“What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it.” -Salvador Dali.
Confusion when best-evaluated results in better decision-making process.
We probably don’t need to tell everyone this, but a lot of prospective students don’t know what they are going to majorly opt for in college, while others pick a major but do so half-heartedly and later change their minds.
MBA is open to all and welcomes every student from all backgrounds. It is not only limited to commerce background.
Many students successfully pursue two careers at once. It depends on how much control they have and what is their main focus. If not, people still can follow their dreams after graduation if the field chosen does not depend on another degree. Choosing an appropriate field after graduation is always considered an important and difficult decision in a student’s life. For instance, students do pursue an MBA after doing B.TECH. or any other course. There’s no shortcut to it if they want to pursue a degree in MBA to be a future manager. Whereas if photography is your area of interest, you can successfully continue developing your skills while doing a job.
Students are always advised to get into a field that adds to their interest while also being somehow related to the degree they’ve already completed. For instance, many English Literature graduates easily move to marketing, advertising, or public relations without much difficulty. An engineer can move to industrial design as a change to a creative career. So a close evaluation is required about the new area you’re going to select.
It requires a lot of courage, enthusiasm, and dedication to get into a new different field and make a career in it.
After choosing the field, the last and the main task comes into the picture of choosing the right area of specialization for themselves. Choosing the right domain is a very crucial stage on which students’ whole career depends.
As we know, Master’s in Business Administration provides a student a choice between various domains like Finance, Marketing, Human Resource, Business Analytics, Operations, and many more.
After getting into an MBA college, students get an opportunity to choose their interest of domain for themselves because where there is an interest of work, there comes the utmost dedication and motivation to achieve our goals. A Master’s degree is considered to be the most diverse field consisting of diversified fields.
This helps the interested students to identify the best available option for them, to learn more about the majors offered and stick to them for great and better results.
As a student, I made multiple decisions and choices to direct myself toward my goals. The decisions made during student life are very crucial. A decision can lead you towards the goal or away from it. I took multiple decisions which proved to be either effective or less effective. Generally, everyone puts an effort to make the right decision. The concept of decision or choice-making is logical, and various scholars define it in multiple ways.
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” Henry Ford
“I don’t believe in taking right decisions. I take decision and then make them right”
Ratan Naval Tata
I was a student of a humanity background. And I had a dream to join the Corporate World. I was wondering about the ways to join it. Then I came to know about the Master of Business Administration. Initially, I thought that only the students of science background or commerce background apply to it. But after going through the eligibility criteria, I was ensured that humanity background students can also apply. Now the next thing was to get admission to the best Business school. Eventually, I had information about Common Admission Test and other tests taken by the Business Schools individually.
I had applied for the Common Admission Test-2021 and for other admission tests conducted by various Business Schools. One of them was ICFAI Business School Aptitude Test-2021 commonly known as IBSAT. ICFAI Business School Aptitude test offered me admission to one of its nine campuses across India on the basis of merit.
After the entrance exam, my result was declared, and I qualified for admission to three Business Schools. But I have to choose one of these schools. So, I was looking forward to meet the students of these B-schools and their alumni. I asked them about faculties, environment, and general or special facilities, placements scenario. And most of them helped me a lot in making a choice based on their reviews and recommendations.
After a brief discussion about all these three Business Schools, I was sure to join ICFAI Business School. It is not the end of choices and decisions. I had to fill in the campus preferences among their nine campuses. I choose Gurgaon as my first preference, Jaipur, Mumbai, Bangalore, Dehradun, and so on. Fortunately, the administration allotted me the Gurgaon campus on a merit base.
Now it is time to assess my decision of deciding this campus of ICFAI Business School. In the first few weeks, I was confident that this is the best Business School which I was waiting for. I admire the culture of this campus and the facilities I get, such as campus size with a large playground, Wi-Fi coverage, digital access to the library, smart classes, mentoring sessions, modernized computer lab, etc.
