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Illustration by Gynelle
Alvis | While
our politicians are busy debating on whether India is
shining or not, there is one career that has been
glittering for quite some time now. It is
post-graduation in management, or MBA.
What
exactly is an MBA? Why is it so sought after? And most
importantly, who can get there? How?
The Masters
in Business Administration (MBA) is offered under
various names such as PGDBA, MMS, PGDBM etc.
The
programme is designed to enable a student to handle
managerial level responsibilities in an organisation.
Since managerial skills are many, most institutes allow
a student to specialise in a set of skills related to a
particular area of operation.
Common
specialisations offered are Finance, Marketing, Human
Resource Management, Systems, etc. Finance and Marketing
have been evergreen areas, and almost 75 per cent of
MBAs belong to one of these two fields. Systems and
Operations are some of the more recent options for
engineers, and HRM is an upcoming career.
The
most obvious reason MBA programmes attract so many
candidates is the high starting salaries coupled with
respectable positions in reputed companies. And best of
all, you get a job even before you have completed the
course (assuming the institute is among the top 15 or
so).
All this in just two years, and if our HRD
minister has his way, for just Rs 60,000! Which,
compared to average starting salaries of around Rs 6
lakh per year, is a pittance.
Can anybody pursue
an MBA? Well, the primary criterion is that you should
be a graduate (students in final year can also apply,
since they graduate by the time the admission process is
over).
It does not matter what you graduate in.
It does not matter whether it is full-time or
correspondence, and even your academic record is not a
pre-condition for applying (though a few institutes
insist on at least 50 per cent marks, and almost all of
them would attach some importance to your marks at the
second stage).
However, you need good aptitude,
as this is the first step in testing and shortlisting
candidates. The aptitude test, which is a multiple
choice written test, usually tests Quantitative, Verbal
and Logical skills. Some institutes also test General
Awareness.
Time is a constraint and one needs to
have sharp thinking skills. A majority of candidates get
eliminated in the first round itself, but this fact
should not deter you from trying.
If you have the
determination, you will succeed. After all, about 2,000
candidates do make it to one of the top institutes every
year.
The second stage of selection involves an
interaction with the candidate.
This is done in
the form of Group Discussions and Personal Interviews (GDs and PIs). These allow the panelists to assess your
overall personality, your communication skills, your
potential to handle managerial responsibilities
etc.
This is a crucial stage in the selection as
there is elimination in this round as well. Most
institutes then give a certain weightage to the various
factors such as the written test score, GD and PI
scores, academic record, and work experience, if any.
The final overall score is then computed, and admission
offers made.
If one were to profile candidates
selected to top management institutes over the years,
one would see a healthy blend of students belonging to
all fields of graduation, the most common being
engineering, commerce, arts and science. There are also
a few doctors and quite a few CAs. There are students
with no work experience, with 1-2 years of work
experience and even a few with 5-10 years of work
experience.
What’s common to all of them is a
strong desire to pursue their dreams and a determination
to succeed. This is what drives them. This is what will
drive you.
Murtuza Gadiwala is director of
SharpMinds and author of ‘MBA Entrance Made Easy’
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