex in finance domain. I have recently made a shift to an MNC with hybrid mode of work. My shift here is going to be a night shift here at the new company and hence, I am having difficulty in managing time for my preps as i will be sitting for CAT for the first ever time this year. Do you suggest i quit my job by September end so that i can have at least 1.5 months entirely for my revisions? But that would make my total relevant work ex on about 22 months (and not minimum 24 months that’s required). What do you suggest?
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Hi Aioushee,
I think it is okay if you need to quit since there is not hard and fast rule at 24. I wrote 24 just so that it covers all schools. 22 would work as well.
All the best!
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Hi, I graduated in 2022 from BMS Finance. My academics are top of the grade and I have a lot of internship and volunteering experience on hand as well. In April of 2022, I started working as an Analyst Trainee at 100X.VC which is a VC Fund. It is not counted as full-time experience and was a fixed 6 month program. On completion in September, I took a 2 month break and began working at a startup. But, I was not happy with the role there and wanted to make a shift into core finance/consulting. Since, March I have been preparing for CAT along with pursuing my passion as a content creator on YouTube and Instagram. I am also learning about Supply Chain on Coursera. Technically I have only 2 months of work ex today, the analyst trainee program is not counted as full-time work-ex. What do you think about my situation?
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Hi Jaitra,
The fact that you have experience — though not full-time, with a VC — will reflect on your resume. You might get marks only for 2 months, and you might be viewed as a fresher but as far as the interview goes it should not be an issue.
What will matter is the nature of you work on YT and Instagram and whether the panel is likely to find it aligned with your goals or seen it positively as achievement if it related to some other field.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hello sir,
I got 94.95 percentile this year and gave around 5-6 interviews of college that I consider worth joining, but not very confident if the interviews went well. Should I wait for the result till May or start preparing from now only for CAT 23?
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Hi Tanmay,
If you have time on your hand, you can start low-intensity prep right now and start taking mocks only after May once the results are out.
hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hello Sir,
Currently I am pursuing my Btech in Electrical Engineering from Nirma University. I am in my final (8th) semester and doing my 6 months internship in Operation (production) at secure meters ltd. I will be assigned to do the same job role here in July. I wanted to ask that will this experience be any good for my profile (for admission process as well as for campus placements in MBA). I do have started the preparations for CAT. Should I continue my Job here for a year or more or would u suggest that I quit and prepare for cat this year?
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Hi Alie,
Ops roles are always viewed positively by recruiters since it is different from the typical IT profile. I would suggest working and prepping.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
I graduated with BA in psychology in 2021 and worked in HR operations for a year. Last August I quit my job to prepare for CAT but have decided to give one more attempt this year and have taken up a job as a customer success.
I wish to pursue marketing, will such a diverse background affect my profile later during admissions?
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Hi Hiteshi,
I don’t think a diverse work-ex will hurt your chances in any way, especially since both of your stints are relevant to a career in Marketing.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
Hope this
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Hello Sir,
I graduated from NIFT-Kolkata in 2020, I was placed in the month of April 2021 and continued working for 20 months. From Jan 2023 I quit my job and started preparing for CAT23. How should I cope up with this gap year in interviews or Will I get calls?
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Hi Sonali,
As I wrote in the post, there is no negative marking for gap years. Some colleges have a question in the form, asking for an explanation for gap years, if any.
I would suggest taking up a few things other than just CAT Prep (certification, social work etc.) during this period. Also, given that you are an NIFT grad, taking time out to ensure you crack the CAT and also build a profile for management is a valid choice.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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hello sir,
its Pratik,
I am a mechanical engineer(2021 pass out). After graduation, I got placed in a boiler manufacturing company as a design engineer I worked for 9 months but then I wanted to change the field so at that time I quit my job to prepare for CAT I didn’t succeed and I want to retake CAT but I’m not sure if I should take a job again and prepare with the job or should I continue this way. Also, I have started a small venture of my own, but I can not show the work ex letter for it. so what should I do?
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Hi Pratik,
I think such a long gap will not be defensible in the interviews. I would suggest either taking up a job or registering your firm as a sole proprietorship, doing the best you can with that and taking the bank statements to show revenues.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hello sir,
I graduated with BMS in marketing this year. I have already appeared for CAT in 2022 and I plan to appear again this year. I already have internship and volunteer experience, do I need to apply for job/ internship while preparing for CAT this year and will that be counted?
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Hi Esha,
Only full-time paid work is counted as work experience. So, when you apply this year, you will be applying as a fresher.
You have two options:
1. If you feel you cannot do a full-time job and prepare for CAT simultaneously, apply for an internship and do volunteer work etc., while preparing for the CAT.
2. If you feel your previous attempt has given you enough confidence to work as well as prep for CAT, apply for a full-time job.
Hope this clarifies,
All the best!
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Hi Sir,
I am a GEM with an academic profile of 9/8/8 and have a work experience of 2 years in IT. I decided to quit my job this month and start preparing for CAT 2023. Is it worth taking the risk considering that I am at ground 0 with the preparation?
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Hi Tony,
I’ve done my graduation from JNTU Kakinada in the domain of Petroleum Engineering in 2023 May. Since very next (in the same month), I joined into a revenue based company Justdial Ltd as a Tele Marketing Executive (Sales) [cause of financial stucks in family, there’s no gap for my grad and start of professional life (its about a week… haha I guess it might be for walk in interviews ) without thinking about future professional growth]. And now, I want to prepare for CAT 2024 but what I can find on above post is recruiters at IIM prefer freshers for S&M domain.
Will my Pre Mba work Ex- designation (Tele Marketing being an engineer ) show any impact on my resume or during my WAT-PI rounds & MBA Placements. And thinking to quit my job in the month of June or July to prepare consistently for CAT 2024, Is that correct time (Till then I carry 14months of work ex if July).
What calls can I expect as my acads – 9/9.8/8 and 8months (work as of now). I do belongs to ST catagory /Male. What percentile I must target for to be in safer zone.
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Hi Vijay
The work-ex should not be a problem at all. Don’t worry about it. Telemarketing is a good work-ex for S&M.
14 months would mean getting not too many marks for work-ex but that’s is not issue.
Get a percentile above 90 and you will get a call from IIM-A and all other schools. A percentile above 80 will fetch you calls from more than half of the 21 IIMs.
Hope this helps,
All the best!
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Hi Tony,
Got a lot of clarification from your blog. Thanks a lot!
I have a gap of 1.5 years in total and a work ex of 20 months in TCS and Amazon with decent academic of 9/8/8. I am a GEM. What colleges should I expect at what percentile? And how can I improve my profile to get into a top bschool?
It would be great if you can leave a reply.
Many thanks!
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Hi Joysurya,
You can look at two posts on the blog.
1. Will I get a call from the IIMs. (This was posted recently
2. How to build your profile for an MBA.
Opening the site on your laptop will make for easier navigation.
All the best!
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