by Karin Ash
Graduate Schools and Job Loss: How to Decide Your Next Step
If you lost your job because of layoffs in your field – or any other reason – it could actually be a great opportunity for you to take stock of your career and consider what you want your next steps to be. In this post, we discuss three common scenarios for people who find themselves unemployed and offer recommendations for navigating this challenging time and moving forward.
1. You loved your work.
Lucky you! In this case, you have two strong options:
- Try to find a similar job with another company. To uncover job leads, network with your friends, alumni from your college, and/or peers at companies that might be hiring. Also, try using company or university names as key words.
- Strengthen or broaden your skill set by taking online courses and earning certificates, or advance your skills and opportunities by attending graduate school. An advanced degree could help you gain more responsibility and earn a higher salary in a field you love.
2. You’re ready for a completely different challenge and career direction.
A period of unemployment can be an opportune time to pursue a degree in a different field and facilitate a career change by preparing you for a new professional path. Business school could open up multiple career options for you. Or if, for example, you were a software engineer, you might consider further training in machine learning, artificial intelligence, or data science, for which there are now many specialized degree programs.
3. You don’t know what you want to do, but you don’t want to return to what you were doing.
In this case, seek career coaching to gain direction and focus. A career coach will ask you questions intended to help you reflect on your interests, values, and skills. They can also provide career path suggestions and help you get started doing informational interviews, which will provide insightful information – and sometimes even job leads.
Depending on your clarified career goals, graduate school could prepare you to make the move to your new field and achieve your goals there.
Find a position that allows you to make progress toward your new desired role or field while also testing whether it’s really right for you and providing valuable experience.
Pursuing Graduate School When Unemployed
If you are considering applying to graduate school, think about the timing. If you don’t have sufficient time to prepare and submit a quality application for the next entering class, you should delay your application until the following year.
Whether you apply during this admissions season or the next, here are some steps you can take while unemployed to enhance your candidacy and increase your chances of being accepted:
- Connect with students at the schools you’re considering to learn more about the program and their personal experiences in it. Make an appointment with an admissions representative to discuss your background and goals. Attend admissions events in person or online. Follow your target programs on social media.
- Search for an interim job that will move you closer to your post-MBA or post-MS goal and give you experience that a desired future employer will value.
- Volunteer with organizations that could use your skills. You will gain valuable experience and have more related content for your application resume, essays, and interviews.
- Network with friends and colleagues and ask to work on a temporary project with their company. If any of your friends own start-ups, you could offer your time and skills at a reduced rate or no expense.
- If you would like to start your own company, consider using this time to write a business plan for it.
Graduate schools will appreciate that you used your time out of work wisely. You will want to be honest about your situation – what resulted in the job loss, and what actions have you taken since? Never lie about losing your job or “fudge” your employment dates; if you do so and are accepted to a graduate program, your acceptance could then be revoked. If you lost your job as part of a large layoff during a period of increasing layoffs, this will not negatively affect your chances for acceptance, as long as you are able to show that you’ve used the time in the interim productively.
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