Searching for a good B-school? Well, it's the most crucial step while starting your career in management. As we all know, there is plenty of information on the internet. Sometimes it gets overwhelming to see the same details on the college websites and other platforms. In such cases, candidates should be able to pay utmost attention to the important factors while choosing the right B-school, but a large amount of information may confuse the candidate and divert his/her attention.
As a student, multiple questions will surely arise in your mind before choosing a Master’s degree. In the present competitive scenario, MBA and PGDM programs have become the most popular choices because of job-specific specializations and Industry-oriented with practical exposure-based learning. But, while opting for the MBA and PGDM programs, students often face the next most important and confusing questions about a B-School such as:
- “How do I pick the right B-School?”
- “What about the campus placement assurance?”
- “Does the college provide the best ROI?”
- “Do the faculty members have good teaching and corporate experience?”
- “What are the various specializations offered?”
- “Does the curriculum meet the industry requirements?”
- “Which companies visit the college for recruitment and what is the highest package they give?”
- And so much more
Therefore, to help you in resolving your worries and answer all your questions, this article will provide information on some of the most important factors you must keep in mind while choosing a B-school for yourself.
Corporate Exposure:
A good B-school will always focus on providing its students with multiple opportunities giving corporate exposure. Opportunities like corporate interactions where the industry leaders can directly communicate with the students, industry visits where the students get to know more about how the industries work, multiple internships that can help the students in choosing their desired profile and sector, live business projects that enable the students to get in-depth insights about every sector and live case-study based learning. Corporate exposure plays a vital role throughout the management program therefore it is very important to choose the right B-school that provides the best Corporate exposure.
You must ensure that the college should also provide interaction opportunities with top business leaders such as CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, Functional Heads, Head HRs, and so on. The extensive corporate exposure also means that the B-School provides good internships, live business projects, industrial visits to help you in getting hands-on experience with practical knowledge about the real corporate world.
Faculties with rich Corporate Experience:
The faculty plays an important role in students' development. You should look for a college where the teachers are having a combination of good corporate experience along with academic experience. It helps in teaching the students in a better manner and thus helps them understand the latest trends and requirements of the industry through a practical approach. Thus, the teachers can use their corporate experience to make learning easy and interesting. So, while opting for a B-school, a major factor to be considered is that it should have Industry experienced faculties.
Online Learning:
It is important to choose a good B-School that can provide an online learning platform along with a full-time Masters’ degree. During any kind of challenging situation, the online learning method enables students to continue with their management studies from their homes and hostels without hampering their learning process.
It is also important to understand that there is a difference between a full-time MBA or PGDM Program and a Distance or Online MBA degree. A full-time program from a reputed institute has more value for getting a job in good companies. Looking at the present scenario, where the whole world is working from home, the colleges should ensure that management learning should not stop and students’ careers don’t get affected. Thus, all the institutes are equally putting efforts in the form of regular online classes, guest faculty lectures, online corporate interactions, online mentorship programs, online placement preparations, and much more to make students job-ready with all the skills and knowledge required for the real corporate world. So, while opting for a perfect B-school in the current scenario, you should pay attention if it can provide the entire learning, examinations, assessments, evaluations, feedback, and so much more through online mode with the full-time degree.
Training Methodology:
Choosing the right B-school is the first step towards building a good career. So, you must look for a college that provides training focused on the practical approach to learning. A college should provide training through the latest and advanced methods such as role-plays, case studies, simulation games, and so on. The focus should be not only on the learning of the theories but also on the practical applications in the real corporate world. This can help in bridging the gap between companies' requirements and management graduates' business knowledge.
As the corporate world is leaning towards profile-oriented employment, they need management professionals who excel in specific job profiles. Therefore, you must opt for a college which can foresee this shift, and develop a training methodology that focuses on the next-gen profiles and trains the students accordingly.
Curriculum and Specialization:
A good B-school should have a curriculum that is designed as per the latest industry requirements and should also be updated regularly. Getting an MBA or PGDM degree requires choosing the right specialization based on your interest areas, core strengths, and future goals. So, while choosing a B-school for yourself, you must see if the curriculum and the training align well with the latest industry standards for the specialization you want to pursue. The college must provide enough opportunities for the students to understand emerging sectors along with the traditional sectors individually and closely.
This way you can be sure about your interests and confidently choose a specialization. A good B-school should provide students with the opportunities to understand the corporate world and diverse industries. Students who were not from a management background previously can understand different markets through internships, live projects, case studies, industry visits, and much more.
Corporate Internships:
Most of the students being fresh graduates with a UG degree, it is important to have some corporate experience before beginning a career. That’s why the most important criteria for you to consider while choosing a management college is the one that can provide good opportunities for internships in top companies in diverse functional areas. A good internship can help you in knowing the real corporate world and then decide your area of interest. Internship projects in diverse sectors and domains can help you to gain rich knowledge about every industry in detail which can further assist you during the placement process. The corporate internships enable you to increase your networking skills, domain knowledge, and identify your core area of interest.
Campus Placements with good Job Profiles:
The main purpose for you to pursue a management degree is to get a good Campus Placement in one of the top MNCs and start-ups with your desired job profile. Before choosing a B-school you must have a clear idea about which companies visit that college for placements and what job profiles are offered.
For you, the biggest factor for choosing a B-school should be the Campus Placements. When you choose the right B-school, you are provided with the best placement opportunities for your career. It is important to ensure that the college consistently provides the best placement results in diverse sectors. It is also important to see whether the college is bringing companies from new emerging and most in-demand sectors such as FinTech, HealthTech, EduTech, E-commerce, Digital Marketing, and many more.
Conclusion:
Choosing the best B-school to start your career, is undoubtedly the biggest challenge. Firstly, it is important that you select a bunch of good colleges and then choose the best one from the same list. While choosing a B-school, you must be sure about the kind of corporate exposure the college provides. For a management student, corporate exposure is very important to get insights into the competitive corporate world. Faculties having good corporate experience would be a value-addition.
Seeing the current scenario where the whole world is inside the doors, the college needs to provide an online learning platform so that no crisis can hamper your career. You must choose a college where the training methodology focuses more on the practical approach towards learning and provides specializations aligned with the industry’s needs and requirements. Last but not the least, the purpose of pursuing a management degree is to get a good placement in a top company. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the college you choose provides placement in top MNCs for the in-demand job profiles with a handsome package.
