As you have hit upon the ladder to the next level and among all other available options; MBA seems the most feasible and luring choice. Attractive packages, good job opportunities and exposure to the business world, prima facie everything appears hunky dory. But, before investing time and money, a complete evaluation is required to know the importance of these new three letters. Is MBA the right choice for you? Having the complete awareness helps one to contribute the most to the learning environment and thus creating the perfect blend of a degree and a career. Let us evaluate few questions for the complete understanding of MBA as a career goal.

1. Are you ready for the commitment?

Right from preparation of entrance exam to the two years in a B-school, MBA requires full commitment. Clear goals and objectives affirm the decision of pursuing MBA and there comes the commitment. Depending upon the choice of B-school for pursuing MBA, preparation for entrance requires sincere efforts and concentration. According to one of the famous book on Management, pursuing a career requires setting goals, prioritizing actions, keeping focus and creating realistic deadlines. It doesn’t end with cracking the entrance. The MBA is designed to equip students with pressurised corporate world providing in-depth knowledge of business and management. Commitment plays a major role here. Further in two-year course of MBA, it is required to complete a business project/internship to apply theoretical knowledge practically. Therefore, the complete program requires students to immerse themselves in thought-provoking environment for development of personal and professional skills.

2. Does the idea of being an entrepreneur fascinates you and so does MBA?

Entrepreneurs cannot be created out of thin air or by a degree. Yes, B-schools can certainly develop the entrepreneurial skills you have. Since business principles are useful in any field, MBA program is designed to coach the nitty-gritty of business. The syllabus includes majorly macro and micro economics, finance, accounting, marketing and human resources. These subjects provide the understanding of overall economy and thus giving the clear understanding of statistical data. Therefore, a MBA degree will familiarize you with basic business strategies and their application in organizations. Thus, will provide an upper hand in setting up a business but at the other side it is also essential to get the primary knowledge of key markets conducted around the world.

3. Alluring salary packages and top companies, Is this you are eyeing for?

No doubt, some top B-schools assure jobs and the relatively high packages. According to the past records of placements in various B-Schools, Highest package offered was of 1 Crore a year and the average package comes around 11.5-12 lakhs per annum in India.

However, the real value of a qualification is only evident over a period of time. The final day will fetch you job offers depending on the skill-set. MBA will help in developing the skills required by these companies. After the decision of pursuing MBA, looking for a B-school which will help you in developing these skills in long run is also required. No doubt, the packages will be higher but it depends on certain factors like the specialization, industry, location and ultimately narrows down to the capability of an individual.

4. Is this the right time in your career to look for MBA?

As said by a famous painter, Leonardo Da Vinci, “Learning never exhausts the mind” and thus mastering a field is enormous learning process. However, before taking a forward step towards it, analyzing your career goals and objectives is critical. Why you want to pursue MBA? For progress in your existing company, for better career opportunities or for specialization in business?

Although the answer to this question may not be right or wrong but the reason to it must be solid. According to the Philippe Oster, Communications, Admissions and Development Director for Duke University, the three major factors for deciding on the best time to apply for MBA are career progression, personal/market conditions and preparation.

MBA in India is an expensive affair Indeed, Investments are subjected to returns. It is also required to consider the inflation rate and market scenario after the end of MBA program. Therefore, assessing the market conditions, Job availability in key markets, offering packages growth of companies over a decade and returns over expenses is advisable.

5. Introspection is the true bliss

Best way to come to any conclusion is to analyse our own strengths and weaknesses. Regardless of all other queries, money tends to be the major prospective for choosing MBA. Keeping the attitude positive is must but there is no certain guarantee of landing into best package or job by doing MBA. To certain extent, it depends on your current position (career or job), skills and future possibilities. “Scrutinizing the merits and de-merits wisely is best advised before going for MBA”, says Jessee Robbins, MBA coach.

Anand, one of the brilliant students of engineering decided to pursue MBA. Like most of the others, high salary packages offered in MBA worked as his motivation. After cracking entrance with 97.6 percentile, Anand was more confident towards his goal. Moreover, he landed into one of the prime B-schools. But after spending a week in MBA classes, Anand realised that it is not his cup of tea. Besides, nothing interests him in classrooms teachings. Consequently, Anand has to drop out in between. If he has introspected before, time and money could have been saved.

