Learning the skill of perception management

If you have understood the unfolding of cognitive talent, perception management is an 'Achilles heel' for many of the cognitive performers.

Perception is a subjective interpretation of observed facts. If I meet you in a office for 15 minutes, and you conclude after our meeting that " I am unprofessional', that is a perception. It is based on subjective interpretation of the 'facts that you observed in the 15 minutes'. It may be accurate or inaccurate. But many decisions are based on perceptions. Due to reasons, as we see below, perception is dominant in companies.

Why do we always use perception to evaluate others

But if you pause for a while, you will appreciate that even you also use perception to evaluate others most of the time.

When you go out to buy a soap, are you evaluating the soap based on its chemical and purifying attributes, or on subjective brand  features of the soap? When you choose X doctor in comparison to Y, do you compare their professional merit or do you choose on the basis of their clinic's get-up and doctor's manner of speech? When you evaluate your TV mechanic/automobile mechanic, do you evaluate them on their 'deep knowledge and merit' or on their 'dress and manner of speech'?

Why do we use perception more often than objective facts to decide? It is because of two reasons: either we do not have enough 'time' or enough 'ability' to evaluate. While buying soap we should evaluate the 'soaps chemical characteristics and its benefits' to us. But as we think that we will not gain enough 'value from the effort', we conclude  'time versus value' trade-off is not beneficial. Consequently, we do not spent the necessary time in evaluating soap !

When we are buying a high priced car though, we do spend much more time to collect more 'objective facts' on cars. But we hit another barrier : the barrier of specialisation. Even if the carmaker gives us all the objective information about car engine,gear and other parts, we do not have the 'cognitive ability' to evaluate, because that needs understanding of special domain called automobile engineering. Due to the same barrier of specialisation, we cannot evaluate the 'speciality of doctor's medicine' even when the doctor is saving our life.

Limited time at our disposal and the continuing 'super specialisation' in today's world ( which makes it impossible for us to evaluate these specialist fields)forces all of us to use 'perception' more than we like.Advertising industry not only understands our limitation, it exploits it fully. Although we can crib about it as much as we want, we cannot do anything about it because the root-cause is 'systemic'. 

Why is perception management critical in work-life

Our key evaluators - be it bosses, superbosses, colleagues and customers - almost always, evaluate us with 'subjective' interpretation of what they observe in us when we meet them for the first time. 

When researchers studied the impact of 'perception' in a 15 minute selection interview, they were surprised. They found that interviewers evaluate the interviewee in the first 3 minutes, and spend rest of time in 'confirming' the initial judgement made in 3 minutes. Perception, in other words, create virtuous cycle (depending on how you see it) that determine the final evaluation. In psychology, this is called as primacy bias, and despite the care taken to reduce it, it remains dominant !

Given the high degree of specialisation in a company, and given the 'time scarcity' of senior executives, perceptions are heavily used to evaluate employees in a company more than the objective facts. With bosses, with whom we have constant interaction, the role of perception may get reduced. However, with other key evaluators in an organisation, it is perception that matters. Whether you like it or not, you live in the imperfect world ! I know of several individuals in companies who survive in an organisation just on the basis of managing perception.

Four principles of Perception management

Perception management is done to ensure that your 'evaluator' will evaluate you 'positively' in the 'short initial interactions' until there is sufficient time for them to assess your  'merit'. 

If you help others to perceive you in positive manner, it will multiply your opportunities and open your access to important people in the organisation. Negative perceptions, on the other hand, means that you have lost the battle even before you have entered the battleground.  

To help others perceive you positively, follow these four generic principles:

1. Remember 'packaging' creates +ve perception, because it is difficult to understand and evaluate 'content inside the package'. Remember this rule all the time.

That is why body language, manner of walking, proper dress, personal grooming, use of branded accessories such as phones and belts create lasting impact than anything else. Use them skillfully. For instance, i always advise professionals to wear 'dark shaded' trousers and 'light shaded' shirts in corporate world because that is the 'norm' in companies. Wearing 'gaudy' colours creates -ve perception.

2. Perceptions are 'subjective interpretations'. Therefore, find the meaning attached by your evaluators to key concepts

Take effort to understand the 'exact meaning' of concepts such as  'good performance', 'hard work', 'smartness' of your key evaluators.

