Why Should I Do an MBA by CrackVerbal

7/25/2019 Why Should I Do an MBA by CrackVerbal

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Crack erbal Why

An MBA?Should I Do


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This sounds like a profoundly philosophical question! In fact, it is so profound that many people fail to find

an answer to this even after they do their MBA! Heck, it makes the Kennedy assassination look like an open

and shut case :)

Firstly, look at what an MBA can help you achieve

An MBA is, at best, a general management program. It is not a specialization even if you choose to take

up some electives during the second year. Heres an example to clarify this. Let us presume that you get to

be a CEO, CIO, CFO, CTO . in short any CXO, it equips you with general tools and tricks of the trade for

you to do your job effectively. Think about it, you will have a dozen CAs working for you, so it is pointless to

know the nitty-gritty of Mercantile law. You just need to be able to pick up a balance sheet or a P&L

statement and make sense out of the data. Rather go a step beyond what is obvious and figure out the

subtle implications. You are not expected to even understand each account the marketing team ishandling. But you are expected to look at a sales graph and understand what is going right, and more

importantly, what is going wrong. You should be able to look at a sales report and figure out what is

working and what is not. When the HR teams gives you the attrition rate, you ought to be able to figure out

if its okay or not. If not, you should be able to figure out how to plug the leak...

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Why MBA?


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Secondly, if it is a top school it gives you credentials and opportunity to build a network!

Someone from IIM-A need not prove himself as hard as someone from say Mahaveer Jain Institute of

Management Studies. What would otherwise take possibly weeks or even months of hard work from the

latter is immediately granted to the former purely on basis of the pedigree of the institute. In a country like

India, which is so hung up on academic credentials, an MBA from a top school makes a huge impact in

opening doors, in giving opportunities, in shortlisting resumes and in impressing interviewers. All the

more if you also do some solid networking. If you have thousands of your breed out there chauvinistic

enough to hire you any day, you already start with a heads up the day you get the admit.

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7 Reasons To Do An MBA

There are basically two categories of MBA aspirants, especially in the Indian context:

Those who have just completed their graduation or are still in their final year.

These people typically take the CAT journey.

Those who have some years of work experience (typically 2 to 6 years) in a good company and whose

motive is to reach their maximum potential in their professional life. This could entail either career

progression or a career shift. These people typically follow the GMAT route.

reasons

reasons

reason

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However if these are the only two reasons why you wish to do an MBA, then you have a very limited and short-term

perspective; because after a point, both these aspects will not mean much to you. For instance, if you are a senior

manager at a reputed IT company, then according to these two reasons you need not do an MBA at all, as you

would be earning well and will be having an envious job profile too. But if you want to enhance your knowledge orperspective, or want once in a life-time experience, you may still consider doing an MBA.

So, if you present these two reasons to the MBA Admission Committees you will definitely be considered as a misfit

to their MBA program. There is such a thing as brutal honesty! :) You need to have more value-based and well

thought-out reasons to pursue an MBA.

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2 Basic Reasons To Do An MBA!

However much you try to be diplomatic and politically correct in your essays,

recommendations and interviews, the truth (which even MBA Admissions Committees are

aware of) is that most MBA aspirants want to earn an MBA degree because:

They want to earn more money

Their current job sucks

reasons

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Here Are The Real Reasons To Do An MBA!reason

s

Career Progression:

Typically a professional begins his/her career with an operational role. Being

fairly smart, hardworking and result-oriented, he/she gets promotions andreaches a decent position in the management. What happens next? After a

few years he/she will start feeling stagnated. He/she will somehow feel unable

to reach the coveted next level. This could happen after 3 years or it may

take even years to reach such a stage. This is because in a realistic world, most

of the people around you will be having the same qualities that you possess. So, at this point it is crucial for you to

ask what unique aspect do you have that will help to differentiate you from the herd?

