Careers in Finance for MBA grads

                   

                   

The session on “Careers in Finance for MBA grads” by Mr.VijayaRaghavan on September 1, 2012 turned out to be a master class in Finance for me, Aarathy Jayakrishnan . Being a Finance aspirant, it helped me get a clear picture of Finance and its various divisions. During the session Mr.Vijayaraghavan explained Corporate finance, Financial services and Investment services in very simple terms. Corporate finance includes Investment and Financial functions which deal with obtaining money for investment. Financial services comprise Commercial banking which is essentially sourcing and deploying merchant banking which involves broking and Consulting. A valuable tip given by him was to identify one’s industry of interest and start accumulating knowledge in it through the reading of newspapers and business journals. He assured us that doing so would help us develop our domain knowledge to a great extent and improve our performance during the time of recruitment. He also addressed the problem of MBA graduates finding it difficult to get into corporate finance and gave us a few suggestions on how to tackle it effectively. These included the need for high level of personal ethics, passion for numbers, attention to details, ability to acquire and soak information, a total understanding of the global market, the ability to network with bankers, peers and detect frauds. A very interesting fact which came up during the session was that Engineers and mathematicians have contributed the most to the field of Finance. Through this fact, he assured us that our UG background is immaterial and that analytical skills, problem solving skills and common sense are all that mattered. He also emphasized on the importance of pursuing high level certifications like CFA along with our MBA’s, which would open the doors of Corporate finance for us. On the whole, I feel that we, as first years, are lucky to attend this session which gave us a complete overview of finance at such an early stage of our course.    
  
                                                                              By Aarathy Jayakrishnan (Team Colloquia Member)

The serial entrepreneur - Amit Agnihotri

Amit Agnihotri  is a serial entrepreneur, academician and marketing expert all rolled into one. His vision is to see India as No 1 global destination for management talents and skills, and Triumph MediaTech & MBAUniverse.com as a catalyst in the process.
Soon after his MBA from MDI Gurgaon, he served the corporate sector working at World’s leading companies. In 2000, Amit co-founded 100 people strong exchange4media Group which today owns many media brands including exchange4media.com, Pitch Magazine and Impact, Reality Plus, and Franchise Plus. He is strongly driven by the motto,” Life is a marathon, not a 100 meter sprint”!

He kick started the session with the statistics revealing the reduction in the number of CAT takers to 16.6% from 2008-2011.  After about an hour’s discussion, we were able to appreciate the reasons that were cited for the dwindling demand for MBA seats.  The demand has reduced drastically due to the tremendous increase in the number of MBA colleges.  Also, the economic slowdown has spread its tentacles wide leading to recession and unemployment!

Another reason could be, that the , banking sector has become the most sought after recently, as cracking bank exams appear to be relatively easier.  Most of us still believe that it s a typical 8 hour job and is less stressful. Sadly, that is not the truth!

Only 21% of the MBAs are employable!  Scary that sounds, doesn’t it??  Isn’t that a subtle hint to groom ourselves effectively??  Well, let’s rise to the occasion and make sure that we don’t fall under the “21%” category!! 

How many of us have noticed the patterns of MBA entrance exams like CAT, XAT, MAT, GMAT, etc? As a manager, we need to posses problem solving and analytical skills without which the very purpose of business isn’t served. That‘s where reasoning skills play a major role! Facts n figures have become indispensable in today s world.  Every statement that we make needs to be justified with data that can be validated and quantified; and without the ability of being able to play with numbers, this cannot be done!  Last but not the least, in order to put our messages easily across cultures; we ought to have good verbal skills. This is precisely why we are gauged in these three core areas.

He was kind enough to let us plunge into his world of experiences, where we came to know about what motivated him to become an entrepreneur, the challenges that he faced, the developing phases of his business and many other interesting incidents in his journey of life.

We were touched by his passion for Advertising Management that drove him to the extent of travelling with Mr.Boge to Delhi every time after his lecture hour at MDI Gurgaon.  Knowledge that comes from books is nowhere when compared to experience! It is with this thought in mind that he was motivated to travel with his lecturer so that he gains hands on experience in the field of advertising.  It is from such inspiring people that we learnt as to how passion matters more than the salary! Imagine the gut level that he must have possessed to brush aside the 18000 offer at hand for a 6000 pay package just because he liked it?)!It left most of us thinking as to how many among us would chose the path that he did?

He made us feel at ease even when sharing his attempts of failure and as to how he dealt with them with an impeccable spirit of perseverance and positive attitude. There were days when he had to skip food and work to earn his bread barely to make both ends meet.

I would love to share this quote at this juncture “If you want to reach a level that no one has reached, you must do something that no one has ever done”.

He ended with a note saying “quiet introspection is extremely valuable”. If one can figure out answers to to questions like :

Who am I?

Why am I here?

What is my passion?

And is quite successful in answering them, then there is nothing that can stop him from achieving his goals. So, my dear folks, let’s roll up our sleeves and start looking inwards to become better managers!

                                                                Written By Nirupama N(Team Colloquia Member)