Management Part 1

I wanna MBA.

Well, over 30 years ago, few people knew what a MBA degree was, and even fewer actually went for it. But the current day scenario has totally reversed. Now, every Tom, Dick and Harry, or every Ram and Shyam wants to do a MBA course. Ask any under-graduate as to what he wants to do in future, majority of them will say they want to do a MBA. Why is a MBA degree so much in demand?

Earlier, people were content with just one or at max, 2 degrees. Few went for post-graduation, as a single degree was all that was required to obtain a basic job. But now, the present scenario is such that a single degree hardly suffices. Very few guys actually want to work after under-graduation. And almost all of them want to do a MBA. There are a lot of reasons for this. A MBA degree surely helps in obtaining a better job, and a sustainable, established career, no doubt. But in reality, few people have the inner knack or the required inclination towards what a MBA really offers. And no matter what others say, it is certainly not something which anybody or everybody can perform well in.

The main problem lies in the fact that few of us bother to make a self analysis. We rarely study something which really interests us. Instead, we want to do something which others are doing, so that we don’t feel left out. We humans need social approval, as a top priority amongst others things. So if everybody around us is doing engineering or management, we feel that we should also become engineers and managers, just cause if so many people are doing it, they can’t be wrong, right? And we refuse to think otherwise.

The truth is that Engineering and Management are indeed popular and good streams. But what we fail to understand is that it is not suited for everyone. Just taking them, cause others are doing them, is not a valid reason at all. A person, who has no interest in Science or Maths, will be a terrible misfit as an engineer. Similar is the case for a person who hates Business or Economics, but prefers to do a MBA, as he feels it will provide him with a high-paying job, and also a successful career. Such a person will inadvertently perform poorly in his MBA course, and probably end up unemployed.

Greed for money is another factor. Nowadays we are never satisfied with what we are, or what we have. We always want to earn more, spend more, look more handsome, want more and more. Many people consider a MBA degree, as a shortcut towards quick, heavy money. While not entirely untrue, if you consider only money as your aim, you will never find true happiness.

There is also the Media hype factor. Whether it is in newspaper advertisements, magazines, or news channels, MBA is the talk of the day. More and more B-Schools are coming up day by day. But many of them are just profit making institutions and nothing more, aiming to hoodwink the not-so-intelligent candidate who is willing to pay any amount for a MBA degree.

The one thing which I really despise is the current MBA craze amongst engineers. 9 out of 10 engineers want to do a MBA. You may think there is nothing wrong with that. Or it’s everybody’s personal wish as to what he/she wants to do. If every person on earth wants to do a MBA, let him/her. What’s the harm? The harm is that we end up with low quality managers, which ends up decreasing the overall efficiency of any company, slowing down the growth and development of the country, in the long run. Everything has its impact. As I was saying, engineers do not want to do anything related to engineering any more. (I do not mean all engineers. Some of them really have the inclination towards engineering jobs.)

*Continued in Next Post.