Why MBA, still a MYSTERY!

It was not that I always wanted to be an MBA, thanks to my aimless perspective about life, where my only aim used to be enjoying the present and hoping that things will somehow fall in place in future. But somehow a stage came during the second year of my engineering that most of my friends and colleagues started taking a call about their future plans post engineering. Some aimed at cracking the exams like GATE to pursue a career in the advanced technology side, some aimed to prepare for the IAS exams to build a career in the administrative services, some aimed at doing an MBA from one of the premier institutes of the country, some targeted a career in sports and consequently representing the state and the country in various sporting events, some were focused to get a job by the time they leave the college and work for one of the top IT company and some just relaxed with the prospects of continuing their family business. Amidst all this I was in a fix, that where do I fit in?

So I started introspecting myself against each of these probable career options. The very first alternative was cracking the GATE exam to do a post graduation in Advanced Technology, now for me this was the last option thanks to my excellent hate relationship with the technical subjects during my graduation. I hated the various theorems, formulas and laws more than I hated India losing to Pakistan in a cricket match, so this was out rightly out casted. The next alternative was to build a career in administrative services by cracking the IAS exams, but this wasn’t my forte either as I was never the one who can sit at a place and keep on cramming volumes of those boring stuffs, so this was also omitted immediately. Next on the list was to excel in a sport and pursue it as a career, though I was very interested in sports but certainly I was prudent enough to realize that I don’t have the skills to invest my time to pursue it as a career so this avenue was also closed. Another deadly alternative was to join a top IT firm and to kick start my career as a software engineer, but my poor track record in C++, JAVA and VB exams was not backing me up for this one either, infact the very thoughts of dbms_outputs, cins and couts sent shivers down my spinal cord and the only credit against my name in the world of programming and software was executing that ‘ HELLO WORLD’ program in C++, even that I couldn’t execute without 3-4 errors, so with this inglorious background and lack of interest I never stood a chance in this world either. Another luxurious alternative was to get into a business, but unfortunately I didn’t belong to a business background so I can’t even afford to think of these lines. So amidst also these rejected opportunities the only innocuous alternative which remained was that of aiming for an MBA from one of the premier institutes of the country. I have also heard that you need not be a geek to do well in MBA entrance exams, neither you need to cram huge volumes of boring study materials and nor you need to write those deadly C++ or JAVA codesJ. All you need is some decent command over the English language, a fairly decent comfort level with numbers and a comfort level to speak in front of a group of people. And naturally I fell for this option, as I found all the eligibility criterions matching my not so bright academic and carefree lifestyle. But very soon I realized that it wasn’t about just clearing those aptitude tests or solving those tricky puzzles or having a good reading speed complimented by a good vocabulary. You should also be very clear in your thought process about many other things too, like where do you see yourself 5 years down the line, which stream you want to pursue your managerial career in, what about your engineering skills and last but not the least WHY MBA?

At that point the answer to Why MBA was something like – ‘Since by the virtue of my graduation in engineering I have already developed an analytical mind, so I want to use my analytical abilities to take managerial level decisions and help in the growth and development of the organization of which I am a part of, and this I can achieve only by the medium of a good MBA.’ Certainly it was not at all convincing and it also sounded highly dramatical but the search for the right answer to Why MBA was still on! Somehow I couldn’t get through a good MBA college by the end of my graduation so I have to adopt the most dreaded path of working for an IT company, but the desire to do an MBA was still on, so was the search for the elusive question Why MBA. This time around I tried to refine my answer and moulded it into something like – ‘Having had a flavor of the corporate world by working for one of the pioneers in the IT industry as a software engineer, I would like to take my learning’s and insight as a technical person to the next level and pursue a career as an decision making entity. And what other way to climb this corporate ladder faster than by doing an MBA from one of the best B- Schools in the country.’ Though I wasn’t pretty convinced with this answer either, as I personally found it as highly theatrical but somehow it clicked and I went on to get an admission in one of the best B- Schools of the nation but the quest for the perfect answer for Why MBA was still on. I was myself not sure about Why MBA even during my MBA course. Then came a time during the placements where my friends told me that being a lateral candidate the first question one faces is Why MBA when you were already amidst a promising career working for your previous firm. So the hunt for the right answer started all over again, this time I ended up with this one – ‘Since I have already had the taste of technical side of things, I would like to use my technical experience in combination with the functional knowledge I have gained during my MBA program and become a domain/functional expert and facilitate in the logical and efficient decision making in the organization.’ Probably this one was a new concept for the recruiters too and hence they roped me in. Lucky again!

Though the most honest and true answer to Why MBA which has come across my mind has been – ‘ To earn more money in less timeJ’ But on a serious note somehow I am still searching that perfect answer for Why MBA, which has irked me for years now. Though the answers I have found and formed at various stages have more often than not worked for me practically but the chase for the really satisfying answer is still on.I have even asked the expert tutors at various MBA coaching institutes but the answer they have given me every time has been that - 'It's subjective from person to person, one can't have a generalized answer for this one', may be they are right but I have always believed that even they don't know a perfect answer for this one, hence this round and round gyaanJ Alas, but if the college teachers and the company HRs come to know the fact that the answer to that question which they asked me while selecting me was a made up one and not the honest one, I will for surely lose both my MBA degree and the offer letter and will be forced to contemplate on the one of the 6-7 possible alternatives I was pondering upon during my engineering days all over again. So till the time I don’t get the perfect answer for this mysterious question, it’s better to satiate the desire for Why MBA by answering it simply by Why not MBA:)

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