After the much hyped exams are over, have we thought about some of the questions like:

– How many of us appear for an exam only to get ahead of the rest of the applicants to be in the top few?

– How many times after the exam have we felt that if given one more chance we could have done better?

– Do we really feel that the scores obtained on just 2-3 parameters can judge whether we are suitable for an MBA or not?

– Does this score really mean that I can’t move up the corporate ladder/change my career track/move from a technical role to a management role?

All this hype about a few exams has increased over the past few years where the best Rats clear these hurdles to get ‘The Coveted Seats’. What happens to the remaining one lakh odd rats? What happens to their career?

For working professionals, do they go back to do what they hate doing with the hope of again getting ahead in the rat-race next year? Or, they succumb to the ever increasing demand of the parents to get married and stop thinking about MBA?

Most of the fresh graduates decide to work for few years and keep trying every year to get ahead of the rest without knowing what they are going to do after MBA or even why MBA?

Do they really know what they are good at? Will there ever be an exam (or is there already one) which judges what I can do as a Manager or a Leader? Do I really need to be tested on whether I can calculate the amount of water filling in a tank or the height of a ladder against a wall for an MBA?

As an MBA aspirant, a test should check whether I will be able to take right decisions when there is an ethical dilemma, lead my team during crisis and give them the right vision for handling future challenges, influence my team and lead them towards achieving goals (professional as well as personal), take calculated risks, come back with better performance when someone says that I am not able to perform, and think out of box to generate ideas for the company.

How do all these things matter if in the end we only need to compete with others without knowing what we are really good at and what should be the career goals? All the best to my fellow rats for the next year.

I hope that by that time or very soon, they will be able to discover their true power rather than getting disheartened by not being able to calculate the amount of water filling in a tank in less than a minute!

Wake up my fellow rats!