B-school placement reports are indubitably the most influential factor in deciding whether a college is worth joining or not. But here’s the thing: MBA students should not adopt a placement-only mindset. A mindset like that only makes you miss out on other opportunities. So, here is a roadmap that explains why “getting the best placement” in MBA colleges = leaving money on the table.
Now that I have piqued your interest, keep reading the article to find out more.
Here’s the bitter truth: getting the “best placements” for your MBA might not be the best career outcome for you.
If you are entirely dependent on your B-school placements, then you are leaving lakhs of rupees on the table, unclaimed, each month.
What I mean to say is that you are giving up the opportunity of making it big for something smaller.
When you have the potential to earn so much more, why to settle for something less.
What is “The Best Package”?
Let’s try a different approach. Let’s not get money-minded because the “best package” is not always the one that offers the highest salary.
Therefore, what you think is the ‘best’ placement might not even be the best in terms of the mental peace and quality of life that it gives you.
I mean, why force an “arranged marriage” with your career when you can go out and explore other options?
Allow me to answer all your questions.
Secret tip for MBA: You get the ‘best’ placement after MBA by NOT chasing the ‘best’ placement
One fact every MBA student must keep in mind is that there are always four possible outcomes from your MBA journey:
- On-campus placements
- Off-campus placements
- Freelancing/Global Consulting
- Starting up a business
With that being said, my question to you is – how can you call on-campus placements the ‘best’ career outcome for you when you haven’t even evaluated the other options?
That in itself is an excellent place to start, and it implies that the assumption that whatever placement we obtain after our MBA is the greatest outcome we could have had, is quite flimsy.
Hence, now you know why Why Getting a “Good Placement” after MBA = Leaving Money on the Table!
That was point one.
Now here’s point two.
For those of you, who are still convinced by the notion that placements are definitely the best option and that is what you would like to go for, the problem stems from the fact that you will need to get ahead of a significant amount of competition if you are to get the “best” placement.
This means that you need to have the right skill set and knowledge to be considered for the role. Not to mention, you need to cultivate a differentiating factor that allows you to stand apart from others.
You will be competing with your classmates who are also equally interested in attaining the “best” placement your campus offers.
In a horde of all these students, what will make the hiring managers consider you over others?
What is it that you have to offer that others don’t?
Let’s consider a few scenarios:
- Suppose you are interested in digital marketing and, you are looking for a digital marketing role in a company. While your batchmates also share similar interests and are doing courses, you are applying the same concepts in your blog. Therefore, you have results to show in your interview.
- Consider a second example. Maybe you are interested in finance. You lay the foundation for a blossoming career in finance by preparing for your CFA exam. You easily have a differentiating variable.
In both the above scenarios, if you were to walk into an interview with the experience you have. You are generally preferred over others because you are no longer just an MBA student. You are a practitioner who has practical knowledge of that skill.
Moreover, if you observe both these scenarios: You can also notice that you had to effectively transform into an entrepreneur-like individual who begins a side hustle (in the above scenarios, a blog) where you develop, publish, and share information.
The other advantage is that if you have already established yourself as an entrepreneur, you also gain the opportunity of earning from your side hustle.
Therefore, just imagine how easy it would become for you to crack the interview for such a job role where you have developed deep expertise.
That is why I say, you get the ‘best’ placement after MBA by NOT chasing the ‘best’ placement.
Back-Hacking the Placements to get the good Placement after MBA
Now that you understand how to go about securing the best placements for MBA, you must determine the career role you are aiming for.
To that end, let me introduce you to a unique method that allows you to back-hack your placements.
You may also go ahead and watch this video to determine the best skills to learn for your MBA placements:
By employing the framework in question, you will be able to determine which career roles to target for your MBA placements.
Simply follow this method to be aware be aware of why “Getting a Good Placement after MBA”= Leaving Money on the Table.
The framework in question is called the “STP Framework”. If I were to sum it up in one line, STP is a marketing model that redefines whom you market your products to and how.
In this framework, you will be marketing yourself as a product to all the companies that turn up for your placement process.
Step 1: Segmentation of the companies:
The first step requires you to segment all the companies that would be hiring from your campus for the placement season.
Companies could be segmented by:
- The industry – E-commerce, consulting, FMCG, etc.
