Affects of Work Experience on MBA Admissions, Top Colleges

Work experience or MBA after Graduation? 

Students who want to pursue a Management course after graduation are often faced with a dilemma, whether to straight away go for an MBA degree or gather work experience before taking a plunge into the management programs.

The answer to this question is subjective and debatable. The following pointers may be able to help the candidates in making sound decisions.

• Admission Criteria: Most of the top B Schools in India such as the IIMs keep a certain weightage to the work experience for the MBA admission process. Generally, the IIMs consider a 30-36 month work experience as the most ideal duration of employment for admission. However, candidates with no experience can also secure admission in the IIMs or top B-schools alike. The level of work experience varies according to the types of MBA courses. The part-time MBA aspirants have more work experience than the regular MBA candidates, whereas the executive MBA candidates generally have the highest work experience.
• Learning experience: The pedagogy approach taken in the MBA curriculum allows the students to gain ideas about various case studies related to various major events related to the corporate world. The students with work experience can easily relate to the examples and study materials as compared to the students with no work experience. But fresh graduates are more accustomed to student life as compared to working professionals, thus, they would be able to prepare for their studies more effectively. Thus pursuing MBA with work experience or just after graduation comes with its own set of pros and cons.
• Extracurricular activities/Committees: In the case of MBA courses the students generally have to take part in different extracurricular activities such as debates clubs or committees such as placements, industrial relations etc. The admission officers of the best MBA colleges in India look for seasoned candidates who have the required skills to handle conflicts and work together as a team.
• Placements: Work experience can come in handy during the placement round. Even a good amount of placement preparation can actually fall short of actual work experience. However, the criteria vary according to the different companies and also MBA Specialization. The companies hiring MBA marketing candidates prefer freshers whereas the companies hiring MBA HR candidates prefer ones with work experience.

How Work Experience Affects Your MBA Admissions: Factors Influencing MBA Admissions

The effect of work experience on the following factors of MBA admission has been listed below:

Application Review

At the review stage of your MBA degree program application, admission officers assess your resume paying very close attention to your work experience. The admission officers generally evaluate the work experience on the factors mentioned below:

• What were the challenges professionally faced during the employment?
• How were they perceived as a hindrance or an opportunity?
• What was the contribution of the applicant to solving those issues?
• How did the organization benefit from those solutions which were contributed by the applicant?
• What have been the learnings from the entire work experience?
• Evaluators essentially look for evidence of leadership skills, which is an important factor.
• If an applicant does not have any work experience or is limited, participation in extracurricular activities should be included in the resume to give the reviewers an understanding of one’s interests.

What Kind of Work Experience is required for MBA

Candidates are often left scratching their heads about what kind of work experience is required for an MBA course. The following points can be considered about the different kinds of experience that can be considered useful for MBA Admission:

• The professional experience may be in any sector.
• There is no specific sector or field of professional experience sought by the admission committee; they mainly see whether the candidate has relevant experience in leading or handling a crisis situation or not, as the MBA degree program is designed to build upon a student’s management and leadership skills, hence, it is open to all functions and industries.
• More than the quantity of experience, the admission officers are interested in the quality of the work experience. The admission officers look for any kind of leadership roles that the candidates had assumed during their tenure.

Check: MBA after Engineering

Competitive Advantages

Relevant work experience for MBA admission provides a relative competitive advantage to the candidates

• As MBA degree programs are based on an experiential learning model, the enrolled students have to take and adjust to a hands-on learning approach.
• In such an environment, students with work experience are able to align their learning goals better with the curriculum of MBA degree programs.

Clear Goals

• Diverse experience at the workplace helps the students to understand the various corporate roles and requirements function-wise. This brings clarity on where one’s interest lies and areas one needs to improve upon.
• Studying for an MBA degree program with this clarity helps the students to focus better as they are able to align their study goals to their requirements.

Easy Transition

• The admission officers look for candidates with experience in the corporate sector because the candidates would be able to relate their practical experience with their theoretical study material.
• MBA degree programs are known to be very competitive and rigorous in their approach.
• The curriculum of an MBA is designed in a way to make it a close representation of the real world.
• Students with prior work experience find it very easy to adjust to a study environment that is based on the corporate world requirements.

Soft skills

• The corporate environment exposes one to various skill sets beyond subject and domain knowledge that play a vital role in career progress like communication, interpersonal and networking skills. Check out: MBA Skills Required
• These soft skills are an absolute must in a global economy.
• Admission officers look for soft skills during the GD and Interview round. Students with work experience are well aware of these facts and look to excel better than others with no experience.

Check: 80 current GD topics

Higher Pay

Though this comes after the completion of the course the work experience determines the placement criteria in the future as:

• Hiring companies take prior work experience into consideration while deciding on designations and salaries, hence MBA graduates with work experience are given a preference. See the top MBA Jobs that a candidate can achieve after completion of the MBA course.
• A student with prior work experience is in a better position to negotiate for a higher salary package, after completing their MBA graduate program.

How Work Experience affects MBA Admissions: IIMs

The IIMs are the top colleges in India offering courses under different MBA specializations. The candidates often what kind of work experience is required for MBA admission to the IIMs. The work experience criteria for the IIMs have been listed below:

• The IIMs put weightage on the work experience criteria along with the CAT score, WAT/GD and personal interview. 
• The weightage on work experience criteria varies from one IIM to another.

Most IIMs admission policy has been announced. Below are some of the minimum work experience required for admission to the IIMs:

MBA Admissions without Work Experience: Top Colleges

There are many premier institutes in India which give provide admission to MBA programs based on the entrance exam scores and performance in the GD  and PI rounds. A list of the top colleges has been tabulated below.

Check: MBA with or Without Experience

MBA Abroad Without Work Experience: Top colleges

Pursuing an MBA degree program from abroad without work experience is can be a bit difficult; however, it is not impossible either.

• The candidates need to have a pretty impressive and worthy profile that sets them apart from other candidates in terms of academics as well as their undergraduate achievements and exposure.
• The aspirants also need a good GMAT score of 700+ as well as a 110+ TOEFL score, 7.5+ IELTS score, and 75+ PTE score.
• Some universities and colleges provide one year MBA courses while some universities provide a two-year MBA courses for the applicants who are without work experience.

How Work experience affects MBA Admissions: Executive MBA

• Executive MBA courses are designed to educate working professionals such as managers, entrepreneurs, business leaders etc that’s why aspirants are asked for comparatively higher work experience by universities.
• In many cases, students have their executive MBA course partially or fully sponsored by their employers. 
• In some universities, coursework duration is the same as a regular MBA program.

Which one to choose: Executive MBA or MBA for Executive

Here is a list of top business schools with average required work experience and their fees and admission criteria: