With the Indian economy growing at the rate of 9+ per cent and almost every widely known and unknown multinational queuing up to set up shop here, it is only natural to expect a surge of career opportunities. Such a phenomenon brings about a variety of effects on intelligentsia in general, and industry professionals in particular.
Never before was it so easy to demand a raise, or a project involving choicest technologies, or a role transition that was in "pipeline" ever since you know it existed, and the list goes on.
Paradoxically, despite this unprecedented rosiness and pampering around us, a very pertinent question in today's context is: Are we really happy and content?
For an inquisitive mind this bull-run has created more questions than answers, the most cliched one being "How long will the honeymoon last?" This can also end up creating a void of sorts, a sense of directionlessness, and helplessness of having to flow along with the tide.
People realise that the time is ripe to do something, but the process of narrowing that "something" down to a more context-specific and meaningful task takes months, if not years. All this while, the frustration of not being able to do that yet unnamed "something" keeps mounting and takes its toll in a variety of ways; depression, irritability, impatience, you name it.
We have plenty of very high-potential individuals in the industry. While it is a good thing in general and an extremely important pre-requisite for sustained growth, it also has its flip side in terms of introducing a more stressful work culture. The peer pressure to go out of the way to perform affects an astonishingly large number of personal lives. How many times in the past one month have you heard of or participated in a discussion on breaking the "glass ceiling" or moving up the "value chain" or "hierarchy pyramid"?
For some people the idea of a job change with a double-digit delta might sound like it, however in plenty of cases they realise only to quickly that they ended up doing the same thing again under a different banner. This change lasts only from a few months to a year, and the chances of it giving a lasting satisfaction are fairly low.
Another set of people might want to explore overseas opportunities. Here, even if one ends up doing the same job again there is at least a sense of monitory satisfaction. However, like every good thing the overseas assignment is also of finite duration, unless of course it is a permanent relocation, the opportunities of which are fairly limited, and is only a temporary means to curb this restlessness.
Considering a minimum career span of close to 30 years, a reasonably long stint of three years still makes up only for 10 per cent of the total. Bottom-line: this option also fails to provide the necessary long-term satisfaction, and at best can only provide a temporary distraction and reason to procrastinate answering this inevitable question.
Some more adventurous types flirt with the idea of higher education, and an MBA tops the charts here. This headline caught your attention right? I believe this option is worthy of a detailed discussion here because more and more people are coming to terms with the fact that unless something very different and drastic is done to change their profiles, nothing much would change, and worse, it may get increasingly difficult to do so later.
Whether finally someone really goes ahead and does it is a different matter altogether, and depends upon a lot of factors including but not limited to, personal obligations, age, financial stability, future aspirations, and so on.
There are also a number of factors to consider while exploring this option, the top few being -- part-time versus full-time courses, Indian versus foreign schools, one-year executive courses versus two-year regular MBA course, resignation versus sabbatical etc.
Since there is no one-size-fits-all solution to this, any attempt to give a politically correct answer can only be just that -- political; and with all due respect to the eloquence of our politicians, this political answer can at best be a breviloquent "depends". Heard that before? Deja vu! Well, let us then make an effort to do better than that in order to facilitate informed decision making.
Part-time vs Full-time courses
Part-time courses have least opportunity costs in terms of lost salary and give you a unique advantage of adding to your number of years of experience while you earn that MBA degree. Typically part-time courses work out cheaper than a full-time course, and in quite a few cases, there exists a possibility of complete/ partial fee sponsorship by the employer.
On the other hand, part-time courses are longer in duration as compared to full-time courses for a given content. Academic rigour and contents of both courses are comparable, but arguably the buy-in of a full time course in today's industrial landscape is considerably more than its part-time counterpart. Many employers also introduce a mandatory bond period in exchange of their permission to pursue the course and/or financial support.
Indian vs Foreign schools
Indian schools generally work out much cheaper than any of their foreign counterparts. Typically costs involved in earning a full-time two-year MBA degree from a US-based B-school vary from USD 55,000 to USD 85,000 depending upon the university, whereas for most of Indian schools, it varies from INR 3 lakh to INR 5 lakh for a similar degree. The cost of a one-year executive MBA course in India varies from INR 5 lakh to INR 18 lakh.
For a reasonably experienced industry professional with family obligations, the logistic issues involved in relocating to a foreign country also act as a deterrent in many cases. Foreign schools naturally provide more employment opportunities for a global role vis-a-vis Indian B-schools.
The number of such opportunities is on a rise for premier schools in India as well, but obviously the former have enormous location advantage. The average annual salary from top 50 B-schools globally is close to USD 120,000 (Source: http://rankings.ft.com/global-mba-rankings), whereas for a one-year full-time executive MBA programme at IIM Ahmedabad, ISB Hyderabad and SPJIMR Mumbai, the average domestic salary figures for last placement season are INR 24.65 lakh, INR 15.03 lakh and INR 11.35 lakh respectively (list in alphabetical order).
Placement data for the IIM Calcutta's first batch of one-year executive MBA was not yet available at the time of writing this article. The average salaries of two-year MBA programmes vary greatly depending upon the school and are not being considered here for the sake of clarity.
One-year executive course vs Two-year regular MBA
A two-year MBA is a much older and established course in India as compared to a one-year MBA. The average experience range of a two-year MBA participant varies from 0 to 2 years, as compared to the experience of one-year-programme participants from IIM Ahmedabad -- 9 years, IIM Calcutta -- 9.6 years, ISB Hyderabad -- 4.5 years and SPJIMR Mumbai -- 4.6 years (list in alphabetical order).
A two-year MBA course in India typically costs less than a one-year programme would, but has more opportunity cost associated with it due to its longer duration.
As is evident here, there are quite a number of parameters to be considered before a go/no-go decision can finally be taken to pursue an MBA. Often times it may be a time consuming process, but it is of paramount importance that this decision is not taken in haste and should be based on data rather than peer-pressure or sudden impulse.
At the end of the day whatever we do or don't do, it is important to channelise our frustration into something constructive. Frustration is good sometimes, you'd agree? If not for that, the world as we know it would be a very different place.
The author is part of Class of 2008, PGPEX at IIM Calcutta.
