(Image credit: W Marsh)

MBA graduates of 2010 across the world feel more optimistic about the health of the economy than those in 2009 did, even though the number of MBAs having a job before graduation has dropped to a seven-year low, reports a GMAC survey. Only 33% of the management graduates of the world had a job before graduation this year, compared to 43% in 2008 and 58% in 2009. Among those employed, the percentage increase in salaries (over pre-MBA salaries) too was at a four-year low at 57%. Yet according to GMAC’s research, about one-third of the class of 2010 felt that the economy was stable or strong, compared to only 9% of the class of 2009.

The insights are derived from the Global Management Education Graduate Survey 2010 by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), the agency that owns the GMAT exam. The responses of 5,274 graduates from 147 business schools worldwide were used in the survey report.

Compared to 2009′s 50%, only 40% job-seeking graduates of the Two-year fulltime MBA had jobs before finishing school this year. In the One-year fulltime program, this percentage remained more or less unchanged over the previous year at 28%. Among Executive MBAs of 2010, only 23% had a job offer before graduation, compared to 44% in 2009.

Citizens of Asia-Pacific nations studying in the surveyed b-schools were the worst-hit at only 28% pre-graduation employment across all types of MBA programs. Europeans had it best at 38% having a pre-graduation job.

(Graphics courtesy: GMAC)

This year, the percentage change in base salary earned by an MBA over his pre-MBA compensation was 57%. This is a four-year low, the highest having been 68% in 2008 followed by 61% in 2009.

This percentage increase was higher than last year only for Executive and Part-time MBA but more or less unchanged for Two-year and One-year fulltime MBA.

Despite the lingering shortage of employment sparked off by the economic recession and regardless of the graduates’ success in the job market, MBAs still gave high marks to their business program’s ability to prepare them for a suitable employment.

“While the job market may be cyclical, the value of management education is constant. The investment people make in their own human capital by going to business school gives them a competitive advantage that transcends the ups and downs of the economy,” said Dave Wilson, president and chief executive officer of GMAC.

In about a week’s time, most business schools in India would have welcomed the new batch of starry-eyed students, the first-year ‘freshers’. Carrying with them a lot of anxiety and much hope, they would be busy checking out the campus and the classrooms, wondering about roommates, making their first friends or scouting for paying-guest accommodation, all part of the first-fortnight buzz at a b-school. To make this new journey for the freshers less maddening and more enjoyable, ex-students and senior MBA students provide advice and tips on what to carry, what to leave behind, books to buy, software to install, grooves to get into and more.

Books – both light and serious

There is no better way to learn life, than to live it, say many second-year MBA students adding that no book can prepare you for life in a b-school. However, there are some books which may help make the process of learning more gratifying.

Ankush Trakru, a 2007 alumnus of the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi is certain that books like Mind of a Strategist and Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker are good for a start. “These books will give students a general feel of what to expect,” he says.

Harshal Modi, ex-Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Pune is certain that there is no better book that about-to-be-b-schoolers must read than Welcome to Advertising. Now Get Lost by Omkar Sane. Arun Kapur of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore pushes for Stay Hungry Stay Foolish for those who wish to eventually start thnieir own business. Binoy Cherian also recommends Sidin Vadukut’s Dork or Chetan Bhagat’s books as they will add to the zest of college life. Chetan Shetty from the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai suggests CK Prahlad’s ‘Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid‘.

As our own recommendation from PaGaLGuY, we suggest that you read Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA, a funny but intense account of author Peter Robinson’s first year at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Apart from the casual reads above, some suggest books to get comfortable with numerical analysis and accounting. Binoy Cherian from the class of 2011 at Chennai’s Great Lakes Institute of Management has a list to share. “I recommend Financial Accounting – Tools for Business Decision Making because this book uses International Financial Reporting Standards and hence is different from the accountancy textbooks recommended in Indian high schools and undergraduation.” Cherian also suggests Business Statistics: A First Course to attain comfort with business statistics.

Binoy also recommends that all students, irrespective of the MBA they are studying in get a conceptual understanding of statistics,  presenting data using charts and graphs in Microsoft Excel, numerical measures such as Mean, Median, Mode, Variance, Standard Deviation, Probability, Probability distributions including Binomial, Poisson and Normal distributions before they join up.

Deep Agarwal from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai has an even more basic list. His list includes How to Read a Balance Sheet for engineering students. For students from the science background, he recommends online resources to get their knowledge of statistics in place. “These will be of practical help,” he assures.

