The Hindu Business Line : Young execs fast-track careers with `extra' degree

Hyderabad April 11 Cutting across industry barriers, several young professionals in the corporate world are now seeking to play a different ball game for career advancement — going back to studies.

The fad, though not totally new, has assumed significant proportions of late if the trends from business schools and companies are any indication to go by.

As most of the graduates are now taking up jobs at an early age, after putting in some professional experience, they are opting to acquire lucrative academic qualifications such as an MBA from reputed institutions.

The motives behind such moves are many and varied. "For experienced IT professionals doing something like an MBA will help to broadbase their as they tend to be narrow technical specialists. Further, it helps switching to management roles in the IT firms and differentiate from their peers for fast-tracking the career," Mr Kashyap Kompella, Lead Consultant with IT Services major Wipro, told Business Line.

After working for five years in the technology industry in India, Singapore and US, Mr Kashyap did a post-graduate diploma in management from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

Developing talent

This augurs well for the companies too. "The firms realise the importance of developing effective managerial talent to leverage on the growth opportunities. They encourage their current employees doing MBAs through fee reimbursement for part-time courses, sabbatical policies, company sponsorships for full-time MBAs, partnering with B-schools to offer custom programs, etc, " he adds.

"This has become quite common of late in all industries," Prof V.K. Menon, Placement Director, Indian School of Business (ISB) told Business line. A peep into figures also confirms the trend. In the 2007 class of ISB, the average work experience of 416 graduates was five years. While a lion's share of 48 per cent of them had experience in technology firms, the rest came from other segments like operations, finance and marketing. A second degree to boost their strength is also being preferred by professionals in the consulting industry.

Work-place imperatives

As the presence of India Inc on the global canvas is on the rise, mid-career studies may soon become a norm, according to Prof S.K. Sharma, Director, Icfai Business School. "Deeper integration of global markets and simultaneous attempts of the Indian industry to move up the value chain faster, are posing fresh challenges to the managements. These work-place imperatives as well as the higher aspiration levels are driving the young executives to opt for the formal management education immediately after 2 to 3 year's experience," he adds.

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