My decision to pursue an MBA is amongst the most puzzling one’s to many of my acquaintances. “You were already a product manager, why did you do an MBA?”. Funnily enough, I also get asked the conjugate of this question, “How did you become a product manager without an MBA?” . Sigh! Will people ever stop asking questions and think for themselves? Many can’t, so here’s a story.

Unlike most people after undergrad in india, I was not inclined to go for higher education of any sort. The rat race wants you to compete for IIT and then compete for IIM . Having studied engineering in a relatively elite/top-tier college, I was astounded by how shitty the education was. India’s colleges suck at imparting knowledge and relatedly, 90% of people are there are just there because their parents told them to be there . Once bitten, twice shy; I didn’t want spend time and money on this scam again. Though I was a decently good rat, my eyes were open and I was happy with taking my time and choosing something sensibly instead of rushing into the cliche . Plus, finishing your undergraduate degree is (mostly) mandatory, else you’re significantly disadvantaged in socio-economic system; not true for an advanced degree . It’s totally optional.

So, I decided to explore by working. And work was fun! I was fortunate enough to join amazing companies, meet people from different backgrounds, learn new things and grow . Today I might pass off as a human and sometimes even an extrovert, but this was not the case for the first 22 years of my life. I had always been a pure geeky shy awkward robot.

Lots of things happened and I enjoyed my career progress, that progress allowed me to ignore the question of whether I should study further. About 2-3 years into working, I was considering doing a Masters, and choosing between ML/AI (what I had mild experience in) and Human Computer Interaction (what I had been utterly fascinated by) . I wrote the GRE and TOEFL but ended not putting in the final applications. Between getting a promotion at work and the uncertainty over studying abroad, I just stopped . No one in my family had even done a masters degree, lets alone done one abroad, it was scary and confusing path that I ultimately abandoned.

So, I just continued working and switched to becoming a PM, at Paytm no less. I felt cool about getting the manager title and being slightly ahead of my friends in career terms . But then a new question popped up, “Should I do my MBA?”. I initially dismissed it. I had gotten my break. I was a “manager”. I was not looking for further career transitions . I had a great alumni network and brand from going to top-tier university in undergrad. Doing an MBA would not make me CEO. I could just grow organically.

Having been fooled once by the system, I looked at MBA degree not an education system but a combo of brand + network. The brand gives your resume a bump, the network gives you access to talented/awesome folks who can bring you unique opportunities . Anyone who believes anything else is deluding themselves, or so I believed.

What changed my mind was my abysmal success at the getting a fancy job after working as a PM for 3 years. I knew I had done a good job in the startup I had worked in, we had grown immensely in terms of revenue and there were tangible product+strategy changes that I had contributed to . But I went on the market and to try to move to a big fancy firm, I saw many weird things. Despite the awesome work I had done, I hard got any calls from the fancy firms like Amazon or Google . When I looked up on LinkedIn, I saw that entire product teams at these companies were populated by MBA graduates. Why?! You can do this work without this degree (as I had!).

I got a chance to interview at some mid-tier firms like LinkedIn, Grab and Myntra; but I bombed all my interviews. In hindsight my mistakes are obvious . I thought I’ll just show up and talk about experiences and that should be it. What’s better than the story of someone who’s 100Xed the volumes, right? That didn’t work out.

Oh, did I mention that I was doing this job hunt at a time when I was severely burnt out after working like crazy in a startup and watching it teeter on the edge of death and failure as it ran out of funding? Bathing in this cauldron of rejection, failure and frustration. I looked for a way out, a way to continue career progress. The MBA stamp
from a place would ensure I at least got a foot in the door when applying. The network would increase the expected value of my net worth. Plus I wanted a break but a not a long one . I still had qualms about two year MBA programs which effectively take 2 years out of the prime of your life and also rob you of income. So I was focused on 1 year programs like ISB and INSEAD . INSEAD didn’t happen, ISB did it. And that’s how I ended up going to B-school.

Did it work out? Were the promises fulfiled this time or was it a scam again? Find out on the next episode!