Top MBA Careers for Students and Professionals
Top MBA careers are one of the biggest reasons why individuals seek a program in business & management. A MBA program is one of the most sought after option people look at while building their career. An MBA gives a big boost to an individual's career, and opens various options in the field of business and management. Some of the most popular career options for MBA are consulting, marketing, brand management, banking, investment bankers, consultants and likewise. Here is a guide highlighting some of the top MBA career options.
let us have a quick look at the top MBA Career Options or fields which are most sought after :
1. Business Consulting
2. Marketing Management
3. IT Management
4. HR Manager
5. Investment Banking
6. Venture Capitalist
7. Brand Management
8. Financial Services (banking, risk, hedge funds etc)
9. Entrepreneurship
Let us read about them in detail.
Business Consulting
A business consultant job is to help clients solve their business problems.
Business Consultants interact directly with key stakeholders to design and implement business solutions that help clients increasing revenue, decrease costs and achieving operational efficiency.
Responsibilities of a Business Consultant include:
1 Facilitate and communicate with key stakeholders to understand their business
2 Evaluating competitors in the marketplace to better understand the business environment and create a competitive strategy for the client
3 Gathering requirements from stakeholders and potential users
4 Developing a detailed design of proposed solution which acts as a blue print. These designs generally include screen mock-ups, narratives and flowcharts
5 Ensure proper Communication of design to the project programmers or people responsible to implement the design to ensure full understanding
6 Ensuring thorough testing on successful implementation of the design
7 Working in tandem with the client stakeholders to ensure timely roll-out of solution to the client
8 Ensuring handling of client and team situations professionally
IT Management
As businesses are becoming highly reliant on Technology, the role of IT managers is becoming increasingly crucial.
An MBA gives an individual to work on the Management side of Information Technology. An IT manager advises companies on IT related products and services. The IT Manager overlooks the entire process right from gathering the client’s requirements to delivery of the service to the client.
Most of the projects would include the below mentioned tasks for any IT manager
1 Communicating to your management and clients about their requirements and advising them objectively on how IT might can make a difference to their business
2 Planning all stages of the project along with the deliverables and timelines
3 Coordinating with the project members
4 Defining timelines and standards to be met and monitoring these throughout the project life cycle
5 Making changes to the plans if required
6 Ensure that there is a smooth transition over from the old system to the new one
7 Keeping management and clients updated on progress
8 Evaluation of every stage of project on completed
Marketing Management
Marketing managers should focus mainly on the practical application and efficient management of an organization's marketing operations.
Excellent communication and analytical skills are some important skills a marketing manager must have. Marketing managers handle formulating, directing, implementing and coordinating marketing activities to influence the customers to buy their organization's products.
Following are the roles and responsibilities of a marketing manager
1 Identify, develop, and evaluate marketing strategy for a product or service. The marketing strategy should be based on the market characteristics as requirements differ from one market to another.
2 Develop, implement and coordinate all marketing activities to ensure promotion of products and services to the clients
3 Communicate with advertising and promotion manager to ensure efficient promotion of product and services
4 Hire, train and evaluate performance of marketing and sales staff and monitor their daily activities.
5 Negotiate with distributors to ensure proper product distribution, establish a strong distribution networks and develop distribution strategies.
6 Evaluate the strategy of competitors in the market develop an efficient pricing strategies
7 Ensure that all activities are in line with the firms short and long term objectives
8 Maintain customer relationship
9 Evaluate the financial aspects of product development. This would include budgets, expenditures, return-on-investment breakeven point cash flow projections and profit-loss projections.
HR Manager
The human resource of an organization is considered to be its most valuable asset. Hence there is a need to manage it.
An HR manager has the key responsibility of managing this valuable human resource. Some of the important functions of an HR manager include:
1 Develop and implement HR strategies and initiatives. These must be aligned with the overall business strategy
2 Support the current and future business needs through the development, motivation, engagement and preservation of human resource
3 Develop, integrate, monitor and improve overall HR strategies, systems, tactics and procedures across the organization
4 Make use of HR Information system to better manage the human capital
5 Address the conflicts, grievances of the employees and thus bridge the relations between the management and the work force
6 Nurture a positive working environment in the organization
7 Manage the recruitment and selection process to satisfy the human resource needs of the organization
8 Monitor and manage a performance appraisal system that drives high performance among the human capital
9 Maintain pay plan and performance benefits program
10 Report to senior management and provide decision support to them through HR metrics
11 Ensure legal and HR compliance
Investment Banking
One of the most sought after profiles for MBA students, investment banking is also one of the most comprehensive job profiles available.