Those such as Divya Morparia, a 2009 alumnus of the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) and Avinav Thakur from International Management Institute (IMI), Delhi feel that just reading the newspapers everyday, especially the pink papers is a good enough start to get around at a b-school. Sameer Joshi from IIM Calcutta shares that view and adds that having cleared the Common Admissions Test (CAT) and other entrance exams, the student already has his basics in place, so no extra reading is really required for the initial days.

Binoy suggests that before the classes officially start, one should catch up on all the sleep that they can get as it is the only thing that freshers are going to miss in the coming days. “It’s good if you learned how to read quickly. With about 150 – 300 pages of pre-reads (preparation before class) everyday, it just gets difficult if one does not know how to read fast and recollect all that they have read. Quick reading and summarizing is an important art.”

Laptop and software

Chetan and Sameer swear by Microsoft Excel and declare that it is by far the most important software that all MBA student need to have on their laptops.

“Every business process needs Excel, whether it is sales or supply chain. In fact, most companies use Excel so when students go for their summer internship, they find it very difficult to cope with the responsibilities unless they know the software really well,” says Chetan.

Both Ankush and Harshal stress on the importance of Microsoft Powerpoint and urge that it is a must since all students need to make Powerpoint presentations whether in the classroom or during summer internships. Ankush adds that it is good to acquire basic skills in photo and video editing software because it always helps in enhancing the quality of presentations. Divya Morparia advises that students install software to read all common e-book formats.

Vivek Khanchandani and Chetan recommend SPSS and Minitab as handy software for statistical analysis. “Since they are statistical tools for any marketing and sales team, students should learn them.” Chetan adds that the student versions of these tools are cheaper and easily available.

Binoy says that it  makes sense to invest in a good anti-virus software. “Students tend to use the school network extensively and share data using pen drives, so having a good anti-virus makes sense. Some colleges might be choosy about allowing downloads. So it is better to download the instant messengers, browsers, games and other tools before going to campus.” Binoy adds that Counter Strike is a big hit in colleges, so it might be a good idea to acquire it.

For those buying a new laptop, Binoy recommends the Apple Macbook. “It helps in making better presentations. Apple provides discounts to students. Just show the Apple guys your b-school admission offer letter.”

What to wear

One pictures the MBA prototype in a crisp suit with a tie to boot, shining leather shoes, all under a halo of confidence. But it is not just suits and sarees at b-school. Senior MBA students say that the new MBA’s suitcase should have a little of everything, as no two b-schools have the same dress code. Binoy says that at Great Lakes 99% of the students wear t-shirts and jeans 99% of the time. He recommends that apart from daily casuals that one wears to class, students should carry at least two pairs of formal wear and a blazer if the college hasn’t specified a uniform. “The formal wear will come in handy during presentations, competitions and summer placements.”

Some suggest to get formal clothes stitched on campus because a few colleges prescribe a signature colour. Avinav Thakur from IMI Delhi says that in his college, formal clothing needs to be in a particular colour. “Sapphire blue was the colour for the suits and it looked good too. Having a class with students sitting in a range of diffferent coloured suits looks odd.” Avinav suggests that one could also hold stitching formal clothing till one actually settles down at college since many colleges have their own tailors who do a good job.

Hello Senior

There are no  rules to getting into the good books of seniors at a b-school. Most seniors say that acquaintance with the juniors is an ongoing and automatic process. According to Nikhil Kulkarni from SIBM Bangalore, the process to get to know the juniors begins two months before they actually step into college. “We start meets with new joinees in every city, so students generally meet other students and seniors even before they actually join school. So getting to know the seniors is not a big issue in our college,” he says. Deep from NMIMS Mumbai, which is not a completely residential school, says that being active on Facebook and Orkut is another way to know your seniors and peers. “Knowing them beforehand gives you a headstart once you enter college,” he states.

Though ragging is legally banned in India, it’s still a paper tiger and just like at other degree colleges, b-schools too have their share of ragging. Avinav Thakur assures that ragging in MBA colleges is very light and harmless compared to engineering or what appears in newspapers and television. Ravindra Kumar from Fore School of Management, Delhi gives straight advice. “Get involved in the ragging process. That’s the best and fastest way to know everyone.” Divya Morparia advises that students should enjoy whatever kind of ragging that takes place. “Ragging will not kill you, it will only make  you stronger. So make the best of it and get to know your seniors at one go.” She adds however, “Feel free to ask seniors to stop when you think they have crossed the line.”

