How many years of work experience do you recommend for someone to go in for an MBA? Why is it important than doing it fresh after your graduation? - Supriti
India’s premier B-schools offering full-time, two-year MBA programmes do not need work experience for admissions. While a couple of years of work experience will give an MBA student exposure, which sometimes proves to be helpful in understanding some nuances of the programme and makes him or her eligible for lateral placements, on the whole, it is better if one gets into an MBA right after college. The years spent working, after graduation and before the MBA, are not, in most cases, on a par with the benefits of joining straight after college.
Pursuing an MBA immediately after graduation provides students with a huge head start in their professional career as there would be no time spent on working in some pre-MBA roles which very rarely have any similarity or connection with the kind of work one does after an MBA. This lack of similarity would mean that one would be restarting one's career from scratch again, making the pre-MBA-time spent working not very meaningful.
The pay-packet/roles and designations that one can secure post-MBA are no comparison with what many get after graduation. To conclude, it would be advisable for an MBA aspirant to get into an MBA right after college. This would mean that one should aim at giving the CAT/other MBA entrance exams during the final year of graduation.
(Answers by experts from T.I.M.E, a leading test-prep institute. )
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