These are the essential facilities for me including their learning environment having curricular and extracurricular activities. It offers multiple cells of different domains, and I may choose any one of the cells best to enhance my personality, communication skills and knowledge through participation in various events.
Now, I can say that I got more than what I was expecting from a Business School. Moreover, the Personality development program, English language proficiency workshop, one-on-one mentoring sessions, guest lectures, mock interviews for placements, and special classes for relevant software or tools are a cherry on the top.
I also get to know that ICFAI Business School also provides a 14-week summer internship program, at least one certification course related to domain, formal visits to multiple organizations, and many more. The overall working structure of ICFAI Business School is student-oriented in reality. It diligently focuses upon the needs and requirements of the corporate world regularly and delivers the same by preparing every student in multiple aspects.
Therefore, I can say that I got more than my expectations, and my choice has proven to be the right choice. I believe this B-school will help me to get a placement in a well-deserved organization and make my dream come true.
“Most of the world will make decisions by either guessing or using their gut. They will either be lucky or wrong.” – Suhail Doshi, Chief Executive Officer, Mixpanel
“Data is raw information provided by or to a user. Analysis of that data and making conclusions out of it is simply termed as Analytics”.
Data Analytics is the process of pulling out raw data or information, cleaning it, transforming it, and finally putting in front, the meaning out of it. Data is indeed everywhere, anywhere you look will consist of a particular data and those who know how to handle it are in a very powerful position. Top CEOs and Entrepreneurs from around the world have emerged as successful because they have mastered the art of handling data and using them for raising wealth.
Technological development has seen a boom and is keeping up today by developing new software, hardware, and applications to make meaningful insights and provide better solutions to consumers. After COVID in 2020, the rise of technology was seen around the world and especially in India.
With the rise of start-ups in India after the lockdown, a trend of the rise of data analysts too has been observed. With time to time and innovation, Data Analytics has developed into a wide aspect of all branches and sectors in the development industry.
So why Data Analytics is important? The answer can be given in a very easy way. Data Analysis helps in reducing extra efficiency required in a business and boosts its productivity and growth. It has shaped every sector and industry be its IT companies, school, colleges, telecom, airlines, medical, or any other. Different companies have also created business models that focus on cost reduction and also doing good business along with storing large data sets. Nowadays, in the services sector, there is a tremendous increase in data analytics jobs all over as new facilities or start-ups are coming up together.
In Education sector also, students are being taught the course of Data Analytics and its importance. Especially in management colleges, the students are being trained in analytical tools like Excel, Power BI, Tableau, Quicksight, and Alteryx, and software like R and Python.
Management colleges like ICFAI Business School or IBS have been successful in making students learn about data analytics from the very first year in their Master in Business Administration (MBA) or Post Graduate Program in Management (PGPM). In the 1st year, students are taught the subject of Business Analytics, and later on, in the 2nd year, IBS offers Analytics as a minor subject along with major subjects like Finance, Marketing, and Human Resources (HR).
Now let us understand, how data is collected and processed. There are a few steps before raw data is converted to meaningful information.
Data Requirement: Why is this data important? Is there any usefulness after the data is transformed? We need to answer these questions first before collecting any form of data.
Data Collection: After knowing why data is required, it’s time to collect the data from sources. Sources can include case studies, interviews, surveys, questionnaires, direct observation, and focus groups. We have to make sure to organize the collected data for analysis.
Data Cleaning: Not all types of data we collect will be useful, so we need to clean them first. In this process, we need to remove any sort of white spaces, duplicate records, and basic errors like unorganized dates, columns, or headers. Data cleaning is mandatory before sending the information to the next level for analysis.
Data Visualization: Data visualization is a new way of saying, “graphically show your information in a way that even a layman can read and understand it.” We need to put the analyzed report using charts, pivot tables, bullet points, or a host of other methods.
Visualization helps us derive valuable insights by helping and comparing datasets along with observing relationships.
Data Analysis: Here we are required to analyze the data loaded after it is been cleaned and then load it using the Data analysis tools including Excel, Python, R, Looker, Rapid Miner, Metabase, Redash, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Alteryx, and many more.
