As i move ahead towards my MBA dream, i am forced to think hard about the following questions:
1. Why MBA?? -- In my previous post Why MBA? I had mentioned few reasons that motivate me to pursure an MBA. But specifically linking an MBA program to my career goals is a bit tough job. For this reason its an absolute must to be crystal clear about your short term and long term career goals. Once you have done so get in touch with student ambassadors or b-school students {who have similar career aspirations as you do} to understand how an MBA has helped them in realizing their goals. I have found a very interesting pattern in that a lot of people do not stick to the same career goals that they mentioned in their essays. Thats fine also, pursuing an MBA will expose one to various career streams and being flexible is a good option. My why MBA story to get into a b-school can be very different from my Why MBA once i pass out of the school.
An MBA can help you mingle with people from your target industry, can give you a platform to interact with recruiters of your choice {Mckinsey, BCG, Bain don't recruit everywhere..}. You can develop certain traits that your future job might require. Also being an engineer i can never expect to learn economics, accounting or marketing in my job so an MBA can help me in getting a hang of these subjects.
Which b- school?? --No matter which school i try to explore i find the same courses offered in the "CORE" and almost similar sounding "Electives" {Barring few}. Every school boasts of a great faculty and pioneering research. Every school offers almost similar clubs such as conculting, marketing, I-banking etc. and every school talks about developing leaders.
Then there are few differences too -- Harvard and Darden - case centric...Kellogg, Ross -- great for marketing and team work is very imp. ... Wharton - -emphasizes a lot on innovation...Then there are schools with small class size {300-400/ batch} and then there's H/W {800-900/batch}. Also US and european MBA's differ in many other aspects too. {I am not getting into details of european vs US schools as i am focussing on US b-school only for some reasons.}. Location of a school is another imp. factor..Cornell, Tuck and Ross are at an disadvantage when compared to Columbia, Kellogg, Wharton, Harvard etc. Sloan and Haas are tech centric..Chicago lets you choose all your courses except one right from 1st year.
Why Now?? -- .. Need help !!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
6 comments:
Are you asking for help with Why now?? question. Just curious, because I though you already submitted essays in R1 or R2.
"No matter which school i try to explore i find the same courses offered"
Yeah, that's always a challenge to overcome when marketing. We've taken a similar approach, but also have really leaned heavily on the student testimonials since the program is so new.
I write the blog at http://dalmba.ca/cr/blogs which explores the 'student-asking-students' perspective on why our program is all those typical buzzwords: "Great faculty," "Innovative," "Produces Leaders."
Why MBA.??Atleast theoretically, an MBA opens up a who new set of career options.
Why Now, The sooner you acquire new set of tools in your arsenal to jumpstart your path to your dream career, the better right.?
Easier said than done. I know :)
@Anon -- i will be applying in 2010...didn't apply this year :) .. and yes i am asking for help around Why now?? i have my reasons in place but want other perspectives too {just to get the bigger pic}
@Raj -- nice point...:)
As for why now i can give you my reason: I work as an engineer and I want to develop a career in business development and operations. I feel that my I have gained all the technical experience that my current and previous jobs had to offer. And staying with my current job does not offer me a path to my career goal. Neither am i in a position to just blindly apply to a job in my area of interest due to lack of core knowledge on certain areas. Hence the best thing to do for me in order to fulfill my career objective is to get an MBA.
Why now question has to be very personal. Don't give them the "an MBA will open door to a broader blah blah blah". They don't digg that ;)
TC
Hi Hari -- firstly congrats on your admit to IESE -- its a great school ...and thanks for sharing your insights :)
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