So it was a different kind of deja vu when I crossed the line and became an interviewer for a B School as they had requested me (amongst others) as they considered me a "well wisher".
After a day of interviewing 12 MBA aspirants these are the thoughts I was left with:
- A majority of the people were engineers with 2-4 years of experience. Most of them were from the IT services industry and of them 3-4 people were people who did software testing and quality kind of roles.
- Interestingly a lot of these people talked about turning entrepreneur after 3-4 years of working.
- Most people wanted to specialise in Finance but when asked why, they could not articulate the reason, except for a couple of them. If you have zoned on one, the panel will ask why you want to pursue that and therefore you should be prepared
- The question "Why do you want to do an MBA" is a sure question, and yet very few people said anything that showed they were ready with a clear and crisp answer to that.
- For budding business managers, awareness of things like the recently released Union Budget and its impact on individuals and organizations should be clear to some extent. That was sorely lacking.
- It's great to have a big grand goal, but show that you can plan the intermediate steps to that goal as well. It doesn't have to be perfect or correct, but I would look for thoroughness in thought.
- On the other hand just thinking of the job you'd like to do a couple of years after graduating from an MBA and not having a larger vision for your career makes it seem that you are in it only for the money :-)
On the panel was a software product person who quizzed the engineers on the kind of work they that done and there was a professor from the business school who had an eagle eye on the academic record of the students.
Hi gautam...
ReplyDeleteI perfectly fall into the category you mentioned. An Engineer with a year of software experience, and now doing MBA..
You are perfectly right with your assessment of present MBA grads not having a clear vision..Now in the last few days of my first year, I have met quite a lot of MBAs, from not just my college, but from many other 'elite' institutions of the country as well..What I do find is, yes, most of them are here for the money, and that is one reason why most of them go for Finance as well, which is one area which provides you job at the corporate office with an awesome salary..
But for an interviewer, here are somethings I always wanted to put forward.
* Thats perfectly right that you find a reason to know why the candidate wants to do an MBA. I myself had a strong reason to do it myself...But think of it., there are enough coaching centers around to teach you how to 'fake' in the interviews..Interviewers may assume that they can find a fake from a truly genuine MBA deservant..But then, the ones from coaching institutes are grilled so many times before they appear on the interview platform. So, this finally boils down to if or not I have paid the coaching insitutes to teach me do things that historically have helped candidates pass the interview..'Why MBA', and 'Why Finance' are considered 'legacy questions' which are passed on to every batch..So, neither is the one who answers it perfectly the right candidate, nor is the one who flops it bad..Because, ultimately, as you gauged right, most of the MBA grads today go by the placement records of the institute and there for the money..
I understand the deal with having higher principles, but I really do not understand the reasons for believing that doing an MBA or for that matter anything else for the money is a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteI believe we work because we get paid. This is true because the I think the opposite is not. The opposite would be 'Would I work if it did not pay, or did not even have the promise of getting paid at a later date?'
Also, I disagree with Anand on the fact that coaching centres which teach tens of thousands of students every year, are not solely responsible for making aspirants answer the basic questions like why should you do an MBA.
The credit definitely goes to the applicant for tweaking and editing the fit-all answers to their own backgrounds. Without an extra effort from it, it would be possible to get those right. The coaching centres can tell you what the questions are, and help you find your own strengths, but they cannot give you the answer you need.
It has to come from the students themselves.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI am doing and executive mba to, please have a look in my blog and let me know if you find something different... the problem it is in spanish!
Sudanshu,
ReplyDeleteThose who can find the answer to 'Why MBA' would have realized that well before they take up the entrance tests..They need not be helped by the coaching institutes, which they tweak to your background..
Two weeks back, I had a call from my graduation college junior who spent half an hour with me on the phone asking me how to answer this very question for his SP Jain interview. He is now into the second round. That is not to say that my advice got him through. I am not even sure if he was asked the question, and he is even otherwise quite capable.
But the point is that a person who had to discuss why he needs to do an MBA with a senior has been found capable enough to qualify for the second round, and therein lies the secret to succeed in an MBA interview.
Anand,
ReplyDeleteThis is not to say that the current methods used to find the correct candidate for an MBA are good. Sometimes it seems like a complete farce. But it does have it's advantages.
Coming back to your friend, I would consider the ability to discuss an issue, to find and understand other views, and to make your own conclusions, to be the makings of a good manager.
Isn't it is better to keep searching for the correct answer rather than protecting your own by not leaving it open for discussion.
Do you think Narayan Murthy knew as a 20 year old kid that he would want to start Infosys?