Nikhil on the other hand says that the induction programmes are quite a learning experience for the fresher and nothing extra is needed.

Making friends, lafdas

Thanks to social networking, most students get to know each other even before joining. The remaining, they get to know during the college’s induction and orientation programmes. About love stories on the campus, seniors insist that MBAs are humans too and what has to happen will happen. In fact at b-school, apart from a degree, many people also find their life-partners. Ravindra Kumar says that your approach to the opposite sex differs with colleges. “When I was doing MBA in Delhi, I found women taking the initiative but in Pune, the guys usually had to take the first step.” On an average, most b-schools in India have majority male student forces. But as Vivek Khanchandani says that at MBA level, students are already in their early to mid-20s and mature enough to deal with people from the opposite sex.

Don’t lose yourself

The unanimous advice that all senior and ex-students give is that MBAs need to enjoy their b-school days. Avinav Thakur says that MBAs have to learn to enjoy life and look beyond their classrooms. They have to know what is happening in the world and stay tuned to it. “Cutting yourself off from everything else and just concentrating on studies is not the way it should be.” Deep states that students should also acknowledge that just getting into an MBA is not the end of everything. “I have seen students who after getting into a b-school forget about doing well in it. They get destroyed as people, because for them getting into a particular institute was the only aim.” Divya  says that while hard work is important, stress should be handled by concurrently having a good time too.

Yes, you heard that right. We have excess stock of hot coffee but not enough people to spend sleepless nights consuming it. Are you passionate about the world of MBA education? Do you get excitedly lap up news and analysis on business schools in newspapers? Are you brimming with questions on why the gears in the MBA world turn the way they do? We’ll give you a chance to find out the answers to those questions and also inform the world about it! Join the PaGaLGuY Editorial Team.

Scope for mainstream journalism in the area of Business Education

Consider the following math:

Every year, approximately 500,000 youngsters consider joining a business school in India. In the course of taking entrance exams and applying to business schools, they spend on an average Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 on buying application forms.

• Total money spent on application forms each year = 500,000 x 4,000 = Rs 200 crores.

Next, about 150,000 of them take final admission into various recognized business schools across the country, paying on an average a tuition fees of Rs 400,000.

• Total money spent on tuition fees each year = 150,000 x 400,000 = Rs 6,000 crores.

In a sector of education working with that much consumer money and minimal government regulation, meaningful journalism about institutes’ admission processes, quality of education, research standards, governance issues, returns on investment and problems faced by students (and much more) is what drives the PaGaLGuY Editorial Team.

We invite experienced and talented Journalists working on the Education beat to join PaGaLGuY fulltime and contribute to creating a deep, analytical, impactful and accessible online newspaper on Management Education using the highest standards of journalism in one of the best work environments of the country. Given the popularity and reach of PaGaLGuY, what you write will be read by practically everyone associated with management education in India. Come join us, and touch lives.

Location: Mumbai (Sion)

As a Fulltime Reporter at PaGaLGuY, your job will be to report on and intelligently analyze the management education scene in India and the world and write it in a way that PaGaLGuY readers can use to make smarter decisions about their education. You will be required to travel extensively to MBA hubs and business schools across the country, create and expand a network of contacts among B-school professors, Deans, students, recruiters, entrepreneurs and everybody else who matters in the management education industry and report on issues that count.

We need to see these qualities in you

• Curious, inquisitive, willing to learn
• Excellent command over English language, written and spoken
• Pleasant personality, go-getter
• Self starter, does not need spoon feeding
• Analytical, objective, perceptive
• Thoughtful about his/her work. Tries to constantly find better ways to be more efficient at work
• Is not Maths-phobic

Qualifications: Any graduate or more. Experience: 0 to 5 years.

Compensation will be at par with market standards.

How to apply? Send the following…

1. Resume
2. Covering letter
3. Samples of your writing

… to jobs@pagalguy.com. If we like what we get, we’ll give you a call. Promise.

FAQs about the job

1: Can I work part-time or freelance?
A: No.

2. I don’t have relevant experience in journalism. Am I eligible to apply?
A: Of course. As long as you have the above qualities, we will train you in the rest.

3. I love creative writing. Is that a good enough reason to apply?
A: We need more. Apart from the love for writing, you should also be a highly motivated information junkie, who loves to dig into anything that looks like information/knowledge even if for the heck of it and does not feel shy about talking to more people or reading that extra material in order to reach it. Your value to your readers will mainly depend on how accurate, in-depth and well-analyzed your information is. And good quality writing will not hurt.

