Last few months have been overwhelming given the curriculum at the one-year full time MBA at IIM Bangalore. Like most MBA programs at premier, or tier one, institutes, there is always too much to do. Hence, if you do NOT have your priorities sorted, you will end-up following the herd, as you delve into FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
After you sign-up for the MBA, you will never be the same again. In the process you will end-up bidding adieu to your pre-MBA life. So, first of all, you should wrap-up anything and everything that you do not wish to carry forward before arriving for the program. Because MBA curriculums are intensive, and since you will enter a bubble for the next year, other things will slip out of your mind. Hence, it is advisable to either settle or delegate such matters.
Next would be getting your priorities aligned. My preliminary litmus test has always been ‘Is it an exclusive opportunity that prevails only during this one-year program?’ – it has served well while equating two tasks or opportunities. Although a ‘NO’ does not necessarily mean that you should eliminate the task. This is followed by ‘Does it result into something that elevates the ROI or impact of my MBA?’ – this is what made me continue blogging and writing papers, both of which might fetch brownie points during placements.
And finally the most important thing to figure out before arriving on campus is your post MBA career aspirations or goals. Of course, MBA is an opportunity to explore career options, but there will be a plethora of opinions accompanied by mass hysteria. And most get lost or just follow the herd into a career that neither aligns with their experience nor with long term goals. Within six-months, almost every person in your class would want to be a consultant.
Consulting may seem fancy but as a consultant I would say that it is a highly demanding profession, and the effort / sacrifice – reward ratio may not be viable for most. And many, for instance IT professionals, have much better options compared to consulting. Moreover, if you are a senior candidate, it would be counter productive to write-off your previous experience with drastic role switch as compared to building upon such experience with MBA knowledge.
Getting your career aspirations figures out serves two goals; to begin with, it saves you the time and effort spent on irrelevant initiatives and equips you to better leverage the resources offered by the business school. For instance, you can enrol for more relevant electives and project, or co-author a paper with senior faculty.
And one more thing; get some business and management knowledge beforehand. There will be people who have either worked in finance or management roles. They will not only prove to be smarter in class but also in interviews. So if you are in a task oriented role in operations or IT, you should read a couple of management books before your MBA. And you need to do so beforehand, as it takes time for you brain to wire the managerial thinking and also because you will not find time for reading extra material during your MBA curriculum.
And you can brush up the basics with our 4.7/5.0 rated Udemy course on Business Management Fundamentals.
Feature Image by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash
Savvy Munshi 