For instance, some bosses evaluate performance of their juniors, based on their 'team-coordination qualities' and not on 'individual contribution'. Some bosses call juniors as 'hard-working' only when they are seen sitting in the office beyond 7 pm. Some bosses consider a junior 'smart' , only when he can prepare a 'jazy ppt'. 

Howsoever subjective these 'qualities' may be defined by bosses, one has to 'adhere' to them during the 'initial period' of work acclimatization with them. On the other hand, because we interact with 'super-bosses', customers and other colleagues infrequently, perception management has to be done 'constantly' with them. 

3. Follow the protocols of behaviour that is prevalent in your organisation

Every organisation has a protocol for the events such as  'disagreeing in a group', 'attending meetings', 'taking personal calls while in meeting', 'writing emails to insiders and outsiders', 'manner of talking in a public place like staircases, corridor or canteens', 'manner of interaction in conference calls' and so on.

Take extra effort to understand these protocols and follow them 'rigidly' without questioning it. If you do not follow them, you are seen as 'black sheep'.

4. Work actively to help evaluators 'assess ' your merit, so that dependence on perception is reduced

Because your field is 'specialised', you have to help others to 'evaluate' your merit appropriately. If you are a 'good hardware engineer' you have to educate others to help them evaluate your 'speciality of hardware engineering'. I know it is hard work. But it is catch-22 situation for you. To evaluate you appropriately,  you have to work hard on 'educating others'. If you do not educate, you still have to work hard on managing their perception, because - without your help- they will keep relying on perception. Both options require hard work. Which option do you prefer?.

Summary

Perception management is not 'showing off' or 'branding' for creating the 'right impression'. It is a strategy meant to ensure that your key evaluators 'understand' your merit and do not get put off by the 'initial impression'. If the initial impression is created wrongly, you have to take extra effort to 'undo' the impression. Perception management helps you reduce your 'undoing' effort and start on the 'strong footing' right from the beginning. 

Choose your talent zone (work-path)

While sportsman and artists choose their talent zone (i.e. play tennis or engage in dance) by the age of 5-8, cognitive performers ( what Peter Drucker calls as knowledge workers) working in engineering, law, accounts, and service professions do not choose their talent zone even till the age of 20 because of the genuine difficulties they face.

Let me clarify what we mean by talent. Talent is not a 'potential' ability; it is a demonstrated ability in a person who can replicate that ability consistently in different situations. Therefore, when one is young, one does not have a talent, one only has a potential 'ability'. To convert this potential ability into a talent, one has to chose a wide enough 'Talent Zone', otherwise ability remains just a dormant ability.

Only after artists and sportsman chose 'Talent Zone' ( you can also think of it as work-path) to invest time and resources, they can embed 'talent' in their lives, like you can design 'fashion' for your life. Designing talent is not just imagining the 'to-be' possibilities for yourself, but also giving form to those possibilities. Having chosen their talent zone, artists and sportsman then find ways and means to incrementally increase the challenges, use coaches and other support mechanisms to negotiate these challenges, narrow or widen the 'core ability' in the talent zone( should i do ballet or kathakali), develop complementary abilities to excel in the core ability, and write their 'signature' in the world.

If there are so many benefits of using a talent zone, why can't you, as cognitive performers, choose your talent zones ( work-paths) even at the age of 20, i.e when you are graduating. There seems to be two reasons. One is ignorance of the associated risks, and second is the knowledge of the talent designing process of cognitive talents.

Risk Scenario 1 : You may choose a wrong talent zone

Many graduate students avoid choosing a talent zone (work-path) , because they feel they may go on a wrong path and will not be able to recover from the mistake. This is incorrect understanding of the risk.

When artists and sportsman choose a talent zone, they are ready to exit if they realise they are not made for it. They can exit because they develop intermediate capabilities while pursuing the talent zone. They can combine these intermediate capabilities with other capabilities to find a different talent zone or domain.

For instance, take the example of of Jose Mourinho. He started as a professional footballer, but he soon realised that he may not be the best football player. He switched his work-path to football coaching. In other words, he used his intermediate capabilities and combined it with 'training' capability to pick an allied path of 'coaching'. He is one of the most successful football coaches today who has taken three different sides to the highest levels: Porto, Chelsea, and Real Madrid.