Investment bankers or merchant bankers typically identify opportunities for their clients which maybe huge commercial houses or even government in various financial matters including asset, wealth and debt management , privatization as well as mergers and acquisitions. Investment bankers also identify investment opportunities for their clients and provide financial advice to them for the same.
They are also responsible for the book building process for a company to get listed on the stock exchange and float an IPO. Apart from managing large monetary funds, investment bankers also buy and sell financial products on behalf of their clients.
Venture Capitalist
Venture capitalists can come from varying backgrounds ranging from finance, consulting or entrepreneurships, etc.
Roles in venture capital varies and are classifies into five main broad categories: analyst, associate, principal and partner. Principles are in charge of making portfolio companies run smoothly, identify opportunities for the fund by networking, and negotiate terms and conditions of mergers and acquisitions and also making an exit strategy from a portfolio. Partners have more or less similar functions as compared to principles, however they are less involved in the day to day activities and are more focused on high level tasks such as identifying the right investment, raising money for the firm, etc.
Analyst and associates are in the lower level of the hierarchy and usually have 1-2 years of prior work experience in either a startup, an investment bank or in a consulting firm. Associates’ role is more focused on diligence, analyzing business plans, executing transactions, etc. An analyst can be promoted to an associate role which can be further promoted to a principle and then to a partner role.
Brand Management
As the saying goes that ‘first impression is the last impression’.
Brand managers literally live by this motto and strive to create a good first impression for their clients. Some of the functions of a brand manager include carrying out consumer research to better understand the wants and demands of the consumer base. As a brand manager the first and foremost function is to make sure that the goods, services and products that your company is providing resonate with the actual needs of the customer and in turn satisfy those needs. Meeting with the clients and senior management and performing as an interface between the brand and the consumer, organizing events, photoshoots and launch parties and making sure that the integrity and appearance of the brand you work for is maintained. This job profile provides a good growth trajectory as you can hop from being a brand manager to a senior brand manager and then to marketing director or even into senior management. The job is not too desk bound as you’ll be required to network and communicate with a lot of people from clients to designers.
Financial Services
Finance jobs for MBAs popularly include banking, hedge fund manager, risk analysts etc.
One of the most preferred job profiles in the financial sector, financial analytics is a booming job profile encompassing several roles and responsibilities. Some of the most important functions of a financial analyst include analyzing the financial and operational results of the company and making recommendations to improve the same, creating financial models using software like excel, SPSS, etc., prepare and analyze the competitor financial and operational health, create forecasts of future business activity based on government policies and current macroeconomic fundamentals of the country, perform a risk and return analysis on various types of investment options available, perform the cost-benefit analysis and capital budgeting as well as analyze the industries the company is currently operating. A financial analyst is usually expected to be thorough with his accounting principles as well as a master of analyzing financial statements like a balance sheet and an income statement.
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs have a vital role in a market economy. It is the entrepreneurs who provide that spark, stimulating the country’s economy.
Entrepreneurial instinct acts as a catalyst towards the success of a nation’s economy and is a major source of economic boom of a country. An entrepreneur must seek a disequilibrium- a gap between the needs and wants of customers and the goods or products that are currently available. The extent to which this gap is filled determines the success of an entrepreneurial endeavor.
They are capable of bringing together the money, raw materials needed to sell a product at a profit. They also need to have an appetite of risk taking. They must also be capable of arranging for marketing, sales and distribution of the offerings.
They also must create a perception of difference against their competitors to gain a greater market. Entrepreneurs are extremely important to a market economy as they create all the wealth, all the jobs and opportunities in a nation. Thus an entrepreneurial spirit must always be fostered in a country, which in turn will bring economic prosperity to it.
