When one typically thinks of a CAT aspirant, the first image that comes to mind is definitely not that of a lawyer. Maybe an engineer, or an economics graduate from DU or other colleges. My reason behind writing this article is simple. To encourage more law graduates, especially those working in the corporate sector, to take up this path, for the reasons enumerated below. I am a graduate from National University of Study and Research in Law Ranchi, batch of 2017. I worked in Wipro and Flex for two years before resigning from my job in order to pursue an MBA. I aim to help fellow aspirants from the humanities field in cracking management entrance exams.
First, the most obvious question. Why MBA after LLB and not LLM?
Unlike most aspirants, my decision to do an MBA was not shaped by dreams of a high salary as the legal field already is a good paymaster. Also, it wasn’t a decision made in a hurry. After two years of working as a corporate lawyer in both the IT and the contract manufacturing sector, I realized two things:
1) Without a post-graduate degree, your career is bound to stagnate even if the pay is good. You will be stuck at an associate/executive level doing mundane tasks
2) When it comes to post-graduation in the corporate sector at least, LLM is a decorative degree which does not contribute substantially to your skills. This is not my personal opinion, but rather one formed after speaking to scores of seniors in the legal field
In light of the above, MBA becomes an important avenue as it teaches you all substantial aspects of a business be it human resources, operations, finance or marketing. It brings you at par with the teams you work with. You become a decision-maker than just a facilitator.
Will I fit into an MBA classroom filled with chartered accountants, coders and people with experience in sales?
Why not? In fact, you would be surprised. In my MBA journey, I have come across history graduates, dentists, psychologists, pharma students etc just to name a few. I personally know lawyers in IIM Ahmedabad, XLRI, IIM Shillong, XIMB etc. If they can do it, why can’t you?
Moreover, many of our subjects in law school are in sync with the subject material of B schools. For example, in my IIFT interview, I cited how international trade law was taught to us, in HR interviews you can easily give an example of your background in labour laws, for finance you can cite subjects such as securities & capital markets, so on and so forth.
Apart from the above, remember that B schools love diversity. You are an asset for them, especially if you come with work experience, be it a law firm or a company’s legal department.
How should I go about preparing? Which exams to give? As a lawyer, my maths is very weak
Yes, there you do have a point. Even for those of us with a science background before LLB, it is 5 years of virtually no maths. Nothing related to Data Interpretation either. But trust me its no Greek and Latin. Buy the Arun Sharma quartet of books for the subjects you are not comfortable with (I did not buy verbal reasoning as I was comfortable in English) and start solving directly after going through the explanations. Even logical reasoning should ideally be easy for a lawyer but it needs practice.
As for which exams to give, it depends upon you. CAT is obvious. Apart from that XAT, SNAP, IIFT are the other choices. TISSNET if HRM is your call. NMAT if you are a finance enthusiast. Same goes for college registrations too. Every application form is quite expensive hence research a college and its specialisations, reputation etc carefully before registering for it
How much time is needed? How many hours of preparation?
Once again, completely depends upon you. For someone whose fundamentals are weak (like me), I would say start by April itself. Someone who has already grasped the basics can start from August and still score 95 +
As for hours, as a fresher, there is no constraint. Give it as much time as you can and give lots of mocks to assess your strengths and weaknesses. Analyse each mock after giving it, where you went wrong and why.
For working professionals, try to give 1-2 hours on weekdays and 4-5 hours on weekends. I could do it. I know you can, too.
So that’s it lawyers/MBA aspirants. I hope this article encouraged you to do MBA after LLB and answered some of the doubts you may have had. Do reach out to me on LinkedIn in case of further questions.