An MBA is a way to great success but the wannabe entrepreneurs must ensure that they get their business fundamentals right..
An MBA is sure passport to successful corporate career. It brings together students of diverse background in an intense, rigorous academic experience, usually for two years.
It has made entrepreneurs out of doctors, investment bankers out of arts graduates and soap marketers out of electronic engineers! It's popular mainly because of the career flexibility it allows you, the leadership mindset it inculcates, and the acceleration it provides in your career.
If you wish to rise in the corporate world, an MBA opens door to great exposure early in your career. If you wish to be an entrepreneur, it ensures that you will get your business fundamentals right.
In the information age, inter-relatedness is critical. No matter where your interests lie, be it technology, or trade, or the running enterprises, there is a web of information that you will operate in. So the mindset of one specialization and long steady career must be replaced by continuous learning - you must continually retool yourself to meet changing demand, must have a broader business picture and an ability to make business connections. An MBA programme equips one to achieve the same by providing a comprehensive learning across the range of streams it offers.
Marketing involves understanding customer needs and meeting them profitably. You might like marketing if you are curious about people, like analyzing data, enjoy traveling, meeting people and building a consensus. In broader sense it is getting people and business together.
Finance is concerned with the efficient use of an important component of business - money. One works on designing financial offerings to maximize the returns investor.
HR involves activity directed towards development of people in the organization, performing appraisals, employee counseling, employee training and employee motivation.
Systems would involve helping companies leverage technology to business value.
Operations is for those who are fond of processes and is important in manufacturing as well as service delivery. It also involves areas such as quality control and optimization.
The Common Admission Test (CAT), regarded by many as the toughest MBA entrance exam, is conducted by the IIMs for admissions to their Post-Graduate Programmes in Management. Apart from the IIMs, some other premier management institutes using the CAT scores are SP Jain (Mumbai), MDI (Gurgaon), NITIE (Mumbai), TAPAI (Manipal), MICA (Ahmedabad), IMI (Delhi) and UBS (PU, Chandigarh).
The fact that the CAT is becoming increasingly popular is validated by the following two parameters - (i) An ever escalating number of students taking the CAT annually, for e.g, CAT '05 was taken by over 1.7 lakh candidates, as compared to CAT '04, which was written by about 1.25 lakh students - an increase of 36%. (ii) An increasing number of B-schools accepting the CAT scores for admissions to their MBA programmes.
The paper tests the proficiency of a student in Math and English across the areas of Problem Solving (PS), Data Interpretation (DI), Data Sufficiency (DS), Logical Reasoning (LR), Verbal Ability (VA), Verbal Reasoning (VR) and Reading Comprehension (RC). The paper is structured into multiple sections(2/3/4) carved out of one or more of the areas mentioned above, and the student is required to demonstrate competence across all sections, apart from a good overall performance.
CATs are known for an unpredictable format of this paper. For e.g., in CAT '98, the four areas of Math constituted 85 questions across two sections , while the three areas of English constituted 100 questions across two sections, while in CAT '05, the four areas of Math constituted 60 questions across two sections (with a weightage of 100 marks) and the three areas of English constituted 30 questions across one section (with a weightage of 50 marks).
The CAT changes its stripes each year and has been consistently dispelling any myths attached to it. e.g. based on the past history of this paper, students had assumed that all questions had the same weightage, and therefore the paper was largely about the best picks (in terms of questions). However, CAT '04 dispelled this myth with the introduction of differential marking, whereby certain questions had more weightage as compared to certain others. The paper has also shown variation in the level of difficulty. Before 1999, the level of difficulty was not rated very high. The questions were simply worded and usually based on basic applications. However in 1999, the questions in both Math and English were significantly tougher, and the tempo was sustained in all subsequent CATs. While the paper overtly tests the students' ability to handle Math & English, it covertly tests skills like time management, strategy formulation, prioritization, stress management and decision making
An MBA is sure passport to successful corporate career. It brings together students of diverse background in an intense, rigorous academic experience, usually for two years.
