6 Life-Lessons That MBA Taught Me

Many students do not have a habit of raising red flags or asking questions whenever they don’t understand any concept, question or conversation. They do it because of fear of being judged. I have never been one of them, I had the habit of asking questions to the basics. Sales Management at IMT is taught by Dr S.R Singhvi, who is known to be very strict and usually throw people out of class if they speak nonsense. At one instance in class, I didn’t agree with him on a topic, I kept putting my points while he kept countering them, many classmates asked me stop as they feared Dr Singhvi might ask me to leave the class. On the very contrary, Dr Singhvi met me over breakfast the next morning and encouraged me to keep asking questions as this expands the horizon of discussion on any topic.

2. Friends Are Family:

There are times when you might have a complete breakdown, nothing might seem to go right. This is the time when friends come to your rescue. Due to pretty hectic schedule, you might visit home only 3-4 times in the whole duration of 2 years. Friends would be a part of almost everything that you do; Party, travel, studies, sports and competitions. A senior at IMT used to say, Your B-school experience is defined by the company you keep; This stands 100% true as I look back.

3. Everyone Need Not Be An Extrovert:

As a stereotype, people take all the MBAs to be extroverts, which isn’t true. One can be an introvert and still be good at presenting and speaking whenever needed. Most of my close friends were introverts and have landed great jobs on campus.

4. It’s Also About Luck/Chance:

Luck, chance or random arrangement; give it any name but it plays a major role in B-school. Assume there are 2 people A and B. A works hard, studies a lot, gives her 100% in projects and competitions. On the other side, B is a relaxed person, who is sharp but doesn’t put extra efforts like A, she parties and hangs out with friends much often. So, who would land a better job from campus? In an ideal scenario, most of the people would guess, A. As I said earlier, it’s B-school and luck plays a major factor here. For that 1 dream job, there might be certain criteria related to previous work-ex or acads which A might not fulfill but B does. Similarly, B might be very good in answering interview questions while A might not be.

5. Different Dimensions of Diversity:

Conventionally diversity Is demographic in nature. But in B-school, it is also on psychographic level, you would find people who think differently and have totally different life experiences from you. This is where the real learning lies and creativity sparks. Say, you are solving a case study competition. Your team has an Engineer, Arts grad and a Finance student. Engineer might suggest something that is very logical and works on certain rules, Art grad would point out that it is already implemented and may suggest something radically different, Finance student might pull the plug out of the plan on the grounds of financial feasibility. This is the brainstorming which is benefit of the diversity (Engineers are also very creative, no offence, this was just an example).

6. Jack of All Or Master of One?

At IMT, I’ve seen some people doing everything at once; they are at competitions, academics, extra-curricular etc. While some people who are focused on just 1 or 2 things. There were people who used to sleep when everyone else used to wake up and there were also people who had their fixed routine. Both the types of people were doing just fine till the time they enjoy what they are doing and yes learning something out of it.