4. What is the work culture like?
A: The best way to know that would be to read our Workplace Blog.

5. What is the future career scope as a Journalist?
A: All depends on how good you are able to be at it. You can work hard, specialize in one area and build a brand name for yourself, which you can later use to experiment with different mediums such as print or TV and work with one of the many media houses in India or abroad. Depending on how well you do, you could be leading news bureaus, being a senior Editor in prestigious newspapers or TV channels, etc. Journalism is one of the very few individualistic professions, so it’s a lot easier to stand out from the crowd on the basis of your work than it is in most other professions.

Best answer:

Answer by Serge M
There is no such MBA. Universities don’t grant MBA in information systems, or MBA in strategy, or MBA in marketing. The MBA is a general degree preparing students for management positions in any level of a business, up to CEO. MBA students study accounting, finance, marketing, management, statistics, economics, strategy, policy, and other courses. Many MBA programs offer concentrations in these and many other fields, but that amounts to only 2-3 courses in your chosen field in the second year of study. Many students avoid a concentration and take a variety of elective subjects to gain a broader background. By the time you finish the first year you’ll be able to decide which concentration interests you.

As for salaries they are so varied, your question is not relevant. Initially, starting salaries range from ,000 to 0,000 and later the range is from 0 to million and more. Zero is for the guys now in jail. Hours worked: usually 50-80 a week and they love every minute. I doubt it’s what you realy want, given the nature of your questions.

Consult the Official MBA Guide. It’s a comprehensive free public service with more than 2,000 MBA programs listed worldwide. It allows you to search for programs by location (US, Europe, Far East, etc.), by concentration (finance, marketing, aviation management, health management, accounting, etc.), by type of program (full-time, distance learning, part-time, etc), and by listing your own criteria and preferences to get a list of universities that satisfy your needs. Schools report their accreditation status, tuition cost, number of students, class sizes, program length, and a lot of other data. Schools provide data on entrance requirements, program costs, program characteristics, and much more. You can use the Guide to contact schools of your choice, examine their data, visit their web site, and send them pre applications. You can see lists of top 40 schools ranked by starting salaries of graduates, GMAT scores, and other criteria. It’s the best service available at http://officialmbaguide.org.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Imagine this: there are over 2,400 b-schools in India of which 1,999 are approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and 400 function as unapproved private b-schools. Together, they have nearly 190,000 seats for a total pool of 3.5-4 lakh MBA aspirants who sit for the national and state-level MBA entrance exams.

If we hypothetically consider that the average fees charged by these b-schools is about Rs 200,000, then the total potential revenue for b-schools in India = Rs 3,800 crores.

As the number of seats are fewer than the total pool of available students, getting students to enroll should not be a problem for these 2,400 b-schools, on the face of it.

Wrong. Every year, since the last 2-3 years, an increasing number of b-schools are finding it tougher to fill the complete intake capacity of their MBA or PGDM batches by the time they begin their sessions in the month of June. I am not talking about 50 of the best known (‘top 50′, if you will) b-schools, which have enough pull effect to attract excellent numbers and thereby have the privilege of even providing a waiting-list for prospective students.

The worry is with the second and third tier of b-schools. Almost all of them are privately owned and funded and many were set up with the noble intention to provide management education to those Indians who could not get through to the best b-schools. Some were also set up to provide education to a special section of the society.

However as of today, death looms large on these b-schools. The primary reason being that they have never figured out the changing dynamics of the market or the way MBA applicants have been choosing b-schools in the past few years.

Consider some numbers for example: in the year 2003, out of the 95,000 odd students who appeared for the Common Admission Test (CAT), the ratio of freshers to those with substantial work experience was about 60:40. Moving forward to 2008 and 2009, the number of CAT takers increased to over 250,000 of which more than 60% had work experience.

In 2003, freshers chose higher education due to the fact that the economy then promised them something really big if they spent two years arming themselves with more skills before venturing out into the job market. In other words, there weren’t many lucrative opportunities available for someone fresh out of undergraduate college. On the other hand, those who were employed for 4 or more years were already happy, or had families and never bothered so much with a 2-year fulltime MBA in India. There were fewer b-schools in the country, and filling up their intake capacity wasn’t that much of a challenge.

