MBA Crystal Ball

Iamdetermined,

An MBA is the right option to consider if you would like to execute a career change. Having said that, though your new career path might be in a high-growth area/domain, if it happens to be very different from your pre-MBA career path, you might end up at a position/designation a rung or two lower than where you were earlier. That’s something to think about.

Another thought - generally speaking, consultants’ lives are typically not work-life balanced. If achieving work-life balance is one of your top priorities, consulting might not be the right line of work to consider.

Final thought - the two flavors of consulting you’ve listed are too focused, specialized and niche. Boutique consulting is great, but it has its shortcomings as well. Food for thought.

All the best.

-Amit.

Celebro,

How do you think an MBA is going to help your case? Your thought process on pursuing a PMP is clear - a PM role is surely a step up, and a PMP makes sense. It is also a comparatively low cost and low effort/time investment option.

Note that an MBA will possibly set you back a substantial amount of money, and of course it is a significant investment of time and effort. Before jumping headlong into it, one should build a solid argument for it. The way to do it is to answer the usual questions - Why MBA? Why now? What are the short and long-term benefits? If you are able to build a strong case, it is a worthwhile option. If you can’t, the path of least resistance, which in your case is possibly a PMP, might be more relevant.

All the best.

-Amit.

Bonny,

My best guess is at 30, you are no longer in the usual 2-year full-time (Indian) MBA bucket, and also not quite fully in the 1-year PGPX-type bucket. Considering all the usual factors - your experience (which is substantial), foregone salary, investment (time, money, effort), etc. - a 1-year program seems to be a better fit. However, what’t most important is to build the right argument to convince yourself that an MBA is what you really need at this juncture of your life. To get there, you might want to think the usual questions (read the last few posts). In your case, you should additionally also think if you really want to execute a career change, or if you’d like to stick to the same area/line of work but pick up more of a managerial role. Once you answer these questions and build your argument, things should become clear.

All the best.

-Amit.

Irshadkhan,

An MBA from a decent school is a significant investment of time, effort and money. Considering your specific situation, you have only 2 years of experience (hence time is on your side) and are currently looking for employment. I think you should first try to land yourself a good job, work for a year, and only then think about the MBA option. Generally speaking, a break in work is difficult to explain during the MBA admissions process. Things like ROI, work permits, countries, etc. can come much later.

Best of luck.

-Amit.

AshMal,

What’s your current profile like and what type of change (in profile) are you looking for? That’s an important factor to consider when recommending a future course of action. I am going to take a risk and guess - if you are planning on moving to a more quant/research-heavy role (investment/equity research and the like), it might be worthwhile to consider short term courses in financial modeling. If I were you, I’d speak to current employees of companies you might be interested in, and get to know the specific skills they typically look for. The usual suspects of course are Excel/VBA, SQL, SAS, etc. I’d then do my best to pick up those skills (from a training agency, school, or the like, or good old self-study) and then request those current employees to refer me to their HR folks. I think that’s the path of least resistance.

-Amit.

Hi,
I am looking for a change in my career. Please provide me some guidance and help me in clearing my doubts. My details and questions are mentioned below.
I am an actuarial student, I have a work ex of 4.5 years. I scored more than 85% in 10 and 12th. I completed my B.Com in 2008, with 70%. After that I pursued Actuarial Science and cleared 5 papers. I have been working in the same company from the start.
I need a change in my career. Please guide me what will be the best way to go for a sector change. I am looking for executive MBA or any other course that can help me offer a change.
Also I wanted to know that what is the value of online MBA or any other course. Do they hold any value in market when looking for a sector switch.

Hi Amit,

I’m Sayali Joshi. I’m an economics and law graduate and have a work experience of nearly 8 years mostly in India.

My educational background:

LLB ILS Law College, Pune June ‘02 – May ‘05 64%

PG Diploma in HRM Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune June ‘02 – May ‘03 69%

BA (Economics) Fergusson College, Pune June ‘99 – May ‘02 78%

HSC (Arts) Fergusson College, Pune June ’97 – May ‘99 82%


My Work Experience:

After completing LLB, I joined a local law firm in Pune, wherein I worked for 5 years mainly in the area of conveyancing – property related transactions. Thereafter, I moved to Corporate Law and joined KPIT Cummins as in-house counsel mainly for contract reviewing. After working there for 1.5 years, I moved on to Tech Mahindra Limited as it offered me the portfolio of Global Real Estate Management. I worked there for almost 1.5 years and gained some experience in the field of corporate real estate management and employment management.

