Life During MBA (Part 5)

Ques – How is life during MBA?  

Ans – Its very different from what it was before, things I learnt during my MBA tenure had a far-reaching impact on my personal and professional life. While during graduation you develop close relationships with your friends which lasts till lifetime because you have the time and patience to nurture it for 3/4 long years, things are very different in MBA where you have cut throat competition from day one and friendship takes a backseat. Days are occupied by classes which starts from morning and continues till evening  followed by assignments/group presentation during nights complemented by extra-curricular activities which includes anything from being part of Placement committee, Branding committee , Alumni committee or any of the interest committee (finance, marketing, strategy, quizzing). Lots of late-night parties (if you are a party person) and a chance to interact with the brightest minds (and otherwise) from whom you can learn a lot of things.

There will be moments where you will be doing early morning presentation after partying the entire night before, group chatting going on in class WhatsApp group while the professor is teaching, Working simultaneously in 5-6 projects with different team members along with additional committee responsibility all due next day! Consider yourself lucky if you can sleep for more than 4-5 hours on an average. In general, peer students are sharp and have amazing ability to grasp things at one go and score above average marks with one night of study. Also, most of the student have some interest other than studies for which they are really passionate about, it can be anything from music to sports to photography. In addition, there are some interesting subjects which you can come across. Just to give you few examples, In IIM K you have to play poker in one of the strategy subjects, IIM I students have to do trekking (in collaboration with IndiaHikes) , Ximb has a very interesting subject called FMGD where they study about different conspiracy theories. All these subjects have some or the other risks associated with them like risk of becoming an addicted gambler (Poker) , risk of getting injured (Trekking) , losing sight of reality when dealing with conspiracy theories (FMGD) however as an MBA graduate you are expected to understand the risk and take appropriate precautions to deal with it. These are the things that makes MBA a truly unique course in India.

All said it’s really a mesmerizing experience altogether, try enjoying it as much as you can and don’t forget to network with seniors and juniors because MBA is all about networking! All the best!  

Foreign Exchange Program during MBA (Part 4)

Q - Can you tell me something about foreign exchange programs offered in MBA course curriculum?

A – While there are so much discussions about which college is the best, Which Major should one choose, What is the average package blah blah blah, there are hardly any discussions about foreign exchange programs offered by different colleges, how good are they, what are the tradeoffs etc. Let me put out some views around this topic

·        Foreign exchange programs are one of the best opportunities for you to travel European countries at the cheapest rates possible for 3-4 months. Reason being, accommodation costs are covered mostly by the foreign universities (with a very small portion charged to the student).

·        You can not only get the benefits of studying in a foreign university and experiencing their pedagogy but also interacting with students from other MBA institutions including India which increases your networking skills.

·        It’s a different experience to go for holidaying in Europe for 10-15 days, cover as many places as possible and tick checkboxes Vs living in Europe for 90-120 days and understanding how different or similar is Europe from India in terms of food, language , people, places , hotels , trains, flights and the list goes on and on and on.

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      Majority of students opt for educational loans for completing their degree and there are provisions to add cost of exchange program in the loan amount (you can also add additional expenses like new laptop in your loan amount on top of usual tuition fees offered)  

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      Colleges offer exchange programs during different trimesters in second year. Here are the pros and cons going in for exchange programs in each of the period:

