8 Mantras before joining the PGDM Course

Are you thinking a lot before joining a PGDM course? Are you worried about B-Schools and specialisations to choose in PGDM?  Don’t worry, you will get your answers for all your questions in this article. 

For most of the young aspirants, PGDM is the key to a bright future that pays a lot of money and excellent opportunities to enhance their qualification in careers. For some it is the focused approach towards achieving their entrepreneurial goals.

As a young PGDM aspirant one invests a huge amount of wealth and time by joining the B-Schools for a PGDM course. And it is important that the students should be aware of how these institutions help them to reach their goals. The best institutions will guide you in the right direction, while the wrong ones might mislead and may affect your career paths.

Hence, it is very important to follow some of the crucial points, as a dedicated aspirant to PGDM course. 

The present article tries to give you some important information about the things that should be taken care of before joining a PGDM course.

Things to be kept in Mind before joining PGDM course

As a PGDM aspirant one is advised to follow these following eight mantras, so that they can achieve something in life as a PGDM student and become a successful professional.

1. Have clarity on why you want to join a PGDM course

The PGDM aspirants should have a clarity in mind of why they should go for a PGDM course. The students should keep in mind the following points before joining any PGDM course. 

• Is it to get placed in a huge company?
• Is it to get a higher salary?
• Is it for the excellent networking opportunities with successful alumni?
• Is it to acquire a new skill and knowledge acquisition and problem-solving skills that helps you to go beyond comfort zones? 

2. Be ready with your Budget

Few years before most of the students who graduated from reputed B-Schools and management institutes, would earn back their investment after working for a couple of years. But today things have changed drastically, today the fees for PGDM course is comparatively high and return of Investment (ROI) depends on the company you choose or become an entrepreneur.

The students should be ready and capable to fund their studies for the PGDM course. There is no need to worry about the fees because it can be recovered easily. This may not be possible in just 2- 3 years, but it may take 4-5 years depending upon your skills and the college from which you have done your PGDM course and the company which you choose to work. Hence, the students should be prepared to handle the prevailing circumstances.

3. Choose the location wisely for your PGDM studies

Students should choose the location wisely before joining a PGDM course. It is advised to students that they should choose locations and institutes that are best suited for them to achieve their dreams. It is advised that the students should choose such locations that are at very close proximity to the employment hubs. This helps the students to get easily placed in the companies soon after they complete their PGDM Course.

4. Choice of B-Schools or Management Institutions

Today there are mushrooming of many B-Schools and Management institutes that claim to provide the best PGDM course. These institutes do high-level marketing to attract the students with only the intention of making money. So, the students should be extremely cautious while selecting the colleges for their PGDM studies. 

They should not get carried away by these marketing tactics and land up in wrong institutions.  If possible, conduct a detailed check of the colleges before choosing the best one for their PGDM course. The students should shortlist a few colleges according to their requirements, so that it will be easy for them to select the right one for their PGDM studies. 

5. Accreditations for the institutes and Faculty Availability should be verified

Many B-Schools and management institutes are providing wrong information on their official websites for business benefits. So, it is essential to do a holistic background check of such colleges before selecting them. Many private ranking and review agencies also provide fake rankings and reviews for many colleges to attract the students. So, it is essential for them to have a check on the accreditation of colleges and faculty available in the institutes. 

The students are advised to have a better understanding of the international tie ups that are claimed by the B-Schools and management institutions for their PGDM course. The students should also have a brief idea about the international collaborations available in the college. 

6. Choose Specialisations according to your interests

There are ample specialisations available in the PGDM course. In yester years only limited specialisations like Finance, Marketing and Human Resource were available in PGDM. But today the changing times and new challenges faced by the sector has forced the colleges to include more specialisations. 

The PGDM degree today comes with a varied number of specialisations according to the demands of the market. The students should decide their desired specialisations and choose them according to their interests. Every specialisation has its own importance in the market and specialisations chosen decides the future career prospects of the students.

7. Proper Guidance should be taken from educational experts

It is a common tendency that many of the students prefer for merit seats over management seats for PGDM programmes and blindly appear for a bunch of entrance exams like K-MAT/CAT/XAT/ATMA and many others. But they should also analyse the fact that, whether the merit-seats that are allotted are really worth it, if they get them in some mid-level or below average colleges?

A point to be noted here that students may get carried away by the rankings and ratings given by a plethora of online agencies which are fake. These are high profile market tactics done by various below average colleges to attract the students for sake of money. 

So, it is always advisable that the students should visit the educational experts for complete guidance on the colleges offering PGDM courses. The student should also be very careful while choosing the experts, hence always check if they are genuine and government registered bodies for getting proper and genuine advice about the PGDM colleges and their extra facilities, additional certification programs and placements etc.

8. What should be the outcome of PGDM?

Students should be completely aware of the outcome of PGDM studies. At the end of the day only the outcome of PGDM matters more than any others. If the above factors are carefully followed, then it certainly ensures the best outcome of PGDM is experienced by the students. 

Ultimately, the main goal of a PGDM course should be the gain of knowledge and expertise that helps an individual to change his/her perception and become a successful employee or a successful entrepreneur.

In Conclusions

The PGDM is not just a degree but it is an investment in life for ourselves. The students who are interested in taking up PGDM should have clarity of mind before choosing the PGDM course. The students are advised to follow proper channels before joining the PGDM course.

The above factors mentioned help the aspirants to decide their move and join the PGDM course.