[mydearestvj]

Hi folks,

I wrote CAT '05 and I have got 99.99 percentile overall, and 6 calls. I am a fresher doing my CS final year in Chennai. I have got placed in a cool company in Bangalore, which offers me close to 7 lakh CTC, per annum and by another 2 years, it is most likely to touch 9 or 10 lakhs per annum.

So my question right now is would it be advisable to do an MBA from an IIM right now or work for 3-4 years and then go in for an MBA at a top school abroad. I would like to get a good pay packet (preferably $) after my MBA and as far as IIMs are concerned most of the top $ jobs are only from I banks and I am NOT interested in working for I-banks or basically any finance job. I am interested in marketing, consulting and even hiring and HR. Most of the general management jobs that ppl get after an IIM MBA are not very high paying and definitely not international.

Here are the answers to some of the common questions that u ppl may want to ask:

1. I very well know that MBA is not all about money. But the pay packet is also an important thing to be considered. In my opinion, MBA should take me further on all fronts, including the monetary aspect. If I were to do an MBA and end up at a salary lesser than what I would have got had I not done the MBA, I am sure gonna feel frustrated and I dont want that to happen.

2. I know that there are a few high paying non-finance jobs at the IIMs too, am talking abt McKinsey, BCG and a few others. However, these, I heard are few, and besides I am a non-IITian without any workex, so its gonna be really really tough for me, is what I was told.

So what do I do now? Join in right away if I get an admit, or wait around for a few years.

A sketch of my profile: 9 cgpa, several prizes in competitive programming, will be representing India at the ACM ICPC a worldwide programming contest to be held at Texas, couple of oratorical prizes while at school + I am a good communicator.

guys, throw in ur suggestions.

[BUGS BUNNY]

Hey dude ,
Me too in the final year of engineering and my suggestion wud be to take up tht job cos it seems to be a high payin one. Gain a couple of years work ex and since ur extra currics are also really gud i wud suggest u take up the GMAT route. cos if u get into a bschool jus for the sake of gettin into a gud one it wont be as fulfillin and from the way u hav written ur heart clearly doesnt seem to be in it
But still as u have got 6 calls u shud try and convert them and by the time u hav to join u wud have had more time to ananlyse wat u want and then u can go ahead with it. But watever happens do try and convert these calls as u can always decide later whether u want to join or not
cheers and ATB for ur future

[ratforcat]

dude, your kinda profile is more suited to an international mba.

also, a fresher getting into making makes no sense really. you can hardly relate anything to your college life . But still IIMs dont stress that much on workex bcoz the BCom BA junta find it hard to find decent jobs. Also some exceptional freshers(like you!) would be missed.

id say, take up the job! coz if you do, then you are still open to MBA from IIM from US or wherever. you are giving yourself time to think, learning firsthand in the industry. what more do you need? (dont throw those CAT BRMs just as yet! )

1. I very well know that MBA is not all about money. But the pay packet is also an important thing to be considered. In my opinion, MBA should take me further on all fronts, including the monetary aspect. If I were to do an MBA and end up at a salary lesser than what I would have got had I not done the MBA, I am sure gonna feel frustrated and I dont want that to happen.

dude, MBA is a risk! god forbid, when you passout and the economy(read US economy) takes a hit then you would have had it! forget good paying jobs! there would be a fight for the normal jobs as well when the usually high paying companies start deferring their offers! after having worked for two years atleast you are risking your own money rather than your parents money!

non-IITian bias will always be there more so in places like McKinsey which has loads of IITians so get over it!

there have been lots of thread like this. trying using the search function. I think you should research more on an international MBA. An indian mba in your case would lead to disillusionment and again the need for an international MBA might crop up!

dude 7Lakh CTC is good by any standards! Chances of getting a lower paying job in your case after mba are more bcoz of such a high figure!

Originally Posted by mydearestvj

Hi folks,

I wrote CAT '05 and I have got 99.99 percentile overall, and 6 calls. I am a fresher doing my CS final year in Chennai. I have got placed in a cool company in Bangalore, which offers me close to 7 lakh CTC, per annum and by another 2 years, it is most likely to touch 9 or 10 lakhs per annum.

So my question right now is would it be advisable to do an MBA from an IIM right now or work for 3-4 years and then go in for an MBA at a top school abroad. I would like to get a good pay packet (preferably $) after my MBA and as far as IIMs are concerned most of the top $ jobs are only from I banks and I am NOT interested in working for I-banks or basically any finance job. I am interested in marketing, consulting and even hiring and HR. Most of the general management jobs that ppl get after an IIM MBA are not very high paying and definitely not international.

