While most of the interviews have been conducted and the remaining few will end by April for FMS, the anxiety of seeing yourself on the list of B-school converts will grow. It is natural, but at the same time, it is consuming. The profile you have now will be almost the same as the one that will be locked for the Summer Internship season. You can utilise the few months before upskilling yourself before the B-school journey starts. Here are our few recommendations on Upskilling Before MBA. Whether you are joining IIMs, FMS, XLRI, or Tier-2 management institutions, these courses/skills can help you during your 2 years:
1. Excel Needs Mastery
You cannot deny the use of Excel in your workplace and upcoming MBA life. If you are someone who hasn’t used Excel formulas in a long time, it would be better to learn again. It is the basics which many people tend to ignore and struggle with later. Here are a few of the recommendations:
| YT Playlist | Courses |
| Basics: SimpliLearn | Udemy |
| Intermediate: ExcelisFun
(Search by specific functions) |
LinkedIn (for the Premium Members) |
| Excel for Business | Coursera |
2. Designing Basics and Presentation Skills for Case Competitions and Classes
After the initial rounds at case competitions, you will be required to submit your solutions and ideas in a PPT. Case competitions are a crucial part of your MBA life and you will be required to fit your ideas in a few pages in a way that it stands out.
Additionally, classroom presentations will form a bigger part of your learning experience. You can try and practice Canva, Microsoft Tools, and Figma on your own for dummy business scenarios/ ad campaigns, or scroll through YT
How to make your communication better:
Honestly, there are courses for anything you type. And though a few Personal Branding and Networking courses can help you with a few tricks, the first step for enhancing your speaking skills should be yours.
- Remove the idea of hesitation and that people will be judging you. At a B-school no one will have time for you. All will be occupied with one or the other thing.
- Practice by summarizing texts and speaking in pointers,
- See your body language when you speak: Talk before a mirror and record yourself speaking.
- If you are someone who does not converse in English frequently, try it with your friends/ family/ peers.
3. Financial Modelling: A Course for every Domain
Although you might think Financial modeling is specific to people in finance, this skill will also be needed in consulting, general management, and sales and marketing roles. It can also prove to be an edge in the subject when you study/ certificate to add in your resume. You can learn the basics through this YT video (for a beginner with a non-fin background)
4. Data Analytics
Data Analytics is in demand, especially if you can learn to use it with AI tools. This, again is not specific to a particular role. A few of the top courses are:
If you are already familiar with tools like Python and Power BI, you should instead try on a few cases/examples/portfolios to brush up on your skills with YT Playlists:
Digital marketing courses: Sales and marketing enthusiasts can especially target the Google DM Course, Adwords, Hubspot, and Meta Suite learning to showcase work in online sales.
5. Additionally, learn to use AI in everyday life, leveraging it to increase your productivity.
During this period, you can also revisit your hobby, which can help you to be part of various clubs on campus that can add a few PoRs to your resume.
Should you invest your time in professional courses like CFA and FRM?
These will be specific to those who want to pursue their career purely in finance. These courses are professional and add much worth to your CV than the regular online learnings. However, these courses require in-depth financial knowledge and long-term commitment, even when you will be pursuing your MBA. MBA in itself is very hectic, and managing these alongside can become very difficult. But for someone who has weaker academics and is not a CA, these certifications can help you to be noticed by top finance recruiters.
6. Build your Master CV
Summer Preparations will begin as soon as you enter the campus. Life will be faster than you think, and juggling multiple things will cost you in one or the other. Before you join a campus, try to make a master CV,i.e., combining all your CV points and arranging for its proofs at a place. These need not be in a professional format as CV formats will be prescribed by placecoms and companies. Rathe,r make it like a directory of all your relevant achievements and subsequent proofs.
Please note that we have not endorsed any course/ resource. These are based on google reviews and recommendations.
Keep in mind that you do not need to do all of it. Stick to the basics and go ahead. Read a lot, distress before the 2 hustling years ahead, get your sleep and LinkedIn sorted :)
We will be sharing domain-wise upskilling and strategies to level up your MBA game soon!
Also Read-
- MBA Pre-requiste checklist
- B-School Starter Kit
- 5 things you should do before your MBA starts- from an IIM student.
- What is the brand value of IPL? How much are the teams and BCCI making?
- FMS Interview Resources
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