"Why, as a fresher, do you want to join MBA?"

I think this is one of the questions which is faced by every fresher during MBA interviews and the answers to these questions are also sometimes philosophical, such as 'to gain knowledge' or the answers taught in coaching institutes. Similarly, there will be a lot of questions asked in the next 2 years, and finding the correct answer will be a great tussle. Through this article, I will try to compare the advantages and disadvantages of being a fresher at a B-school.

MS Office Skills

The most common problem is not having a good hand over MS Excel, Word and PowerPoint. Since those with work experience have spent their entire time working on this software, they have a fair knowledge about it but for fresher even these things pose a great challenge as they have never previously felt the need to use this software till graduation.

Class Participation

The second problem which fresher will face will be during class participation. Class participation is where every student is awarded marks for actively participating in the class discussion. However, in the race for getting marks, some of them desperately participate in the class and often come up with irrelevant points. Those with work experience also seem to have an edge here, since they relate concepts with the jobs they were in, and speak accordingly. Once again, freshers often get intimidated and they find it very difficult to relate with the class.

Placements

The third and most important thing is about placements. There is a common perception among freshers that companies on campus generally prefer people with prior work experience and so they might not get an equal opportunity or will get shortlisted in those companies whose CTC is slightly lower.

Every coin has two sides. Similarly, in this case, freshers, besides all the aforementioned difficulties, can take all these problems in a very different way.

One thing which they have is the fresh energy which lacks in case of their experienced counterparts. This phase of education is almost the last part of formal education which the students pursue, and hence, a fresher should try to be a breath of fresh air in the class.

There are many activities which are organised apart from studies where they can showcase their acquired talent. B-schools lay great emphasis on the diversity of the batch, so every student gets a chance to learn from a very diverse set of people, and this provides a great opportunity for freshers to grab knowledge through peer learning.

Instead of getting intimidated by those with work experience, they should try to learn from their experience. Believe me, this one quality is often envied by work-ex guys. Through this story, my aim was to make everything crystal clear and to break the illusion that the grass is greener on the other side. If one finds the right way to channelise their energy, these 2 years could become memorable ones.

Amit Prabhakar

MBA As A Fresher vs MBA With Work Experience - Which Is A Better Option?