Frankly speaking it is catch twenty two situation. There are many good things that we here from people who have done MBA and also broadcasted by various media channels. Few of them are it broadens perspective (gas), bigger network (most abused term), better job (correlation vs. causation), etc. As I have been crisp in mentioning the meaning of each of these term in bracket let me explain some of them and put down my views:
• Broadens perspective: This is what I said when I wanted to get in, after coming out did it proved right? Yes, it did, but it is individualistic and cannot be true for all. You have to really work to do this and any B school will only provide environment to you but it is finally you who have to take advantage of that and broaden perspective. I would like to quote my favourite Prof. Sanjeev Das here who really helped me do this well. While having a chat with him I asked him what should one look for while deciding the electives. He was apt and clear, “select only those subjects that help you think differently. The problems in this world are same but the solutions could be different. Take subjects that help you think through different solutions”. Bullseye, this is what I think will help broaden perspective.
• Networking: This is the most abused term and a reason for B school. Though I was also one of those who gave this as one of the reason to do MBA, it is now that I realise it was so baseless. In the craziness of networking you will see people doing crazy things to get noticed and hence increase their network. Also with the current plethora of social networking site, I feel this reason has lost its importance whatever little it had. You do connect with few good people but saying that I would do MBA to increase my network seems too immature for me.
• Better Job: Well this was certainly not the reason for getting into MBA for me. But there is a confusion of correlation vs. causation as I have mentioned. There is a high correlation between doing MBA and getting good job, (by the way what is a good job) but good job is not a cause of MBA. People do get good jobs even without MBA. The reason for getting better jobs in the last decade was not MBA but the economic scenario that supported it. However as the tables turned and the scenario was not as good as it had been, things looked sad at all the B Schools. Hence B Schools would help you get a better job is a flawed argument.
Hey, wait there... though I have listed some reasons which I think are incorrect for doing an MBA, there are some reasons why I think MBA makes sense.
I will first put a quantitative reasoning for doing MBA, this would certainly make my economics professors happy.
• Reason 1: There would be more than 2 Lac CAs and more than 1 Lac MBAs (from premier B Schools) in India. However there would be less than 1000 people who are both. Now the choice is yours, whether you are happy being a part of 2 Lac CAs or a part of 1000 CA+MBA.
• Reason 2: Doing an MBA after getting good under-grad degree and a decent work experience sends signal to the outside world that you are serious about your career and better of the lot. It’s like a guarantee / warranty that manufacturers give on their product to signal that their product is better.
Now some gas, which I am really not good at. I have never experienced a campus life and hence doing MBA gave me a taste of campus life where you interact with people from difference background. I enjoyed my stay and learnt a lot from peers and professors whom I would have never met otherwise. I feel this is very important, but difficult to describe why at this stage, maybe once I work for few more years I would be in a position to mention the reason.
Coming to another question of ISB vs IIM, well my view would be its up to you. It is important to select a good B school whichever it may be will not have material impact on the objective.
Few professors from whom I learnt a lot and would certainly remember for life were Prof. Sanjeev Das, Prof. Prashant Kale, Prof. Dishan Kamdar, Prof. Henry Moon, Prof. Shamika Ravi and Prof. Subra.
Few colleagues that were great peers to have at ISB; Amit Uncle and Dilpreet Singh my study group mates and our dear neighbours and block mates Suketu Shah, Sandeep Gupta and Vikram Garg.
This post would be incomplete without mentioning the name of one important person who was my pillar, she is none other than Jinal; my friend and also my wife who put her career at stake and supported me all the time. I owe a lot to her.
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