7 Tips for Getting Prepared for Job as MBA Fresher

Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree prepares students to effectively address the growing competition in the industry with the help of innovative techniques, guidelines, processes and frameworks. However, with the changing times, the requirements of the business world have evolved, and an MBA degree is no longer sufficient for the students to secure well-paid jobs. Today, the employers are looking for MBA graduates who not only have a strong command over technical or conceptual know-how of the business but are also creative leaders, skilled, ethical and have a strong global mindset. You can also learn about various management skills to boost your employability with our Sunstone blog.

MBA graduates, these days, are required to have extensive knowledge of the corporate world, develop interpersonal skills, organisational behaviour, problem-solving skills, communication skills and other such business soft skills that will help them become industry-ready and fetch success in their professional career.

7 Skills that can make an MBA graduate Industry-Ready

Let us understand the skills needed by an MBA graduate to become corporate ready so that they could contribute to the organisation’s success.

1. Develop effective interpersonal skills

Strong interpersonal skills form the basic foundation of a successful MBA graduate. Management students with advanced interpersonal skills tend to collaborate well with teams or groups or other people generally. Also, they are more emotionally mature and are able to handle other people’s emotions as well. Hence, it is crucial for every MBA graduate to develop their interpersonal skills.

You can easily enhance your soft skills by following the tips below:

• Cultivate a positive outlook
• Control your emotions
• Acknowledge other’s expertise
• Practice effective listening
• Show real interest in your employees

2. Enhance your communication skills

Effective communication is coherent, comprehensive and leaves no room for misunderstanding. In fact, B-schools expect excellent communication skills from an MBA student hence, developing this skill should be a topmost priority. Those MBA graduates who master the art of effective communication come out as great leaders. When a manager is able to communicate well, his team gets easily influenced and appreciate him as they believe in his message and what he is representing as a leader.

Being an MBA professional, you must:

• Master all forms of communication, i.e verbal, written and listening skills.
• Let your team know that they matter by smiling and listening to them attentively.
• Establish mutual trust between you and your teammates
• Project an open and positive attitude at work
• Be easily accessible and available for your team to discuss any issue
• Take interest in the lives of your team members and boost their morale at all times
• Make your team feel valued by active encouragement and recognising achievements

3. Know how to organise and delegate efficiently

Organisational skills are some of the most crucial skills that an MBA professional must acquire. These skills help an MBA graduate to plan, prioritise and achieve his/her goals. Good organisational skills increase proficiency and efficiency of a professional by increasing his/her focus. Moreover, an organised manager understands the strengths and weaknesses of his team members and thus he delegates the work accordingly. He/she can set, plan, measure and evaluate team goals and output. This encourages growth and development for team members and their roles in the organisation.

Following are some organisational tasks that a manager must keep in mind:

• Creating and meeting deadlines
• Identifying problems
• Reconcile conflicts
• Multitasking
• Developing strategies
• Developmental planning
• Setting and meeting goals
• Managing appointments
• Making schedules
• Coordinating events

4. Learn about Strategic Planning and Thinking

Strategic Planning and Thinking is a crucial skill set that an MBA professional must develop. It helps the manager to create a framework of decisions that are coherent and unifying and gives a proper direction to business and resource utilisation. Moreover, it requires innovation and creativity and includes a lot of research that helps to examine the voice of the customer, the employee and industry’s trends.

MBA professionals can develop strategic planning and thinking skills by:

• Allocating time and encouraging people to work individually
• Encouraging team members to think strategically to develop relevant and meaningful insights
• Encourage people to participate in discussions and brainstorm which ultimately contribute to the planning.
• Discourage the sole reliance on formal emails and other forms of communications

5. Possess problem-solving and decision-making skills

Problem-solving and decision making belong together. A manager cannot solve a problem without taking an effective decision. There are two ways an MBA professional could take a decision. One is a systematic and rational approach while other is more intuitive, i.e. going with a gut feeling. An MBA program introduces students to all the tools and techniques which they can utilise to solve problems more effectively and make better decisions.

• An MBA professional takes the following steps to solve a problem:

1. Identify the problem
2. Explore alternatives
3. Select an alternative
4. Implement the solution
5. Evaluate the solution

• An MBA professional undergoes the following stages while taking a decision:

1. Analyse the situation
2. Innovate to address needs and identify alternatives
3. Decide and commit to act
4. Manage consequences
5. Rethink, replan and take a better decision

6. Have a Global Mindset

The growing interaction between the Indian and the international markets has increased the expectations of the employers, in terms of the skills that are required in an MBA graduate. Now, it is quite crucial for an MBA aspirant to have a global mindset as it would help them understand the differences among cultures and business practices and they can easily acknowledge the opportunities to learn about the similarities. Learn also about the reasons to get global MBA with our blog.

An MBA graduate with a global mindset must have:

• The ability to navigate through unclear or uncertain situations without feeling stressed.
• The knowledge of international business knowledge and growth drivers.
• The willingness to consider, adapt and appreciate the values and beliefs of others.
• The interest in learning about various cultures and world events
• The confidence in themselves without overestimating the abilities and valuing the experience of others.  

7. Master Technical Know-How

With the extensive dependency of every business on the digital platforms and social media, It has become quite crucial for the MBA students to have extensive knowledge of all technical tools related to their MBA specialisation. When the students combine the business acumen with highly-sought after tech skills, they develop an advantageous skill set that allows them to design and implement solutions and successfully bridge the gap between technology and business. Moreover, an MBA graduate with knowledge of technology is considered to be a well-rounded decision maker in the corporate world. You can learn more about the tech skills required for MBA with our blog.

A few of the important technical skills that a Manager must master are given below:

• Microsoft Office
• Basics of website programming and maintenance
• Understanding of SEO, CSS and HTML
• Technical writing
• Data Management and Analytics
• Information Technology