Women Officers: Do MBA, Fly High
An adventurous career for 5 or 10 years in the armed forces has honed your ( Women officers) leadership
skills and elevated your professionalism to new untouched heights. The diverse roles played by you ranging from
leading the troops in stressful situations, accomplishing mission oriented
tasks, making important decision related to lives of humans, handling equipment
worth crores of Rupees and doing management and administration duties across
geographies have transformed you into a
mature leader; a rare class that may be even less than 0.1% of the total number
of women in the country. The unique
officers-like-qualities(OLQs), such as leadership, Integrity, Initiative,
and cooperativeness, ingrained in you right from academy days are
the most sought after qualities in the business world and thus you are
adequately kitted with the rare munitions required to make an impact in the
business world.
We have adequately discussed the importance of an MBA degree
for a military officer here. You are requested to read this article before moving ahead on this one. Click here
While the need of an
MBA degree for military veterans is adequately highlighted , here we will discuss “Why an MBA degree is more important for
women Officers”, highlighting the
specific points that give edge to women officers over others.
Here are the five compelling reasons for the women officers to pursue an MBA degree:-
Most Wanted Leaders
You were selected
after the rigorous interview procedure lasting
over few days which includes the tough psychological tests, group tasks
and interview; all demanding a number of
Officer like qualities. Having shortlisted a handful of you out of thousands who appeared, Military gave you the opportunity to lead and command
troops, make strategic decisions and work in pressure situations. Business
world is no different as you are required to work under pressure situations plan
policies and make important decisions.
You are much different from your women counterparts in civil
street and have an edge over them in terms of such qualities. The
diversity and versatility in you bring
better solutions to the business problems.
You only lack business acumen that hinders your chances of a good
opportunity initially and subsequent
faster growth. An MBA degree can
provide the much needed impetus to your corporate career with a number of high ranked and well
paid opportunities . Military leadership
skills when combined with business knowledge make you the most wanted leader in
the outside world.
Lesser Explored Field
A few years prior,
military officers especially women officers used to dive straight into
the corporate world without any business knowledge except doing a six-months
course run by DGR and were not exposed
to opportunities other than in
administration role because of their lack of knowledge about corporate dynamics and market
turbulence.
Recently, Women
officers, like their male counterparts, have realized the importance of an MBA
degree and have started taking steps towards earning an MBA degree from top b-schools
of India and abroad. There are a few women officers who started the GMAT
preparation and the B-school short listing during the active service career
only in order to pursue a regular
MBA/executive MBA degree immediately after retirement.
While there are too few women leaders in the market, The
field is yet new and open and those
taking the call early will reap benefits
more than those taking the call after a few years. Imagine a scenario wherein
only one women candidate with military
profile applies to a top B-school such as Stanford, Wharton or IIM-A and other
scenario wherein five women candidates of
military profiles apply to these schools. The chances of admission in the
first scenario is more than those in the
second. Read this article by mba.com to know why it is great time for women
candidates to pursue an MBA .click here
Financial Help.
Obtaining an MBA degree can be
much cheaper than what you think. While
the tuition fee and the overall cost of an MBA degree may look daunting to you
initially, you have probably not read about the huge scholarships that schools
extend to the military veterans.
B-schools encourage women
candidates to pursue an MBA and when the women candidates happen to have
military experience, the chances of getting a scholarship increases many folds.
Also, There are many military friendly schools that extend these
scholarships to military candidates
especially women. Thus you are eligible for scholarship in categories of both women
and military. The chances of obtaining
an internship during your MBA degree are also good because of your vast leadership
experience and professionalism. Thus financing an MBA may not be as difficult
for you as it is seemed initially.
Ability to Handle
Stress
During your stint with armed
forces, you have worked in high stress environment under extreme pressure
situations. Not only that you have handled the crisis but also that you made
decisions that impacted the lives of the troops under your commanded.
Such qualities come with lot of effort and refinement and they are
equally preferred in the business world too. This is why banks,
consulting firms, and program developers recruit women veterans at large rates
from U.S business schools. The case is no different in India too, however we might be behind in terms of number of women
officers taking the MBA route.
Odds of Getting Into
Top B-School
Having seen the preference given
to military candidates and more so to the women military officers, You belong to the category of non-traditional
applicants. The unmatchable diversity that you bring from war-room to
classroom along with real life leadership experiences makes you one of
the most sought after candidates in top
B-schools. Your chances of getting into the likes of Harvard, Stanford,
Wharton, INSEAD or top Indian B-schools such as IIM-A or ISB are much brighter
than most of the other candidates .
There are many other advantages
of doing a regular full time MBA, however, knowing the family responsibilities
and various other constrains, the option of
one year executive MBA program can pay
equally rich dividends especially if the elite program is from a reputed
institute. While most of you go for the six-months management course immediately after your retirement, Those of you decided to spent another six months and follow one year program can pitch you well ahead of
your civilian counterparts.
Women military
candidates with an MBA degree will enjoy maximum benefits post their MBA
in terms of overwhelming opportunities with better career positions, higher salaries and faster growth
than their civilian counterparts as well as military counterparts who don’t do
MBA.
To know more on the advantages of
pursuing an MBA degree, click here
To follow the job opportunities
posted by M2C, click here and here
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