What about an MBA now?

Well…if this is the question haunting you now..after your degree…then wait for a while before you throw away that placement offer letter…let me show  what is happening in the MBA market now… this might help you take a better decision now and save some effort, time and money.

Let’s see what is attractive about MBA…a better job opportunity, a high paying salary, good job position, an entrepreneurial kick start, and some would also say a good value in marriage market.

I have to show some numbers now. India produces about three lakh management graduates (354,421 according to All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)) from over three thousand institutes across the country every year, but experts say hardly 35,000 of them are employable. To make the situation worse, the requirement of managerial candidates in the Indian market is just around  35,000  every year leaving a chunk unemployed. Verdict: Lack of global skills and excess supply.

In the foreign countries, work experience is considered as a criterion for MBA admission, while in India, graduates do not want to waste time and hence apply soon after their degree. Does a work exp solve everything? No… but can it add some value? Yes for sure. Also a lot depend on the infrastructure and faculty of the institution as well. A huge uplift in the quality of education has to happen especially in that tier 2 and tier 3 institutes which are rapidly mushrooming in the recent years.

Another attraction a B-school degree gives is that a fat pay packet!! Let me pull some numbers again..The average annual salary offered to students during placements in close to 40% of B-schools across the country is less than Rs 3 lakh. Students from just 1% of the 3,500 institutes across the country — the top business schools that command Rs 12-15 lakh as course fees — are offered an annual salary upwards of Rs 9 lakh during campus placement.

Around 37% of the B-schools were placed in the bottom, with many failing sometimes failing to place a single student. The average annual salary for those more fortunate is Rs 3 lakh. I hear that even not all the IIM grads get a red carpet treatment.

So what say..??Still MBA ..? I am not trying to discourage anyone, rather to make you prepared and have a better perspective before you take up that educational loan, give up your offers and waste your time. So the question you should hold is where you see yourself after MBA. For that you should ask yourself some basic questions.  What specialisation suits your tastes? Which college could best offer that course and what is my plan B. So do some introspection and talk to your friends and classmates  who according to you have the track that you’d like to get on to.

Well above said is mostly applicable for non- entrepreneurs. For all those who dream of future Steve Jobs, waiting to change the world I quote Zig Ziglar :” You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”