In aesthetic and sports fields, you will find countless examples. Subhash Ghai trained as an actor, but when he failed to break through, he changed the work-path to director and became one of the most successful directors in Bollywood. Mohinder Amarnath started his cricketing career as a fast bowler and retired as one of the best batsman. In cricket, you will find many examples of cricketers who, unable to find place in top team, still manage to earn enough money through their intermediate capabilities such as coaching youngsters, or managing their cricket association.

As cognitive performers, you can follow these examples. If you are on the education path of technology, you may choose any of the these functions: Sales, Design, Research, or working in Management of a company. Or if you are on the education path of accounts, you can choose subject speciality such as Investment banking, Auditor, merger and acquisitions and so on.

How should one make this choice? Many students lack the knowledge of talent development process to choose. For instance, when an athlete chooses a game, say football versus tennis, at the age of 7, he does not choose based on his potential. He just plays both the games,and then slowly over a period of time, finds the game where he is excelling. When he has no other game to play in his town or city, he just chooses the one that is available.  For instance, in India more than often, one chooses cricket.

The same holds for cognitive talent. After engaging with technological subjects in graduation, you can find out your abilities in those subjects and choose research or design zone. Some talent zones, to be chosen, require more dense engagement. For instance, only after working in a company would you know if you will excel in managing people or projects.

Morevr, as compared to aesthetic and sports field, the risk of not finding alternatives in one's chosen domain in cognitive fields is very low. In cognitive fields, the possibility of combining different skills is enormous. Cognitive performers can work in corporate, government organisations, social NGO's or can even start their company. They can work in the back office functions such as quality, maintenance or support or can work in the front office functions such as sales or production. They can work as 'solo performers' or as 'managers'. The possibilities are truly enormous. In other words, the risk scenario (1) is non-existent in cognitive fields.

Risk scenario 2: After choosing a domain, you may not reach the top

This is a genuine fear. Even sportsman and artists face this fear. But no one, i have seen, drops the pursuit of the talent because they are scared that they may not reach the top. And surprisingly, even though , when they do not reach the top (remember not more than 5% reach the top), they still feel that 'journey was well worth'.

There are two reasons why 95% still pursue the talent journey, i think. One is, the benefits of pursuing a domain are that it provides them an anchor to live their life. They are more grounded and can face the chaotic situations in their life with calm. Two, 95% can still get enough money even when they do not get the highest. As we discussed in the blog of 12 June, the extent of money is determined by the functioning of skill market. If the skill market is well developed, choosing a desired domain is easier. This is why it has now become so easy to chose 'music domain' in India.

In cognitive fields, the difference between the top 5% and the rest is not so steep as in sports and arts field. In cognitive fields, the talents are not uni-dimensional as in arts or sports. For instance, it is easy to figure out the top 20 violinist in the world, but it is not easy to figure out the top 10 managers in the industry. In other words, options to 'monetise' your talent are so numerous that it does not matter if you do not reach the top.

Given that there is very little risk, what stops cognitive performers in choosing their domains during graduation? I can only think of one reason: their lack of knowledge of how the process of talent development works.

The art of getting interviewed

Generally, interviews are considered to be outside the 'control' of interviewee. But if you observe smart professionals, you will realise that they prepare on two different planks that help them substantially 'influence' the process of getting interviewed. With adequate preparation, you can definitely 'influence' the process of your interviewing, if not 'control' it.

1. Prepare on 'what you want to say about yourself'

a. First step is to write appropriate 'baits' in your resume for the interviewer to ask questions. For instance, if you have done some interesting work on a project in your college, you must write enough 'interesting' remarks about the project for the interviewer to 'compel' him to ask a question of that work. These are called as baits. If your resume is not designed properly with these baits, the interview is not in your control. Professional coaches do not just add ' flowery English language' in your resume, but they help you design these 'baits' in your resume so that you control the interview, not the other way around.  

