Do you constantly feel that you were made for better things in life? That you are constantly underachieving? Do you wake up every single morning, feeling...? Just knowing that you can do a better job than your boss? If only you were equipped with the right tools, do you think that you can put other high fliers in your company to shame? No... I’m not paraphrasing the opening sequence of the movie - Wanted, before the dorky McAvoy was courted by a bad-ass Angelina Jolie… If you nodded your head in the affirmative for the questions, maybe it’s time you considered an MBA, and thereby moved up the value chain.
There’s never a perfect time to get an MBA, just like tying the knot or getting your butt kicked by the town bully.However there are a few factors that might positively influence your application. Like experience and versatility.
Right now, there might be a few, make that quite a lot, of people who are second guessing their earlier decision to enter the MBA rat race. With the recession not quite bottomed out yet, it’s hard to refute their concerns.
Look on the bright side though. When the business world gets mauled beyond recognition, you are safe within the confines of a school environment. It’s similar to a ringside view with live commentary in a boxingmatch. You watch the rank novice getting bashed up, again and again and yet again. Someone suddenly suggests that the newcomer should have acted in such a way. Someone contends that opinion. People analyze the reasons for the collapse and so on. The learning opportunities are endless.
Many students rely on loans in order to get through b-school. With the current scenario, the interest rates have skydived. Perfect time to pick up a loan. The only issue with this being that, it might be tougher to find some institution willing enough to loan you the amount you need. If you can procure a loan in the country where you plan to do your MBA, it would also negate the effect of exchange rate fluctuations that could occur as a result of the economic upheavals that we are witnessing now.
By the time you’d have graduated, i.e., in a year or two, major restructuring processes would have been underway in a huge majority of companies. This will invariably open up quite a lot of great opportunities for many a smart and agile professional.
But as the saying goes… you can’t punch someone, without expecting a punch back in return. There’s the big risk of leaving a good job, to pursue your management dreams. What if, the economy doesn’t recover in time (within a few years?) Will I have lost the one bird that I had in my hand?
Another doubt could be - how effective are these MBA degrees anyway? Aren’t these the same guys who brought about the unholy CDS troubles and the sub-prime crisis? Why would someone want to imbibe the same culture that brought about a global economic catastrophe?
There, you have it . Two sides of a coin.
To reassure you- it’s true that the harbingers of the crisis were top notch grads from esteemed b-schools. A crate of bad apples in a shipment could mean that the environment or the weather could’ve been bad- not necessarily that the apple orchard was non-conducive to nurturing. From what I’ve heard and have witnessed, a lot of B-schools are reorganizing their curriculum, changing the almost total emphasis on competition and wealth generation that has been pervasive till now. A B-school that changes with the times will in turn produce individuals who are much more connected to the society they live in. This surely cannot augur bad for the world community at large!
It seems to me that right now might be one of the best times to go ahead and earn some valuable business education. It’s a risk, of course. But then again, who has achieved anything by just walking on one side of the road? When the time comes to cross, cross you must, lest you get left behind.
