Importance of MBA Degree and its Future

Ask any MBA aspirant why he wants to do MBA and the answers follows in predictable lines and that is "Everyone wants to work in a multinational company and earn a fat salary, or is preparing for it since friends are into it". Few actually know what to expect from the profession. Almost everybody talks of a cousin or friend who has made it big in some company or the other.

It is no wonder that the average student and even people in other professions and jobs have caught the MBA bug. When making money has become the central objective of life, who wants to be stuck in a career that offers less? And the other reason is the tag which you get from the society when you say that "You are doing MBA".

Lack of information results in young people applying in hordes whether they have the aptitude or not, and the mushrooming of sub-standard institutes catering to the demand, which provide MBA degrees that can only be described as worthless. Very often, a person finds that the MBA degree does not get the promised job in the multinational and frustrations arise. Moreover, if every MBA were to be taken by the multinationals, who would work for the Indian companies, some of which are as good as, or even better, than any multinational?

Management education in the country can roughly be divided into three groups. At the top are the reputed institutes and some university departments which have maintained the high quality of their education. The second rung institutes are those started by industrial houses, which offer some surety of a job after the course. The third rungs are those institutes which have neither the advantage of low fees nor the backing of an industrial house. In recent times, a number of academics, retired people, politicians and others have started such institutes which remain essentially money making devices.

Not surprisingly, the sense of achievement in the MBA student is very high. The course becomes one huge ego trip. Many students do not spend as much time on their training as they should, thinking that the MBA stamp will take them through jobs. This is only partially true. No company takes a person for his label alone, but for what he can contribute. The MBA is chosen for his professionalism and his training, his skills and his ability to manage. The two years of training are therefore best spent in acquiring these skills.

There are institutes in the market who would like to hide their shortcomings in the form of collaborations with fancy sounding foreign universities and introduce exotic courses like yoga, spiritualism and "Eastern Management". Further frustrations of students arise when they see that these foreign degrees are not recognized in the Indian Market for Jobs.

One of the myths that students have is that they will become senior managers the moment they complete the MBA. Certain companies have found that expectations and ambitions of MBAs are difficult to meet and they have taken policy decisions not to hire fresh MBAs. Though the MBA is a coveted degree, it becomes important to keep a level head and keep one's expectations low. According to the hype, an MBA is a senior manager, but fresh MBAs are usually taken at the level of management trainees. Initially, some low and tedious work may have to be done.

If a student is not reconciled to this, frustrations are bound to arise. Job hopping is common, which ultimately hurts the career of the youngster. Further, the company too has its expectations from the management graduate to whom it is paying a high salary.

It would not be too early to say that the degree of MBA is becoming like a "Graduate Degree" where in every corner you would see a NEW MBA Institute offering MBA Degree. The importance of MBA degree has gone down considerable due the same and if you observe the Corporates are also not treating the MBA students the way they used to be treated in past decades.