Choosing MBA Specialisation(s)

As per the syllabi, most management institutes offer General Management courses. In this kind of a course, a student learns the basics of all functional areas, viz. Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Systems, and Operations, during the first year, and during the second year (or, say final year) there is an option of choosing subjects depending on one's interest area.

It should be noted that in most cases, the student need not decide on the functional area he/she is interested in at the time of seeking admission. The key benefits of this system as as follows:

• At the time of seeking admission into a b-school, most students do not have the requisite clarity on various specialisation as to be be able to take an informed decision. Having studied the courses for an year and having gained experience into a field through the summer internship, the student can then take a better informed decision.

• In the long term, an MBA professional is more likely to grow into a generalist requiring an understanding of more than one aspects of a business. The 'General Managemet' programme gives the candidate an option to choose the mix of courses that suits his interest. For e.g. One may wish to pick 15 credits in Finance, 10 in Marketing, 5 in Systems and IT and another 5 in Human Resource Management. This way he is better prepared to get into a sector of his preference post MBA.

However, there are exceptions to this as few management institutes admit students with the specialisation clearly specified by the candidate before the beginning of the programme like SPJIMR, Mumbai. A lot of institutes also offer dual specialisation programmes