Data Interpretation: Now that we have our results, we need to interpret them and come up with the best courses of action, based on our findings.
Coming to the next part is what are the type of data analysis that is generally involved in a dataset. There are four major types of data analysis methods:
Descriptive Analysis: Whether the data type or dataset is describing something. An example can be, are sales good or bad for this month as compared to the previous month? Are there any sales metrics that have gone up?
Diagnostic Analysis: Diagnostic analysis focuses on the data which tells why an event occurred and it requires a huge number of diverse datasets. An example can be, why there is so much increase in population.
Predictive Analysis: Predictive analysis forecasts future events or what is going to happen in the future. For example, forecasting a product’s sales.
Prescriptive Analysis: It suggests more of a course of action that will occur. An example can be an investment in stocks.
After discussing the types of data analysis involved, let us look at the types of Data Analytics Tools involved in processing data.
In earlier times, a dataset was processed majorly in the form of spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel. But now due to rapid increase in technology and innovation, there has been the rise of new data analytics tools in the market. Some notable mentions can be of Python which helps in transforming raw datasets and programs into feasible data. R is used for statistical analysis and graph modeling. Data can be visualized using tools like Power BI and Tableau where reports are generated and results are distributed on dashboards. SAS is an analytical platform tool used for data mining, whereas Apache Spark is used for processing large datasets. Now, there are many more tools and technologies available in the market which furthermore enhances the skills of an individual. Hence, in a nutshell, we can conclude the fact that data analytics is the new generation future of data gathering. Data Analytics is ready to change the future and the outlook that people used to have in organizations or either as an individual also. It is responsible to shape the generation of data to come.
In this ever-changing world, one has to do too many things to get an edge over peers.
Management courses are becoming a necessity for students to understand the knowledge of the market and the economy. Most large corporations ensure that their employees have a certain management credential to their name.
There are a lot of students who opt for various master’s programs after working in various industries just to add a feather to their cap. However, there is a journey that a student lives while being in a master’s college to a professional in the corporate world.
In this blog, I’ll take you through certain points to remember while in college so as to get the most out of your master’s. Being from a non-commerce background, the PGPM journey has been truly special for me. IBS Gurgaon has helped me a lot in developing my true potential. I am making these points from my own experience as a PGPM student at ICFAI Business School.
IBS was established in 1995 and since then it has nurtured many students’ dreams. The college offers a variety of management courses from marketing to finance with an army of faculty working round the clock and mentoring each student.
Do’s of a Master’s program:
1. Patience
2. Internships
3. Career over job
4. Discipline
5. Calendar
6. Responsibility
Don’ts of a Master’s Programme:
1. Attendance
2. Late submissions
3. Missing out on college activities
4. Lectures
Further let’s discuss each point one by one.
Do’s of a master’s program
In this section, we will explore these points so that students can have an outlook on college life in masters.
● Patience
It is a point not a lot of people talk about. Post-graduation differs a lot from graduation. It is a new experience for students as there is a lot of diversity in terms of educational backgrounds. Numerous activities are happening in college regularly, guest lectures, seminars, classes, and so many other things, and sometimes trusting the process is all you can do.
It might seem like a lot initially, but its purpose is to prepare you for all that life has to offer. Be patient and learn to adapt to new adventures.
● Internships
IBS offers a variety of internships to its students in addition to the help of online certifications. While pursuing your master’s make sure that you register yourself in the certification relevant to your subjects to attain a practical understanding of the courses.
Internships help you understand the functioning of corporates and a clear perspective for choosing your idol career.
● Career Over Job
One of my professors at IBS Gurgaon told me to always look for long-term opportunities rather than get short-sighted by jumping onto anything that just doesn’t help me in the longer run. Yes, placements are the most crucial part of a management college however we must always look forward to making a career. Look for opportunities that help you elevate your skills and develop you altogether.
Jobs might not be steady but a piece of strong domain knowledge is, to get the most out of the experiences with the professionals you connect with to acquire perspective.
