One of the most expected and common questions in an MBA interview is - Why MBA? While an MBA interview demands a cliched 'managerial' answer, the ulterior motives for pursuing an MBA are usually hidden. So why is it that a graduate or a working professional picks up her/his books and appears for exams like CAT?
Index: Why You Must NOT Get Demotivated By Your CAT Result
Seems like a fairly brain-dead question, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s November, CAT just got done, and if you did not want to do an MBA, what even are you doing on InsideIIM? Or even worse, if you’re already in an MBA program (like me) this might appear to be too little, too late. But there usually comes a time, either during your preparation to get into an MBA program or a few months into the program when you ask yourself, “Is this really worth it?” And it is a valid question! I wanted to take this time to emphasise what exactly an MBA program gives you, and what I feel you should aim to take away from the program.
Why MBA? And why not MBA just for….
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.
Why MBA? The most dreaded question in any MBA college interview. Different coaching institutes will offer you different advice. Some say be yourself and speak the truth, some will draft an answer for you and even how to present it. After hearing all these pieces of advice and giving a lot (LOT!!!) of interviews, I can give you a perspective, or at least a few pointers on how to approach this question.
Well, I see too many hearts break after CAT releases the scores. To be frank it hurts when you don’t perform as per your expectations but then that's life. The faster you accept it the more peace one gets and you get to improve yourself. Kudos to all those who scored well as per their expectations, as to other aspirants, this is a steep learning curve.
The biggest drawback of the Indian mentality is evaluating every decision with a pure tangible return on investment. Unfortunately, this also extends to the education system and the decisions we make related to education. MBA is the most prominent victim of this mentality. With even the B-Schools succumbing to this undeterred Indian mentality by making placement statistics their unique selling point and also inflating them using a lot of creativity, it has become a norm to look at the MBA decision from the pure perspective of how much the starting salary will be after 2 years vis-a-vis what it is right now.
One of the most expected and common questions in an MBA interview is - Why MBA? While an MBA interview demands a cliched 'managerial' answer, the ulterior motives for pursuing an MBA are usually hidden. So why is it that a graduate or a working professional picks up her/his books and appears for exams like CAT?
Index: Why You Must NOT Get Demotivated By Your CAT Result
Seems like a fairly brain-dead question, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s November, CAT just got done, and if you did not want to do an MBA, what even are you doing on InsideIIM? Or even worse, if you’re already in an MBA program (like me) this might appear to be too little, too late. But there usually comes a time, either during your preparation to get into an MBA program or a few months into the program when you ask yourself, “Is this really worth it?” And it is a valid question! I wanted to take this time to emphasise what exactly an MBA program gives you, and what I feel you should aim to take away from the program.
Why MBA? And why not MBA just for….
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.
Why MBA? The most dreaded question in any MBA college interview. Different coaching institutes will offer you different advice. Some say be yourself and speak the truth, some will draft an answer for you and even how to present it. After hearing all these pieces of advice and giving a lot (LOT!!!) of interviews, I can give you a perspective, or at least a few pointers on how to approach this question.
Well, I see too many hearts break after CAT releases the scores. To be frank it hurts when you don’t perform as per your expectations but then that's life. The faster you accept it the more peace one gets and you get to improve yourself. Kudos to all those who scored well as per their expectations, as to other aspirants, this is a steep learning curve.
The biggest drawback of the Indian mentality is evaluating every decision with a pure tangible return on investment. Unfortunately, this also extends to the education system and the decisions we make related to education. MBA is the most prominent victim of this mentality. With even the B-Schools succumbing to this undeterred Indian mentality by making placement statistics their unique selling point and also inflating them using a lot of creativity, it has become a norm to look at the MBA decision from the pure perspective of how much the starting salary will be after 2 years vis-a-vis what it is right now.