Here are the answers to some of the common questions that u ppl may want to ask:

1. I very well know that MBA is not all about money. But the pay packet is also an important thing to be considered. In my opinion, MBA should take me further on all fronts, including the monetary aspect. If I were to do an MBA and end up at a salary lesser than what I would have got had I not done the MBA, I am sure gonna feel frustrated and I dont want that to happen.

2. I know that there are a few high paying non-finance jobs at the IIMs too, am talking abt McKinsey, BCG and a few others. However, these, I heard are few, and besides I am a non-IITian without any workex, so its gonna be really really tough for me, is what I was told.

So what do I do now? Join in right away if I get an admit, or wait around for a few years.

A sketch of my profile: 9 cgpa, several prizes in competitive programming, will be representing India at the ACM ICPC a worldwide programming contest to be held at Texas, couple of oratorical prizes while at school + I am a good communicator.

guys, throw in ur suggestions.

[MBA07]

I would say, if you are a guy with a technical inclination and is currently enjoying what you are doing and not looking for a change in career, then stick with your present job for a few years and climb up the pyramid. After a couple of years if you feel that you are getting bored with what you are doing and need a career shift or you need to arm yourself with an MBA to take your team along with you, go for it. As far as the financial part is concerned, I will agree with your thoughts. Found this post in PG and thought will be helpful for you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Does an MBA makes financial sense?

Pasting an interesting article here (written by one of my batchmates here at ISB). It treats an MBA as an investment & plugs in some numbers to arrive at a conclusion whether it has a +ve NPV or not. The numbers used here are strictly a personal opinion (particular to ISB). Depending on your situation, you are free to change them & draw your own conclusions.
At the minimum, an interesting read. Provides an objective way of looking at this monster called MBA from financial dimension atleast. . Here goes ..

---------------------------------------------------------

NPV of an investment in an MBA Program



I have been saying this ad nauseam – the reasons to pursue an MBA program have to be ‘individual’. The reasons cannot be generic – what applies to somebody else need not apply to you. One of the many decisions to make before considering giving up a job to do an MBA program is financial. It would however be myopic and sometimes silly to take into account just financial aspect of the benefits of MBA. Life and Career are not straight lines and cannot be put to a linear regression to understand. The complexity of these requires that we understand and appreciate all the variables, if ever we can enumerate all of these variables. Once the variables have been broadly figured out, doing a cost-benefit analysis is pivotal. Many of the popular magazines and newspapers refer to the payback period as a measure to appreciate investment in an MBA program. But now that I have attended one class of Corporate Finance course, I can, with some confidence, say that payback period approach is flawed and does not capture the time value of money (thanks to my Prof. who used a similar example).

Calculating NPV of the investment is much better way of analyzing the decision. Of course, all math and analysis begin with assumptions. Here too we make some assumptions to be able to start.

I take an example of a person with following variables to explain how the NPV can be calculated

Age – 27
Present Salary – INR 500000
Age of retirement – 60 Years
Return on alternate investment opportunity, r – 10 %

First, let us calculate the Present Value of the income during the career time when MBA is not pursued. Let us call this PV (No MBA)

Assume, Expected growth rate of income without an MBA degree – 5%

C1= Current Salary; C1 (1+Gt) = salary during subsequent years; t = 1, 2….32; Gt=growth rate, which is 5 %

PV (No MBA) = C1+ C1 (1+G1) / (1+r) +…..C1 (1+G32) / (1+r)^32 = C(1+G) [ 1-(1+G)^32 / (1+r)^32] / [ r – G]

=> 500000 + 500000(1+0.05) / 1.1 +….+ 500000(1+0.05)/ (1.1)^32 = INR 9017000


Let us now calculate the Present Value of the income during the career when MBA is pursued. Let us call this PV (MBA)

Assume, Starting Salary after MBA, C2 – INR 800000; Expected growth rate of income, Gt – 7%; Retirement Age – 60 Years;

Cost of MBA at ISB = INR 1500000

PV (MBA) = -1500000 + C2 (1+G1) / (1+r)+…..+ C2(1+G31)/(1+r)^31 = -1500000 + 800000/(1.1) + 800000 (1+0.07) / (1.1)^2+………+ 800000 (1+ 0.07) / (1.1)^31 = INR 15380000

NPV of investment = PV (MBA) Less PV (No MBA) = INR 6368000

Given the assumptions, investment in ISB MBA program is an attractive proposition.
One may alter the assumptions (according to the respective circumstances and expectations) and calculate the NPV of the investment.

