Engineer Diarie

Which is better, doing an MBA straight after a B.Tech from a top notch engineering college in India or working for 2-3 years and then pursuing it?

I will answer this question strictly from the perspective of an MBA from India. My perspective comes from my observations at IIMA and might not be applicable to all MBA colleges in India, so take my observations with a pinch of salt.

Even though the majority feels that one should work for a few years before going for an MBA, I do not agree with this opinion due to the following reasons:

• Firm shortlists: Most of the top consulting, finance and marketing firms prefer people with less work experience, unless the work experience is relevant work experience, that is, the unless the work experience is in the same field for which the candidate is applying. Only the product management and technical profiles require candidates to have work experience.
• Career prospects: In the top consulting and finance firms, you join at the same entry level position (typically as an associate) regardless of your work experience. There are some firms who have a work experience prerequisite and some others who offer a higher level role to people with more work experience, but the number of such firms is low. This basically means that someone with 2–3 years of work experience will join at the same level as someone with no work experience, giving the latter an advantage.
• Learning: When it comes to class performance and learning, it is a common notion that people with work experience learn more. However, if you look at the top rankers in the IIMs, the majority of them have little or no work experience. I agree that there are some concepts that one can understand better if one has worked in the industry before, especially the concepts related to human resource management. However, it might not be worth going for 2–3 years of work experience just so that you can understand some such concepts better.
• Rigour: According to general observation, those who start their MBA directly after their bachelor studies are able to cope up with the rigour better as they are used to the studying and attending classes. The job life is very different from university life, and it might take some time to adapt to the university life again.

I started my MBA directly after my B.Tech, and I have no regrets at all. If I had to do it all over again, I would still follow the same route.