There are some who are Jacks of a single trade and specialise in that and then there are some who are jack of many trades and masters of none. Well, these are individuals who are still not certain which domain do they want to get into and are open to exploring opportunities before zeroing down on something that they would want to settle with. General Management is one such role that is prevalent in the circuit of MBA where you are not subjected to a particular domain and are given the opportunity to explore multiple stints. There are some organizations and programs like TAS, Mahindra, Reliance etc that offer a proper General Management role, where individuals are subjected to multiple stints during their tenure and are then put under a particular role. Then there are firms like Flipkart, Axis Bank etc that have an MT or a Management Trainee program.
The difference between the two is that in the prior you actually get to experience different stints and in the latter you are under different verticals within the same organization. Now comes the boiling question, how should I prepare for a GenMan role for the summers process. To answer this, I would want the audience to follow a stepwise approach -
1. Patience – This is the most important attribute that is required to bag a Genman role. People will be shocked to read this, but this is true. One needs to be patient enough while they wait it out for a Genman role. What I mean is, Genman firms are generally the ones that come in the Day 0 or Day 1 schedule of things. If you are sure that you want a Genman role you will ought to have waited it out till you get a chance to even appear for the process of these Genman organizations.
Read: All You Need To Know About General Management Roles
2. Build your CV – I know you cannot do much now, because you already are in a B-School, but I will ideally suggest to you that one should try doing as many activities as possible till the Summers. This includes taking part in Case Competitions and Intra College Activities, being a part of student bodies and applying and appearing for Scholarship examinations. Beyond this, one should show some amount of diversity on their profiles which will provide them with talking points during the interview process.
Read: General Management Roles At A B-School - Everything You Need To Know
3. Games – Yes, you read that right. Games. TAS for instance has a process at the very beginning where you have to play a particular simulation-based game that allows you to exercise your grey matter. And mind you, this game is evaluated. You have to perform well in this in order to make it to the next round.
Read: How To Prepare For General Management Role - Ft. Adarsh Kundal, ABG
4. Writing – The majority of the Genman roles are expecting that candidates to write long answers. These are self-exploratory answers. They contain your biggest failure, your biggest success, any problem you solved in an innovative manner and so on and so forth. One needs to be very proficient and ready with this in order to leave a lasting remark on the person reading the same.
Read: A FanTAStic Summer Internship | TAS - Tata Steel
5. GD – This is the most important filter criteria that the firms use to make their final PI shortlist. Chairman and normal GDs are the most commonly used formats. You need to practice GDs, that too in a virtual set-up to up this game. This will require one to read a lot on current affairs as well so as to validate points while sitting in a GD. Rules like not cutting others while talking and maintaining decorum are ones that ought to be followed.
Read: IIT To National Model To General Management At Mahindra
6. PI – I don’t really need to stress the importance of this metric as it is the same throughout. HR questions, future goals etc all need to be in place.
These 6 points are extremely important for one to crack the Genman role. I hope this helps. All the very best!
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