How to build profile for MBA in 2024?
MBA Profile Building - Does Profile Matter in Selection?
MBA Profile Building
B-schools, as well as corporates, are looking out for candidates who have a good profile? What does this statement actually mean? Is 99.99%ile in CAT not enough to get the highest paid jobs? The answer is YES.
MBA entrance exams like CAT, XAT, CMAT, etc. will test your aptitude and not skills. It is imperative to understand the changes in B-school selection process.
Why do MBA colleges conduct Group Discussion, Written Ability Test and Personal Interview?
If you have 99.99%ile and yet cannot express yourself after choosing an MBA as a career option then you are a liability to the company.
As I already mentioned earlier, an entrance exam is a measure of your aptitude. GD-PI or WAT-PI reflects your ability to handle a team, leadership quality, overall personality, communication skills, ability to work under pressure, decision making, team spirit, etc.
The GD-WAT-PI round acts like a filter that segregates best profiles from the overall applications. The same will happen during the final placement process.
Profile Parameters
- Past Academic Records
- Work Experience
- Internship
- Certifications
- Extra-Curricular
- Language
Past Academic Records: B-schools and Corporates are particular about your 10th,12th and graduation marks. The criteria vary from institute to institute. The consistency in academic records is considered as a standard to measure consistency in the corporate career as well.
What about students having an average academic record, backlogs, year drops?
Don’t worry, not every MBA college will shortlist you on the basis on past academics alone.
Work Experience: The term ‘Fresher’ means a person with no work experience or below 12 months. If you have worked with any organization then it reflects that you have an idea about internal management.
This parameter has a huge weightage in western countries. In India, one can find the maximum percentage of freshers applying for MBA.
Internship: A short duration where you get an opportunity to work with an organization. Internship experience helps you to understand corporate culture and working of the company to some extent only.
Certifications: Here I am not talking about certification received after winning inter-school drawing competition. Have you done any professional certifications? If not then its high time to pursue one. It adds value to your knowledge + a fancy line can be added to resume.
Extra-Curricular Activities: The activities that you do outside of your academic scope are defined as extra-curricular activities. It is a perfect measure to showcase whether you are concentrated person with singular focus or you manage other things properly.
You cannot develop an extra-curricular activity in a week for the sake of adding a line in resume. You need to build it over months to understand its impact in your life because no one wants a book worm to take business decisions.
Language: Knowing multiple languages is a boon. For example, you are well versed with English, Hindi and French and you are placed with a company having headquarters in France. Imagine international bliss potential.
Come back! Don’t get immediately over the Eiffel Tower because first, you need to know French.
How to build profile for MBA?
- Get Certifications
- Go for Internships and Live Projects
- Learn a New Language
- Work on Overall Personality
- Improve Communication Skills
- Work on Presentation Skills
Past Academic Record: You cannot change 10th, 12th and graduation marks as they are past events. Hence, stop thinking about the possibility of rejection due to poor academic record. Start working on other parameters so that academic records are overshadowed in case they are not good.
Work Experience/Internship: No work experience will not impact that badly. But, if you are working professional, you should properly plan out the MBA phase based on number of years you have worked for. A work experience of more than 4 years means opting for 1-year executive MBA program.
The students not having work experience should not worry as there are tons of companies who hire freshers only. Such students should do more than 2 internships before entering MBA college so as to gain slight piece of corporate maturity.
Certifications: I have always emphasized on the importance of certification on my YouTube channel but still many students underestimate its potential. It’s not necessary to start with a high cost and a fancy label course. You can begin with basic courses that are by default required in MBA colleges like Advance Excel, PowerPoint and Word, Business Communications, etc.
Language: Tons of online platforms who teach any language you want. Duolingo app is a free way to learn, try it.
Will you get selected after working on Profile?
Yes, along with the above parameters you should also work on your personality development and communication skills. You should be able to sell yourself in the interview process. Nothing changes overnight, consistent efforts are needed from your end in order to learn new and unlearn the scrap.
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