Stepping out of MBA College into the corporate world is as similar as your transition from playing online cricket game and then playing it on the real field. The difference is huge!
You will have all the theoretical knowledge, jargons, concepts, examples, historical knowledge of business, everything but still entering into business world after your MBA will give you jitters.
Admit it- the real world teaches you some truths that academia does not touch upon.
And this is probably not the job of B-schools. It is the student who has to take charge and learn to equip himself with few extra traits and learning which will help him to cope up with the pressure and self-expectation during their corporate career.
This article throws some light on few key aspects which every MBA students must enhance on their own in their 2-years of MBA degree. These are something which is vital for a personal growth and career advancement but probably will not be taught at all the B-schools.
1. Shortness/ Economy of Language
In B-schools you will be thrust upon with several assignments and presentations. But all the case studies, power point presentations, analysis and concept notes do not prepare you for the first basic reality of life.
This reality is that you won’t get a chance to showcase your 30 minute 40 slides presentation or a 20 page case study document on the current problem being faced by the organization. In corporate world, you will just get a tiny moment of opportunity and you have to showcase your talent in that tiny window of opportunity itself. Higher the august gathering, the lesser will be the time allotted to you.
Thus, you must have the creativity and knowledge to crunch your entire presentation and analysis into one line or one paragraph email or 10 second summary and you have to do this in as impactful manner as possible to earn rewards.
Hence, instead of embracing duration and length you must start recognizing shortness and economy of language. Put restriction around time, space and resources.
2. Execution
In B schools, all that you learn is from books, periodicals, case studies and lectures which is good to enhance and expand your knowledge.
But one thing that is not taught at B-schools and is taken as granted both by the MBA students and B-schools is: the ability to execute. The importance Execution will be very clear to you once you try to execute your first campaign or project in your organization.
You probably would be surprised to know the effect of tiny little elements and issues which will tear apart your whole project and you have to deal with those entire problems on a daily basis to make your project successful.
The examples in case studies do not tell you all about all the fickle nature of these variable elements that will affect your project.
Unfortunately, in our desire to move ourselves up the knowledge curve, we have a tendency to take this skill for granted, and most management programmes don’t expose you to this harsh reality.
3. You will not be served with OPTIONS
Since the time we started preparing for MBA entrance exams, you always had options for your problem, for your any questions. You just had to choose the right answer for that problem.
But, in the real world the scenario is totally different. Here you have to make the answers yourself and then choose the best one. You will not be presented with the list of actions to be taken or the choice of steps that you can pursue.
If your competitors start changing their way of business and take some of your market share, you have to think of the actions you need to respond with yourself. There will be no “right” answer, you just have to think of a few viable plans and start implementing them to see which one works better to solve your problem.
Hence, you have to be quick in analyzing the situation and plan your actions accordingly within a limited period of time.
4. Deal with your Failure
Failure in our society is always looked upon as incompetency. B-schools taught you about how to achieve success, what you need to do in order to excel, etc. But one thing that they don’t teach is how to stand up again and motivate yourself after you have failed.
You can’t win every time and every day. Learning comes from experience but good learning from bad experience.
But no B-school teaches you to take failure in your stride. You will not get time to ponder over your failure; on the contrary you have to brace yourself for the next action or goals. This is the life at corporate world and you have to adapt to it.
Thus, learn to live with your failure paramount.
5. Patience
We are always taught to be impatient, to get results fast. Being busy has somehow become a sign of prestige. Being still and quiet can give us ideas for our business that have a much greater impact than when we run around from one department to another, firing off emails here and there and constantly multi-tasking without thinking about the big picture.
MBA graduates need to trust their gut and be patient with the process. For example, you won’t like to hire a new employee just in a rush to fill a need as this might create a bigger problem for the company. Hiring someone who underperforms and needs to be replaced in future is much worse situation for the company and this could have been easily avoided if you were patient enough to choose the right candidate.
6. Stop Talking, Start Doing
At B-schools you will be taught how to impress your clients or your colleagues/senior with the effective use of your language and interpersonal skills.
But in the real corporate world, all that matters is what and how you do it. No one there is free enough to hear your visions or jargons. While it’s good to have a plan/idea of how to perform your task but it’s never going to get going if you just keep talking about it.
With people ready to scrutinize your each and every step, you might want to skip talking and focus more on actually doing what you believe. Just do it and figure it out!
You will probably learn more in a couple of months working in an organization than those couple years of your degree.
But to achieve all this and be successful you need to have a solid base, you need to have a deep theoretical and historical knowledge which is duly provided at B-schools. Thus, don’t neglect what you are taught at B-schools but just don’t remain restricted to your classrooms.
Step out, read industry blogs, meet new people from various sectors, make a mentor and get your hands dirty on any project or practical assignment you can get. This will be your best teacher.
Also Read:
How B-schools can increase their Applicant pool?
5 Hot sectors to pursue MBA, How to decide
Don't take MBA admission in 2014 if..,
Top B-schools open new Academic session: How to cope & excel
MBApreneurs: Entrepreneurs with an MBA Degree, Do you know them?
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