Option management is the key

Jatin Bhandari

Many graduates aspiring for an MBA degree take the decision of pursuing professional education without analysing their past experience. In fact, they try to squeeze an MBA into their story without really knowing how it will benefit their career. This is the primary reason why degree holders don’t find satisfaction and happiness at their workplace. They are either frustrated with their jobs or bosses. And they keep looking for a change to find that ‘one perfect job’.  Thus, it is important to know — how to fit in the MBA degree seamlessly into the scheme of things and how to utilise it appropriately. 

Professionals opt for MBA to complement their previous skill set. Their experiences at work make them realise the importance of gaining expertise. However, it is important to pick the right MBA, i.e. right stream. 

Some issues you might face while exploring your career: 

Having vague goals: You should be clear about what you are aiming for — whether you want to gain managerial expertise or be a part of the strategy in a Fortune 500 company? If you want to be a part of strategy-making, find out what is it that you will be doing while being a part of it. Have clarity of mind. You must work on the strategy part that pertains to supply chain, financial restructuring or branding.

Aiming for unrealistic goals: If an applicant has six years of work experience in an IT firm and wishes to work for the branding of a luxury brand, the past experience might not get counted. So, be realistic when you set goals. You have little chances of getting a job of a brand manager as your past experience won’t complement your current ambition.  

Setting illogical goals: An applicant with a score of 760 in G-MAT and nine years of strong work experience in an international retail bank faced rejections from 10 schools. He wanted to start a private equity firm right after an MBA. Investment banking is generally a feeder to a career in private equity firm. Saying that you want to start a private equity firm can be an expensive mistake.

Being confused: You can’t afford to be not clear. You can simultaneously opt for a supply-chain consulting firm and work in an advisory role. On the other hand, stating that finance is your first preference, and you are also keen on exploring consulting can be an unwise decision.

Path to exploring

• In the beginning, talk to people employed in your future industries and functions and find out more about their lives, work profiles and know how it is to be like them. It is not hard to network with people. You have to ask questions to find out whether that career is meant for you or not.
• If you are looking for international MBA programmes, you can start connecting with people who did internships in your target companies, and find out about their experiences.
• Also know whether the international recruiters you are targeting sponsor visa for employees of other countries or not. Some of the Fortune 500 companies in energy, and automotive sectors are immigration friendly.
• A lot of engineers blindly run toward careers in consulting and investment banking while chasing the MBA dream. They believe that they have certain analytical proclivities that will help them create a smooth transition into these careers. If you are a math geek, but do not have a great relationship-building capability, then you will not be a great investment banker. You will rather be a strong equity researcher. 
• If you are keen on exploring marketing as a career, remember there is a big difference between working for Google as a product manager and for P&G as a marketing manager. If your pre-MBA experience did not require you to deal with FMCG or retail, then P&G would want you to have stronger reasons to make that switch now. However, with Google, if you are interested in technology products, you will get many opportunities to  learn and grow with the tech giant.
• Do not have preset notions while expressing the desire to be in finance or marketing, operations or even HR. Be specific in what you want from your future, find out what is needed to get there, assess lifestyle of that job, and start moving forward in that direction. 

Case study: Optimise Management degree 

During professional experiences, people come across moments that inspire them to build an expertise. The expertise will enable them fulfill their short-term ambition. Take for example the following case:

Someone working for supply chain in Maruti realises after three years that supply chains are more complex than the simple procurement systems in these companies. He might feel like getting exposed to the plethora of parameters that optimise the supply chain. He might even consider starting a career with Walmart, Dell, Nokia, Amazon (world’s most optimised supply chains). In order to get to this stage, this candidate should explore MBA. The MBA will also give him exposure in other functions that go into measuring the impact of those supply chains. He might want to know about streams such as finance, marketing, and general management. He might even need training in leadership and organisational behaviour.

—The writer is founder, Pythagurus