Employers will look at two things when they are evaluating to hire. First, how good you are at what you do. Second, how good you are at what I do. The first is directed at applicant quality and the second is directed at organisational fit. It’s actually that simple.
The MYRA School of Business is admitting its first class. Its leaders and teachers are dedicated to preparing the Founding Class to answer these two questions from their prospective employers. Let me take you through what we have in mind; I think you’ll find it interesting.
How good are you at what you do?
When you arrive at a business school, you are a combination of your personality, your education, your work and other experiences. At MYRA, we are conscious of selecting a class that is diverse in these capacities. You may or may not have been a good student, you may or may not have had years of professional experience, you may or may not be an extrovert communicator. What we look for is an inherent capability to accomplish as per your own metrics – and then we build on those metrics, while rounding out other dimensions.
For instance, you may be an engineering student with moderate grades and a few years of experience in the telecom industry. Your future employers will look for evidence of quantitative skills – together with an ability to use a computer well. MYRA will encourage you to retain and grow on these skills and abilities via obvious routes such as management information systems, but also allied areas such as business analytics and operations.
Or, you may be a commerce graduate with a background in working for family-owned enterprises. Your future employers will look for evidence of business acumen and a capacity to take risks. MYRA’s course offerings in strategy and entrepreneurship will suit your experience, but our courses such as organisational leadership and negotiation will also prove immensely valuable.
In brief, we select on broad capabilities which we nurture. We add doses of related knowledge and experience and give you a bigger, deeper skill set.
How good are you at what I do?
When a company’s senior management looks to add new talent to their team, they reach out to business schools. They are looking for graduates that can fit into their current teams as well as bring in fresh thinking and the latest skills. The Governing Board at MYRA understands this and wants to play matchmaker.
Consider a manager in large multinational bank. In addition to financial literacy, she is looking for new recruits with communication skills that will allow them to fit into global teams. She is looking for the flexibility and willingness to adapt to difficult situations, such as a financial crisis. And she is looking for quick thinking – for things happen very quickly in banking! MYRA’s industry mentors have these skills in abundance– and they are eager to share their years of CXO-level industry experience with students in small teams or one-on-one.
Consider also a manager in a fast-growing Indian IT company. He wants people who will be happy with small starts but can grow with the company. He wants programming capability, but also wants someone who is comfortable talking to software users and understanding what a product should do. MYRA’s faculty and mentors are skilled at looking at businesses end-to-end. They know that strong technical skills are only half the equation, and they are passionate about the other people-intensive half.
Many of my contemporaries at Stanford in the early 1990s went on to become extraordinary technology innovators and business creators in Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and beyond. My recent colleagues in GE include engineers and analysts whose understanding of product markets and new services is what helps them grow. The teachers, mentors, and administrators at the MYRA School of Business aspire to those standards and go beyond. We come from various parts of the world, but it is in Mysore that we hope to see the new class. We will be ready. At the end of their programme, so will you.
Dr. Abhinanda Sarkar is the Associate Dean of the MYRA School of Business and was previously the Quality Leader and Principal Scientist with GE Global Research in
Bangalore. He graduated from the Indian Statistical Institute and obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University, USA.
Note: This is a sponsored article and has NOT been written by the PaGaLGuY Editorial Team. It is intended from an informational perspective only and it is upto the readers to research and verify the claims and judgements in the article before reaching a conclusion.