Note: All the incidents and explanations below are not at all fictitious or imaginary. Any resemblance to your personal life is purely intentional and not at all regretted.
The topic for the discussion is – Why MBA? There are three explanations to it. Let us go through each one of them separately:
What you tell Interviewer/Professors/Boss/Other People or in Essay
- I have huge interest in management. Oh really? What have you managed so far? All right, if not then why don’t you go and manage something in spite of MBA.
- I think I can do really well in finance, marketing etc. Great. Then you can go for Finance, Marketing etc courses.
- I am extremely good with my interpersonal skills. And by that you mean – people from non-MBA backgrounds are misanthropes.
- I have leadership qualities and I would like to lead a group of people. Wow, we do need leaders. Why don’t you skip MBA and then go for a leadership course separately.
- I always wanted to do my MBA. Yes, you come from the same breed of people who decide their Engineering and MBA combo inside the womb.
- I would like to sharpen my non-technical skills in MBA. Now what the hell is that? MBA doesn’t teach you dance.
- I want to become an entrepreneur. How many entrepreneurs do you know who have MBA degree? Please get your facts right.
Steve Jobs once said that your heart already knows what you truly want to become. Let’s see What your heart says:
- You are jealous. How can you see your neighbor who was always behind you academics getting better score than you in CAT/GMAT.
- You believe in rat race. Since this was what your ideal seniors did, you will follow their footsteps.
- If you are a girl, this is a nice way to delay your marriage by at least two years. Otherwise your parents will be dancing around matrimonial sites.
- If you are a guy, a high profile B School degree will add a lot of value – to the dowry that you are going to receive.
- You are lost and have no idea what the hell is going on.
- You are sick of your boss and would like to take revenge by getting in to more senior position.
- Where there is money, you will go there.
The third side is the reality. And fortunately there are few people who understand that and then go for it. They understand – Why does one need an MBA?
- When you are having a nice professional journey and you want to take it to the next level. That’s when you need it. But first of all you need to prove your worth as a player. You cannot start running for captaincy straight away.
- You are keen to change your profile. In that case, you can explore other options and go for MBA if that suits your profile.
- During your professional journey, you are keen to add more diversified skills to your profile.
That’s all. Rest is all a game of excuses that you and I and many more people will keep playing. Let’s continue…
Deepak Rana 