Seeing this trend, b-schools started mushrooming all over the country over the next five years, some even trying to replicate the Indian Institute of Management model by opening branches in multiple cities.

In the last couple of years, since 2008, things have been really bad for most of these private b-schools. They have found it tough to fill their classrooms with quality candidates. The student market response to their advertising and branding messages has been appallingly cold. Overall, things look very bad for them.

A deeper look into the trends gives a better idea: the 60+ % applicant pool with work experience has a better idea about what they want to do with their professional lives, and so are averse to settling for a b-school that is not in what is broadly perceived as the ‘top 50′. They have developed sharp expectations from the two years that they will spend at a b-school and the return-on-investment at the end of it. For them, joining any of the 2,000 b-schools at the bottom of the pyramid does not make much sense.

The freshers on the other hand, are always the confused lot. If they get into a ‘top 50′ b-school, most will join it in all likelihood. If not, then they start looking at the next best options (driven largely by the kind of placements the remaining b-schools offer). This translates to a very slow decision process, as students try to make sense of the offerings of these schools, which don’t differ too much from each other.

This leads to almost a mini recession-like situation, wherein a couple of thousand b-schools have over 1.5 lakh empty MBA or PGDM seats on offer but no takers. Spending on advertisements in the print media and other publicity avenues (seminars, education fairs) has little or no effect in generating applicant interest. In order to break this standoff, several b-schools get hold of ‘leads’ (a ‘lead’ in industry-speak is the contact information of an MBA aspirant) from websites, coaching institutes or other sources. They then start calling up these freshers at least 30 times to get them to apply. That produces frustration on both ends. The aspirants feel that – “this college doesn’t get any applications and is therefore following up.” For them it doesn’t mean anything that the b-school is looking for genuine candidates to apply to them. Over time, some schools either resign to running on less-than-full student capacity or choose to admit almost anybody, much to the dismay and disillusionment of the good faculty in the school. The route down the regression road is thus laid out.

Add to that the growing trend of multinational companies recruiting undergraduates for the same jobs (analysts, sales and marketing executives, jobs in KPOs, auditor firms, equity research, etc) that one gets after a second-tier MBA. This is further pushing more fresher applicants towards the experienced category, further reducing their availability to second and third tier schools.

If the b-schools fail to understand this, very soon they will lose their reason to exist, will become financially unviable and will have to shut down. Already, they have optimized their operational expenditures beyond limits (getting visiting faculty, optimized infrastructure usage, class schedules, etc). If they don’t take corrective steps right now, then they will surely be heading for a sad end.

There is still hope. These b-schools will need to look inward and ask themselves some very important questions:

1. What is lacking in them that they do not have a ‘pull effect’ like the top-50 do?

2. What have b-schools such as ISB Hyderabad or Great Lakes, Chennai done that has allowed them to gain a reputation in less than a decade?

3. Do the marketing and admissions teams in these schools have more members than the total number of fulltime faculty members?

4. How do these schools do when put to the scrutiny of the best academic standards and fora?

The trouble is that with the kind of ’sweatshop way’ of working that these b-schools internally have, it is difficult that they will see the light. Extinction is a big threat and sooner or later they will have to think of questions that matter, or perish.

The author heads the Sales and Marketing team at PaGaLGuY.com.

How to participate?

Click original and creative pictures showing the beauty of your b-school campus and mail the three best pictures (minimum resolution: 1,500 pixels for the larger dimension) to editor@pagalguy.com. Max three entries per person! Do include the name and model of the camera you used to take the picture.

Experiment with different light, take dramatic shots of the buildings, or capture the beauty of the campus during the monsoons, the sunset light, etc. You may also include people, your friends, groups with whom you do your project work in your pictures.

Remember, this is a photography talent competition first. So make sure the most talented people in your college are participating!

(non-MBA students can participate too. The photographs should have been clicked in the last 6 months in order to qualify.)

Last date July 5, 2010.

What are the prizes?

And we’ll hail you as the best friggin’ photographer that ever lived! Other good entries too will receive honorable mentions on PaGaLGuY.com .

What are the contest rules?

• The pictures must have a minimum resolution of 1,500 pixels. (For horizontally oriented pics, the width should at least be 1500 px. For vertically oriented pics, the height should be at least 1,500 px).
• The contest is open only to business schools that lie inside India.
• The pictures must have been clicked by YOU. Use any type of camera you like.
• No sending photos from your b-school brochure or the professional photographer hired by your school. We are bored of those stock photos and can smell them from miles!

Contest judges