Northwestern’s Business School Will Waive Standardized Test Scores for Laid Off Tech Workers

The rising variety of tech staff who’ve misplaced their jobs to date this 12 months amid a historic business extensive downturn might have a brand new lifeline: going again to high school.

On Monday, the University of Northwestern’s Kellogg’s School of Management announced it might welcome in lately laid off tech staff trying to, “transform their career with an MBA.” The faculty, which U.S. News and World Report and different main record makers regard as amongst the nation’s most elite MBA packages, says it should waive standardized take a look at scores for tech employee candidates. Kellogg says it’s, “stepping in to help chart the next chapter for this high-performing talent.”

Specifically, the waiver applies to spherical 2 candidates who had been lately laid off within the tech business. In lieu of standardized take a look at scores these candidates will submit their resumes, transcripts, and an essay detailing their current skilled expertise. Kellogg, which reportedly has an acceptance fee hovering round 20%, says it gained’t loosen its expectations for the incoming candidates. Rather, Kellogg Degree Programs and Operations Associate Dean Greg Hanifee stated dropping the testing is supposed to hurry up the applying course of, a choice significantly useful for the 1000’s of staff who’ve misplaced their jobs in current weeks and months.

“Kellogg has always been about leading with compassion and learning to channel analytical skills with personal skills in business,” Hanifee stated in an announcement. “Our focus on the intersection of business and science uniquely positions future leaders to excel in careers across many sectors and companies.”

Kellogg didn’t instantly reply to Gizmodo’s request for remark searching for extra particulars on what particular kind of tech staff might qualify for the testing waiver.

In a year marked by turmoil, the past few weeks have been especially devastating for tech workers. Last month, newly minted Twitter CEO Elon Musk busted in the doors and immediately laid off half of the company’s staff, axing entire human rights and ethical AI teams in the process. Embarrassingly, Twitter had to beg some of those workers to return to the company days later.

Twitter’s layoffs, whereas chaotic, paled compared to Meta which final week introduced it might lay off 11,000 staff. A current New York Times report, in the meantime, suggests Amazon may scrap round 10,000 staff as early as this week.

Industry trackers estimate wherever between 70,000 to 120,000 tech staff have been laid off in 2022. The downturn, introduced on by a wide range of elements together with rising inflation, tanking cryptocurrency costs, digital promoting declines, and publish pandemic e-commerce slowdowns, have touched nearly each nook of the business. Netflix, Tesla, Coinbase, and Microsoft have all despatched a few of their staff packing this 12 months.