Pursue MBA? Why?
One truth about the pace of life is that once you hit the career treadmill, there is no time to ponder on much else. Philosophers of today point out the need to deliberately take a step back to make sure that the path undertaken leads to some end game. But let’s be honest, do we actually follow
the advice?
Just about every student is at the crossroads at some point in their life, where after nearly a decade of devoting to subjects you may not really care about, followed by what will be dubbed as the “best years” of your life (read college), the big question comes — what next. For many, it is sad, if the student does not already have a very well-structured answer to that. It’s terrible, but true.
Just before I could launch into what was supposed to be the “best years” of my life, MBA, which should go down in the history of education as the best advertised course of all times, was a popular choice. So, if science or math was not your jam, you could set your sight on that corporate corner office.
However, that was also the time when the first set of doubts about the MBA degree had come in. Teachers and professors were encouraging students to apply their minds to what jobs they saw themselves doing. This was coupled with the developments in the education sector where universities were actively looking at providing solutions that went beyond the graduation fields of arts, science and commerce. The University of Mumbai introduced graduation degrees in management and mass media as early as 2000, essentially saving a whole lot of students.
The Bachelors of Mass Media was designed to be part classroom and part industry project course. If you saw yourself as someone who could be part of the communication industry, there was no need to look any further. And if someone asked you if you were sure you wanted to enrol for a brand new course, the answer was — ‘but look at all the jobless MBA-ites today!’ Not many cared to argue beyond that. Thank God! Not to mention, three years bought to figure out ‘what next’.
The truth about graduation degrees that are this specific is that they land you in fields that can manifest into real career choices unless you want to pivot into something very different for personal or professional reasons. The pace of life picks up even more the moment you are in business, or rather, in a job. In my case, I was already doing what I loved doing and I was told I was not bad at it. Courtesy that, any plan of a post-graduation degree went on a long hold after that.
Jobs are not without their own equivalent of mid-life crisis. There will come a time when you ask, “Will I still be as relevant a few years from now?” Career life presents a second crossroads then — “how do you upgrade?” An MBA degree could well get you a corporate job, but at this juncture, you also have a body of work to show. I would say the choice is actually tougher at this point than in the earlier stages. The margin to make an error is reduced and there is a very acute understanding of what it means to be responsible for your decision.
I was blessed to be surrounded by some very wise people when I was asking myself some of these questions. One advice in particular was, “What would happen if Sachin Tendulkar asked himself: done batting, what next?” Sometimes such advice only reinforces what you already know. I don’t know if not pursuing a degree in MBA was being bold or being safe, but so far, it looks like I am exactly where I want to be, doing what I had hoped I would do.