I close this with a caveat – the benefits of an MBA are far greater than financial and I think a simple NPV calculation cannot capture the essence of such benefits. But, an NPV calculation will let one put down what one’s expectations from MBA are. It is to be realized that from the financial angle MBA plans need to be treated as any other financial investment and need to be put to NPV test. We need to explain to our people – parents or spouse or anyone else – on why we think this investment is worth its money and time and why we think they should make some sacrifices today to see a better tomorrow. Through NPV calculation, convincing them becomes easier – provided the NPV turns out to be positive and reasonably attractive.

Post Scriptum:

-Seek pardon from readers with non-quant/fin background. But this is the only way to go about making a financial decision

- INR is Indian Rupees

Vijay K Mulbagal
Class of 2006, ISB
www.itheabsolute.blogspot.com

[BaBu]

wow. hot career dude.

Take up the job. See how life goes and what you discover in next 2-3 yrs. PG story is real motivation. Dinged by IIMs, he got into wharton and that too with standard B.com.

[mydearestvj]

Hi guys,

Thanks a lot to all u guys.

@MBA07
hey, dont mind me saying this, but your friend's article was not very useful because he assumed the very thing that I am pondering about: that starting sal after MBA is gonna be higher than preMBA, and also the growth rate in sal after MBA is gonna be higher. Well, if this is gonna be the situation, we really dont need too much of math to figure out what to do, my whole problem is I am not sure what my post MBA sal is gonna be, compared to my present offer.

Btw, folks is there anyone who faced such a situation wherein he gave up an IIM offer, worked for a few years and then made it to a top school abroad?

[sagar_rastogi]

Hey,
I too am in the same boat:
99.99 percentile - 6 calls,
a job at adobe - pays abt the same,
decent communication skills and ok extra-curriculars.
i'm from iiit hyderabad which is awesome but still not an iit :(

Does anybody here know anyone who actually did an mba from a good B-school abroad? Is IIMA still worth it? How much is the difference between the brand values of IIMA and IIMB? How different are the posts offered to freshers and people with work-ex?

I like technology but I've a passion for business too and my ideal job would be somewhere at the intersection between the two.

[niranjandeo]

Originally Posted by mydearestvj

So what do I do now? Join in right away if I get an admit, or wait around for a few years.

Here is my take on your problem. Typically growth in technical careers ends after a few years. Now this may not be true in IT (I am not an IT guy). However, even if it is possible to become a CEO in an IT company having just a bachelor's degree, think about whether an MBA will give you a good jump in the process. I will recommend talking to the folks at the firm which hired you and asking them about typical career growth in the firm. Of course, if you have very specific career aims (like for e.g. being the HR manager when you retire) then you should tailor your approach accordingly.

As far as an international MBA is concerned, that option will be good if you want to get out of India. An international MBA does not guarentee that you will get a better salary than an IIM MBA in India. It will however open up the western job markets for you.

So if you want to get out of India, choose the international MBA option. Work for a few years and collect some money. B-schools don't give funding to people and your costs could go up to as much as $80k for a 2 year MBA. Once you get into a reputed B-school in US, lack of an IIT degree doesn't hurt much (if at all). This quite likely is true of an IIM MBA as well.

--Niranjan

[nivedita2311]

hii m a new user, an mba aspirants appearing for 2008. so i wud lyk to kw dat hw dis pagalguy.com vll help me up in dis.

[chop suey]

Originally Posted by nivedita2311

hii m a new user, an mba aspirants appearing for 2008. so i wud lyk to kw dat hw dis pagalguy.com vll help me up in dis.

welcome to PG nivedita

firstly pagalguy is not coaching institute to help u out with CAT prep...wat it does is help u help urself...which means it gives u a platform to interact with fellow CAT aspirants across India...discuss and share information and knowledge...PG is a bidirectional highways where the more u participate the more u learn...the onus is on u to learn i.e self learning...u have a lot of threads where ppl share and discuss questions from various sections...to know more abt how to use the forum check the following thread

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enjoy ur stay here n best of luck with ur prep