Therefore, keeping a check on our inner self is no doubt a crucial exercise.

Having said that, every individual is not subjected to the same criteria or order of the questions answered for the evaluation. It is entirely depends on the decision of an Individual and thus, wisely making a choice would be considered apt. Complete evaluation of market and career options after MBA is necessary. Once you are firm on the decision of pursuing MBA, choosing a B-school and specialization can be researched on. MBA is a long term investment therefore knowing if MBA is the right choice will not only help in applications and choosing B-school but also help in making most of the opportunity once you are in.

Increasing competition and recent financial crisis have made the job hunting difficult. Potential employees continuously thrive for essential skills to keep them market ready and stable in job. Earlier, bachelor’s degree was sufficient to sail through but with the time, demand of master’s degree has been increased. As a result, undergraduates/graduates have started looking for career options after MBA.

According to studies, it has been shown that there has been increase in high number of Master’s courses. It is also found that a Master’s degree adds skills like creative/ analytical thinking, project management, problem solving as well as data analysis which are highly preferred by most of the top companies. Relatively, a Master’s degree is the key to advancement opportunities, career options and higher packages.

Most of the Companies prefer MBA graduates for executive roles. As a result, many graduates and professionals are taking MBA degree for career advancement and better opportunities. But, it is not an easy affair. MBA requires investment of time and money. Therefore, it is necessary to research and analyse career prospects available after MBA.

When asked to a top company that why do they recruit MBAs, the answer of HR was “We are looking for the 50,000-foot view — the strategic thinker who takes a logical approach.” Gone are those days when MBA was only considered for finance and consulting profession. Today, MBA has become the key qualifications for diverse positions in industry.   Why companies prefer MBAs remain a question in most of our minds. Well, companies while selecting a candidate look for certain skills which are part of MBA curriculum by the method of case-studies and internship projects. These skills include;

Critical Thinking

An MBA can analyse the financial status of the company but employers are not looking at the only aspect of an MBA graduate. How practically the numbers can be applied is preferred. Critical thinking allows one to evaluate and solve complex business situations and articulate the best solutions. According to one of the director of MBA program of International University, Case studies in MBA syllabus are based on real and current business situations which allow students to enhance their critical thinking ability.

Problem solving ability

Companies believe that an MBA graduate is able to frame questions, answer them, ask and collect related data. They are the problem solvers for any situation. They research, analyse and handle the complicated situations with solutions in hand. Although, a degree itself is not the guarantee but most of the MBA schools teaches these basics to excel at the management positions.

An MBA can expose you to diversified career opportunities. It includes roles in human resource management, strategic management, international business, operations management, etc. This degree program is designed to provide students with knowledge, skills and confidence to survive at executive and senior positions. To excel at these positions, companies expect one to have the expertise in the following areas:

1. Technical knowledge and understanding of how-to-do of a particular job
2. Conceptual ability to understand the relationship between each part of the company and as a whole
3. Human relations which includes understanding of people and effectively working among groups
4. Interpersonal Skills; communication skills, oral and written, effective listening and motivating attitude.

MBA graduates are hired in all areas like Sales and Marketing, General Management, Consulting, HR, Finance, Technology/IT and Research. According to studies, the average placements in top B-schools have been increased from the year 2012 to 2013. Also, in terms of packages, graduates are offered 20% higher salaries than their senior graduates.

Having considered the importance of MBA, it is also reasonable to perform a self-assessment. It is a critical step to give direction to your career. Self-assessment helps you to understand the importance of areas lead to career satisfaction. These areas are personality type, work values, priorities of life, career assessment, dream job, future growth and development. Since MBA is an investment of time and money, self-assessment plays a vital role in understanding your own needs in terms of career.

In addition to that, it also depends on the market stability and companies requirements. Economic conditions keeps on changing around the world and it is a must factor for job opportunities requiring MBA. For this reasons, being passive for a particular career path is not advisable. However, Looking at every aspect is necessary while choosing a career or degree.

In the Final analysis, MBA degree does improve your career prospects as it can open doors for management positions in diverse fields. Today, not only the finance sector but the industries like education, healthcare, consumer goods, NGOs are looking for MBA candidates. As an MBA graduate, you can think of all possible careers like banking, accounting, investment, marketing, consultancy for the supervisory roles. Furthermore, skill set required for management jobs like problem-solving, decision making, and critical thinking are practically explained in MBA studies. These skills add- on to excel at such roles.

