Perhaps at this moment, you are preparing for the next set of decisions in your life: at your college, in an office, or at your home pondering
how to crack CAT, or change your domain, get a meaty role or even simply just figuring out life at large.
Here is some food for thought that will help you discover your
motivation to do an MBA. These pointers will not only help you provide clarity but will indicate to the person sitting across the table in the interview in identifying your thought process, analysis and structure.
Take a deep breath, find a calm place to sit & read ahead!
1. Find Your Reason: Be true and honest and think about the aim and intent that inspires you to apply to the programme. Is it the prospects of better role, higher perquisites, domain change, academic pursuit, or something else?
This is not about finding the best acceptable reason worth sharing with your social network, this is completely about you! The drive that will make you passionate about all the efforts you put in those two years.
2. Opportunity Costs: Life is a continuous stream of choices and trade-offs that come with choices we make. You will have to trade the choice of doing or not doing an MBA with say a year of work experience or a drop or a sabbatical where you may decide to work with a community or a start-up, the bottom-line is that you will have to choose one thing at a time and focus all your energy in it! We come from different backgrounds: academic, economic and social. The degree of flexibility may vary across participants. You may also have taken a loan or kept savings to partially or completely fund your programme. Keep these in mind along with more intangible gain from the programme such as new opportunities, network etc.
3. What’s The Connect: Simply stated, why does an MBA become the next logical step or progression in your academic or career journey? How does your previous qualification & MBA fit in together for a certain role or enhance the earlier capabilities? If there is some gap how do you seek to bridge it going forward? The answers are neither straight nor a quick-fix, straight jacket response. But if you invest some time in finding the answers to these questions right now, it will help to focus on what is applicable and fits your profile, aspirations and existing capabilities.
Let's take my own example.
When I opted to pursue the IPM programme at IIM Indore, what motivated me was the diverse curriculum, liberal arts studies before a full-fledged MBA programme along with grooming at a premier-B school.
Well, so far the journey has been great and the decision has paid off, with amazing once in a lifetime opportunities: Yes Foundation Fellowship, Toastmasters club membership, participation at Harvard-US India Initiative, being a part of Media & PR committee of IIM Indore and being a part of enriching competitions (and winning a few of them too! :P The list can go on)
The people I met here have so many things to learn from! The decision to pursue this programme has made all the difference in terms of the opportunities and mentor-ship I got access to.
I wish you all a deep sense of clarity and conviction as you take the next step in your journeys ahead!
All the best!