b. Thoroughly rehearse on every 'bait' that you have included in your resume: Generally, interviews happen in English language. Therefore it is necessary to write the story around the bait, mug the story sequence, and then narrate it. Once you are sure you can remember the sequence and key words well, rehearse it infront of someone. Start with a close friend who understands your project, then rehearse with a friend who does not understand your project, and then with your parents. Everyone will give you 'feedback' that will help you to improve your 'narration'. Once you have got the narration in proper order, then try to shorten the narration time further. Some interviewers may not give you enough time!

c. Get ready to answer 'surprising' turns and twists in your resumes confidently: Be prepared for answering questions like: Why did you not do Electronics engineering when your father is an electronics engineer? Why did you miss one year after 12th ? Why did you do this course of Java in the second year? and so on. Also rehearse these answers, if you are not sure.

d. Prepare to answer typical questions. To get a glimpse of what questions are asked for different types of interviews, here is a sample .

e. Take adequate care of your body language: More than the content of answers, interviewer reads your body first and gets 'conditioned'. If your 'body posture' looks that you are not sure, despite your brilliant answer, the interviewer will get a wrong message.

On your own, you may find it difficult to know your body language. You may need to take help of someone senior enough to help you in this matter. It could be your parent, your professor, or some senior colleague of yours. Once again, a coach is more helpful in this matter.

2. Prepare for the 'audience' who is going to take your interview

Despite all your preparation, interviews get derailed when you encounter 'surprises'. One can only prepare oneself to reduce the surprises, not eliminate them. Here are the three important actions taken by smart professionals to reduce the surprises:

a. Understand the interviewer profile before going for a specific interview: If the interview is being taken by HR representative, be prepared for non-technical questions like 'Why did you do Engineering" and so on. HR is more interested in knowing the years of experience, the qualifications, and other family background. If there is any blip in the education period, be prepared to answer it confidently. For technical interviews, be prepared to answer the 'big' bait questions thoroughly.

b. Do a short research on the company background for which you are being interviewed: This knowledge is critical when you are applying for jobs where demand for jobs is more than supply, i.e for all freshers jobs or for your second job. At the minimum understand three elements of company: key differences of target company from other competing companies, the 'structure' of departments and offices in the target company, the strength and weakness of your job positions in that company ( is it in demand or is it run of mill position, for instance?).

You have to use different methods to get this information: Scan the websites, use the business analyst reports of the company issued by investment companies, talk with friends working in the company or sign up for different groups on the net and ask questions discretely.

Believe me, this does not take much time. Initially, when you are learning this, it may take more time; but as you become proficient in doing this, it will not consume more than a day.

c. Never ever answer any question that you are not sure about: Despite all the compulsion to answer all questions, answer only when you are confident. If you are not sure about anything, tell the interviewer that you are not sure and ask his permission to make an attempt to answer. Only if the interviewer gives you the permission, attempt to answer the 'unsure' question. In any case, it is better to say 'i do not know' than answer wrongly.

Retail industry offers good options for enterpreneurial graduates

Organised retail industry is growing at a rapid rate in India. Big Bazaar, Spencer, More, Smart, Hypercity are all springing up in the urban centres, and with them, we are seeing a new option for graduates, especially the entrepreneurial graduates. In order to understand the options available in retail industry, let us understand the structure of the industry.

In the lowest scale, retail is dominated by Supermarkets. A supermarket like Reliance or Spencer is a shop of approximately 3000-5000 square feet space, sells about about 3000 SKU's ( stock keeping units or identified unit of sale such as soap, sugar or curd) sells about 15-30 lakhs per month and employs about 15-25 employees. A hypermarket like Big Bazaar is a shop of approximately 20-30 K square feet, sells about 15000 SKU's, clocks a sales of about 3-5 crore per month. A mega-hypermarket like Hypercity or Metro has even higher square feet area like 80 K square feet.

All these shops have three sections: Sales floor employees who help customers buy a product, back end employees who interacts with suppliers to get the material of requisite quality and quantity and supporting employees like security, cashier and cleaning. Sales floor employees progress in the following hierarchy: customer sales representative > Team Leader > Department leader ( such as that of food) > Stores manager. Other positions are Regional office and Head office positions.

Working in sales floor is supposed to be the premium job and is also paid the best, followed by back end and supporting section in the descending order. One generally starts working from supermarket and move to Hypermarket and then to mega-hypermarket. Normally it takes about 10-15 years to become a store manager. A store manager of a supermarket may earn about 25K per month while the same store manager of mega-hypermarket will earn about 100K per month.

