WHAT ARE MBA?

What are MBA? Why MBA? What is value of MBA? For the money that's why. What a stupid question right? But if we dig a little deeper and try to understand why this question is important it may not sound as stupid. In fact having a clear answer to the why MBA question will help you get more out of your MBA experience. That's exactly what we are going to see in this article. As a bonus, we'll also cover another related question so read till the end.

MBA- Master of Business Administration

MBA is a general graduate business degree that teaches students technical, managerial, and leadership skills.

Whether you're tackling the why MBA question in MBA essays and MBA interviews or simply introspecting at some point in your career it's a question that can drive you nuts. Here's the big problem if money is your only answer. Even in the best case if you get a high paying job immediately after graduating it'll be a while before you can get back the money you've invested. In the top MBA program, pay the education loan and then start saving. The payback period for some popular MBA programs can range from five to ten years or even longer and what if you don't get your dream job after graduation?

For those reasons you're better off if you have a few more equally important reasons for pursuing an MBA. Here are some common answers to the why MBA question.

PERSONAL BRANDING

Imagine what you think when someone says I went to Harvard Business School. Your respect for them goes up instantly and you don't even know if they've gone there to study or to deliver a pizza. That's the power of branding. Top ranking B schools have strong brand names which can help you build your personal brand. These B schools have been around for a long time. They have an impressive list of alumni in the top positions across industries. The alumni's qualification often figure prominently in the new stories that feature them. Some MBA grads launch start-ups that become billion-dollar unicorns over time. Some make multi-million dollar donations to their alma mater and bring the brand back in the headlines. When you attend a program like that you benefit from the halo and the positive karma. It helps you build your personal brand only because of the association with a top school.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

An MBA can be a useful degree to break a few glass ceilings and move up the corporate ladder. This is one of the reasons why a large number of hospitals choose an MBA degree over the other postgraduate courses. The variety of topics covered in an MBA syllabus can help you build a wide range of skills that are useful in a multiple range of industries. Someone who's been in a technical role for several years and now wishes to take up a management position in the same field can do so through an MBA. An MBA graduate from a good university can have an upper hand with recruiters giving them reference for excellent job openings throughout their career and yes a higher salary is one of the positive outcomes as you climb the corporate hierarchy.

CAREER CHANGE

A generation back it was pretty common for graduates to start and end their careers in one company. You won't see too many people doing that today. Interest and patience levels have changed and so have the dynamics of the business world. Layoffs have become more common which is why many start looking at a career change when they fore see their career graph stagnating. This is another area where an internationally recognized degree from a globally renowned Business School can help. If you see the placement statistics of the good business schools you'll see a large proportion of career changers including students who have changed their industry, roll, geography or all three.

MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Apart from the theory that gets covered in lectures, there's a lot more going on in the MBA classes and outside that helps students learn the skills that are more nuanced. Skills such as teamwork, leadership, communication, conflict management and negotiation. This happens through the various projects events assignments you will be juggling. There are plenty of opportunities outside the academic zone that can help you discover your entrepreneurial spirit. Check out the various student-led clubs on campus. You will find consulting clubs, finance clubs, dancing clubs, sports clubs, cultural organizations and much more. You will be spoilt for choice and that's an excellent way to polish your prioritization, decision-making and time management skills.

NETWORKING

An international MBA program has a lot of diversity with students coming from various cultural backgrounds and nationalities. The percentage of international students can vary from 30%in American MBA programs to over 90% in European programs. This huge and diverse mix of students can help you with valuable contacts in multiple countries without actually traveling to each of them. During social events on campus you get opportunities to develop contacts with alumni and students pursuing other courses. You'll get to attend guest lectures by successful entrepreneurs, CEOs and hear them share their success stories. You may also get a chance to interact one-on-one with industry leaders. The kind of reach that an MBA offers in terms of networking scope is unmatched by any other academic degree.

These five reasons are definitely not the only ones. It's just to get you started. There are many more that you can think of.

Before you do a cart-wheel assuming your job is done there's one more important question to answer. Why MBA now? Here are the two big reasons that work for many. The first one is career need. There are several variations to this. Your roll may have become more demanding and the skills you picked up in your undergrad degree have run its course which means you need to reskill to avoid falling back in the race or it could be linked to your career change plans. The second reason is related to age and experience. B schools cannot discriminate based on age and experience so they don't have a hard cut off for either but if you see the statistics most students fall in a narrow age and experience bracket. That gives rise to two situations.

The first one is when you are applying for an MBA when you are close to the median age and experience for the program. In this case you don't need to explicitly cite the reason admission officers can see it on your resume, but when you don't fall in the typical age and experience range you will need to explain why you are applying too early or too late in your career. Create your why MBA and now answer based on these two aspects. Here's the catch. Just knowing about the general reasons will not make it the best answer to the why MBA question because every applicant will talk about some or all of these points so how can you make your answer better and more impactful than others. The answer is by not just rattling off a laundry list but by personalizing it based on your profile and career plans.

Admission officers are not trying to get the right answer. They are trying to understand your motivations, your ability to think and present the answer like a mature professional so make it interesting. Bring in your life story, bring in your personal aspirations and then connect all the dots. Only then you'll have an answer which is truly yours.