How does a specialized MBA offer you a better job prospect after B-school? Decodes Prof Biswas, Dean IMT Ghaziabad

The students can choose to specialize in Marketing, Finance, Operations, and HR and land up in roles like Brand managers, business analysts, Corporate bankers, Operations manager, HR generalists to name a few. 

How have these career options evolved today compared to earlier?

Over the years use and application of technology in various functions have enhanced. Cybersecurity, digital marketing, cloud computing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are the buzzwords of today, and we at IMT Ghaziabad have understood the importance of it fully & incorporated in our curriculum. 

To align the education with future jobs, what are some of the new courses you have launched to meet the industry demand?

To align our education with future job requirements, IMT Ghaziabad course curriculum has undergone a thorough revision. The new Program Structure was launched after receiving inputs from industry, alumni, graduating students, IMT faculty cohort, and other stakeholders.

Operations and supply chain management as a Major Stream was introduced earlier, and Business Analytics Major Stream has just been introduced. Teaching of the Core Electives in each Major Stream starts from the first year itself in the third trimester. 

Apart from this, three new electives have been introduced from this year - Behavioural Economics for Managers: The Leader as Decision Architect, Fintech (Blockchain, Crypto, ML/AI), and Digital Platform Business. Besides, Skill development workshops of 30 hours, compulsory for all students, have been introduced; these are Business Analytics, and Entrepreneurship & New Venture.  We also give emphasis to Design Thinking, which is an integral part of all our programs. 

How is the PGDM Finance course different from the PGDM BFS course?

PGDM - BFS course covers all the essential courses of Finance and in addition, it covers, in-depth, both traditional and contemporary courses such as Digital Banking Strategies, Digital Banking Marketing, Block chain application in Banking, Artificial Intelligence, and Fintech Risk Management Techniques.

The PGDM BFS stream is most suitable for students aspiring to join commercial banks and investment banks and to work as consultants in the banking domain, asset management companies, NBFCs, and others. It is more future oriented and puts emphasis on the world of tomorrow in the realm of Finance. 

You have a Dual Country Program in place for students looking for an international exposure. How does this help students getting an international outlook? 

Participants of the PGDM Dual County Program (DCP) have the unique opportunity of undertaking their coursework in two different countries, with a year each being spent at IMT Ghaziabad and IMT Dubai. The Dubai stint of the program is structured to provide the participants a unique immersive experience in a global work environment. The program participants undertake Summer Internships and participate in Industry connect activities, and are encouraged to actively network with the business community in Dubai in carrying out industry projects. The interactions with the culturally diverse workforce in Dubai with people from many nationalities working together in the same company provide the students an exposure to global work culture and international business practices. The active engagement with the industry helps the students contextualize the learnings from the classroom and actively prepare them for a global career. 

How should a student go about picking the ideal specialization/program for himself?

I think, the students should pick their ideal specialization based on their competence and aptitude.

The students who are in PGDM Marketing or PGDM Finance have marketing and finance as their major stream respectively and can opt for any other minor stream. Their major steams are pre-decided from the time they get enrolled in the program itself. On the other hand, PGDM FullTime and PGDM (DCP) students choose their respective major streams based on their competence, aptitude, and interest after the completion of Trimester 1 and their respective minor stream almost towards the end of the first year, before commencing their summer internship assignments. These students have the option to change their major stream after completion of their summer internship projects. The faculty also guide the students to choose appropriate specialization.

How important is specialization in today's generalist world?

Functional expertise has traditionally been considered a pre-requisite for domain-specific careers. IMT program architecture allows the students who intend to pursue such career options to Major in functional areas like Marketing, Finance, Operations, and HR. The resounding career success of many IMT Ghaziabad alumni is testimony to this traditional wisdom of functional specializations. The program structure has evolved over the years and now provides more flexibility to the students who now have the option of choosing a Major and Minor in two different functional specializations. However, the increasing popularity of areas like Business Analytics and Digital Marketing highlight the growing importance of multi-disciplinary expertise and keeping track of contemporary trends. In line with this, IMT Ghaziabad has introduced a new Major stream on Business Analytics from the current academic year. Further, IMT Ghaziabad has introduced inter-disciplinary electives like Behavioral Economics, Digital Platform Business, and FinTech which allow the students to think beyond the traditional option of jobs embedded in the functional areas alone. This unique blend of specializations allows the students to mould themselves as a generalist, specialist, or super-specialist based on their interests and current industry trends.

Another unique feature of IMT Ghaziabad is its focus on sustainability across the programs. We have ‘Sustainability and Social Responsibility’ as a core course which is essentially experiential learning and in tune with Responsible Management Education as defined by the United Nations.

Where do alumni from these programs go on to work?

Our alumni go to work in top-rated diverse set of companies such as Amazon, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Reliance Industries, Cognizant, Mahindra and Mahindra, EY, Flipkart, ITC, McKinsey, Nestle, HUL, PepsiCo, Infosys, Cisco, L&T, Google, Airtel, Accenture Strategy, ICICI Bank, Wipro, HSBC, RBS, just to name a few.

The alumni network consists of over 300+ C-Suite executives including several Industry Leaders and stands testament to IMT Ghaziabad’s legacy as an Industry Leader in Management Education. Some of IMT Ghaziabad’s successful alumni include Mr. Prasoon Joshi (CEO, McCann world Group), Mr. Sumeet Narang (President, Bajaj Auto) and Mr. T Kochy George (CMO, Marico). These names speak volumes about the pedagogy that we follow at IMT and the strong network that we have at place. 

Overall, what doors does an MBA degree from IMT Ghaziabad open up for students in their careers?

IMT Ghaziabad’s Programs offer multifaceted grooming processes to its students with a perfect mix of knowledge and experiential learning combined with exposure to real business. Multiple scopes for student-driven activities allow the students to build up capabilities to excel in a complex and challenging business world. This is the real value of a PGDM degree from IMT Ghaziabad to the prospective students which equips them to excel as leaders in areas of their choice. 

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