As I was standing on the platform of Tatanagar Railway station, waiting for my train to depart, deep down in my mind I was going through a Déjà vu. A lot of things have happened in a year's time - from a lot of high profile weddings to visiting the tallest statue in the world. But somewhere in the middle of the Jamshedpur life, 104 individuals were running tall & high because they were the chosen ones who got enrolled for the General Management program at XLRI, or as the world calls it - the one year MBA program.
When I say XLRI General Management program is best in the country, many of you’ll say that I have my personal biases. Though that might be true to some extent but believe me, when you’ll spend 365 days in this mighty campus, your life is bound to change. Be it the legacy of this institution or be it the way in which the curriculum has been designed when you’ll come out of this college you can feel the difference. Being a major in Marketing and Strategy, I think until now, I have talked a lot of gas. Now let’s talk rationally about this program.
The Oldest One Year MBA Program in the Oldest B school of the country
Started in 1996 as a program exclusively for the best of the best lot of Tata Steel and later opened up for everyone, the XLRI GM program along with the BM and HRM programs have huge alumni bases and have created a name in the market, and when you look at the pedigree of such individuals, you’ll realize how this program has changed their career path.
The Return on Investment - Yeah, Because Money Matters
If you’ll compare the average fees of all Tier-1 business school in the country, XLRI PGDM (GM) will emerge as one of the most economic programs, the reason being that the XLRI General Management isn’t an executive program wherein you have to pay GST in addition to the fees, and being the Jesuit institution, XLRI isn’t in a profit-oriented education business - they charge you what they really require to maintain such a humongous infrastructure which we all were awed by once we reached the campus.
The Most Important Ingredient - The XL Culture
When you travel down the lane of CH Area towards XLRI and you get the first glimpse of XLRI signage at the gate, that moment will take you in awe. There is something different about the vibes of this campus. You don’t need to be very formal with the Professors, neither are there very stringent rules and regulations that limit the way you think, or the way you express. This way, XL gives you new wings to fly high each day.
About the Program
If I have to explain the GM program in a simple line, then I would just say that
it’s not easy at all. XLRI has been known for its academic rigour but that is the beauty of this program. After surviving seven terms in one year, you’ll be ready for any future challenges and those 11:59:59 deadlines will make sure that you don’t miss any such deadlines in your professional career.
Apart from academics, an MBA is also about
peer to peer learning and that is the most beautiful thing about this program. When you share a classroom with such vast experienced people from various sectors and with a plethora of knowledge - from steel to mass media, from IT to Oil & Gas - it enhances your perspective about everything.
Concluding words
PGDM (GM), along with PGDM (BM) and PGDM (HRM) is a flagship MBA program at XLRI with International accreditations such as AACSB & AMBA, which means this degree holds its mighty value in overseas countries as well. But let’s be honest: in this type of one year MBA program, you come with a baggage of experience on your CV that you cannot deny. So expecting a complete domain change, say from IT to an FMCG company, isn’t completely impossible but it’s also not a cake-walk, as it would be in a two-year MBA program.
But being taught by some of the most distinguished faculty in the country, be it Prof. Venugopal’s way of explaining the complex marketing concepts with jokes and humor or be it Prof. Sengupta’s class like watching a Broadway performance full of accounting melodrama, every class is unique in its own way because the pedagogy which has been adopted at XLRI gives faculty that freedom to sail their own boat. Living in the campus which never sleeps and having the late night chai at XL
Dhaba or those 4 AM cravings for the
Bishu Da’s Aloo Paratha.
Each and everything about XLRI will change you, knowingly or unknowingly, in some way until you realize the same and say,
no matter what happens, this place will always remain XL meri jaan!