- Job roles offered – Product management, marketing, sales, etc.
- The size of the organization – Start-up, mid-sized, MNC, etc.
You could go ahead and add more parameters if you deem fit. However, the above three parameters should serve the fundamental purpose of segmentation. So, make sure you add these parameters to your analysis in all cases.
Now that you have segmented your companies into the parameters you have chosen, the next step would be to go ahead and target them.
STEP 2: Targeting your preferred job roles
What do you mean by targeting?
Why should you target the job roles?
Let me ask you a simple question:
Do you think it would be feasible for you to prepare for all the job roles that are offered at your campus? Can you put in the time and effort to master all the varied skills necessary for all the varied job roles?
NO.
Therefore, you will need to choose a target segment.
Let me share an example to simplify this for you:
I would prefer to be employed in, say, the product or marketing division of an e-commerce company. While you could debate that e-commerce is still pretty huge as a sector, it does still help you imagine what sort of companies you would want to target.
You should also be able to slice off the segments in a similar fashion. Choose the job domain you dream of, in the sector that interests you, and in the organization that you would be comfortable with.
How many job roles should I target to get a good Placement after my MBA?
An important rule that must be kept in mind is that, ideally, you should not choose more than 2 job domains. Focus on 1 key domain that you would like to explore.
Having different goals would only cloud your mind. The entire process will go haywire as different domains will require different skills.
What if you are unaware of the good placement for MBA freshers?
While, it is understandable that you might feel the inherent need to choose more, especially if you are a freshman and are unsure of your options. In such a situation, make sure that you choose 2 domains that are closely related to each other.
Randomizing your options and choosing domains that are poles apart adds to the difficulties as you lose sight of your main objective.
We have made this simple color-coded list for you to make this targeting easy for you. From this list, choose the two domains which are either in the same color group or are the closest to each other.
Choosing marketing and finance as your two domains, for example, makes no sense because they require entirely different skills.
Therefore, it becomes crucial to ensure that you only choose domains that necessitate similar skills and toolsets. For example, product management and marketing primarily share similar qualifications.
Therefore, choosing the next neighbor is the best option. There could still be a few exceptions to it, for example, someone who wants to aim for both consulting and finance.
Now that you know that you can only target 1-2 job roles, the next step would be to position yourself as an expert in that field of course for the next 6-10 months.
STEP 3: Positioning
Once you have decided upon the segments you would like to target, the next step is to position yourself in a favorable situation for the company.
Start off with an important fact: any job role in the world, that is ANY job role (including, say, being the founder of your own startup), can be divided into a set of soft skills and hard skills.
In fact, let me share with you a simple formula that you must always remember:
Any Job Role = {Hard-skills + Soft-skills}
Consequently, the roles you have chosen for yourself can also be broken down into a set of soft and hard skills, which tend to be common across companies.
Therefore, your task would be to identify the hard and soft skills required for each job role in each domain.
Once you have identified the skills required, you will need to prioritize the skills according to their relevance and differentiation.
Make sure you pick up those skills which are relevant to your job role and can offer you a unique disposition amongst the other candidates.
This will help you stand out in your placement season and determine the best jobs for MBA grads.
Conclusion
I understand that the placement season is one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking moments of your life. But, merely relying on your placements with hopes of getting “Good placement after MBA colleges” isn’t going to do you any good. Having a placement-only mindset isn’t fitting for an MBA student.
I believe this article helped you explain Why “Getting a Good Placement after MBA” = Leaving Money on the Table. Unfortunately, most students fail to realize that there are 3 different methods over and above on-campus placements.
Why miss out on those opportunities?
Why assume that placements would fetch you the “best” outcome when you haven’t even evaluated the other options?
This is exactly the problem most students face.
Why go with the crowd when you can make your own pathway?
But for all the students who are still convinced that placements are the way to go, note that you will be expected to get ahead of several students to attain the “best” placement.
In short, you will have to answer a simple question: what is that I can offer to the company that others don’t?
In other words, you need to create a differentiating variable for yourself. For this purpose, I have provided you with a framework you could employ to identify the skills you would need to stand out from other students.
Finally, I am sure this article has helped you gain confidence in your strategies and ideas.
Happy Learning at Creadom!
