What are the Different Types of MBA Courses and Specializations in India?

How many times have you heard your relatives impart career counseling knowledge to you and say “do an MBA to kick-start your career”? Then, you start pondering on different types of MBA courses to decide which specialization to go for.

Well, this situation is not uncommon today, right? But no matter how much you despise that piece of advice, it does hold some value. Because doing a full-time MBA course has become one of the most sought-after choices for the Indian youth of today.

So, if you are an MBA aspirant and studying hard to clear entrances like CAT, XAT, SNAP, GMAT, and NMAT then this post is dedicated to you. You wouldn’t understand the importance of opting for a specialization unless you are sitting in campus drives. It’s okay to be a bit confused right now because of the endless number of options available. However, you need to keep your priorities right while opting for a specialization. Since it’s a daunting task to take the decision alone, here are some facts to help you out.

Types of MBA Courses

Though the most common types of MBA Programme provided by a majority of the business schools is of 2 years, you can still expect a few courses of lesser tenure as well.

• Full-time MBA course - Since the tenure of these is around 2 years; it covers all the subjects highly essential for the course.
• Part-time MBA course - It can be 1 year, 2 years and can also be about 3 years. It is popular among candidates having less than 4 years of work experience.
• Executive MBA course – Crafted especially for the busy-bee professionals these require a minimum experience of about 4 years. These usually are of 1 year, and the classes are conducted only during the weekends. You can check more details of the same here.
• Online MBA course - As the name says, you would get all the materials and the lectures online. One can also think of, just like the updated version of distance MBA.
• Distance/Correspondence MBA – For those who are unable to join regular MBA courses, going for a distance or correspondence programme is the best option. However, the acceptance criteria are different compared to a full-time course.
• Dual MBA – One of the top choices today, a Dual MBA programme is the best way to enrich your resume with a multi-disciplinary management degree.

Top MBA Specializations

If you are at your wit’s end and keen to know about the top MBA programmes in today’s market, then here is the list for you:

• Marketing

The increasing competition among various industries and brands sharing the common genre is probably one of the reasons why marketing is in the limelight these days. Companies are regularly on the lookout for skilled marketing professionals who can stand in the busy market. Basically, they would hire ones who can differentiate about the exceptionalities of their product to the rest of the world. And in return earn them huge turnovers also taking 6 figure CTC home. Marketing had always been one of the top sectors to the higher maximum number of MBA graduates per year. If you specialize in marketing, you would be taught about the ways to be impeccable in almost every sector off your industry.

The topics that would be covered in your specialization course include customer analysis, market research and analysis, business ethics, product management and much more. You shouldn’t deduce that all you have to do is to promote and market your company’s services and products. You would have the liberty to go for jobs concerning departments like IT sales, media, internet marketing, and others. An education that will allow you to practice marketing in real-live projects while still studying, will help you land into your role already prepared to take on responsibilities and see them through.

• Finance

Reports say finance stands out to be the top choice of about 22 % of MBA students? This is major because of the fat salary being offered to finance graduates after completing their course. You can never go wrong with finance and banking, as it takes care of the financial growth of a particular company or an institution. Upon attending lectures, you would be taught to implement your business skills to solve recurrent problems faced in the financial sector.

Like marketing, here also you would own options to look for jobs in the sectors of your preference. For example, investment banking, portfolio management, credit risk management, etc. If you aren’t excited to start out in a financial sector, then you are free to join any non-financial firm where you will be assigned to maintain their finance department.

• Human Resources

If you are an MBA aspirant, you must know that HRs of any company are assigned to tackle the workforce of an entire company quite gracefully. That is to say, HR doesn’t only manage the employees and issue the number of leaves taken, or checks any unethical deeds. They are supposed to be in touch with every department prevalent in a company as well as their recruitment processes.

You must have known until now that in most of the Job interviews, the occurrence of an HR round is a must. For these reasons, an HR has to be versatile and updated with news and happenings of the entire industry and even your academic syllabus. If you take up HR, you would have to manage a ton of tasks some conventional like recording entry and exits of the employees. You would have to take the lead to ensure the work environment is a cordial one to guarantee high productivity.

