Perhaps, the most important reason behind the requirement, emergence, burgeoning continuity and progressively increasing success of capitalism and the private sector is the human being’s instinctive desire to be allowed full freedom to not only go all out in developing his / her potential but also expect the maximum possible recognition and return for his / her efforts expended and quality or skills displayed. The political and economic reasons behind the coming into existence and of age of the private sector may differ from country to country but the human element behind its beginning is basically the same; the most willing, talented and hardworking potential must be given the maximum scope for its realization and, consequently, must have the right to look forward to and demand the highest reward. The truly intelligent and hardworking individual who has given his / her best effort to develop his / her potential and skills will never be satisfied with an average or above average return on his / her investment. The best always expects and deserves the best and the right place for such an individual, professionally, is in the world of business where he / she may not only expect just recognition and reward for his / her achievements but also through his / her efforts contribute, directly or indirectly, to the betterment of his / her fellow beings and society in the long run. Though, an MBA degree is not necessary to achieve excellence in performance in business - genius businessmen don’t need an MBA degree to succeed in their fields - yet, a proper MBA degree makes the workings of the world of business a great deal easier and clearer to most of the above-the-average intellects who may not otherwise understand the intricacies and nuances of its systems and practices.
With the unprecedented rise of the corporate sector in the present era, an MBA degree, which qualifies a candidate to manage the affairs of that sector, has become the educational and professional degree to acquire. Because, money has become the most important and desirable object for most of the human beings and since, the maximum amount of money is required in the business sector and progress in business is all about more and still more money, it hardly requires extraordinary intelligence to comprehend how and why an MBA degree, the curriculum of which dishes out knowledge about business and its administration, has become so important of late. An MBA degree from an institution worth its grain is regarded as a passport to better job opportunities, more scope for the display of one’s qualities, satisfaction of greater ambitions, higher social status, more glamour, and greater compensation for a candidate’s abilities. Job sectors, which have a governmentally inspired style of functioning, with their nagging emphasis on fixed working hours and salary while providing security as the only benefit also generate laziness and banality as their pernicious products as a result of which they are slowly but steadily and surely losing their power to capture the imagination of the ambitious, determined, and hardworking individual who wants to cash in on every minute of his / her time.
The degree which liberates the earning potential of all of its holders has quite an impact on the field of technology when it comes to increasing the value of an engineer in the professional sector. A B. Tech or BE degree lands a job for the candidate but it is only an entry-level job in which he / she has to first learn the ropes as an average worker like many others, get some namesake promotions, and then wait expectantly for some years before he / she can even be considered as having the potential to lead or manage others. A candidate with educationally authentic B. Tech or BE and MBA degrees does not have to wait for that long, since he / she will enter the organization at the managerial level after which, if he / she has the requisite qualities and shows the expected performance, he / she can try and become a part of the management. Thus, apart from getting a definitely higher pay package, the career-oriented candidate will also save a lot of time in making it to the top of the organizational hierarchy.
There is another reason for career-conscious engineers to go for an MBA. The percentage of engineers who have made it to most of the business schools over the last fifteen years, according to most of the surveys, has been noticeably higher than that of the students from any other educational background. Such a phenomenon is not difficult to understand. Not only has the engineer to study for four years for his / her graduation but also his, if he / she has studied properly, abilities to comprehend, dissect, and analyze matters are substantially better than those of most of the students of the other disciplines. Most of the premier MBA entrance tests are heavily loaded with analytical quantitative problems, on which an engineer is expected to work better than most of the candidates from any other educational background. The curriculum of the engineering students, which is packed enough not to allow the students much time for non-curricular activities, also helps in building up, in the students, the kind of attitude, work ethic, punctuality, stress management qualities and discipline that is unavoidable for anyone who wants to enter and flourish in the corporate sector. Exposure to different types of events and situations, employability training classes, seminars, emphasis on punctuality and smartness acquired during the four years, make an engineer the best suited candidate for a business school and, subsequently, for the business sector.
