IS MBA WORTH YOUR TIME AND MONEY?

 Is MBA worth doing it in today's digital age?

MBA course is one of the most expensive courses in India as well as in abroad. These days you can literally learn anything online. Also, there is a huge opportunity cost as you will not be earning during your course period. So MBA really worth the time and money investment? Let's try to find the answers objectively. 

The return on investments for a lot of management courses is quite poor. A MBA from a non-top tier college costs somewhere around 8-10 lakh but only fetches a job of 40-50k per month. And the additional fees for the CAT classes that you had enroled for. Since IIMs have produced top alumni the craze around MBA refuses to die. It's worth noting how many students actually secure admission in top colleges.

      More than 2 lakh students appear for this exam for a little over 5000 approx seats. The competition is very stiff. And MBA degrees from tier 2-3 colleges are likely to give you diminishing returns.

WHO IS APPLICABLE FOR MBA?

First of all MBA is open to everyone whether your field is in Science, Commerce or Arts. You just need to be graduate to be applicable for this course. There is an entrance exam that you need to qualify if you want to get admission in top 20-25 colleges in India. Definitely, it is not compulsory to give CAT exam. But also there is no point in doing MBA through private college because it is a long term investment.

First of all we will try to understand what do we actually learn in MBA:

   This can be divided into 2 categories mainly QUANTITATIVE and QUALITATIVE. 

QUANTITATIVE SKILLS : In this mostly you learn about numbers that is related to finance, accounting, statistics, economics.

QUALITATIVE SKILLS: In this you study human oriented skills like marketing, human resources, organisational behavior, human psychology. These are the 2 skills that are required to learn business.

Before taking up anything we need to look at the pros and cons of doing an MBA.

WHY MBA MAKES SENSE?

1. You can learn new skills: 

For eg :if you are from engineering field and have strong mathematical background then you can develop your qualitative skills. Or if somebody is from commerce field and a has a strong background in accounting, finance, you can strengthen you skills more effectively by doing MBA.

2. Branding:

Now when someone starts from beginning he/she don't tend to have connections at an early stage. So if you are in the top MBA colleges you get an initial recognition because various brands and companies tend to come and take sesions. So in this period you can make great connections and networking.

3. Role change:

This is the main reason why most people do MBA. You can change your role by doing MBA. For eg: if one is in software field and he wishes to work in marketing , he can simply change his role by doing MBA. It is beneficial because you can actually learn a lot of things within 2 years.

4. Networking:

If you are in a good college you can make great friends and network for future time. And most of the people who go to IITs and IIMs go with the intention of meeting new people and forming a community. 

WHY MBA DOESN'T MAKES SENSE?

1. Unaffordable:

In recent times, MBA has become unaffordable to many students because of their fees structure. The average fees of a good MBA college for 2 years will cost you 15-20 lakhs. Due to this most students take education loan to pay the fees. 

2. High Opportunity cost:

When you are doing an MBA you are not earning anything. So, you need to take account the lost salary that you were earning before for calculation. 

3. Cheaper ways to learn skills:

The skills that we are talking about can be acquired easily by reading books, taking an online course. Definitely if you are doing MBA you practically work in a team, develop experience by observing, so learning is better. 

WHEN DOES DOING MBA MAKES SENSE?

A) Nowadays when people submit their CVs they screen and open those profiles who have done an MBA. In this situation it acts as first come basis and provides you the first opportunity. 

B) If you want to make career in the corporate world and go in leadership positions it can give you a push if you have done MBA.

C) If you are willing to improve your skillset you can take up online courses which will cost you minimal. Nowadays you also get certification if you are doing a course not only MBA but other courses too from a verified site. 

D) If it is networking you can build and approach people on LinkedIn. Due to social media many businesses are carried online. You can build a great network. 

CONCLUSION:

Whether you take up MBA or not, it totally depends on your choice. You can make it big by doing MBA or you can develop the skills that is required and do it by yourself. But if you are planning to do MBA you need to do a lot of research on colleges that you are willing to go for. You need to study the fees structure of each college, the companies that come for placements. If you are looking for particular role you need to make sure those things are included. It is also important to do calculations like the return on investments, the education loan if you are applying for, the output, etc. 

   Whether you do an MBA or not, at the end it doesn't matter for the company. What matters is the value that is added by you to the company through your skillsets.