I was recently speaking with a friend who runs a successful company in the HR space. I asked him if he was looking to hire any fresh MBAs for his company.
His immediate response was, "I don't think so! Most fresh MBAs think they are God's gift to mankind. They cannot take on any responsibility for anything, and they expect you to even wipe their noses for them!"
I take it that he wasn't referring to the IIM-type MBA but to the average MBA out of the 2000-odd management schools in the country.
"Then they come to you after just three months and say that they are not seeing any 'growth' in their jobs. In just three months, I tell you!!!" He was plainly upset. "I feel like telling them - sir, why don't you become the CEO and make me your assistant?"
"Then they come and complain about the favoritism shown by their bosses. What they don't understand is that the person who works more sincerely, who works longer hours, and who comes in on a weekend to meet deadlines will definitely be treated with special consideration - that is not favoritism." He obviously had specific incidents in mind.
"And within a year these MBAs are gone on to another job that pays a few thousand rupees more! They talk about quality of work but they will run to any sad job in any no-name company for just a few more rupees."
All this was about his own experience. Then he told me something that quite shocked me.
"The HR head of company X (a leading insurance company that I will not name) has decided that he will no longer hire fresh MBAs without work experience. He will rather go for 12th pass students studying at open universities via correspondence - at least they are less likely to have a pompous attitude!"
No wonder the market for the "average" MBAs has dried up. The students of previous years have given the community a bad name.
When we started Proton, we aimed to create managers with positive attitudes and the mindset of responsible professionals.
Whether our students do well in the real world will only depend on whether we have succeeded in teaching them these basic things.
To share this blog on Facebook, click here:
Share
11 comments:
Sir in PROTON I have learned positive attitudes and the mindset of responsible professionals.
Protons will definitely prove it in near future.
Thank you sir for sharing this experience.
Regards,
Yashwant Chandrawanshi
Respected Sir,
I agree to the point made by you in the blog and I would also like to add some points here.
1. Sir in the eyes of a common Indian citizen, MBA is a degree which helps people to achieve a higher societal status, high growth in his career or drawing a handsome salary.
2. Moreover it also helps any graduate of any stream to get a PG degree easily, as compared to CA or CS or other professional courses. Also there is no cap on supply side.
3. In recent times it is observed that this degree has increased chances of getting a good bride.
We choose career options because of our passion or interest towards the field.
Why we have chosen MBA as our career option. Do we really know the exact reason?
Sir in this LPG era, various jobs which demands skills others than technical skill are on high. But the supply of the required skills is not been properly identified by the odd B – school. But the most unfortunately part is that the zeal which an MBA should have is lacking in most of the available talent pool.
Also there is a huge gap between the service delivery expectations of an employer with an employee. And this is the root cause of the problem. Now we must choose either to decrease the expectation of our employer or should decrease our expectation first and deliver 100% performance.
Regards,
Mohit Dalmia
08PR00102BB017
Good Morning Sir,
It was great to read once again a wonderful insight on the changing HR managers Perception and reality is what he said i think.I have also seen same happening in the organizations.
What happens is fresh MBA's forget that company is paying you,he will take anything of yours.Coming up to there expectations is freshers task and they forget that and as you very rightly said only thing left is Frustation.
But,in PROTON the thing which we are learning is this only so we are very sure we wont be facing that problem,we will surely leave an example in near future.
Thank you Sir,for sharing your Experience
Regards,
Lovish Dua
Dear Dr Manas,
rest assured, Protons will prove to be very different. Our training and their learnings will not go waste. This is a small, but a sure beginning. Slowly, over next several years, our Protons will create a whole new breed of professionals, who can be trusted for responsibilities.
It's time for positive change!
Respected Sir,
I agree to the point made by you in the blog and I would also like to add some points here.
1.Sir in the eyes of a common Indian citizen, MBA is a degree which helps anyone to achieve a higher societal status, high growth in his career or drawing a handsome salary.
2.Moreover it also helps any graduate of any stream to get a PG degree easily, as compared to CA or CS or other professional courses
3.Also in recent times it is observed that this degree has also helped in getting a good bride. We choose career specialization because of our passion or interest towards the field.
Sir in this LPG era, various jobs which demands skills others than technical skill are on high. But the supply of the required skills is not been properly identified by the odd B – school. But unfortunately the zeal which an MBA should have is lacking in most of the available talent pool.