● Discipline
One wise man said, “You cannot be motivated every day and that is why you need to be disciplined.” Post-graduation requires a great amount of discipline to take the most of it. With academics, other activities help students develop soft skills as well as a sense of accomplishment after every successful event.
● Calendar
Maintaining a calendar is crucial for post-graduation. It allows you to meet all the project and activity deadlines. It assists you with all the tasks and you don’t get in a situation where you are unaware of any maneuvers.
It also gives you time for yourself so that you can spare time to enjoy the things you like doing. It organizes your tasks keeping your stress away.
● Responsibility
IBS has numerous cells and clubs to enhance students’ skills. With various undertakings, students create a path to new opportunities for themselves. Don’t be afraid to take up additional responsibilities as it allows you to manage your time in the best way possible. It also helps in brushing up your skills regularly. It provides you with a certain confidence in yourself.
There are minor things that students tend to overlook constituting major stress later on. Let’s explore what you need to be careful about while pursuing your post-graduation in management.
● Attendance
Many students tend to not keep an eye on their presence in college, being present in class has a lot of benefits. Professors discuss many instances while teaching that help in gaining an understanding of various industries. Just being attentive in class is individually beneficial to students.
● Late Submissions
Always be aware of the tasks that are being assigned to you, whether it be reports, presentations, or speeches, refrain from late submissions as it does not give a good impression of your work ethic. Keep a track of time with the tasks you’ve been assigned. Use a calendar to organize your submissions.
● Missing out
IBS offers a lot of extracurricular activities and it truly helps me live my best college life. Always take up on various non-academic things that come along the way. These help you in forming new connections with like-minded people and get a grasp of knowledge while having fun.
● Lectures
There are various guest lectures in IBS that allowed me to comprehend numerous industry leaders. I gained a clear perspective of my goals and the steps to achieve them.
Make sure you interact with the guests and ask questions with an intent to learn and I promise you will get to know something new every single time.
With a lot of sleepless nights while catching up with college comes a sense of fulfillment and achievement. I hope that with these pointers you will gain the most out of your college life. Although it is crucial to get wise to the fact, make sure you are having fun.
Human interaction is the key to how others perceive us, and we all, at no points of time should undervalue the importance of social etiquettes. Be it our workspace or personal space, soft skills prove to the blueprint of our sincerity. It becomes a very intricate area of our personality. To grow as a professional or as a person, we need to inculcate social attributes which make our presence more refined. From saying a ‘hello’ to an end of a conversation, we come across a plethora of instances where our body communicates much more than our words. To be able to notify these areas and highlight them along the journey, frames the basis of the personality. To this, soft skills, just as the social nature of a human cannot be eradicated, hence, a lot of focus goes into developing good and amicable skills. As highlighted above the worthiness of soft skills, we are acquainted with it from the very beginning of our course at IBS.
Let us now talk about how this domain plays an important role in our workspaces. We reflect how and what we are, irrespective of where and with whom we are! In our workspaces where we spend more than 50% of our time, it becomes naturally important to be very cautious of our interpersonal skills. Furthermore, our attitude and behavior drive not only our personality but also our productivity at work. With the right knowledge to respond to things, and most importantly how to respond becomes equally critical either with colleagues or our bosses. To maintain the right rapport with the immediate people, soft skills become an integral part to incorporate within ourselves, also, it attracts people with whom we resonate the most. Soft skills don’t only restrict themselves to personality or communication, it also has varied aspects to them which notably enrich us all in a lot more ways than one. Soft skills also reflect a great deal on leadership, interpersonal, and listening. This domain aids us in being more confident in our speech and organizing our work. This aspect of development makes a clear cut at our workplace when working on a common project, reflecting our clarity and focus. Listening is the next and very important aspect which we all tend to ignore with a mere glance to it. However, this is not the case to be followed. To alter this perspective, at IBS there are numerous in-class and out-class activities that gradually as the course progresses, make us good at listening.
