Many people aspire to hold positions of responsibilities in Managerial roles, such as that of a CEO, CFO or CMO, whereas some aspire to be entrepreneurs in the future. The most common approach to enter and excel in a managerial career is by completing an MBA. If approached in the right way, MBA can prove to be more than just a certificate added to your existing arsenal of courses and certifications. It opens your eyes to many aspects of the business world which otherwise would not have been of knowledge to you.
Deciding the place where one pursues their MBA is of utmost importance to people, given how corporates prefer colleges based on their history and reputation. Universities globally, such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale and IIMs in the case of our country, tend to get a chunk of the reputed corporates who pick up their students for corporate roles, whereas these corporates don’t tend to go to other B Schools to hire. The location shouldn’t be decided, keeping the job opportunity at the end of your MBA tenure in mind, but should be selected keeping in mind the courses you would like to study during these 2 years, to gain knowledge on the domain of study.
An MBA shouldn’t be perceived as an entry ticket to a managerial career but rather as two years of your life which you dedicate to improving yourself as a person and your knowledge on various aspects of your domain, through additional reading of books, business magazines or journals. Earning your MBA from a highly reputed B school would give you a great boost at the initial stage of your career, but the curriculum would be very hectic, given which one would not get enough time to work on individual development and knowledge enhancement. On the other hand, earning your MBA from a lesser known university might not give you a great boost right at the start, but once you have enough valuable experience in the domain of choice, you would be able to scale up the corporate ladder just as smoothly as an MBA grad from a highly reputed B School.
Consider the example of Warren Buffet. He does not have an MBA, but has successfully built Berskhire Hathaway and is also known for his great managerial skills apart from being known as the best investor alive to date. He spends a lot of time enhancing his knowledge by reading books and newspapers and even today, at the age of 88 is known for reading up to 500 pages per day!
Thus, MBA should be treated as a course that helps you enhance your domain knowledge and get useful business insights to the global business environment, rather than just a starting point to a golden managerial career. Location shouldn’t be the sole deciding factor on the MBA, but the courses taught in the university, faculty handling courses and the usefulness of the course with respect to your career aim should be kept in mind while deciding where to pursue your MBA.
-Tejas Ramachandharan
PGDM 2017-19
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