What has MBA taught me...

Some students (including myself before completing my MBA) often wonder, why shall we go for MBA. Does it really teaches us anything? Is it really worth to spend so much money on doing MBA, rather than finding a decent job and starting ahead? Well, I will like to share my personal opinion and experiences on the matter.

Well, even though I have done my MBA in Marketing as major subject, we have learnt about Finance, IT, HR etc. etc. too. It often left us wondering, why shall i learn finance or IT when all I have to do is marketing. What do I have to do with learning about balance sheets or ledger entries etc. Well I got my answer after joining my first job.

Often the engineers and marketing personnel get in argument with finance over their demand for documentation for every single penny. Little do we understand that what is a single rupee for us accumulates and becomes a headache for the accountant if it is not matched with the documents; and that they have to show the documents they ask from us to their auditors (of course sometimes they become over strict and a bottleneck, but this is a general explanation)

Coming back to the main topic, What has MBA taught me or helped me with? Well, if I compare myself with my colleagues at similar / same position, I do feel more confident than they do. I am ready to accept more challenges, ready  to take more risk and understand the business better as a whole. And it is not just me. This is a general difference I have observed during my short career spanned  over three different jobs.

When we do higher studies (MBA in this case), we do get not only knowledge but also a sense of responsibility and our expectations increase. And consciously or not, but when it happens, we are ready to take more responsibility, higher risks and individual decisions. We aim for higher positions and it naturally helps us to get in managerial position at later stages. This may be one of the many reasons, for why companies prefer MBA graduates for higher managerial posts, or help their employees to secure MBA before taking higher positions.

So, in short I'd say that MBA may or may not help academically especially for certain streams, but it does help to groom the students for the next level in organizations; from being managed to managing others.

:-)  ----- DEEPAK GARG -----  :-)