One can join a supermarket at the lowest level even after passing HSC. That is a huge advantage for an entrepreneur as he can gain the necessary customer knowledge and buyer market as well as learn the necessary skills. If you work on sales floor, you understand what customers want, how they buy, which products move faster in the market and so on. If you are working as a Buyer ( in back end section), you not only gain information about the best suppliers of a product, you also understand which products have better margins. For instance, you will understand that apparel section has higher profit margin than food section !

By the time you graduate, you have learnt the ropes of business and can make the next move. You can , for instance, start an apparel shop in an area that you know has market. Or you can decide to become an intermediate distributor of vegetables and fruits. Or you can just decide to have a repair shop for TV's.

Even if you decide to stick with employment, MBA can be a distinct advantage to move beyond the level of store manager. One can also move midway to Hotels and restaurants if one finds it as more exciting. I know of a person who decided to use his retail management expertise to start a franchise outlet of Macdonald. Not only the options are available, but they are available at the right age.

Do you see the advantages of working in retail?

Why should graduates prefer Sales function?

Last week, i was coaching a final year engineering graduate, Atish.

Atish was finishing his degree in Telecom Engineering. His marks for last three years were between 57%-59%, missing the first class by a whisker. His academic track record suggested that he was ill at ease in Engineering subjects. On the other hand, he seemed to be comfortable in 'extrovert' skills, which was noticed by his excellent rapport with friends from different culture and economic background, his participation in college events, his liking of people-related experiences. So i suggested him ' Why don't you make career in Sales'. He immediately retorted 'I do not like sales.'

Whenever i meet graduates, i encounter this general dislike of 'sales' function. So when i probed Atish, what does he not like about sales, he told me about one of his friend who was selling 'electronic components' to retailers. He said ' My friend keeps on moving from one shop to another, shows the catalog, takes the order ( or the money), and moves to the next shop. He is constantly travelling, staying in not-so-good hotels and is generally hassled'.

If that is the 'view' of sales, how can Atish want to go to Sales? Other graduates tell me about the FMCG 'salesman' they see at a retail Kirana stores, while some others tell me about the pharmaceutical 'salesman' they see in the doctor's consulting room. With this limited, and uncharitable view of a salesman, it is difficult to chose sales, even when it is the most appropriate function for someone like Atish?

On the other hand, see the other side of the story. In an organisation, Sales is the most critical function, because it brings in 'revenue'. And because it is a critical function, it is also the best-paid function. Without working in sales, it is very difficult to reach the top. And unlike other functions in an organisation, the correlation between your effort > output is the highest. You immediately know what you are doing wrong, because of which you can correct yourself quickly, and learn therefore at the fastest speed. What else you would want in a job?

I therefore feel very 'disturbed' when graduates avoid 'sales' function just because they are not fully aware of 'what is sales'. So here is an attempt to unblock the negative bias of sales.

Sales is a function where one has to convert a 'suspect' into a 'customer'. Marketing is a function that converts 'prospect' into a 'suspect'. For instance, marketing job is to get me 'interested' in buying 'sedan car'. They provide me lot of information ( in a broadcast mode) to convert me from a prospective customer into a suspect customer. Once i am interested in their car, and enter in the car showroom, it is the job of sales to convert me into their 'customer'.

Due to this correlation between marketing and sales, sales job have different shades of complexity. The complexity varies from type of product, nature of product ( must-have or nice-to-have), price of the product, type of customer ( is it specialist individual like a doctor or an entity like company).

The type of product varies from simple product selling > services selling > complex solution selling. Product can be as simple as soap or toothpaste or it can be as high priced as car or flat. Services can be as simple as selling repairing service of mobile to a complex selling of investment service. Solution can be selling a solution of 'method of testing a car's engine' or selling a solution of 'fitting a car body to the specification of a customer ( which Manu Chabria does when he makes vehicles for celebrities).