Regards,
Mohit Dalmia
08PR00102BB017
Hello,Sir, as an MBA student it is really a shocking to me. At least from my side I assure you, sir the right attitude and responsible person towards my work and to my organization.
Respected Sir,
This is the true story of every HR. people.Because, when I was in the final recruitment process of my college, then the first two questions asked by them was same:
1.)Why you want to join this company?
2.)How long will you be in this company?
Now, I realised that why they ask this questions and how it became the big challenge for any HR. manager.
Sir, Thank You for sharing that all great experiences.
Regards,
Ashwani kumar
09PR001012B008
Respected Sir,
I have worked in a banking company before join to PROTON,there I had the same experience which you have shared in this post.
My work profile was the sales executive and I worked with full of responsibility.
without shying I went on street and sold liabilities product.
On the other side freshers from MBA college were hesitating to do that work on the same package.
This experience helped me to give best performence at KARVY(My summer intern company)
So according to me there should be mandatory to have experience of corporate world before joining any MBA institute.
Thank you sir for sharing nice insight.
Regards,
Ved Jaiswal
Respected Sir,
As we know that today people think that MBA means a sure shot job guarantee and even more people judge their expected package by the fees which they paid for their course. Why people don't understand employers never see the fees but they expected that you should be loyal and productive during working with them.
So be practical and no one feed you for free. Corporate expecting more than what we think. Thank you sir for giving us such a eye opening article, which would definitely add some value in us.
Regards
Shailendra
Respected Sir,
Thanks for sharing this conversation. I would like to give my opinion in five points:
1.Big brands Vs small organisations:it hardly matters for a fresher whether he/she is working in a big brand or in a small company.It is essential to be a quick learner.
2.Post/position/specialization: a fresh MBA student live in his own hallucinated world .Actually, such posts never exist for a fresher.Ideally we should start our career as a management trainee.
3.Salary package: it is not a good idea to judge companies on the basis of salary package they are offering for a job.
4.Consistency: a fresher should start his career from scratch level. Good assignments through which we can execute our strengths brings new apportunities.Consistent performance leads to future growth.
5.Sense of belongingness: the growth of an employee depends on the growth of the organisation. Thus, an employee should feel a sense of belongingness towards the organisation.
Regards,
PROTON Richa Rai
Fall 2008 batch
No doubt a very true thought/observation.
Having spent 6 years in the industry and 1 year in a reputed B-School, my observation is that there is a certain level of maturity required for the actual "MBA-Quality" job which we MBAs desire.
This maturity comes only with experience. By hiring a fresh MBA (less than 2 years experience), companies get the cost advantage (lower salary.... to put it in a harsh way - MBAs at a cheap rate). Once hired these MBAs are made to do jobs which any graduate with a B.Com or B.E. could have done. I have seen fresh MBAs from average B-Schools doing coding and testing in top 6 companies getting paid almost similar, or may be less than their "non-MBA" peers. These are the people who are losing out on both learning from experience and job satisfaction. So naturally they are the ones who become "Frustrated MBAs" looking for a switch or demanding more from their job within 3 months.
In my opinion the system needs to tweaked. In India, admission to B-Schools is majorly based on CAT or any other aptitiude score. It's good to judge the aptitude of a prospective MBA but it is also important to understand, what more than aptitude, does the industry need. Firstly, the interview should be given more importance. Secondly, the interview should be focused at goals, maturity level, thought process, and analysing ability of the candidate and not at the whether the candidate remembers the formula of Benzene Chloride. Sad to say but these are the kind of questions asked in interviews in some of the Top B-Schools in India. The interviewer should have sound industry knowledge and should be able to pick candidates who will be able change the businesses of tomorrow.
The environment in the B-Schools should be such that the focus is on learning and not on marks or placements. I have observed in most of the B-Schools candidates are focussed at scoring marks and topping the class. Their main aim is to get that good looking CGPA on their final marksheet and not on whether they will be able to add value to the companies they will work for. The companies can also be blamed for this behavior. Some of the top consulting companies only short list the top 10 candidates from the class. So who will stop this rat race ? This is where we need to change the education system. Marks should be awarded on displaying "fitness to industry" and not on the "cramming" skills of the candidate. We need to remove the "Ratoo Tota" from the system.
Post a Comment