‘Opt for broad-based management courses’

In India, unlike in the West, the typical age of a management graduate is 22 or 23 years, and very few students opt for further studies with work experience of more than 8 years. In most Western countries, the average age of a student studying in a management institute ranges is 26 years, and the age-group ranges from 24 years to 42 years. 

Thus, my advice to most Indian students who do not have sufficient work experience is to keep the management education broad-based. There are institutes that focus on super specialisations, but young management aspirants are not well-equipped to understand the implications of a super specialization, especially when they lack a proper understanding of the career opportunities in the field they choose to specialise in. A broad-based
management education provides students the flexibility to evaluate various career opportunities on graduation, and over a period of time build expertise in an area of interest as well as aptitude.

For example, it might make more sense for a student to have a general finance specialisation which gives him the opportunity to explore career opportunities across a range of industries in the finance function, instead of specialising in Investment Banking, which could be a limiting career choice right at the beginning of one’s career or in times of recession.

Often, we come across students who have pursued an undergraduate degree in information technology, and ask for a management specialisation in IT.  My advice to most students is if you are particularly passionate about a particular field, then first gain two years experience in that field before committing to a specialized management programme in that field.  

This two-year experience gives students an opportunity to discover whether they truly would like to build a career in that space. The management program can then be a platform to either build on that interest or an opportunity to diversify into a different field and explore career opportunities in a newer area.

Ideally, in the first decade of one’s career it is a good idea to be a generalist, and gain experience and exposure a wider range of sectors, geographies, and functional responsibilities, and then look at building expertise in a specialised field or role.

With globalisation, managers of the future will need a tool-kit that will equip them to deal with the challenges in this changed environment.  

— The writer is founding dean, Rustomjee Business School