In contrast of your starting career, a master’s degree can help you climb the ladder within your organization as well. It is considered to be one of the ways to gain promotions and hikes at the current organization. As a consequence, some of the companies also sponsor part time MBA for their employees. MBA remains a safe choice for both, whether professional or recent graduate. Therefore, MBA seems a wise choice when looking for advancement in career.

The battle between hard work and smart work has been going on since time eternal. We have witnessed a generation of our parents where hard work would make you shine and take you into a league which was unbeatable. How can we forget the times when we have been told innumerable times to concentrate on studies and ensure good marks, work hard for that is what defines our future. Friends and family will always be there. We grow up to believe it to be true and continue working harder and harder not thinking for a moment that what they are sharing is age old gyaan while the truth today is different. With the rise in technology and other developments around us the world has become very competitive due to which now the hard work has to be replaced by smart work leading to better optimum results.

In today’s times everything is instant. Instant food, instant love, instant friendships, instant makeovers with everything available at the click of a button from shopping to recharge to travel to education. It has its own pros as it makes life simpler for one and all. It brings together the world closer deleting the distances in a matter of seconds.

But on the other hand it also means one thing that the knowledge that is readily available online is also approachable to all those hundreds of people around you. With the stringent competitive atmosphere, it is very imperative for each one to make a cut and stand out amongst them. What will make one stand out is the way one will perceive the available information and present it in a form that stands out amongst the crowd.

A student might be very hard working and be able to by heart everything that is in the syllabus which will ensure perfect scores in the examination. But then that is what perhaps every other intelligent and hardworking student will do in the examination. What will set you apart? Some smart work for e.g. some diagrams, flow charts, illustrations etc will set those answers apart and make them stand out. And that is the best example of smart work.

Hard work

• Lengthier approach
• Sets the base for you as a human being in terms of learning

It is imperative that this is the way one should begin the journey of life. For this helps us create a base in terms of learning that entire one could about life. But there are many aspects where sheer hard work will not suffice for there is constant learning that is needed and in such cases only hard work doesn’t suffice. If you need to master something you need a lot of time and put in lot of hard work to be able to be called the master of that thing.

Smart work

• Shorter duration
• Makes you learn the shortcuts of it and still enables you to learn the tricks of the trade

Every individual in today’s times needs to know the difference between the two and also the important of being able to do smart work. It not only saves your time but also increases the accuracy in terms of performance. It is happens that after constant hard work when one doesn’t get the desired results one tends to get frustrated. At such times the only thing that comes to the rescue is smart work.

Apart from being intelligent these days the much sought after quality in an efficient worker is being proactive and that is a sign of a smart worker. And it is this proactiveness that will set that smart worker apart from a hard worker.

Technically it is not possible for one to be able to maintain a balance between the both. It is a hard worker who can become a smart worker because that is when they are able to see the various ways of doing the same thing in a better manner, more quickly and in lesser time. It is like gaining experience before hand and then trying to device new ways to sharpen that experience.

Worldly around it is appreciated that an individual is a smart worker rather than being a hard worker. As it is usually said in the corporate lingo, not knowing something is absolutely fine as long as you have the knack of knowing how to get the work done from whom. For that is when the performance remains unaffected. Smart workers usually end up being good managers because they are not only able to identify the work patterns but also gather a team depending on every one’s capabilities and ensure optimum output from the available resources.

In day to day work it might happen that you might make mistakes resulting into lot of goof ups. The trait of a smart worker is when you are able to find a solution before the damage becomes irreparable. The moment a mistake is made the reflexes should act quickly making you think of all the possible repercussions and also make you think of the ways you can avoid collateral damage because of the same. After all at the end of the day we are all human who are bound to make mistakes.

Being a smart worker means the ability to use your creative side more than anything else. For if you know that the way to solve this problem is a 5 step method, a smart worker will try to find out a 3 step method. He will not only save time in this way but also the energy put in the other two extra steps which now can be used in something more productive.

In the journey of a hard worker to becoming a smart worker once you begin to taste the success you will keep pushing yourself to keep coming up with smarter ways to do things and enjoying the pleasures it brings along with it.