As the world adapts to Industry 5.0, it becomes increasingly important for professionals to enhance their skills constantly. In this context, an MBA degree provides access to the corporate world and helps the working class develop a well-rounded personality. Therefore, the value of pursuing an MBA is at an all-time high. Despite this, a large portion of the young & seasoned working population doesn’t get a chance to pursue a degree due to the break they have to take from their jobs and forgo their 24-month salary. Another bottleneck is managing the finances. An offline MBA from a reputed B-School comes at a minimum cost of INR 14-15 lakhs, which makes it difficult for the working class to commit to the cost upfront.
Not an opportunity loss but an ‘Opportunity Gain.’
Online MBA programs have proved their mettle in recent times while allowing working professionals to pursue their career aspirations and earn simultaneously. One such example is Shashank Sonawane – an upGrad learner who earned his Global MBA from Liverpool Business School, but his journey wasn’t a cakewalk. He realised the skill lag and was looking for an MBA degree since 2015 – “upGrad ended my MBA hunt,” he added.
After completing his BSc at Mumbai University, Shashank immediately began his corporate stint to overcome certain financial complications and worked with well-known brands like PwC, Syntel, and Volkswagen. Eventually, he realised that his pre-acquired skills weren’t enough to advance in his career and needed more nuanced domain knowledge to strengthen his expertise. Despite years of industry experience, Shashank saw MBA as an opportunity and was confident that he needed to ‘skill up to scale up’.
He began with his search to track the best MBA course in 2015, which could offer him the benefits of a full-time program: quality content, real-world industry experience, flexible learning hours and pocket friendliness. He soon realised that his filters weren’t made for the market-ready options back then.
In 2020 Shashank came across upGrad’s MBA program that was launched in the same year in partnership with UK’s renowned Liverpool Business School (LBS). The program had salient features like a full-time MBA degree, live and recorded lectures by industry experts, outcome-oriented learning, global alum status, and an option of pursuing the offline immersion tour. “My experience with Liverpool Business School and upGrad has been very enriching because I feel MBA is all about hands-on and peer-to-peer learning, and this course offered me that. My batch was diverse – we had people with two years to 22 years of experience and ages ranging from 24 to 59. There were professionals from different backgrounds like marketing, operations, sales, and supply chain. This diversity further encouraged peer-to-peer learning through live discussion forums and group assignments,” he said.
Shashank valued real-time exposure, which he achieved through the in-built industry-led case studies, guest lectures and 1:1 mentorship from subject matter experts (SMEs). The curriculum also introduced him to Offline Job Fairs & Networking Basecamps for cross-networking with other upGrad MBA learners, alums, and recruiters for a well-rounded understanding of the industry which he had previously lacked in his professional experience. All this ultimately led to Shashank’s advancement in his career, and he received multiple high-quality job offers from MNCs and domestic giants. In fact, he was able to command an average CTC hike of 50%, which was way above the industry norms.
“Career ROI is significant, and upGrad Mentors helped me understand how to ask for hikes or position my skills in front of hiring managers. My resume reached the right set of recruiters who were scouting for industry-ready talent,” added Shashank, who is currently working in a Fortune 100 financial services organisation in its Global Strategy team.
Innovation that makes curriculum stand out
Leading from the front, upGrad’s other area of innovation includes offline placements. The company further aims to organise a minimum of 8 such initiatives a year with top recruiters for its MBA learners to make desired career outcomes more realistic and in line with industry standards. Reflecting on his experience, Shashank concluded, “upGrad is extremely strong with its 360° Career Support that includes Resume Building, Mock Interviews, Coaching, etc. and I have not seen many companies explicitly talk about it for the kind of commitment it takes. I even took the offline immersion tour and attended live classes at Liverpool Business School in London for a week, where I got a chance to connect with my peers, LBS alumni, and researchers.”
Visit the website to learn more about the MBA from Liverpool Business School powered by upGrad: http://bitly.ws/y94r