It’s been long since I contributed to this blog however this
is a very apt occasion to make a comeback by describing the experience of an
exchange term. For those uninitiated: PGSEM offers the students a chance (or
2 chances which I’ll explain later) to take one of their term in a foreign
university. This is the same as offered to the PGP batch studying along with
you and same to the extent that the rank list for choosing universities is
common between the PGP and PGSEM students. For e.g. this year’s 2nd
ranker overall was a PGSEMer and he got to choose London Business School for
his exchange term.
Anyways, exchange university selection process is a thrill in itself
but to keep it short, around the 4th quarter of your studies, you’re
asked to choose if you want to take a quarter abroad. Now by 2 chances I meant
that since PGSEM has 10 quarters so they get to opt 2 times for the exchange
process (though they can only take 1 exchange term during the course).
Based on your 1st quarter marks, all students, PGP and PGSEM are
ranked together and asked to choose the universities in order of the student’s
rank. And don’t worry, IIM Bangalore has partnerships with most top institutes in
all geographies.
Now coming back to the topic, what are the top 5 reasons for
PGSEM students specifically to do an exchange term abroad? Though reasons
below might overlap with numerous folks who have taken exchange term at
different universities, ones stated below are strictly derived from my
experience at NUS Business School, Singapore. Ordered from least important to
the most important according to me:
Subject Choice is
good reason for taking up an exchange. A lot of schools IIM has tie up with
work in a university system and what I found exciting was that at NUS Business
School, you have access to the whole university to choose some of the subjects.
People can take up 1 subject outside of Business School in any discipline of
their choice. Some people picked up Chinese language, some picked Music and so
on. I ended up picking a course with school of design and environment out of my
interest in Clean Tech. Even the business school would present you a different
subject choice simply because they’re a different school with different faculty.
To state it another way: It’s not needed that the foreign university is better,
it’s better that there is more variety at your disposal.
Networking: I feel that exchange term drastically
increases your network. Especially when you’re a PGSEMer, you’re interacting
with your batch mates in classes and to some extent after classes for extracurricular
or projects. Being full-time in a hostel with a bunch of MBA students is a
totally different experience. The friendships formed when you’re studying together,
networking together (read partying) or eating together are fairly more
involved. A totally new environment and new country helps your forge several
new friendships in a short duration. Also since you’re studying full time, you
could pick up even unpaid internships in fields that you’re more interested in
and build your network further.
Diversity: Your
network is not only large but more Diverse. Going into a foreign university
during the exchange term, brings in people from various nationalities and
various backgrounds. If two people had the same set of people they knew, the
gain in network connections is not that much, but if the set of people are
totally from different field and country, you gained a whole new network of
friends. However perhaps scoring high on people you know is the least benefit
of working in a diverse group. You learn a lot about team work, cultural
sensitivity and tacit knowledge about dealing with a variety of people that’s
much more valuable.
Career Services: Another
important reason for me to choose exchange was for the career services that the
exchange school provided. Let me clarify, this doesn’t mean that you’ll be
sitting in placements in foreign school. What it means is that you can take
help from career services of these schools to improve your profile, get your
resume reviewed or even attend presentations from companies you’re interested
in.
Taking MBA without
work: Lastly but most importantly for a PGSEMer, an exchange term provides
an opportunity to take your MBA without work. You’d note I didn’t use the word “Full-time”
because for one I can tell is that the number classroom contact hours are exactly
the same per subject either ways. What changes is that you’re much more
focussed on the subjects and don’t have to switch context too much. If it was
to me, I’d say PGSEMers are the most hardened MBA graduates who can balance
more than any other full time folks. However at the same time, it’s a pleasant
break to be able to concentrate on your subjects full time, pick up more
subjects, spend your extra time in extracurricular activities and be a student
again.
However at the end of the day, there is opportunity cost involved.
PGSEMers are constrained by their work commitments
sometime and cannot take this unpaid break from work. Such long a break might
even put your employment at risk. This decision finally rests on the person
taking it and s/he has to fix all these. There are some schools which even give scholarships to IIM students and if not totally free, the trip costs reduce drastically.
It was a great experience for me and I hope some of the above reasons resonate with you and you take this exciting opportunity that PGSEM provides you.
It was a great experience for me and I hope some of the above reasons resonate with you and you take this exciting opportunity that PGSEM provides you.
