MBA on the go

In my final year of engineering, I, along with my teammates, developed 3D Printer as a mega project and that received quite a recognition after its completion. While I was about to decide on taking it further and extending the project to a full time startup, I received joining letter from TCS, which was quite a sort after company at college campus, at that time. I did research a bit about TCS and was amazed by its scale of operations, like managing 3.5 lakh employees, handling projects and businesses at this scale, with at par industry standards and also, being the most valued company of India at that time.

So I decided to join TCS over 3D printer, not just because it was hiring me, but I was curious to understand how a company of this scale operates. My background at that time on managing things was as little as the time I spent at my family retail shop, where in, we had working staff of 4. During engineering days, there was time when I got to manage events and technical fests that involved managing teams of almost 40-60 people. But thinking as a CXO of any large company like TCS, I was always curious to know what it meant to be a team that can be managed and scaled as per operational needs. I almost spent 2.5 year with TCS, interacting beyond my direct team mates and joining activities that allowed me to move across business accounts in the organization. While I did get to know a little how the business units and teams were arranged, it had too much noise and I thought of taking up an actual management course or get into Tata Administrative Service instead, to get more clear view on this. So I started preparing for GMAT, but not so far, I quite TCS and joined BNP Paribas, which brought me closer to my dream of working with an investment banking firm. While GMAT preps got left behind, it also left a good habit of reading Harvard Business Review, which is still I believe a master piece of management knowledge in a very structured and concentrated way to consume. Pure insights and no noise. 

Within few months of joining BNP Paribas, the very purpose of joining the company seemed diming, in terms of nature of work and exposure I was getting with growing experience. So again, I started thinking of getting into MBA program and planned to appear for CAT. I collected study material from my friends who had already appeared for it or were preparing for this year.

But then I took a pause to think. I started to ponder on what did I really wanted while I was making choices. Like starting up with 3d printer over family business, then choosing TCS over startup, and now choosing MBA again over my job at BNP Paribas. In order to prevent the dilemma of aspirations to come again in case I finished my MBA, investing 2 years of time and money into it, and then thinking if this was really something I was wishing for, I called upon one of my college senior, Ankesh. He has been genius while I was at college, was a TCSer, left the company for an MBA, and finished it from one of well known institutes in India.

And the call was an alarming bell. The reality check on the need of doing an MBA helped me to realize that it wasn't going to close the gap of what I will be, on doing an MBA and what I really aspired for. I was convinced that the real test and effectiveness of being an MBA would always lie in my ability to use the knowledge to an advantage, in implementing it in the right way and ultimately in the effectiveness in doing things. The upward ladder to building things and being closer to real business lies more in the effectiveness of work impact, the influence of right behavior within the team and how the team is benefitted from my learnings as much I am learning with my team and work.

So, within 6 months of joining BNP Paribas, I quite my job and planned to move to a startup. Well, while I did had an offer letter from a mid-size German company and another startup offer was almost on the table, I received a call from Siemens to appear for an interview. While I wasn't sure on clearing it, I did appear for interview and it turned out positive and I joined the organization.

It's been now more than 6 months here and now I feel that it's worth being at this place. The teams are very focused, the company asks employees to think like founders, everyone is owning the work, with the flexibility to manage the timelines and also responsibility of doing it with quality. I feel more exposed actively with business processes and owning the work end to end.

I believe the good way to learn what MBA would have taught in business schools, would inherently be what I can learn from team leaders, direct managers, their managers and obviously coworkers. Getting the knowledge insights at workplace can be to more effective than the consuming it from books, as the ultimate test of MBA knowledge would be effectively applying it to my everyday work. And now, I believe that by being more aware on the work environment I work at, being focused on what I am learning, by going to that extra hour discussion with manager on how they are planning the work ahead, by understanding how the company polices and processes have been drafted, and with the growth mindset of effectively using this experience to improve better, would be the best way of being the person I wished to be, with what I thought while making decisions of joining TCS, TAS, preparing for GMAT, CAT, joining BNP Paribas. 

This is what it has always been, the continuous learning process, or more appropriately, MBA on the go!