Benefits Of Work Experience For MBA Students

What sets MBA apart from other degrees is the fact that it is a confluence of people from varied professions. The best of engineers, lawyers and graduates from different backgrounds pursue MBA in order to progress in their respective fields. While this puts tremendous pressure on the students competing for a seat, it also ensures that the parameters on which your admission to a particular institution is determined are judged very strictly.

As most of us are well aware, work experience is one such criteria for admission to B-schools in India as well as abroad. However, most people take it to be an additional cut-off that is incorporated only to make matters more complicated for the students. This is from being true.

Benefits Of Work Experience For MBA Students

There is a reason for everything that has to do with B-school admissions and the same has been expertly crafted by academic experts. Having prior experience helps students pursuing a master's degree in management make the most of the learning that is imparted within the four walls of the classroom.

To understand the benefits of work experience in the study of MBA, here is a list.

1. Understanding The World Of Business

No matter how academically sound one is, it is virtually impossible for a person to understand the business scene unless and until they are actually part of the same. Management is not a theoretical subject and a major part of the same goes into establishing good public relations.

This is something that comes only with experience. That is why it is an absolute must that one has two to three years of experience before pursuing a master's degree in business administration.

2. Difference In Placement

Following your MBA, it is obviously expected that you will be seeking a job. For most of the top-notch colleges the profiles that are offered to an experienced candidate are much better than those offered to a fresher. (This is also true when both the candidates have similar academic records).

In fact, some institutes have noted that even when both the experienced and the inexperienced candidates are offered the same profile in a said company, the compensation package that is offered to the candidate with experience is far superior to that of his lesser experienced counterpart.

Thus, even if you somehow make it to the management college of your choice without having prior experience, if you really want to shine after your degree, you do need some experience prior to pursuing the same.

3. The Correct Years Of Experience

Any experience that is less than a year does not count as valid experience. This is because it is a well-known fact that in any organisation an employee takes the first year in merely understanding the work process and the relevant responsibilities. It is only in the second year that they take up the actual responsibilities.

Thus, for a basic MBA program, work experience of at least two to three years is desirable. The executive MBA program is one where the focus is on the more advanced, high-end management concepts. Thus, for this course one needs to have a minimum experience of five years to be able to grasp the concepts well.

4. Relevant Experience

Merely having a certain number of years added to your resume will not do you any good if you are planning for an MBA course. These days it is very common for somebody who has a degree in civil engineering to be working in the IT industry or vice versa. If you are one such person, this type of experience will not take you anywhere.

To make the most of your MBA learnings, what you need is experience in your field of study. That way you will know the magnitude of each managerial problem that you encounter in your path and will understand how to tackle it better with the managerial concepts taught to you.

5. Better Performance In Internships

For any MBA degree, internships are an absolute must. While this is no doubt important from an academic perspective, what is equally important is the fact that a good number of students rely on pre placement offers (PPOs) from the company they intern for. Now fresher students have a lesser probability of bagging such PPOs as compared to their more experienced counterparts.

This is because a fresher spends a major chunk of his internship period trying to understand how the company works. An experienced candidate is well-versed in this and from their first day they make it a point to dedicate all their time and efforts in completing the task that is allotted to them. Thus, experienced candidates perform better in internships and consequently end up with better jobs.

6. Ability To Connect The Dots

Irrespective of the profile one worked in or their field of study, when someone goes to the office it is obvious that they will encounter some problems. While some of these problems may be of technical nature, there are a lot of problems which will be simply managerial. A person who is well-versed with the real-world problems will be able to not just understand the concepts but also be able to apply the same in seeking solutions.

A fresher on the other hand has no idea of what the problems may be. Thus, when the same managerial concepts are taught to them, their approach to the same will be way more bookish in nature. To avoid such a thing from happening, it is always better to have prior experience before trying to learn management.