Now we know the priority of soft skills has to shape our lives and their significance. At any B-school, a lot of effort goes into developing certain aspects of it. At IBS, we have dedicated faculties that solely look after our personality and grooming of students to make us not only corporate ready but to wholesomely develop our personality. Right from the start of our management course we are made to realize the criticality of soft skills in our lives and are given pieces of training on the same. Numbers of extempore are conducted to enhance verbal skills with all its attributes. At every step, we find our faculties with their round-the-clock assistance. When it comes to SIPs or placements, IBS has certified faculties, which excluding the regular faculties at IBS, train exclusively on our grooming and development. According to me, this forms one the most beneficial step for all of us in knowing and clearing the first gate to enter the professional world which with the right attitude builds on the crust of professionalism. For that, we need to be sound, attentive, and clear in our vision.
Coming down to my personal experience at IBS with enhancement in my soft skills, will take me to speak lengths about it. To share my journey of overcoming stage fear and developing communication skills was done right at the beginning of my induction course, where I had to participate voluntarily in a presentation. I was hesitant but somehow gathered the strength to join in the activity. Later in the day, I was able to prepare myself with all the guidelines given by my faculty to be taken care of. On the day of the presentation, surprisingly I was the first to go ahead with the same and deliver. This became the very first step I took toward eliminating my fear of public speaking. To my surprise, I was able to stand tall against my fears and set an example of a good presentation, and get appreciation from my faculty and peers. The journey which followed next was based on the confidence developed through this presentation. I would be forever grateful to my faculties who have time and again made us stand in front of the masses and assisted us in overcoming the barriers. Their guidance and support have remarkably helped me a lot during my summer internship program. I was able to resonate well with their teachings and imply the same when given professional space to work in. All the words of wisdom made more sense while living and experiencing those moments. The amount of self-confidence which has imbibed within me, has surely made me able to speak my thoughts with more clarity and objectivity, which of course were developed while learning in my soft skills sessions at IBS.
Exposure to the real world for management students is a must to get in hindsight of the expectations. Often, we don’t realize what we have incorporated in terms of knowledge and skills till the time we are made to face the real road to take on a charge. If I begin to start telling my journey of exposure gained at ICFAi Business School, it will take me longer than usual to describe the magnificently altering journey unleashed. So, I would like to talk about one of the USPs of my college, which is a 3-month extensive summer internship program. This forms our first major entry into corporate for the majority of the students. Therefore, the college ensures that students are given ample options across profiles to apply as per their interests. At IBS Gurgaon, the rigor starts showing when the companies start to come to the campus and begin with their processes which include two steps – Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI). The competitive spirit is what makes the college environment livelier. The institute ensures all its student undergoes certification course based on our preferred domain. IBS provides a variety of lists after thorough research of the industry’s needs and provides financial support to support and encourage all students to undertake the certifications. The Summer Internship Program was a gateway to enter into the corporate world filled with varied exposure, experience, knowledge, and so forth. The consistent efforts from our faculties in ensuring my growth, and development and not being stagnant were the key factors, that helped me in my retrospection on a week-on-week basis. The interaction between the faculty in charge and my company manager paved the way for my productive learning and journey toward distinction. I, nowhere in the tenure of my SIP felt unsupervised by both of my mentors.
At the initial stage of my PGPM program, I was confused about which domain specialization to opt for, whether HR or Marketing. But thanks to the 14- week SIP at IBS, which made me test my waters in finding a perfect line for my career. For any student, pivot study is important to them in terms of analysing their strengths and weaknesses. Till the moment we don’t understand the work and put in the execution of our knowledge, it gets difficult to be certain of our own choices and direction. Therefore, the 3 months of internship, were all about finding my interest and implementing the domain knowledge.
An organization provides a platform to set in action the learned skills during the first year of our course and refine the practical execution of the same. This is a very unique feature of my college which lets you gain industry insights and it’s working for 3 months before we finally make a successful career out of it, is what makes it differentiated from all other B-schools in the country. A platform of the real-world environment to experiment with all the theories and strategies learned in academics and find what best fits my observation is one of the most significant learning.