• Travel and Tourism

If traveling rejuvenates you and you want to travel and work for the rest of your life, then travel, and tourism management is the most suitable match for you. This is also one of the specializations where one owns the chance to get hired with a pretty decent salary structure. Giant organisations recruit consultants to seek their views and assistance about various issues which can only be solved from an outsider’s perspective. For example, a company facing unknown challenges who don’t know how to drive them away would hire a consultant to get solutions.

If you want to pursue this, they would have to deal with and manage quite distinct genres of sectors which may need your assistance to function. You can be approached by various segments like boutique consulting, advertising, public relations, and media. You can finally give a rush to your adrenaline by traveling and working in several places all around the world. But do you know what the drawback is? The long and dull hours of working!

• International Business

If your interest focuses on studying and analyzing the world economy, then this perhaps is the right choice for you. Although a bit out of the sack, it provides an understanding of the how the world economy reacts and responds to various stimuli. International business MBAs are designated to departments like import and export management international finance analysis, international marketing and logistics.

Nonetheless to say, here also one of the bonus points is traveling, obviously for work purposes. If you study for this specialization and get hired, then be prepared to meet and share the meeting with the international clients. Like HR, if you know how to talk your way out and own a charismatic personality, then after pursuing this course, there is no looking back for you. And the reports say, that about 15.25% of all the employees tasking as operations managers get a maximum salary hike of about 100%.

• Information Technology

It has been seen that a majority of engineering students comprise the MBA batches every year in top B-schools. Among them, those from the IT background form a considerable part. So, an MBA in IT is considered to be most suitable for them owing to their technical familiarity. Moreover, if you opt for an MBA in IT after completing your engineering degree in Computer Science or IT, then you can venture into known territories too.

• Operations

If you are keen on managing the end-to-end process of developing and producing finished products, then an MBA in Operations will be ideal. This stream of specialization is the best way to break the barriers of industry-specific needs since Operations Managers are needed by all industries at all times.

Starting from developing a product from scratch to its finishing, marketing, and distribution, an MBA in Operations is responsible for all these stages. Ensuring customer satisfaction is also an integral part of this chain of activities that they need to manage.

• Information Systems

This stream of specialization is slightly different than an MBA degree in Information Technology. Information Systems are networks of machines or systems that are used by people and organisations across the world to gather, distribute and process different kinds of data. And an MBA course in Information Systems delivers the technical knowledge as well as business expertise, that is needed in different sectors of the IT industry.

• Hospital Management

This is one of the most popular courses that students of medicine are known to pursue. But if you think that an MBA in Hospital Management is designed keeping only the doctors in mind, then you are under a wrong idea. Any non-medical person can also complete Hospital Management and join as a senior manager position in leading hospitals in the government as well as private sectors.

The field of hospital management is one of the most rapidly growing sectors in India today and is seeing an increasing number of applications year after year. It has been estimated by experts that globally, the demand for managers of health services will rise to more than 22% in the next 3 to 4 years time.

• Supply Chain

Pursuing an MBA programme in the field of Supply Chain Management is specifically designed in preparing the candidates for shaping a successful career in the end-to-end process of supply chain companies.

Supply chain companies have a wide and convoluted network that is spread across the world expanding over several countries. So an MBA in Supply Chain services will have the necessary business acumen to consider how products move from the origin country to its destination. Supply Chain managers are hugely in demand across varied industries, starting from retail and manufacturing, to e-commerce, logistics, aviation, shipping, and even consulting firms.

MBA in Digital Marketing - The Next BIG Thing

With Digital Marketing assuming gigantic proportions in the current global businesses, an MBA in Digital Marketing is all set to be the next big thing for sure. Several of the top Indian B-Schools already offer courses for management in Digital Marketing. The demand for this course is already seeing a huge number of applicants that is only set to rise over the next few years.

Conclusion

So these are some of the most sought-after types of MBA courses today. But be sure to realize your interests and also check the market valuation of the specialization before signing up for it. If you feel puzzled at any point in time, you can always sort it out with a career expert and read editorials to update yourself about the industry happenings.