• Fourth Semester: Worst time to go if learning is your main objective of joining MBA since a lot of core subjects are taught in 4^th semesters and the subjects taught in foreign universities aren’t of great relevance in Indian context specially finance ( however they focus a lot on interaction based classes so you might gain on other relevant soft skills). If you really want to go during this trimester do the following things: clear CFA level 1,2 before second year arrives (Mainly for finance people since the subjects you study in your 4^th semester has a lot of commonality with course content of CFA level 1,2) , try and build some credibility in you CV by participating in a lot of case studies competitions offered by big corporate companies during first year. All said avoid going at this time.
• Fifth Semester: Best time go on foreign exchange if you have converted PPO (Pre-Placement Offer) in a company of your choice during your summer placements. As soon as your MBA term starts companies start coming for hiring students for summer placements & if they are satisfied with your performance you might get a preplacement offer after finishing your summer trainings. However, In case you haven’t converted any PPO it’s a catch -22 situation for you since placements usually start in this season and you don’t want to miss applying in companies of your choice. Better go in the final semester.
• Sixth Semester: Perfect time to go as your placements are done and nothing much to look forward to in college (academic perspective). The only thing you can miss is your convocation ceremony because you might still be in Europe and its pretty cold in Europe at that time so a lot of fun activities possible during Fifth Semesters are not possible then            

These are some of the basic pointers which I know about foreign exchange. Don’t miss this opportunity if you like to travel.  

Unique Aspects of Few MBA Colleges in India (Part 3)

Q - Can you briefly tell me about some of the unique aspects of few MBA colleges in India which you didn’t knew earlier?

A- I will give you a small summary of some of the unique colleges I know:

• SP Jain Institute of Management: This college is one of my favorites because of the unique type of curriculum it provides which is unlike any MBA college in India (including IIIM’s). In any MBA college the first year is the “common year” where you have a common set of subjects to be taught to all the students irrespective of their majors. So, it doesn’t matter what my major is, I must learn 3-4 finance subjects, 3-4 Marketing subjects, 3-4 Operations subjects, 3-4 HR subjects, 3-4 Economics subjects, Business Law, Communications so by the end of 1^st year , I am jack of all trades master of none. Similarly, in my second year 4^th semester is the only time where I can learn my core subjects followed by 5^th semester which is placement season and final semester which is just a filler. All in all, I have basic knowledge of all the 4-5 business fields plus some extra knowledge of my core domain. Now compare this to SP Jain, they have a unique hiring process where you must have some background of the domain in which you want to major, even an engineering fresher who qualifies for a finance major role is asked accounting ratios during interviews, similarly a candidate who has IT experience cannot do major in supply chain. Similarly Post hiring, the 1^st year curriculum is pretty domain heavy and an average finance guy who has completed 3^rd semester in SP Jain has the same knowledge as a student who has completed 4^th semester in other reputed college (obviously take this statement with a pinch of salt but you get the point) since  A) You already have a background in Finance B) You have subjects in your curriculum in first year which I will be study in second year obviously your depth of knowledge will be far more than me.Now if you ask me which is better breadth or depth of knowledge? I will mostly choose depth! I would any time choose to be SME of a domain who can crack any interview in any company rather than someone having half baked knowledge about all the things. Hence, career goals wise SP Jain is the institute which takes you where you wanted to be before doing MBA to the greatest extent possible. What happens in other college is one plans to do finance major before starting MBA,  changes to supply chain majors during first year , gets placed in marketing role and when he starts working its a nothing but a project management IT role disguised as a “marketing strategy” role .  

• IIM Indore: What makes IIM Indore unique and different from other IIMs? Well it’s the only IIM (which I know of) that offers 5 years Integrated Program in Management where you can get both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from IIM Indore with the opportunity of sitting in the placement process with the same PGDM (MBA) students who cleared CAT. So, in a way you have the option of getting the same degree, same learning experience and same placement process as a two -year PGDM student without sitting in CAT. Now I know this is a touchy topic and a lot of people will say that companies will differentiate, or you will not be polished like your peer PGDM students but let me tell you it’s not true at all. Companies don’t differentiate like that; take the case of XIMB they have 50% reservations for domicile quota with CAT percentile cutoff going around 80% whereas for general candidates for the same seat the cutoff remains around 90% , I have never heard of any company there differentiating between a candidate based on his/her domicile status and why should they? Getting good marks in a competitive exam is not correlated in any way with having good managerial skills. Also, the students in the first 3 years of their graduation are taught all the foundational aspects of mathematics, statistics and economics which make them top performing students in their post graduate programs outperforming even the regular PGDM students.           

