There was a three-month lull prior to joining MBA. Serving the notice period in my organisation, there was a constant tussle in my mind about what my future career as a manager holds for me. I was speaking to many people every day and trying to understand what will be a good specialisation for me to pursue. DON'T DO THAT. After three months into the blur called MBA, I realised that no one could have told me to pick a specialisation; and that is the essence of my article. One has to understand for themselves what their calling is and decide accordingly on their specialisation. In order to take the first step in the right direction, you really have to know yourself, understand your behaviour and the circumstances in your life that have shaped that behaviour. This is a call to all the engineers/non-financial background MBA candidates who are unsure of what to study. Speaking about myself, I was inclined towards finance because it sounded like "the thing to do". I was running everywhere reading up about Finance and the roles offered, trying to gather certifications among other things, that novice finance enthusiasts do.
Speaking about myself, I was inclined towards finance because it sounded like "the thing to do". I was running everywhere reading up about Finance and the roles offered, trying to gather certifications among other things, that novice finance enthusiasts do.
Post commencement of my MBA at NMIMS, Mumbai, I started seeing what it means in reality to be a manager. It is not merely being an expert in finance or sales or marketing but being a master of business administration (well that's what MBA stands for after all). Understanding how different functions of business operate and interact with each other made me realise how one dimensional my approach to MBA was. I was interested in Finance but Marketing and understanding consumer behaviour also fascinated me and thus I made the decision of waiting for a month to decide upon my specialisation.
In this hiatus from constant thinking about specialisations, I thought of everything I have experienced in my life. Prior to my work experience as a developer, I had run my retail store back home in Noida on ad hoc basis, basically helping out my parents who run the store. That is when it struck me that I was in the presence of Brands, suppliers, distributors and Customers since childhood. This made me take a keen interest in sales and marketing. Having seen the other side of sales and marketing (from a retailer's perspective) I was inclined to seeing what goes on at the other end. The role of Marketing management lectures and our professor can't go unmentioned here. Attending his classes made my interest peak in this domain and finally, I settled on where I wanted to land up - Sales and Marketing.
This is my story and that's what it is - MY STORY. You will have your own. you just have to look for it and no need going anywhere to look for it. It lies within you. We just have to look in the right spaces in our mind. I will not, at any point, ask you to pick marketing over finance or vice versa. All I am trying to convey here is that MBA is the final formal education for most of us and it is a high stakes game and thus requires a great deal of thought before you decide your future career sector.
Well, this is just the first step for me also, I guess as deciding on what I want to specialise in actually ending up there are two separate stories and that story, my friend, is for maybe a couple of months later.