Hype vs. Reality

What happens to a new manager, fresh out of a hallowed portals of a top business school when he enters the rigours of the corporate world? This is a question I have been asking myself for a couple of years as I followed the increasing number of discussions on the spiralling salaries offered to management students lately.

The hype surrounding the placement season at top B-schools of the country has been met with mixed reactions. Some are even going as far as saying that these students are worth their weight in gold(?)!! There are others who look quite sceptically at these large figures in Rupees and Dollars questioning the rationale behind it all. They are people who claim it to be an effect of the booming economy.

But what about the people at the heart of it all - the students? What is the effect of all this attention on them? For most of them, months of sleepless nights enable them to face what is probably one of the most toughest exams in the world for the sheer competition, CAT. Those who are lucky enough to be in the top 1 percentile get calls from purportedly the best institutions in the country, the IIMs, and go through a gruelling GD/PI process to finally make to their dream destination. Two years of having been put through the worst pressure cooker experience ever, if they emerge unscathed, they are declared to be fit for the trials and tribulations of the corporate world. They are projected into the flashbulb popping world of media attention for the size of their biggest offers from the companies chasing them, trying to lure them with juicy pay packets.

Almost every year now for the past 3-4 years, the placement records of top business schools, especially the IIMs, have been closely followed by the media. With each passing year the size of the offers have increasing manifold. But what is the effect of all this attention on the students who feel on top of the world, and for good reason too. But when they are pushed into the workplace, they are brought back to reality with a loud thud and with the effect that many of them become disoriented with the experience. What happens to these same people one year down the line? May be someone should track them down and find out how they found their experience in the real world. An often unreported fact, something I can across quite recently myself, was about the attrition rates of fresh MBAs.

Young guns are raring to go, become change managers is the mantra. They are brought up on the lives of corporate giants like Jack Welch and Lee Iaccocca. B-schools impart a slew of skills but do they really prepare you for the harsh world out there? Management graduates are equipped with the techniques and aids to make decisions, but how do they ensure that these aids will give the results required. They are as good as the best consultant who recommends you what options are open to you, but the final decision is yours. Do B-schools give you the grounds to make mistakes and experience failure? Most often, these students have to wait till they are employed before they get their first experience of exactly how much reality differs from figures on a spreadsheet.