• MICA (Mudra Institute of Communications): MICA is a very good college if you are aiming for MBA in marketing. Their interview process is unlike any other where you are being tested on your creativity skills like essay writing about say a wall in front of you , fun group exercises , personal interview process which isn’t about grilling you on aptitude skills but more on the lines of understanding your passion , hobbies. So, if you like doing creative work & are looking for a career in advertising or similar marketing role this is one of best colleges in India where you can apply to.

• XLRI: What makes XLRI so unique? Well for starters it’s 2-year course is considered one of the best HRM course in Asia (that’s right!) great achievement especially if you are not a government institution. Also, it’s the oldest MBA college in India established way back in 1949. At that time mostly catering to Tata Steel which had unmet requirements of management trainees in Jamshedpur. Things have changed a lot in these 70 years, but the XL brand is still rock solid maintaining its top 5 ranking among management institute in India year after year. Now while choosing an MBA college, its location is generally considered an important factor which one must take into consideration. Let’s say if I have to choose between NMIMS Mumbai and XIMB Bhubaneswar; I will give more points to NMIMS (for a finance major role) since a lot of finance companies have headquarters in Mumbai and its less expansive for them to hire from Mumbai than Bhubaneswar. But this location factor vanishes for XL even though there is no direct flight connectivity and recruiters have to reach Jamshedpur through Ranchi which takes extra 3 hours by Road. Why do you think recruiters take so much pain? Well, most of the placements in any management Institution works through its Alum contacts, there is a mutual understanding among companies, run by alums at top positions as well people in talent acquisition department with the institution to hire a good chunk of students from their preferred institute every year. Now imagine the networking of an MBA institute in existence for 70 years having alums running top MNC companies of the world and many mid management level HR corporates who are in talent acquisition teams, its huge! in fact, placements are least of its concerns.    

This is just a short list which I remember, there are many more unique colleges which you can look for by going through social platforms like Pagalguy,Totalgadha . All the best!   

Importance of 10th, 12th & Graduation marks + Taking Gap for MBA Preparations (Part 2)

Ques - How important are my 10^th, 12^th & Graduation marks while getting selected in an MBA institute as well during placement process?

Ans -   Pretty important for both the cases specially if you are in GEM (General Engineering Male) category. For IIM’s if you are a GEM, a score of 98-99 percentile won’t guarantee a call from IIM A, B, C. Even during placements processes a lot of good companies filter candidates based on their 10^th,12^th, Gradation college’s Brand. A candidate with 90+ in 10^th,12^th plus NIT/IIIT tag gets calls from all the cream companies whereas a candidate with 70-80% in 10^th & 12^th with an average private engineering brand may find it difficult to get shortlist even from companies belonging to its core domain.

Why are past performances given so much weightage? Primary Reason is the lack of data about you to convince the concerned companies, Institutions that you have the best managerial talent in you which the 99% other candidates don’t have even though you have scored an average 70-80 % marks in your childhood . Consider a scenario where an IIM institution need to shortlist 100 GEM students out of say a pool of 1000-2000 GEM student all securing 98+ percentile, which criteria is the cheapest to filter out the students? That’s right – 10^th 12^th marks! Other methods which look beyond quantitative measures are too time taking and expensive for a country like India (especially for the initial rounds) same goes for companies who have very limited time to shortlist students.

 So, is this end of the road for an average student who worked so hard for his 98+ percentile? Off course not! You just need to be smarter and have some patience. There are a lot of good colleges who don’t put such criteria’s and are equally good For example, colleges like MDI Gurgaon, IIFT (It has a separate exam but I’m assuming a 98+ guy wont have much problem cracking this)  are very good colleges in the league of say IIM  Indore  OR say XLRI which is comparable to say IIM L, K also has very high weightage on XAT score for shortlisting. Now as far as companies are concerned, you just need to be smart once you get into the college. Even though you might find it difficult to get shortlisted for creamy layer companies, but you will get opportunities for other good companies which have equally good roles and packages even though they come in the end or during the middle of placement process.                           

