Pl. provide additional information that you haven’t addressed elsewhere
I request the admissions committee to consider the following factors linked to the gap between Secondary Schooling and the undergraduation:
Immediately after completing my Secondary Schooling, I had enrolled for an undergraduate degree in Electronics Engineering in month year. Within the first four semesters, I realized that (while being an engineer is a prestigious career path) my passion definitely lay elsewhere. At the age of 18, the choice was primarily influenced by peer pressure. Halfway through the course, I dropped out of the program in October 2004. Such a move is highly unconventional in my country and resulted in significant disapproval from all fronts.
The early week of December 1998 was a fissure in my career that had so far been a smooth ride. The fact that I had dropped out halfway through engineering represented an entire two years of “downtime”. It took me an entire month to come out of the situation and gather courage
If I was not the best at engineering, I had to be best at something – and I just had to find it. The problem had opened this door of opportunity.
By January 1999, I was running a small-scale transport business with seven, second-hand transport vans. Each day in the business taught me powerful lessons in business and man management. After 18 months, I sold all seven vans, booked some overall profit and made a career decision to join ABC. I wanted to experience working in established companies and learning about “big-business.”
In my country, it’s extremely difficult to get a well-paid, intellectually-satisfying job without a Bachelor’s degree. This really hit home on two occasions – in month year while looking for my first job and in year after ABC, my then employer, closed down and I was jobless in a city that I was not too familiar with. After losing multiple opportunities that I was clearly suitable for, I decided to enroll in a distance learning B.B.A program in month year while continuing to look for work. I achieved a breakthrough when I was hired at DEF and I have regularly crossed growth benchmarks ever since.
In retrospect, I realize that my interruption in education could have been averted by a more rational approach. I also realize the importance of quality higher education – the potential reflected so far in my career graph can only be fully realized with a thorough grounding in the principles of management. However, the consequences of my choices did teach me extremely valuable life-lessons of handling adversity, having faith in my abilities and judgment and being resilient.
