Pursuing an MBA – The working professional Perspective

MBA is a career option which is highlighted a lot and is a dream career for a lot of students and working people. Different people have different views regarding an MBA degree but what allures most people towards pursuing an MBA can be described in three scenarios:

Scenario 1 – The fat pay checks that MBA professionals are earning for themselves.

Scenario 2 – MBA is the most elegant way to either start your career in the business world or the fastest way to reach the top echelon of a corporate organization.

Scenario 3 – MBA degree is the authentic & most genuine license to convince financers to invest in a particular venture.

With all the hype and hoopla that surrounds an MBA degree it is very easy to get deceived or misinterpret the MBA situation. For example MBA programs are not production units that guarantee to produce high quality graduates in business management & administration. People who pursue MBA are a mixed lot, possess varying grades and each individual has a different set of qualities. Thus becoming a successful management professional is to a greater extent in one’s own hands.

There are multiple reasons for people to pursue their career in management & business administration.

Here are a few noteworthy ones for working professionals:

If you are a working professional, think about doing MBA when you see your career reaching stagnancy, or your job profile becoming monotonous. You can even think of doing an MBA when you see lack of career growth.

Another good time to do an MBA is when you want to take a break from work or you want to branch out from your current industry into another industry. Last but not the least doing an MBA is a logical and necessary step when you want to jump the ladders and enter the senior level management or when you want to venture into entrepreneurship. Many times you may be propelled to do an MBA as your Organization is keen on sponsoring their best talent pools to help them grow with the organization.  Corporate Organizations also look after providing alternatives to the full time MBA programs for their employees. Evening courses or executive programs are some good alternatives.

Another alternative to Executive programs are training and development programs, webinars, and workshops, offered to the employees of an organization. These alternatives cost less and are more performance oriented in the shorter run. These are provided based on the strategic objectives and missions of the Organization.  Management Training and development programs can even be catered to a larger number of employees compared to the full time MBA programs with the best B-schools/Universities across the globe. Obviously, sponsoring a single candidate for a MBA at Harvard or Stanford or any other reputed B-School would be at the opportunity cost to provide training to a large number of employees. To crunch the budgetary costs, organizations even look for solutions in the local areas, instead of sending employees abroad for various programs.

As MBA programs gain widespread likeability, and popularity, it is imperative for working professional aspirants to choose their B-Schools accordingly. Similarly, B-Schools also need to stage-manage their programs depending upon the changing demands of its particular sect of students i.e. working professional.

I sincerely hope that the reader understands that MBA programs for working professionals and fresher graduates work on different platforms and different frameworks. While the success in career path is very much in the hands of the candidate, an MBA program is unquestionably a immense learning experience to relish if rightly chosen, at whichever phase of career-early or late.