MBA counselling

Vivek, a commerce graduate, is in the third year of his career as marketing executive with a reputed private bank. He fears that despite his reasonably good success at the job, he may not get the push to higher positions without a MBA ( most of his seniors were MBAs from reputed B schools).

Vivek is in no strange situation. His fears are shared by many professional in various sectors.

Vivek has not spent much time on reading up trends in continuous education; he was busy with serving customers and meeting targets.
On a Sunday afternoon Vivek walks in for a meeting with me. We spent an hour and a half weighing down the options in front of him.

Why not take a break?
He can take a break. And probably go back to the banking/financial services itself.

CAT or XAT and PGDM?
Vivek reveals that he had a tryst with CAT when he was in final year college and found the CAT math difficult to digest. But then I tell him it takes a lot of concerted efforts to crack the CAT and get into the IIMs or other top colleges. He should be willing to take on the completion; there is no short cut to success.

Why not? Prepare well while still working. manage your tie well. After all the rewards would be greater.

GMAT and a PGPX
As a back up plan I suggested Vivek that he take up the GMAT and try entry into a PGPX – 1 yr MBA for executives form the IIMs, MDI, IMT gaziabad etc. this again depends on the minimum work ex the institute is looking at.
PG certificate program in Management

I asked Vivek to work around the certificate program in management from the IIMs- he can continue working and doing a business course ( with 1 week orientation program on the Campus and the remaining course attended from your city through broadband based classes handled by IIMs from the respective classes.

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Get ready for a PGPX

The first few years of our career doesn’t leave you with much time for other pursuits. It is amidst this madness that you are thinking of taking a break for education. Here comes then the need for certain preparations before embarking on a business course.

Firstly, if you are going for a residential program, you must not take a headful of family issues to the campus. Do the necessary arrangements well in advance to ensure that your family can do without you for the one year duration ( some B schools allow family to accompany the candidate to campus during the course)

Secondly, catch up with academics. It may be a good 4 years that you left regular study. Now that you have chosen to pursue executive MBA from a top ranked college, you have to catch up on your quantitative and verbal skills. This is because entry to top PGPX programs requires GMAT/CAT scores. Besides excellent business English, critical thinking and quantitative aptitude are integral to B school rigor too.
Find a trainer who can prepare you both for the GMAT and CAT as well as for the business school rigor. Handholding by an experienced trainer can help ease the experience of getting back to learning

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GMAT workshop

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Business education

Want a business education or you need one?

The ‘ want’ for a Business education usually takes root during under-graduation – either because it is the natural next step for masters( if you are BBA/BBM student) or wanting to move out of technical and domain careers( if you are from other streams) due arguably to the prestige associated with MBA.

On the other hand a good number of working professionals feel the need for business education at some point of time( on an average between 3 to 10 years of their career life). Those with 3- 5 years of experience take the luxury of quitting the current job ( other than those sponsored )and go for a full time 2 yr MBA in India or abroad. This again depends on family and financial compulsions.

One yr MBA, the new format
For those who cannot afford a two yr break for a B school experience can go for what has now become the order of the day, the PGPX( post grad program for working executives)

The overriding ideology of the program is that the candidates have rich business exposure at a select domain of work, has ‘business thinking’ managerial skills in some rudimentary form and that polishing these skills through a structured business course will help perform his current or next level of work much more efficiently than he did before the program or than he can take more informed and technical decisions in his role as a decision maker.

The value that one can gain from a PGPX program can vary from person to person, from institute to institute, from format to format.

Many a time the prestige associated with a 2 yr program can put employers at a spot. There must be many recruiters out there, especially those of small and medium enterprises, who found that the managerial skills of many MBAs without prior experience are below expectations. On the contrary those of the one year MBAs are far superior.

It all depends upon how one leverages one’s experience and education, period.

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