It has made entrepreneurs out of doctors, investment bankers out of arts graduates and soap marketers out of electronic engineers! It's popular mainly because of the career flexibility it allows you, the leadership mindset it inculcates, and the acceleration it provides in your career.
If you wish to rise in the corporate world, an MBA opens door to great exposure early in your career. If you wish to be an entrepreneur, it ensures that you will get your business fundamentals right.
In the information age, inter-relatedness is critical. No matter where your interests lie, be it technology, or trade, or the running enterprises, there is a web of information that you will operate in. So the mindset of one specialization and long steady career must be replaced by continuous learning - you must continually retool yourself to meet changing demand, must have a broader business picture and an ability to make business connections. An MBA programme equips one to achieve the same by providing a comprehensive learning across the range of streams it offers.
Marketing involves understanding customer needs and meeting them profitably. You might like marketing if you are curious about people, like analyzing data, enjoy traveling, meeting people and building a consensus. In broader sense it is getting people and business together.
Finance is concerned with the efficient use of an important component of business - money. One works on designing financial offerings to maximize the returns investor.
HR involves activity directed towards development of people in the organization, performing appraisals, employee counseling, employee training and employee motivation.
Systems would involve helping companies leverage technology to business value.
Operations is for those who are fond of processes and is important in manufacturing as well as service delivery. It also involves areas such as quality control and optimization.
The Common Admission Test (CAT), regarded by many as the toughest MBA entrance exam, is conducted by the IIMs for admissions to their Post-Graduate Programmes in Management. Apart from the IIMs, some other premier management institutes using the CAT scores are SP Jain (Mumbai), MDI (Gurgaon), NITIE (Mumbai), TAPAI (Manipal), MICA (Ahmedabad), IMI (Delhi) and UBS (PU, Chandigarh).
The fact that the CAT is becoming increasingly popular is validated by the following two parameters - (i) An ever escalating number of students taking the CAT annually, for e.g, CAT '05 was taken by over 1.7 lakh candidates, as compared to CAT '04, which was written by about 1.25 lakh students - an increase of 36%. (ii) An increasing number of B-schools accepting the CAT scores for admissions to their MBA programmes.
The paper tests the proficiency of a student in Math and English across the areas of Problem Solving (PS), Data Interpretation (DI), Data Sufficiency (DS), Logical Reasoning (LR), Verbal Ability (VA), Verbal Reasoning (VR) and Reading Comprehension (RC). The paper is structured into multiple sections(2/3/4) carved out of one or more of the areas mentioned above, and the student is required to demonstrate competence across all sections, apart from a good overall performance.
CATs are known for an unpredictable format of this paper. For e.g., in CAT '98, the four areas of Math constituted 85 questions across two sections , while the three areas of English constituted 100 questions across two sections, while in CAT '05, the four areas of Math constituted 60 questions across two sections (with a weightage of 100 marks) and the three areas of English constituted 30 questions across one section (with a weightage of 50 marks).
The CAT changes its stripes each year and has been consistently dispelling any myths attached to it. e.g. based on the past history of this paper, students had assumed that all questions had the same weightage, and therefore the paper was largely about the best picks (in terms of questions). However, CAT '04 dispelled this myth with the introduction of differential marking, whereby certain questions had more weightage as compared to certain others. The paper has also shown variation in the level of difficulty. Before 1999, the level of difficulty was not rated very high. The questions were simply worded and usually based on basic applications. However in 1999, the questions in both Math and English were significantly tougher, and the tempo was sustained in all subsequent CATs. While the paper overtly tests the students' ability to handle Math & English, it covertly tests skills like time management, strategy formulation, prioritization, stress management and decision making
Thus the paper is designed in such a manner that it tests a range of managerial skills, and assesses the ability of an individual to become a successful manager. The objective is to appreciate the "change" element demonstrated by this paper, and to understand that on a macro level the paper is designed to test your ability to think off your feet!!