Complexity determines the skill requirement of 'sales' function. Low-priced products like soap are easier to sell than high priced products like flat. Must-have products like insurance are easier to sell than nice-to-have products like financial advice. And selling it to individuals is far more easier than selling it to companies. More complex and difficult is the selling, more is the 'specialised skill and knowledge' required. You cannot selling 'testing solution' to a car manufacturer until you completely understand his requirement, competitor's products and your product advantages. In complex selling jobs, 'marketing and sales' are almost bundled together. In lower complexity jobs like soap salesman, marketing and sales are unbundled.

While sales function combines your 'engineering knowledge' with your 'people-skills', design function combines your 'engineering knowledge' with your ' intrinsic technology skills'. Combinations are different, and if someone like Atish, who has a head start over others in terms of people-skill, should he not use this for his advantage by working in sales?

In technology selling, the complexity of selling is very high. It not only requires knowledge of product and technology, but it also requires another unique ability: converting extremely complex technological language into the language of buyer. This skill is so difficult to acquire, that in technology, 'sales' skills are more in demand than even 'design' skills. For instance, when you you think of Apple computer, whose name do you recollect? Do you remember Steve Jobs, the man who 'configured' and 'sold' the first computer, or do you remember Steve Woznaik, who designed the Apple computer?

Side Bar: Marketing is systematically taught in MBA courses because it is a 'thinking' competency. Sales, being a 'doing' competency, is still learnt best in a job. That is why many 'people-skill' graduates take up Marketing speciality in MBA. For engineering graduates, who do not like technology very much, getting into sales function is perhaps the best opportunity to enter this critical organisational function.

Drafting Resume - is it art or science?

For graduates, preparing resume is one of the most important aspect that can spell the difference between getting a good job and an average job. Let us see the cases of Ram and Anik.

Ram is graduating as a E&TC engineer from a metro town. His college, though not the best of lot, has a professor who was teaching in IIT, Mumbai. Because of his excellent credential, he got a very good assignment for a group of students from an excellent institute which does work in Astronomy. The project turned out to be so successful, that Ram's group has done follow-up work even after finishing final exam. Ram, appearing in one of the better MNC's in Bangalore, had prepared his resume. He had written about this project in 'three lines' in his resume of 2 pages.

Anik, on the other hand, has been a star student of a good college from Bangalore doing Biotechnonology. He was a GS of a college annual festival, represented his college in various forums, won debating prizes and represented his college in a famous Quiz competition. He had written an exhaustive resume of 4 pages.

Who do you think will get the job - Ram or Anik? I know it will surprise you. But both Ram and Anik cannot get the job they want, because they have not followed the three golden rules (at the minimum) of writing a good resume.

Rule 1: Write resume for a targeted audience. Graduates generally write 'everything' in the resume, without knowing the 'profile' of 'audience'. Imagine, you going to a automobile showroom, and given an exhaustive car brochure of 10 pages!Will you be able to interested in reading the brochure explaining features like 'how much torque is created by the engine'?

This is what Anik did in his resume. He wrote everything in his resume. The 'reader' is interested in 'specific items' that he can comprehend. Morever, graduates do not realise that their resume has two distinct audience : One is a representative of HR department who will shortlist the resume based on very generic criteria, and second is the functional specialist, who looks for very focused items in a resume.

Rule 2: Write resume like a brochure. Remember, your resume is a 'brochure'. A brochure is a short pithy document about a product to attract the 'audience' so that he/she is interested in knowing more about the product. Advertising professionals are masters in writing the most important aspect of product in a 1-page brochure!

Ram and Anik have committed the same error in writing their resume. While Ram downplayed and wrote very little about his important 'project work', Anik overplayed his wide variety of credentials and wrote everything. For Ram, it is important to learn the art of writing 'long' about his project without losing the interest, while Anil has to learn the art of writing 'short' without loosing the essential aspects of his background.

Rule 3: Resume is just one 'link' in the chain of your selection: To get selected in a job or assignment, an 'interview' is equally important after the resume is sent.

If you are buying a printer, after you read the 'brochure' of printer, you will like to verify the specified qualities of the brochure in the 'demo' of printer. It is same with your 'resume'. Your resume is your brochure, while your interview is the 'demo'. Interview is like a 'demonstration' of your stated qualities whose features have been written in your resume. ( i.e.brochure)

What could Ram have done to use this idea? Ram has done an excellent project in the final year. He could have written 'as much details as practical' about his project work in his resume to make the 'interviewer' ask him questions in the interview. If Ram does not write 'enough' in the resume, interviewer will not ask him any questions due to which Ram's work and qualities will remain hidden from the interviewer. Will Ram get the job he wants after the interview?