My interests:

I have developed an interest in the field real estate management due to the number of work experience therein. I also have an interest in Human Resource Management. I’m also deeply interested in academia and/or research in Law.

Current Status:

Interested in pursuing a global postgraduate degree, say LLM/Masters and also toying with the idea of taking a GMAT and perusing one year MBA program (focusing on European Universities). However I’m in a dilemma whether an LLM degree or an MBA would take me to a better level in terms of my career. I also came across a few postgraduate programs especially in top European Universities for interdisciplinary studies in Law and Economics however I’m not well aware of the job prospects post such courses. As you can see I’m utterly confused about my career and probable alternatives. Request your help in the following concern areas:

· Whether to pursue a postgraduate degree? If yes, whether MBA or LLM?

· Whether European markets are actually reviving and would provide a safe landing for me?

· As per my hitherto experience, what would be the best possible option for me in terms of further education as well as career in general?

Hi,

Please look at my details here :
- Qualifications: degree, academic performance --> B Tech(CSE) - 78% (GGSIP Univ, Delhi), MBA (Finance) - CGPA -10(out of 10) (ICFAI), 10th - 89%, 12th - 82%
- GMAT score: quant/verbal break-up, AWA --> Not planning to write GMAT due to my busy schedule
- Work-experience: Industry, role, number of years --> IT (2 yrs) (As a technical analyst - pre MBA), Fin Consulting Firm (Manager currently) - 5 yrs work ex
- Major achievements at work and/or outside --> Univ topper at MBA course, Firm started small in India (though an international MNC - not big 4 , but in top 10 in Europe), therefore got hired in the 1st batch and leading a team of 30 now.

Career goals : Even after being in the Consulting firm, due to the responsibilities of starting the team, I was able to gain diversified experience of running and managing the operations, IT, HR, recruitments, employee training, resource management, competency designs, strategy making, client consulting, business development in SE Asia. Got to wear various hats at various occasions and throughout this phase, I was involved in the decision making to grow this team. The appraisals and salary are amazing so far. 3 international training programs so far (though not any client assignments to bring me to UK!).The need of technical skills in my firm won't let me reach higher positions quickly and have appeared to put a glass ceiling to my growth. I wish to use these gained skills to gain international exposure and directly enter into the positions where I can influence the decision making at the top level of the firm. I would like to get involved with an international start-up firm to help them expand internationally.

My Questions:
1. Should I go for 'Second MBA' or EMBA after 7 yrs of work-ex? (Please note that my firm doesn't sponsor EMBA)
2. What are my chances of admission - looking at my age and an already existing MBA degree
3. What are my chances of recruitments after any of these courses? - Age 32-33 (post this course), already an MBA from India, management exprn in a Fin consulting firm

Thanks in advance for your support.

Regards

Hello Team

I am 31 Years old, having 8.6 years of experience and working as a Project Leader in one of the Tier 1 IT Companies in Noida. I have 3.2 years of international experience spread across multiple geographies like North America, South America( Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico) and Europe(France and Nederland). I have held multiple leadership positions in my previous and current organization. For example, I have led the Latin American Region for One of the clients for their ERP Implementation across 13 countries. My scores are 10th - 83%, 12th 77%, B. Tech - 67%.

I am preparing for the GMAT currently and getting scores around 720 in the Mocks. I am planning to apply this year to the 1 year MBAs in India, specifically, IIM A,B,C,L and XLRI GMP.

Question: I am getting an offer from my previous organization which I left 1 yr 3 months back (Top Tier Indian IT Company) as a Project Manager and I am contemplating that whether this would be right career step at this point of time when I will be starting to apply to the B Schools in July. I have been in my current organization for more than an year and currently not getting the Career opportunities I would have liked.

My Concerns are:

1. Switching Job right before submitting my MBA Applications will cause any problems?
2. Or, As I am moving towards my Goal to gain a Broader perspective on the Business and Strategy side of the Organization and move towards management of technology, can this be a positive move?

Thanks for your help

Hi..

I am having 11 years of total experience into IT and mostly worked for Investment Bank.
Looking forward for MBA course and came to know about the GMBA from S P Jain.

For my experience level whether the GMBA is good option or not please suggest, as it is for people with experience level 3+ years.

Thanks
Romita