I read somewhere that,
“the best thing about time is that it changes” ; for the better or the worse depends on how you act in your Present. This has really been a thing that has kept me on my feet. There may be several questions related to “MBA”. But my favourite one is “Why MBA?”. Before coming to this let’s see where did it all start for me and maybe for many of you as well.
It was halfway through my Engineering when I realized I cannot take this all through to the end of my professional career. I could personally never align myself with Engineering. Towards the end, I realized I wanted something else in life. I realized I could never sit in front of a computer screen and code for hours or write SQL queries to extract Tbs of data. But following the crowd, I attended a number of placements drives, went through multiple rejections but got selected in India’s two leading service based MNCs. This had to be done. People had their eye affixed at me, as getting a job after graduation is a measure of the fruitfulness of a graduate. If getting a job proves that you are a good graduate, then it is absolutely ostensible. Six months into the job I saw a variety of people. I found the technical guys and the business guys to be more precise. I realized I was never made for the technical part, while I loved what the business people were into. I made up my mind that I will have to make it into their shoes. I was clear that I had to find time to double my efforts in quants, verbal and analysis. There is no point in doing something that you don’t love, something that doesn’t excite you. It would always be frustrating to see someone do something that you love while you are doing something that is not your forte. If you don’t give that a shot, you are going to mess up your entire life.
Now coming to the most important part - Why MBA?
If you formally ask anyone, they would come up with cliched answers you would find on various MBA portals. They are meant to impress the interview panel. Ask people to answer the same question honestly, as if no one is judging them, and many would come up with the answer that they want to make a lot of money. Most of the working people who opt for MBA are the ones who are dissatisfied with their current job. They have crossed their threshold to be further ranted by their lead for a certain job that failed in the production while the lead had an equal role to play in the mishap. Another reason could be that the amount they withdraw from the company is disproportionate to the efforts that they put in. In some cases that I have seen, it could be the situation that people have been forced to do such kind of jobs and they absolutely had no other choices to make.
Going back to the first line, “this” is the time you want to change. Nobody else can do this for you. If your current pity situation doesn’t motivate you, nothing else will. Imagine being stuck here for another year and a half if you do not do bell the CAT this time. The same ranting. The same adjusting you need to do with regards to your revenue, while all you want is to be a spendthrift. Imagine not getting a job profile that you had been wanting for so long. Imagine the amount of overwhelming respect and adulation that you are going to fall short of. These are things that are frightening me to put in extra efforts. For the someone who is from a mediocre college, it had always been your dream to graduate from a crème institute. The amount of brand value associated with you would be tremendous. There would almost be a vertical progression of your career. What sets you apart from other people is skills and knowledge which are guaranteed by-products of a premier B-school. Better career opportunities are the last thing you are going to accumulate.
As I sit down to write this, People, we have 240 odd days to go for CAT’18. Not a lot of days left but not less though. If you don’t ace it this time, this would never be the last time. But if this is all you want to do then why not give it a full shot this time. If you are not going all the way then why go at all?
Like me, most of you are in the same situation. You need to report the office by 10 in the morning. You return late in the evening. Your situation becomes even worse if you are from a metro city and the city traffic doesn’t spare you. It really becomes difficult to carve out time. But if greats thing could be achieved easily they would never be deemed great. All it requires is a couple of dedicated hours throughout the day. It isn’t that difficult. It all depends how strong your motivation is. When you are able to submit tasks before deadline, time management would just be another thing for you. So, buckle up people. Fasten your seatbelts. It is showtime! A few months of hard work and you can literally see your dreams turning into reality. Hard work always pays off and there is no shortcut to it. Let us do it all together.
All the best. Cheers to the struggle ahead. 😊