Selecting an MBA program is probably the costliest decision you will ever take in your career after graduating from your college. In most cases, students understand the aspects of joining a B school for an MBA course, yet a majority of these students are unaware of a very distinguished business curriculum that caters to a specific group of professionals. Yes, we are talking about an MBA program for executives, called EMBA or Executive MBA. Why do we say that students are unaware of EMBA is something to think about, especially when there are so many options in these MBA programs alone?
Actually, 90% of the students who join regular MBA programs think that it is impossible to pursue a higher degree course after a certain age — the average age of an MBA student ranges between 21 and 27 years. On the other hand, EMBA candidates are mostly from the 30+ years of age group. The decision to join EMBA often results from two situations:
- Lack of enough opportunity for professionals in their current domains
- The necessity to upgrade business skills and apply for higher paying jobs
So, if you are looking for a regular MBA academic program versus an Executive MBA course, you should read this informative article where we have outlined advice from industry leaders on what they think about the management degree courses.
Table of Contents
Advice 1: Entry into EMBA is not about grades as much as it is about career stability
Seldom does life give an opportunity as good as an executive MBA to correct mistakes in career and education. Executives who look to enroll in the MBA programs can finally think less about marks, grades, and educational gaps. Top online B school MBA courses accept applications from working professionals who have at least 5 years of verifiable experience after completion of graduation. In some cases, B schools also allow students to take admission in their 3rd year and the final semester of engineering or law schools and have 5+ years of experience.
So, if you think you missed the bus after education to get an MBA degree or diploma, you can always take a shot at an EMBA — the fastest growing domain for professionals in the services industry. Before applying for an EMBA, you should ensure you have a very stable and respectable working graph.
Advice 2: Pick a specialization that your business skills lie in
What we mean to say is that marketing professionals and PR journalists are more likely to apply for EMBA in Marketing or Business Analytics, and less focus would be on other specializations.
Similarly, if you have been working as a CA or back office analyst in banking and finance departments, taking an admission into Finance or Operations Management would make sense.
The top specializations in the order of their popularity and scope of career upskilling are listed below:
- Marketing
- IT and Business Analysis
- Operations and Supply Chain Management
- Digital Marketing and Internet Communication
- HR and Industrial relations
- Business Corporate and Law Management
Newer EMBA courses also cover for emerging business domains such as AI and machine learning development, Video marketing, B2B marketing and sales, and leadership/ entrepreneurial development programs.
Advice 3: EMBA is an extensive program unlike regular MBA
Regular MBA is also called as full time MBA, which means that students are engaged for the full time of their course duration and the mode of learning is daily, either in classroom / physical training or in online mode. Unlike regular MBA, EMBA is more of a disrupted program and is conducted mostly on the weekends. The duration of the classes could be 90 minutes each, and the daily schedule would be anywhere between 8 to 12 hours spread across 2 days of the weekend. If you have a tight weekend schedule, finding time for EMBA classes is going to be tough.
Not forgetting to mention that weekends are going to be a very hectic agenda for working professionals if you were looking for a relaxed curriculum.
Advice 4: Project and assignments
Top MBA schools offering EMBA for professionals have a very strict policy on business projects and in most cases, a complete semester is dedicated to projects and assignments leading up to writing assessments, conducting market research, doing statistical analysis, and then putting the outcomes of the project in a document that needs to be submitted at end of the semester. This alone takes anywhere between 50 to 90 days depending on the scope and extent of the MB project you are conducting. If you can’t spare 90 days from your business routine, it is highly unlikely that you would be able to complete the project as per expectations and in time. However, EMBA projects are the best case studies to refer to.
