{"id":29280,"date":"2025-11-25T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=29280"},"modified":"2025-11-25T09:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T14:55:09","slug":"mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-my-months-of-work-experience-will-not-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-my-months-of-work-experience-will-not-count\/","title":{"rendered":"MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: My Months of Work Experience Will Not Count"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/MBA-Admissions-Myths-Destroyed-My-Months-of-Work-Experience-Will-Not-Count.png\" alt=\" style=\"width:219px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<em>I had an internship from June to August of 2024. Will the admissions committee count it as work experience<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<em>I was running a lab during my Master\u2019s program\u2014is that part of my total number of months of work experience<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<em>I ran a small business that ultimately failed\u2014will I get credit for my time as an entrepreneur?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Business schools have not seriously considered a candidate\u2019s number of months of work experience as a factor in admissions decisions for a long time. In fact, with such programs as Harvard Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business increasingly open to younger candidates, work experience on a strictly quantitative level is actually being devalued at some schools. A candidate\u2019s&nbsp;<em>quantity<\/em>&nbsp;of work experience is just not relevant\u2014<em>quality<\/em>&nbsp;is what is important. An \u201caverage\u201d employee who has merely fulfilled expectations during a five-year stint at a Fortune 500 company could certainly be said to be at a disadvantage compared with an individual who has made the most of a three-year stint elsewhere and has been promoted ahead of schedule. Think about it\u2014which of the two would you admit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, if you are asked on an application how many months of work experience you will have prior to matriculating, you should simply answer honestly. If you have any gray areas or are unsure about any aspect of your professional experience as it pertains to your application, you can always call the Admissions Office for guidance\u2014most Admissions Offices are actually surprisingly helpful with this kind of simple technical question. Thereafter, stop worrying about the number of months of experience you do or do not have and instead focus on revealing that\u2014and how\u2014you have made an impact in your professional life. Your essays, recommendations, interviews, resume, and other application elements will ultimately make a qualitative impact that will outweigh any quantitative data<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI had an internship from June to August of 2024. Will the admissions committee count it as work experience?\u201d \u201cI was running a lab during my Master\u2019s program\u2014is that part of my total number of months of work experience?\u201d \u201cI ran a small business that ultimately failed\u2014will I get credit for my time as an &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/mba-admissions-myths-destroyed-my-months-of-work-experience-will-not-count\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":36243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[179,178],"class_list":["post-29280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admissions-myths-destroyed","tag-admissions-myths","tag-work-history"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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