During my internship at Lava International Ltd., I learned about the work culture and clarity of thoughts about myself, by focusing on my strength, and weaknesses. Moreover, the internship offered me a vast networking opportunity. A clear vision of how to go about a strategy, and how to sort bottleneck and bloating situations in the daily work routine was made understood only after taking the situation in hand. I feel, that gradually I had developed a mindset that aligned itself towards the business generation for my company. It helped me to find the relevance which was required to connect the dots, intra- departmental and inter-departmental working and understand the working and connectivity to close the task undertaken. The internship has made me look back and see myself as a changed person starting right from my dressing sense, perspective, confidence, communication, and at last a mindset for generating business.
So, for the developments that we incur, we need our mentors/faculties right by our side to help us get through the tests. It is their years of knowledge and experiences which boost us to embark on our journey with a fresh mindset. They push us to achieve the best and help us in discovering our capabilities. I feel fortunate to have my faculties at IBS were always there to aid me in situations where at times, I’d found myself stuck. There around the clock availability had made me use the best of opportunities and prove my skills during my internship. With their presence, I was able to watch my next step and analyze it all with utmost ease.
The internship helped me understand the difference between writing an academic paper and writing a final report, followed by consequences to attain the desired outcome. The experience gave me more motivation and confidence to take up any challenge. There is undoubtedly a massive difference I see in myself before and post my internship program. Understanding the nitty-gritty of functional work to manage and take up decisions to a directional work had made me more aware of the business generation tactics and come at ease with its functionality. I cannot stress enough how important it is to give our best in our internships and be able to deliver our best to the organization. The little positive reinforcements are what made me go forward in my internship with the powerful support and trust entrusted to me by my college. All the hard work done during my internship along with the certification courses undertaken during the internship helps in refine my skills and makes my CV stand out from the rest of the crowd!
“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow” -Ralph Waldo Emerson.
With this mindset, IBS leaves no stone unturned in getting the best possible efforts for their students, and from those, one is Guest Lectures at IBS, which has been esteemed for a long time.
IBS always looks for different opportunities, through which the students’ knowledge can get enriched and they get more insights into corporate apart from academics, as it promotes new perspectives and opinions which is usually not in the purview of the regular class. So, the college now and there always organizes different guest lectures from several fields so that students can be aware of every domain. Bringing different leaders as speakers from their specific expertise promotes initiative among students that could directly enhance two-way communication and through which students can get to know each other’s perspectives on different situations.
The speakers who address the students are from different domains like Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, and Analytics. The topics such as Investment Banking, Emotional Quotient, Leadership at an unprecedented time, PowerBI, Tableau, SQL, Digital Marketing, Big Data, Leadership Skills & Competencies, stepping into the future, Modern Branding Offline and Online, are covered by IBS for better comprehension and holistic development of our students.
IBS always looks for those speakers who have great; exposure to the corporate world. So, having those leaders as orators helps students strengthen skills like critical thinking, decision making, communication skills, etc. Guest lecture breaks monotony and updates student’s interest in career opportunities & career paths in new domains.
Knowing about a better future career sparks confidence and inspires students to prepare not only theoretical concepts; but also, in real situations, these concepts are not included in the syllabus. Guest lectures also help the students with networking skills by elaborating them the insights of it and how these skills can assist them in the future.
Students’ questions can be classified into two categories; one in the domain-specific query and the second, around corporate life. Recently, one guest lecture took place where one student asked about hedge funds and why there are fewer hedge funds available in India. Another student in a different guest lecture asked question related to Emotional Quotient that how one can improve his Emotional Intelligence so that one can be in a better situation with the emotion part during his corporate journey. These sorts of questions reflect the student’s mentality and eagerness to learn more.
The Expert can aid the individual in the particular field in which the student is thinking for their career. Inviting guest speakers is a new way to learn about a specific topic for the students in a unique way and open new doors for better career opportunities and growth prospects.
