10 Things You Must Do Immediately After Joining MBA

At times, while pursuing MBA, students tend to invest all their concentration into studying and lose out on some necessary skills that they should inculcate, within the same period, in order to achieve an all-round development. This article aims to make MBA aspirants aware of the necessary skills that must be inculcated while doing MBA to prepare one’s self for an organization, entrepreneurship and much more.

Here are some important things you must do immediately do after joining MBA:

1- Start Following Business News: Try to read about startups, industries, businesses, government policies. This will help you to take right decision at right time. Greater insights about the latest technologies and business functioning will keep you alert and aware of the changes taking place. 

2- Prepare Yourself to Become a Successful Entrepreneur: MBA course helps beginners who wish to enhance their growth from primary level. This is an initial step to become a good entrepreneur which can help in running a successful business.

3- Start Participating in Events: Try to get involved in as many events as you can, this is a great way to enhance your knowledge and skills set at the same time. You can judge your potential and how well you can handle a situation.

4- Business Connections: Expand your contacts. Get to know more and more people involved in business field. Right business contacts can direct you towards the right guidance, internships and right jobs.

5- Diversified Service Careers Internship: During the MBA, choose to go for internships. Try to work in companies as much as you can. This will enhance your learning skills. Try to find more career options and find the job which suits you the best.  

6- Read Statistics and Economics Topics: Economics and Statistics are very much required for senior managerial positions and if you aim to get on one, be sure to be really good in these.

7- Enjoy Marketing Strategy: Marketing skills are vital in current business scenario. Try to get involved in marketing using marketing books, Marketing fundamentals, operations, accounting, and finance. 

8- Read Case Studies and About Corporations: Try to learn and read about companies and gain knowledge about different industries and their workings. It will help you during a job interview as it shows your diversified knowledge.

9- Focus on Learning Rather Than Just Scoring High Marks: During an interview or placement drive, your marks will only be useful to stay qualified for the interview but while in an organization your skills and knowledge are the things that will matter. So rather than focusing on marks focus on learning and understanding concepts. Your knowledge will fetch you marks automatically.

10- Enjoy Your College Life: Enjoy your college days because after college you will be in a different atmosphere altogether. You probably won’t have the same kind of people around you. So enjoy your college life to the fullest and build cherishing memories for the future.

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What Should You Do To Join IIM?

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) is the dream destination for MBA aspirants. The selection process for an IIM is an extremely rigorous process, which requires a lot of preparation. All of the IIMs follow 2 stages of selection process- written test (CAT) and GWPI (group discussion/written ability test/personal interview). Selection of the candidates depends on various factors such as written exam, academic background, work experience, reservation category, gender etc.

1st Stage: Qualify The CAT Exam: The first step to secure admission in an IIM is qualifying the Common Admission Test (CAT). CAT is a highly competitive exam that is taken by more than 2 lakh candidates. It is a computer based test held in India to facilitate the admission process to the Master of Business Administration Programme (MBA) in top business schools of India. This exam is conducted to analyze the skills of the students in areas such as English, Mathematics and Logical Reasoning. 

CAT consists of questions from Quantitative Aptitude, Data Interpretation, Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning. To crack the CAT exam, you first need to analyze your strength and weaknesses and then start to work upon them. Verbal ability is the most significant part of CAT exam. The best way to prepare for this section is by reading books, magazines, blog, posts, novels etc. Divide your time during exam such that you would have the chance to read and answer as many questions as possible.

To get a call from IIM Ahmedabad or Calcutta, you have to score above 99 percentile in the CAT exam. The criteria for getting a call from IIM varies year per year, but the cut-off percentile always remains high. IIM Bangalore doesn’t have strict criteria for percentile cut-off. They generally consider your academic weightage and work experience. 

  

2nd Stage: Interview/GD: Interviews at the IIMs are generally taken by IIM officials. The officials can be faculty, ex-faculty and sometimes even alumni.  At IIM-A, the interviews are opposite to what people believe. The interviews are generally open ended and everything that interviewer asks you, is related to you or something you talk about. If you are experienced then it’ll work in your favor, but it can be against you if you are not prepared. 

For a Group Discussion (GD) round, be prepared for both sides of the debate. What will happen if everyone has taken up one side of the argument; in such a case you will not be able to make your stance clear. Even if not, taking up an opposite stand will help you stand out a little from the mass.  

Sometimes it doesn’t matter that you are experienced or not. Make interviewers believe that you are a good candidate and nothing can stop you. The most important thing you should know is that they are looking for a reason not to fail you, but select you.  

Which is better MBA or PGDM?

The task of differentiating between an MBA and a PGDM degree often leads the aspirants of management studies into an undesirable conundrum. This article aims to differentiate between these two management degrees and help young aspirants develop an understanding of what both the courses have to offer and how beneficial they are.  

The eligibility criteria for most MBA and PGDM courses offered by different institutes/universities in the country are similar to a great extent. Both MBA and PGDM can be pursued by any individual possessing a bachelor’s degree in any discipline from a recognized university or institution. Exams like CAT, MAT, GMAT, XAT, CMAT, ATMA etc. are conducted to select suitable candidates for both the programs. 

Differences between MBA and PGDM:

While both MBA and PGDM offer higher education in the field of management studies, there are various factors that create a wide distinction between them.

The very basic difference between an MBA and a PGDM degree is that MBA can only be offered by a University whereas PGDMs are offered by autonomous institutes. In India, colleges offering MBA must have an affiliation to a university that is duly recognized by UGC. This is not so in the case of autonomous institutes offering PGDM. 

The affiliation to UGC necessitates the approval of the program’s curriculum by the UGC, which brings in the second difference – the curriculum. An MBA program follows a guidelines-based curriculum which remains very rigid and hence, provides very little room for flexibility and eccentricity. A PGDM program follows an industry relevant curriculum; it aims to make the students ready for the job market.   

The course curriculum plays a quintessential role in helping students deal with the business environment which they’ll be facing immediately after graduating. 

The business environment is dynamic and unpredictable. An evolving curriculum will help the students to understand, control and mould the turbulence arising in the business arena to their advantage. 

An MBA program, with its rigid curriculum, will lay most of the focus on academics and examinations, which is somewhat different to what a PGDM program aims to do. PGDM program follows an evolving curriculum (industry-oriented, to be precise), which aims to cultivate soft-skills in students. While MBA provides a holistic approach, PGDM offers a wider scope to master specific areas of management and understand its nuances. If the cost factor is taken into consideration, the fee for MBA programs is relatively lesser than that of PGDM programs. 

Which is better?

It depends on what one wishes to gain from the course. A PGDM course is beneficial to those who wish to specialize in a certain domain while an MBA program is beneficial for those looking for a general overview of the business administration. 

University affiliated colleges have established curriculum and have expert faculties on board to provide direction to the students while PGDM also offers eccentricity and wider scope for aspects like innovation, flexibility and specializations.

The employers only look out for talent possessed by the individual regardless of whether the degree pursued is MBA or PGDM. 

What actually matters more than the name of the degree is the reputation of the management schools awarding it. The institutes known for producing extraordinary talents are the ones visited by big multi-national business establishments. The top management schools in the country such as the IIMs, ISB, XLRI, MDI, MICA and IMI offer PGDM degrees which are highly valued in the industry. Even if the placement records are taken into considerations, institutes offering PGDM courses display a better picture, such as the ones mentioned above.

One must take all these points into consideration while deciding between an MBA program and a PGDM program.