A week ago I attended the career fair at my school. I had the opportunity to meet over 50 companies in a span of 4 days and network with them all under one roof. However, I was repeatedly asked 1 question by the recruiters that made me think deep and hard about the mechanics of an MBA. That question was:
Which industry/function did I specialize in before the MBA?
Before going further, I would like to acknowledge that what follows are my views and opinions alone and if someone doesn't agree with them, its not meant to offend their view of the business world. If someone thinks too differently from my thought process, I welcome you to comment on the blog as long as you do so without disrespecting me or any other readers.
Now to get back to the topic, to me the question sounds counter-intuitive. When I started the MBA over 10 months ago at the IE Business School, my view of the same was that this is a platform that will allow me to develop my professional skills irrespective of which industry I wanted to work for. In a setting of 60 students, with classmates from over 30 different nationalities, with the world-class business school facility and the diversity of courses ranging from the analytical reasoning of Quantitative methods to research based approach of Finance to the creative enhancements of Marketing, I believed that MBA was truly worth the hype. But this view was shattered by this one simple question: What is my specialization?
I thought that MBA was a choice. I thought it was a choice about where do I wish to go from here. But instead everyone was interested in where I came from. They wanted to know not what this would be MBA graduate had learned in the last 1 year but rather what he had been doing in has past life. In an instant I was pigeonholed and not by what I wished to do, not even by what skills I had, and not even by what I had learnt but rather by what I had left over an year ago. But if this is what these firms were looking for then why hire an MBA? Why don't the banks just hire Financial experts and the operations firm hire engineers and the FMCGs hire the creative advertisers? Why would a firm spend so much money and time to go hire someone they had absolutely no need for?
I also thought that MBA was a journey where a student could identify his/her true potential. Where I would be able to discover where my abilities lied. Where I would be given the opportunity to break free from the industrial barriers and get a window into the wide and ever expanding world that is waiting for us out there. And that once I had identified the right window, I would find the door too. But if all the doors are locked except the one I stepped in from, then what really is the difference? If one just has to go back the same way they came from then why come at all?
But apparently this is what the companies were looking for. They wanted not someone who could bring a new range of skills to the table but rather an old seasoned player with the fresh shining MBA trophy in his showcase. I ask them, if MBAs can learn a 1000 different things in less than a year can't they learn an extra 10 if you give em a chance? If a girl from finance background can develop a beautiful marketing road-map for a fortune 500 FMCG in an academic setting with little external help, can't she build one in real life with the support of 10 other experts around him? If a guy from operations can handle the strategic proceedings of a 100 billion dollar company in front of his professors, can he not do this for a 10 billion dollar company in front of his colleagues?
And if the answer really is no, then what really is the advantage of investing tens of thousands of dollars in a course like an MBA? Why can't one just do a more specialized masters in finance or a PhD in operations and develop the only skills the companies are looking for? But if the answer is yes, then wouldn't it be fair to treat an MBA grad with an investment banking background equivalent to another who was running his own small business? I agree that they need to exemplify certain skills and qualities and knowledge to do well but how do the firms know whether the candidate has this based on a simple question like: Which industry/function did you specialize in before the MBA?
Which industry/function did I specialize in before the MBA?
Before going further, I would like to acknowledge that what follows are my views and opinions alone and if someone doesn't agree with them, its not meant to offend their view of the business world. If someone thinks too differently from my thought process, I welcome you to comment on the blog as long as you do so without disrespecting me or any other readers.
Now to get back to the topic, to me the question sounds counter-intuitive. When I started the MBA over 10 months ago at the IE Business School, my view of the same was that this is a platform that will allow me to develop my professional skills irrespective of which industry I wanted to work for. In a setting of 60 students, with classmates from over 30 different nationalities, with the world-class business school facility and the diversity of courses ranging from the analytical reasoning of Quantitative methods to research based approach of Finance to the creative enhancements of Marketing, I believed that MBA was truly worth the hype. But this view was shattered by this one simple question: What is my specialization?I thought that MBA was a choice. I thought it was a choice about where do I wish to go from here. But instead everyone was interested in where I came from. They wanted to know not what this would be MBA graduate had learned in the last 1 year but rather what he had been doing in has past life. In an instant I was pigeonholed and not by what I wished to do, not even by what skills I had, and not even by what I had learnt but rather by what I had left over an year ago. But if this is what these firms were looking for then why hire an MBA? Why don't the banks just hire Financial experts and the operations firm hire engineers and the FMCGs hire the creative advertisers? Why would a firm spend so much money and time to go hire someone they had absolutely no need for?
I also thought that MBA was a journey where a student could identify his/her true potential. Where I would be able to discover where my abilities lied. Where I would be given the opportunity to break free from the industrial barriers and get a window into the wide and ever expanding world that is waiting for us out there. And that once I had identified the right window, I would find the door too. But if all the doors are locked except the one I stepped in from, then what really is the difference? If one just has to go back the same way they came from then why come at all?
But apparently this is what the companies were looking for. They wanted not someone who could bring a new range of skills to the table but rather an old seasoned player with the fresh shining MBA trophy in his showcase. I ask them, if MBAs can learn a 1000 different things in less than a year can't they learn an extra 10 if you give em a chance? If a girl from finance background can develop a beautiful marketing road-map for a fortune 500 FMCG in an academic setting with little external help, can't she build one in real life with the support of 10 other experts around him? If a guy from operations can handle the strategic proceedings of a 100 billion dollar company in front of his professors, can he not do this for a 10 billion dollar company in front of his colleagues?
And if the answer really is no, then what really is the advantage of investing tens of thousands of dollars in a course like an MBA? Why can't one just do a more specialized masters in finance or a PhD in operations and develop the only skills the companies are looking for? But if the answer is yes, then wouldn't it be fair to treat an MBA grad with an investment banking background equivalent to another who was running his own small business? I agree that they need to exemplify certain skills and qualities and knowledge to do well but how do the firms know whether the candidate has this based on a simple question like: Which industry/function did you specialize in before the MBA?
