Classes in B-Schools are very different from your UG/School. We tend to feel that the professors operate under the assumption that we already know half the syllabus prior to the beginning of the class. None of it is spoon fed to you. Most of them are case based and often, require some form of prerequisite experience in the sector to figure out completely. Sounds like the odds are stacked against the freshers.
However, after two years at IIM Calcutta, I realized that the professors don’t assume we know it all already. They assume we’re capable of learning at a high pace and as daunting as it may seem at the time, we shall still conquer. Now does that mean all of us catch up and end up learning a lot academically. Of course not. I didn’t in many courses. But we do discover how to handle high stress environments and a heavy workload. Many people around me, especially IITians, handled this environment well. This was due to their response to heavy workloads. They were able to quickly prioritize, find ways to finish the tasks in time, and deliver.
Â
In an academic sense, an MBA would not equip you in the way an M.A./MSc. might. It will, most likely, not make you a subject matter expert. However, most of the jobs we all crave to get post-MBA aren’t going to require insane expertise in a particular area. Will expertise help make the job easier? Yes, it can make the path smoother. But, at the end of the day, an MBA equips you to gain the skill of becoming a jack-of-all-trades. Your ‘expertise’ will be to get a project from point A to point B in certain amount of time while ensuring none of the requirements are missed out. Can an expert in the subject do a better job? Probably. But when you’ve spent enough time completing multiple tasks under tight deadlines, you’ll be able to put that to use in any sector; you’ll pivot quicker and be able to keep a broader outlook instead of being too focused on just one task.
Building something requires a manager who can take multiple factors into account. Of course, you can be tied up to a particular sector doing a very specific job. However, as an MBA, you will be required (and expected) to keep the direction of the entire project in mind while collaborating across different functions. A marketing expert might be better equipped to give you deeper consumer insights. A finance expert will definitely be able to give you a better model. As an MBA, you have to take all these inputs into mind and get the project off the floor. If anything, you learn how to work with all sorts of people in those two years. People you like, people you dislike. Very akin to what you’ll face in the corporate world.
My last class in IIM Calcutta, Global Leadership:
#iim #mba #iimcalcutta #career #jobs #opportunities #india #LinkedIn #business #corporate #management  #work #learning
