Why Aren't You Doing A Job After MBA???

It’s been almost a month since I’ve come back home from campus…been meeting a host of people – relatives, clients, karigars (sub-contractors working for me)…and everywhere I go, I’m always asked the same question – “Why aren’t you doing a job if you’ve done a MBA?”

I have faced this question a thousand times …since the time of my XL interview – was asked the same question there (“Why do you want to do a MBA if you don’t want to do a job?”), by friends once I actually got through the interview, by my paternal uncle (“If you are so sure of not doing a job after your MBA, you are wasting the institute’s seat!”), by different batch-mates all through my stay at XL and now by relatives (again!), clients (also!) and karigars too! (They are village folk; they don’t know what degree I have done, but they just know that bodo da – bade bhaiya – has done some “hi-fi” studies which pays a lot!)…

Some of them look at me expectantly after asking this question, as if I will just now start speaking about my plan of “How-will-I-build-my-hazaron-karodon-ki-industries”; some ask this question with a subtle smirk which says “Didn’t/Couldn’t get a job, huh!?”, when they don’t know that I had not even sat for placements; some ask this with genuine curiosity because they haven’t seen anyone not doing a job after MBA…but everyone is curious to understand why I didn’t go for a job at an MNC with a plush salary in a great building with a fancy designation…Why?

In the course of my interactions with these different groups of well-wishers, it seems to me that they believe that MBA is some kind of a magical course…that the Institute is a sacred Hogwart’s castle… that they teach “The Secret Formula for Quick Success in Business” in a B-School and the person who leaves a comfy job of 10-12-15 lakhs per annum is either mad or has a crystal clear plan in his mind that is going to earn him crores, starting the first day he joins/starts his business!!

I have mixed thoughts when I hear this question from such people, for I truly believe that some of them have a lot of experience (businessmen, older relatives who have seen a lot of Life), some of them have above average expertise in their chosen field (fellow MBAs, businessmen) and most of them have a practical reasoning ability…are they trying to test my clarity of thought by asking my plan of action? Are they trying to tell me that I am a fool to expose myself to greater risks of doing business than have a secure steady income of X lakhs per annum? Or are they trying to elicit an answer from me about a question which they themselves haven’t been able to answer? A lot of my clients and relatives doing business believe that time has come when small and medium businesses won’t survive for long…it’s time to scale up or ship out…So are they underestimating me?

Anyways...I have to go now...will return to you at a more apt time again, for sure...