The strongest reason, in my opinion, for any serious engineer worth his / her grain to get an MBA degree is simply the fact that it is a much better option to slog it out for more than eight hours a day in an organization with more dignity, responsibilities and importance for a fantastically higher pay package than to work one’s skin off for an any-day lower amount, which is what one gets in a job immediately after engineering. Once, the engineer with an MBA degree gets into the professional sector, he / she also comes to realize that the excitement and the satisfaction is about not only the fabulous payment that he / she ends up with but also the much tougher challenges that he / she has to face, the much greater responsibilities that he / she has to fulfill, and the constantly changing nature of the work and its importance. The very fact that he / she among the others has been selected for such work carries his / her ego, self-esteem, dignity, self-importance and pride to greater heights after which he / she willingly slogs it out to sustain them. An MBA then becomes a degree which provides the engineer many more avenues and opportunities to exploit his / her talent, take initiatives, satisfy his / her ambitions and allow them to grow and display his / her energy and skills with the surety that such activities will be rewarded at the end, a scenario which would not, in most of the cases, have been possible without it due to the mediocrity and monotonous regularity associated with most of the jobs directly after engineering. Finally, if the engineer knows his / her engineering to the point of theoretical and practical brilliance, then, who knows, he / she, after an MBA, may even understand its ultimate teaching, realize that it is much better to be one’s own master, end up becoming an entrepreneur as quite a few have done in the past and thus come across the possibility of squeezing the maximum out of the degree. Everyone who has had a stint in the world of business can attest to the fact that the only thing sure about it is its unpredictability and lack of surety and that tried, tested, and time honored constants become risk-generating variables in no time. It is this lack of surety which dares the courageous, adventurous, and talented to become excited enough to take risks in a bid to maximize their earnings and frightens the pusillanimous, lazy and self-satisfied to run away towards the security of their previous disappointingly paid jobs. It is in the very nature of those human beings, aiming to make it big on the pillars of their own vision, wisdom, energy, talent, skills, determination, capability and resources, to exploit whatever in them is positive and productive to the maximum extent humanly possible not only for the material reward or glory that such endeavor brings but also to content themselves that they have pushed themselves to their limits and given their best in living out their lives. After God, engineers are sometimes called, “Creators” due to which they are also expected to push themselves to the maximum extent humanly possible so as to deserve and extract the best out of an increasingly unforgiving, cruel, and Darwinian world. One must never waste one’s talent for not only what it can give to oneself but also the benefit that its realization may extend to others. Studying MBA thus becomes one of the stronger choices for the engineer who wants to live the life of his / her own dreams. When there are so many reasons for the engineers to go for an MBA, it is very difficult and, at times, impossible to understand why and how they are so satisfied and contented with the jobs that they already have.
Postscript: Variety is the spice and essence of life and the more we get, the merrier it is for us. No sane human being wants to be saddled with the same thing or work after a period of time. For work to be interesting to and bring out the best in its worker, it should have continuously changing and more challenging requirements and responsibilities. The worker should always be made to realize the progressively increasing degree of importance and expectation attached to the work and the rewards associated with the successful completion of it. Today, the development of technology moves at a breakneck speed and engineers can hardly be expected to lag behind. The continuous improvement on existing technology can be attributed to the perennial dissatisfaction shown by human beings in general and engineers in particular towards lack of change or monotony. This is also applicable to the professional sector, in which continuity with the same type of work over a period of time decreases one’s enthusiasm, energy and initiative taking ability and kills one’s ambition while doing it. Talent and skills are strangled and the unsatisfactory pay, hiking itself at the speed of a snail is no great comfort either. It is high time, especially for the engineers to realize that something much better, professionally and mentally, is only an MBA degree away.
Indic Institute of Design & Research, we provide inputs to the students about further studies and provide mentoring and counselling support for our students
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