People often associate good designations with prestige, status and power. The journey from the bottom of the food chain to the top is often slow and painful. There are several factors that have resulted in the growing interest for MBA among Indian students.
- Career: Many employees start feeling stagnant in their jobs. Over the years, for many, the job profile does not change and their day-to-day routines become monotonous and mechanical. There is a lack of variety in what they do, with little possibility of any substantial change in their job profiles in the near term (or even in the long term). An MBA degree can change that.
- For people in operational or support roles and especially for those in the junior or mid-level roles, there may be a feeling that their roles lack real responsibility as they are unable to be part of critical decision-making processes within the organization. The top-brass within the firm takes the decisions that are followed by the line staff without any questions. Again, an MBA degree could help them change their career profile and the easiest way to enter a B-school is to score well in MBA entrance exams such as XAT, CAT, NMAT or other college specific exams. In addition to a vertical jump in their current designations, an MBA degree can often lead to a change of function, industry or geography (or all three).
- Change of function: An Information Technology (IT) support engineer may want to move into a software development role. An accountant from the audit team may find the frequent travel exhausting and try for a role in the treasury department in corporate finance. An operations guy working in commissioning of heavy engineering equipment may want to move into a commercial role.
- Change of industry: The high-flying management consultant hoping for a better work-life balance may want to move into a regular industry role within a manufacturing firm. The store manager working in the retail industry could look at the real estate market. The research analyst in the credit department of a multinational company may try to enter the investment banking industry.
- Change of geography: Quite a few professionals from India get a chance to work on international projects for time periods varying from a few months to several years. In the good old days, the IT industry used to provide plenty of such opportunities. Many of these folks deputed onsite would never return. The land of opportunity provided options too tempting to resist.
Apart from these factors, knowledge, money and network also play an important role in influencing working professionals or freshers to take up an MBA programme.