Ques – I am working for a company XXX and earning XXX LPA, I have got a call from an institute whose average package is XXX LPA, but the total fees is XXX Lakhs. Should I join? or should I wait and prepare for IIM ABC next year?    

Ans – This really depends on where you want to be in the next 10-15 years and why do you want to do an MBA. Now when I ask people why they want to do an MBA? The general answer is they give is that package is higher, better career growth blah blah but the important question is what is your reason? and do you think with the current MBA college you will be able to fulfill that reason? The answer to this question is very complex and varies from person to person. hence what I will do is, mention few situations and try to explain what the best choice for that person in that circumstance based on my personal experience.

• A person who is in a manufacturing company from NIT earning 8-9 LPA and wants to do an MBA: Now the first question is do you like your current role? or would you like to work in the same domain even after MBA? If you want to change your domain then I will say go for MBA within 1st year of your job. College brand wont matter in such a case as even a non-IIM brand with an average real package of 12 LPA is a good option since you would be able to change your domain easily with less than 1 year of experience and NIT tag will help you in getting shortlisted for a lot of good non-manufacturing companies. As for the financial aspects of leaving a 8-9 LPA package for 12 LPA job + 20 Lakh loans, let me tell you servicing loan after MBA is very different from servicing loan after Engineering. While engineering jobs don’t have a lot of monetary bonuses, MBA job comes with a lot of incentives which increases exponentially as you progress in your career. On an average an MBA graduate finishes off his/her loans in maximum of 3-4 years even while leaving a luxurious life in those 3 years. Monthly package of 11-12 Lakhs gives a monthly salary of 85-86 K in hand with minimum monthly EMI of say 25-26K for 10 years for the full loan. Now that translates to 65K in hand for monthly spending. I agree that with a job in your hand you could have had 11-12 LPA without any loan but now you have changed your domain from say manufacturing to FMCG or Data scientist which is to your liking and with good planning you can clear your loan in 2-3 years and be in a much better situation after 5-6 years with better package as well as job satisfaction

• A person who has completed Btech from a private college could not get placements and cracked a tier-3 MBA college with 5-6 LPA package: Now it really depends on the person , you can be pretty confidant that next year you can crack a much better college and take a year drop to prepare next year or you are okay with starting out on a smaller package from an average MBA college and later improvise you skills to increase package by switching or promotion. It all depends on your comfort level and the ability to execute your plan. The key here is knowing your strengths and playing on your strengths to decide. It’s mostly “If you want to start out big because you know you can get good percentile” Vs “you can progress in your career very fast once you get a job and cracking a 95+ percentile is not your cup of tea”

Conclusion: Hence you see it all depends on the understanding of your strengths and weaknesses before making any judgement. I know a lot of people who are exceptional when it comes to competitive exams, they can crack any exam if they prepare well, for them taking a gap makes perfect sense. While at the same time there are people who struggle in these exams out of nervousness, being extremely weak in one section (Verbal/Numeric);  for them it doesn’t make much sense to wait for another year if they have a decent college in hand capable of providing them the placement package they you are looking for.

Introduction + MBA Stream Wise Expertise Required (Part1)

We all want to be successful in life and in this capitalistic world, your monthly paycheck is a good measure of your level of success (though people might disagree on this). In order to have a good paycheck it’s important to have educational degrees which can be testimonial to your abilities. In this context an MBA degree; which stands for master’s degree in Business Administration stands as one of the most sought-after degrees across the world (including India). That said very few people actually talk about what things to expect when you join an MBA college and what are the things you can keep in mind before actually planning for doing an MBA (mostly in Indian contest) .Having completed my MBA in 2017 I thought of putting together all my thoughts in one place to actually help future aspirants prepare for their MBA journey. I find QnA to be the best form of writing the articles since the readers can easily jump to their relevant part without reading the entire article. So, the remaining portion of the article will be in that format.