If you get a couple of years' work ex prior to entering any MBA curriculum, it is like Sone pe Suhaga.
You don't then have to imagine an office situation where you are an office bearer.
You don't have to imagine how businesses operate, and how the chain of command works.
Moreover given cases based on business decisions and involving office/corporate politics, you are not lost as to what will be the reaction of differnt persons when a particular decision is being taken. You will be able to read between the lines when you read about the activities/comments of different people involved in the case.
This being able to look at the happenings in a case situation differently from a fresher, certainly lends your thinking process a touch of practicality.
So good luck. Go ahead , gather some work ex, and then by all means join a Business School.
It's good to know that you are interested in Management.
It's always a debate as to whether MBA first or work ex first. In my say, work experience first. The to-the-point reason is you will understand and comprehend the elementary concepts of Management much better, because you have a feel of this corporate world - how it works, culture, challenges. This experience with MBA from a top-class institute will give you a kick start in you career.
Management requires some kind of maturity, especially when you get into people management. No doubt, every organisation gives excellent training, but there is always a dearth of efficient Managers.
Let me give you my example. I started my career venture at grass-root level and became a Manager in 9 months with a computer science degree. The exposure, the challenges (while managing people) and the learning that I received, will help me during my MBA, because I am going to co-relate my experience while learning the concepts.
B-Schools cannot give you each and every answer to solve the problems you face, but a some generalised concept(s) to solve them. Rest depends on you how you use them.
One should not take up MBA unless you realise the value of doing it.Working prior MBA has become must, no company in any industry wants to waste time,energy and money and ofcourse in imparting training to people who are not versed with the work culture of any stream.
Not only is work-ex a bonus in a b-school, its a must. I say this for 3 reasons. Firstly, to understand the curriculum and the relevance of various subjects, one must have the background knowledge that serves as a base. This can only come from personal experience. It is easier to relate to a case study having encountered similar situations in the work-place. Secondly, a B-School is not so much what they teach you but more of what you want to and need to learn. This knowledge can only come once you have tried the waters in the corporate world. For example, an otherwise competent person found that he was not effective in resolving personal conflicts at the workplace. For him, a subject like Organisational Behaviour would be of moe importance than a person who realised that he needed more technical knowledge in statistics. Lastly, for the people solely focussed on gaining admission, 2 years of work-ex definitely helps your chances in getting into the top B Schools.
Getting some work experience (about 2-3 years) is preferrable before joining for an MBA. The Reasons:
1) Once you have some work ex, you will get an idea as to what the work life requires and you can guage the differnce between academics and practical work life. This will help you to get the most out of an MBA course.
2) If in case you want to change your work stream, with the help of the MBA you can go for a change in the field of work.
But the end decision depends on the individual as he/she will be aware of the other factors in his/her life.
P.S. - It is also possible that once you start earning and get used to having money to spend as you like, it may be difficult to go back to a student's life.
in my opinion, one should gain some work ex first and then go for the MBA Program. this certainly helps us in understanding what the Markets want and enables to understand our priorities well. i work as an Hr executive with Bristlecone,a Mahindra group Company and I am Planning to gain work Ex and then go for an MBA.
If you are capable of getting admission in the premier institutes like the IIMs immediatly after the graduation, well, go ahead, do not bother about the work experience. The course in the IIMs are so designed and unique that on completion of the course the much prized work experience is more or less has been acquired.
In the case of other MBAs in universities and some of the best known institutes, it is dim a dozen, more or less like a good commerce training. So it is definitly better to have a reasonable work experience, may be a public relation executive or even a very good customer relation executive or any other chance to show your worth. One may not be finding the points he or she experienced during the work experience during the entire course, but the experience gained during the working period definitly going to enrich the basic understanding of the subjects. It will be like a fairy tale experience but it is going to be a fact.
So if you are not an IIM, better gain some experience before venturing for an MBA. It may be a full time or part time course, depend on the convenience.
