How to choose the specialization area in MBA courses?

All introductory MBA courses are taught in the first and second tri-semesters during the first year. Later in the first year, they are also introduced to the specialized areas.


MBA experts opine that factors for choosing specialization areas should lie in passion and interest. External reasons like market demands should not alter specialization choices..

A typical two-year MBA program, the first and the second year of which is separated by the summer internship, orients the students to the field of management in a holistic manner. The first year is more generic in nature where the students get an idea of all that they must know regarding various management functions. All introductory MBA courses are taught in the first and second tri-semesters during the first year. Later in the first year, they are also introduced to the specialized areas.

In the second year, the students have to choose from a variety of specialization choices. There are five main specializations that are offered by almost all MBA institutes. They are Marketing, Finance, Human Resource Development, Operations Management and Information Technology.

Which Specialization?

Dr. SP Parashar, former director of IIM Indore says, "MBA courses do not provide many choices during the first year. Students generally learn core subjects in the first year in all MBA courses. But at the end of the first year, the choice of specialization should become pretty clear."

Talking about the area of specialization, Dr. BS Sahay, Director of IIM Raipur says, “In the second year, the students take elective or optional courses to specialize in a maximum of two functional areas. These areas are: Finance, Information Management, Marketing, Strategy and Operations Management. To specialize in an area, a student must take a minimum of five elective course credits offered in that area.”

Making a choice

Dr. Pingali Venugopal, Dean, XLRI Jamshedpur gave broad criteria on choosing the specialization of MBA programs. He mentioned, “You have to choose your career very carefully. You should select the right path on the basis of your interest and instincts and not on the basis of peer pressure or high salary.

Students who have mechanical ability, who prefer to work with objects, machinery and tools should choose Production and Operations. Students who love to observe, learn, investigate, analyze, evaluate or solve problems, interact with people and have a good communication skill should go for Marketing.

Students who have artistic, innovating or institutional abilities and like to work in unstructured environment using their imagination and creativity should work for the Strategy sector.

Students who like to work with people to enlighten, inform, help, train, or are skilled with words should join HR and those students, who like to work with data, have numerical ability, carry out tasks in detail or follow through on others' instructions should go for Finance.”

Specialized MBA institutes offer some specialized options too. Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) provides specialized MBA in International Business. The MBA program is also called MBA (IB). While recommending international oriented programs, KT Chako, Director of IIFT said, "Indian businesses are now going global in a big way. Indian companies are now fully participating in the globalization process. Today’s business executives need to be equipped with understanding of international business and trade."

IIM Ahmedabad has launched an elective course for its PGPM second year students. The name of the course is ‘Contemporary Film Industry (CFI) – A Business Perspective’. The course aims at giving a general background of the film and entertainment industry in India and abroad. It will introduce the MBA students to various kinds of film and entertainment businesses like feature films, ad films, documentary filmmaking, animation films and a glimpse of the global film industry.

MBA experts recommend that passion and interest should be the key, rather than external reasons like market condition and job prospects. While doing an MBA program, the specializations should be chosen on the basis of your passion, choice and capability.

The first year is the time when you will have the hunch regarding choosing your specialization subject. The MBA institutes can only introduce you towards the various domains of an MBA program. But you have to be your own judge to take decisions regarding specializations...

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