It is your MBA degree! Actually, not just your MBA degree, but an MBA degree from a premium business school! An

MBA from a top B-school will help you make a quick transition from being a project manager to a very high level

management position. MBA is the ticket to reach a level where you can make strategic decisions and realize your

potential, which may take years sans an MBA. If you browse through job openings of very senior positions, MBA is

the preferred degree, though it may not be mandatory. So, the lack of an MBA degree may not be a show stopper

but it will be a huge reason for career stagnation. Consulting is one profession where MBA is mandatory as in

Consulting, you will not be able to grow after a certain point without an MBA.

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What are the chances that with your current education, your current

role and your current experience you can actually switch to any other

role or industry? Very little! Consider this situation you have been in

IT for the past 5 years, and with time you realize that your true calling

is Marketing; What steps can you take to make a switch?

You can take up small marketing projects over the weekendsRead about marketing on the internet and make changes in

your resume, hoping for a switch Take an online marketing course

Considering all these, even if you get through the interview you will be joining at an entry

level. Your IT experience will not help you much to get a management role in marketing. It is here that an MBA can

help. In fact, one of the most important reasons why professionals choose to do an MBA is to change career tracks

smoothly. For instance, if you are from an IT background and do an MBA in finance from a reputed B-school,

recruiters will be comfortable with hiring you.

Seek a role change to pre-sales and hope to move on from

there

for a marketing role,

reasons

reasons

reasons

2 Career Switch:

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Planning to do an MBA from a top business school? Be ready to spend 50

lakhs for a 10-month course! This works out to about 1.2 lakhs per week.

In India, you may end up spending 20 lakhs for a similar MBA program!

Imagine spending such a huge sum of money just to gain knowledge!

Wouldnt it be prudent to quit your job for a year and browse the

internet to get all the knowledge in the world?

However the truth is that knowledge that will help you to progress in your

career will not be found in books or on the internet. The interaction and

intellectual debates that you will have with your professors and peers at an

program will be extremely enriching. Secondly, the pedagogical methods employed in top schools are very

innovative and effective these include case studies, presentations, projects, research papers etc. If you are

joining a typical two year MBA program, in the first year you will have the core curriculum consisting of marketing,

accounting, finance, statistics, economics, management, organization behavior etc. These lay the foundation of

your understanding of business. To be a future CEO, you need to have a 360 degree view of how to run a company

and manage people! Apart from the core subjects, B-schools offer a plethora of electives, usually in the second

year, depending on what stream you want to specialize in. It is at this point that you need to have a very good idea

of your career path, so that you can make full use of your MBA program. Essentially, an MBA program will give you

focused streamlined knowledge about all aspects of business that are relevant to you.

3 Knowledge:


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If you are asked, What is Networking?, what would your response be?

You might say knowing people or getting contacts. Yes, knowing people

is a big part of networking, but surely it is not just that!

Just think about it. Even with all the social media hype, how many people

from your college are you in regular touch with? 20? 50? At most, 100!

Even at work, how many people do you know? Your immediate superiors,

your team, and the people you meet at the cafeteria. And what happens

once you quit your current job and meet your ex-colleague after two years

in a mall? You may even find it hard to remember his/her name!According to this definition of networking, you are ready to spend INR 1 crore just to know 100 more people!

Nothing could be more foolish!

So, what is networking all about? Networking at business schools means you will be carrying the same tag as

thousands of alumni. You may or may not have studied together, but you are a Harvard graduate and receive a mail

from any other Harvard alumnus, you will automatically strike a note with him/her. There will be an immediate

bonding, something like an old schoolboys association! We all want to be identified as part of a group of high

achievers. Thus, doing an MBA from a reputed B-school gives you a great opportunity to network with people in top

strategic positions in top companies or are great business leaders! This could open many doors for you in future!

4 Networking:


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Its a great thing to have an MBA degree. Even better if you have earned it from a

top B-school! You can feel this difference within India itself. All things being equal,

there is a big difference between an MBA from a lesser known B-school in your

region and from a school such as ISB for instance. As most recruiters are well

aware of how difficult it is to get into a top B-school, an MBA degree from such a

school holds a lot of brand value. The employers know all the hurdles you must

have crossed: great academics, work experience, the tough interview itself and on

top of it, a very rigorous MBA program. An MBA from a reputed B-school gives you a certificated hallmark that you

are competent to become a successful leader in future. As the job of assessing your potential is already done by the

MBA Admissions Committees, recruiters are well assured of your capabilities.

