What my MBA gave me and what it did not...

4 years after my MBA , when I was as usual giving gyan to a wannabe MBA , I thought it was time for introspection – what did my MBA give me, what did it not and what was on offer and I could not take out –

What MBA gave me –

Confidence & perseverance – I always did well in my studies, it was in B-school that I got stretched and boy was it a stretch !!! nightouts, deadlines, competition prepare you well for a corporate job where you are expected to hit the ground running. So although I am sure I will not know most things, I know I can learn and get upto speed to reach where I want.

Respect for different working styles – I was brought up in the work hard and the Indian middle class work ethic. But then you reach school and meet extra ordinarily intelligent people, people with smart working aspects, some with questionable work ethics and you see all of them doing well. Learning to work in teams with diverse styles and learning certain skill sets helps immensely. Also you realize the value of ethics and make choices

Network – My MBA plugged me into a network of extremely smart people. Friends who can open doors for you and push your limits in understanding stuff. Living on campus, having discussions about hundreds of unrelated things helped create a perspective which is very different

Audience – I talk to CEOs and promoters on a regular basis. Advise them about business decisions and get treated as an intellectual equivalent. Although I might serve them a limited purpose and I have miles before I reach the levels of some the fantastic CEOs/ entrepreneurs I have worked with, the learning has been awesome – this wouldn’t have been possible without my MBA

International exposure – I went to Solvay business school in Brussels on an exchange programme and it was an eye opener on both hard and soft aspects. I worked in teams which had people from Vietnamese, Chinese, Italian, Moroccan, Spanish and African origin. And boy was it a lesson in communication and respecting cultures. I will post a different post on how it helped me appreciate India better.

What my MBA did not give me –

Assistance in career decision – Most European and US business schools have career counseling setups. The placement setup in Indian schools is most job process focused. If you need counseling the seniors and alumni need to be accessed. With the week alumni network that we had, this was a definite drawback. Would it have helped maybe, maybe not – but am sure would have liked to have access

Industry interaction – Indian B-schools and Industry I think share a love-hate relationship. Students try to get the industry to sponsor, come to interact, setup chairs but then industry rarely responds. Some of the best classes I had, was when we got an industry person to add to what was being discussed in a case. Maybe the growth in the Indian industry leaves very little time for such things and maybe alumnus don’t really appreciate what the school did for them

Breaking the stereotypes –India is about stereotypes. Science is better than commerce, an engineer is better at quant, an accountant is not creative. MBA made me realize and acknowledge when I was getting influenced by a stereotype. But did the school do enough for all of us to break these, am not too sure.

What my MBA offered but I did not utilize well:

Access to a large library / resource: Most times I think running around took away time to explore the library. Increasingly I am believer in reading what has been written about a subject and chiseling my own views. I didn’t have time

Engaging the profs : Each one them with the eccentricities is a person who could have developed/ destroyed ones interest in a subject. Could I have been a marketer? Could I have been a quant trader? Do I love market research I will never know, didn’t spend enough time trying to find out.

Understanding a subject vs. cracking a system: when you are in a hyper competitive environment and the top 1% percentile is greater than the population of many European countries, one is forced to look at the end but not enjoy the means. I could have learnt a lot (I did learn a little!!) but then the focus got shifted to cracking the system and getting those marks.

This list will grow. Maybe 6 years from now I will have a different view. Do let me know what falls in these three buckets when you look back at your own MBA. If you are an aspiring MBA applicant, watch out for these. Am sure learning by watching others helps you avoid what that famous saying says “ Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”