Ram therefore has to learn the art of writing about his project in a language that will invoke curiosity in the interviewer's mind and will 'compel' him to ask questions, which in turn will enable Ram to showcase his qualities.

How do you write your resume?

Why and how to do MBA?

Rancho, the hero of 3 Idiots, says to the heroine 'Your prospective bridegroom is a fool. He did Engineering, then MBA and now he is working for a Bank. If he had to work for Bank, why did he do Engineering?'. Is Rancho right in his criticism?

Let us delve deeper to understand the two forces at work that has made the above possible: Demand of MBA skill set and pipeline of graduates that feeds the demand.

Demand of MBA skill set has been growing

Demand of MBA skill set has been growing because the 2-year course in MBA produced three speciality skills ( especially in India) : Finance,Marketing and HR that were required by growing private sector companies.

The boom of investment banking (increasing mergers, share market access, and disintermediation of funds) specifically fuelled the need of finance skill sets. Even though courses like CFA have sprung up to meet the demand gap, the organisational 'angle' of MBA still make MBA the favourites. If you observe the salaries offered at MBA Campuses, you will still find 'Finance' hogs the limelight. Sales and Marketing jobs in companies today are still filled mainly by these MBA's. Personnel jobs, inside India, are still filled by HR MBA's.

It is a myth that MBA course is meant to develop the skill of 'Management' ( Managing people and business operations). As Management is a 'doing skill-set', short courses of Executive MBA are more suitable to develop this skill-set than the 2- year full time course of MBA.

Options for graduates ( the pipeline doing MBA ) are shrinking

While the demand for MBA skill set has been growing, the options for graduates - the pipeline that supplies graduates to MBA course for post graduation - have been shrinking.

On the one hand, the jobs for graduates have been shrinking because companies can afford to get post graduates at the same price. Company prefers to give a job to MSc instead of BSc, if it has choice. Jobs for graduates are also not growing at the same pace. For instance, while Engineering graduates have increased in number ( Every year more than 2.5 lakhs graduate as Engineers in India), jobs for technology skills have not kept pace with this number. Therefore, for average graduates, option of MBA has been a ticket for a safe job. Why should graduates not prefer to do MBA?

Rancho will ask me: Why do above-average Engineering graduates join MBA when they can get better technology jobs? They do it because they realise their mistake of choosing technology as their graduating path. As i have discussed in my blog for students, thinking competency folds in unpredictable ways.Even Noble prize winners move from physics to biology to chemistry. How can a engineering graduate know that he will stick to technology?

Scenarios of doing MBA course

In my coaching, i have observed four different scenarios of graduates doing MBA. I am narrating Engineering examples below because they face this dilemma strongly than other professionals:

Scenario 1: A IIT student wants to do MBA to change his graduating path, because he is sure technology path is not meant for him. Follow this approach, if you can manage to get admission in Grade I MBA Institutes - the top 10 institutes - like IIM's. If however you cannot get admission in Grade I Institute, work for few years, and change over to MBA. This is a better approach, because it is far easy to 'assimilate' the teachings of MBA after work-experience.

Scenario 2: A student from top Engineering institute doing Electrical Engineering is not very sure of his choices - whether to do post graduation in Electrical or do MBA. This student should work for 2-3 years in Electrical Engineering and take a decision later to continue with Electrical or change to MBA. Only 'Engagement' with the activity tells us what we want. Morever, moving from Electrical to MBA is possible after 3 years; the reverse movement is not available after 3 years.

Scenario 3: A student from an average Engineering Institute cannot get admission in Grade I MBA institute after finishing his graduation. In such a scenario, it is better to get admission in Grade II MBA institute with niche speciality. For instance, find a niche MBA, such as Rural Management.

Scenerio 4 ( alternative to scenario 3): If generic MBA is the only option, then you will have to do numerous things to exploit the advantage of doing MBA, such as focusing on specific industry like Banking or FMCG right from start, finding assignments with a live company and so on.This approach requires high degree of Career intelligence than other approaches.

Where do you fit?