5 Brand Equity:


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What do you actually gain in a B-school?

Most importantly, the confidence to be somebody in your professional life!

A good MBA program will give you many opportunities to introspect. For instance,

before an MBA, you may have never thought you could be a project manager, but

now with an MBA degree in your hand, it becomes relatively easier to think in that

direction. Whatever goals you may have had before joining an MBA program, once

you join, you may realize that your true calling lies elsewhere. The entire

classroom experience, interaction with faculty and peers, students activities, case

studies, all these may radically change your perspective towards your professional life. Many MBA students

discover a new person in themselves once they graduate from a business school.

The irony of life is that when you were a student, you had no responsibilities, but you also lacked the right

perspective. Once you start working, gradually, you learn who you are, what your potentials are, but at this stage

you are so burdened with responsibilities that you dont get the chance to follow your passion. An MBA gives you a

second chance in life to do what you always wanted to do! It gives you the independence of a students life as well

as the perspective of working for so many years a beautiful blend!

6 Self Growth:


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At some stage in your career, you may have aspired to move to Australia or Canada

or any other foreign country to work there. But with just a graduate degree and

limited work experience, you may be able to move to an international market as a

C++ coder but definitely not as a project manager. This is where an MBA from a

foreign university will help you out. An International MBA can help you understand

the foreign market well, increase your international network, help you understand

the requirements for an international career and get exposure to a totally different

culture and way of life.

By now, you would have been able to identify with some of the above reasons to do

an MBA, if not all. After all, its all about your passion, your career and your long

term goals. Before you even think of applying anywhere, analyze why exactly you wish to pursue an MBA and

articulate it well in your essays and interviews. A systematic approach to follow your dreams will make your MBA

journey meaningful and pleasurable!

7 Change Of Geography:


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Having said all this, if there is a reason to do an MBA, it would be more because an MBA affords you an opportunity

to take out two years of your life away from the remote corner of your isolated cubicle tucked away on B-wing at the

7th floor of one of the many buildings your company owns, away from the skulduggery of having to deal with

socially challenged project managers who thinks working 14 hours a day including weekends is what the company

pays you for, and more importantly away from the realization that the rest of your life things are going to be pretty

much the same. If you ever felt about doing a Rang de Basantiwith your career, MBA seems to have a simple and

seductive formula to effect the change.

Remember...There are 2 extremes in the work arena:

On the left side you have the most productive people (who actually do

the work). For eg. a junior programmer spends every second that he is

working producing actual code. On the far side you have the non-

producers i.e. people who produce nothing tangible. At the end of the

day they dont grow food, they dont help sick people, they dont write

code etc. These are CEOs, lawyers, management partners, programmanagers etc. But the kick is the left side gets paid the least and the

right side gets paid the most so if you plot $ on the y axis its a 45 degree

line. Almost everyone spends their time trying to traverse that line so the

further to the right side you begin the sooner you get where you want to go. MBA helps us traverse that line faster.

It gives you an opportunity to land that dream job with an ace company with a crackjack role.

To Summarize...Having said all this, your reason to do an MBA should be because it will give youan opportunity to....

who thinkNot "thinks"

"like" instead of"about"


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With an ordinary BE + couple of years Software experience there is no way you are going to get to be an

Investment Banker on Wall Street. Or a top notch consultant with McKinsey or BCG. Its not impossible but the

pigeonhole is simply too deep. An MBA I feel is one of the few reliable routes to a career change.

But at the end of it no amount of opportunity can really be of any use unless you have the ability to utilize it.

Leadership is not about making decisions, it is about making sense. It is an ability to thrive in chaotic

circumstances, to cut through ambiguity and clear a path where none seem to exist. Leadership is about being

passionate in whatever you do, in infusing a sense of ownership, commitment, pride and loyalty in not just yourself

but everyone around you. Leadership is something no B-school - be it Harvard, Wharton or Stanford can

teach you!


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