Which undergraduate course makes you fit to pursue an MBA?

To live life to the fullest, one must know how to manage the different stages of life. Planning, organizing, leading are a few skills that one should know to be effective and efficient in life. A management degree helps in learning and implementing those skills in a short period. The fast-paced life that courses like MBA, BBA, BMS provide us with, makes one acquainted with these skills. The MBA life enriches us with hard and soft skills, which are of paramount importance in corporate life. Not just academia, but the diverse exposure one gets in a B-School is an inevitable part.

After the 12th standard, one thing I was certain about was Post Graduation. I wanted to sit for CAT and go for an MBA. For that, I started researching the nitty-gritty of CAT, its syllabus, colleges, etc. But the blunder that I made back then was to not pay due attention to my choice of the undergraduate course. Being a fresher who does not have any work experience or any idea about the MBA curriculum, my Bachelor of Arts degree did not prove to be a boon.

The diversity at B-Schools

What inspired me to write this article was a conversation I had with one of my batchmates. One of the biggest USPs of the MBA is its diversity. From Hotel Management to Engineering, from Arts to Commerce, from Law to Medicals, one gets to meet students from very diverse backgrounds. The conversation I had with her was regarding this aspect itself.

She did her Bachelors in Business Administration, a professional management course, before enrolling for the MBA course. Despite the fact that both of us are freshers and unaware of the corporate culture, I could still see her having an add-on I could have had in my skills had I opted for a similar course at the undergraduate level.

Skills required to become a manager

Now, do not get me wrong here, I am not saying that my B.A. degree was not worthwhile, but the fact that I aspired to pursue an MBA. So, I could have gone for an undergraduate course that would have been best suited for me or would have added value in the future. Some major insights I gained from that conversation were that doing an undergrad management degree could have helped me lay the foundation for my MBA course. I could have been well-versed with the concepts and subjects that are taught in the MBA course. 

Managerial ability and underlying business understanding are the two most important skills of a future manager. BBA courses offered her an opportunity to acquire professional skills in the early stage of her career as a management professional. This undergraduate course offered a deep understanding and development of essential business skills such as leadership, communication skills, critical thinking, and decision-making.

A piece of advice for young aspirants

All of these learnings were not imparted to me during under graduation. The course was not equipped with the prerequisites one needs to become a manager. The worst part was that neither did I have much work experience to learn those skills on my own nor did my curriculum provide me with the required academic knowledge.

These were some of my insights that I learned a little late. So, in case, any 12th pass out is interested in pursuing an MBA at a later stage but is confused about which undergraduate stream or course to choose, this is my token advice - go for a professional management course for an additional benefit!