Career-gap for Civil Services Preparation

Many ISB applicants to PGP have multi-year gap after their graduation, in order to prepare for Civil Services examination. Many such applicants wonder whether their profile is good enough to apply to ISB. This blog post addresses how to tackle career-gap for Civil Services Preparation in the ISB Application.

We have actually covered this topic briefly in our blog: How to tackle gaps in work experience or in academics. However, this subject comes up so frequently and applicants get so concerned about this that we thought this deserved a blog post of its own.

First things First

In our experience, ISB is very open to accepting this as a valid reason for professional gap.

The don’ts

Let us first look at things you should not do:

1) Don’t feel guilty about it: There was nothing wrong that you did, by deciding to take a break for UPSC preparation. If Civil Services was on your mind, taking a break was the most logical (and correct) decision. After all, the amount of coursework and the extent of competition demands fulltime effort.

2) Don’t try to push it under the carpet: This is one phase of your life that you should be proud of (more on this, later in this post). So, you should actually be highlighting this in your application, rather than trying to push it under the carpet.

3) Don’t try to look for ways to hide this gap: Candidates look for ingenious ways to conceal this gap, when they really don’t need to.

The dos

These are some of the things that you should do:

1) Highlight this in the application: ISB applicants should project their decision to appear for Civil Services examination as a strength. After all, it requires significant risk-taking ability to leave a well-paying job and embrace the vagaries of Civil Services examination. Hence, your decision to prepare for Civil Services exam reflects your risk-taking ability. This is a significant positive personality attribute that you should highlight in the application.

2) Emphasize the key take-aways: While the Civil Services preparation admittedly did not culminate in an outcome that you had hoped for, the preparation itself was not futile. You obviously had immense enrichment in knowledge, in a multitude of areas including world history, politics, policies, current affairs, foreign affairs, and Indian constitution, to name a few. Hence, you now have a world-view and a perspective that is your true differentiator. Emphasize this differentiator in the application.

3) Accentuate the milestones: While you could not achieve the intended outcome, you might have accomplished intermediate milestones such as clearing the Civil Services Prelims and/or the Mains. These milestones are no less accomplishments, since each of these milestones is a testimony to your single-minded determination to achieve your goal. Make sure that you mention your accomplishments in the form of these milestones, in your application.

The Bottomline

Whichever way you look at it, there are only positives to be drawn from your Civil service attempt(s). So, be confident and not coy about your career-gap for Civil Services Preparation. The way you present this gap in your application, should reflect that confidence.