Currently Pursuing MBA With a Difficult Profile/Career Gap — Need Honest Advice
Hey guys, please help with suggestions if you can.
So basically, I met with a major accident right after graduation after a very brief stint in corporate. I graduated back in 2018 and after that I was mostly unemployed for around 7 years. Did a few small stints here and there but nothing very significant career-wise.
Anyway, I decided to give CAT a shot, somehow managed to score a decent percentile and got into a decent-ish MBA college 😭 Not naming it because people here will probably figure it out anyway lol.
Now the issue is — as you all know — the job market is pretty bad right now, and my profile also feels very average because of the huge gap abd very average marks my whole life. During MBA, I got an internship at an early-stage startup in sales, and our final placements were honestly very rough too. Around 30% of the batch was still unplaced at one point as far as I remember. I think many people later got jobs off-campus, but the whole situation has made me pretty anxious about my own profile.
One thing I do think I’m good at is communication and interacting with people, if that helps in suggesting suitable roles.
So now I genuinely want advice on how to rebuild things properly from here:
• What skills should I absolutely focus on this year?
• What kind of projects/certifications actually help and are not just resume fillers?
• What roles should someone with my background realistically target off-campus?
• How do people even get off-campus opportunities nowadays? LinkedIn applications seem like a black hole 😭 and mainly,
• Are there specific roles/companies that care less about gaps/old marks/profile and focus more on current skills and communication ability?
Would really appreciate honest/practical guidance from people who’ve recovered from bad career phases or difficult profiles.