ISB for CAs: Part 2
In this post, I will shed some light on what life on campus is for that 1 year of MBA and what are the post-MBA prospects for Chartered Accountants.
That 1 year
The 1 year at ISB is academically grueling. It is almost like a 2 year course packed into 1 academic year. Add to it, the events, parties and other activities that keep happening on campus. For the first few weeks, you try to be the jack of all trades by studying, partying, taking part in 12230239293 case competitions at once, partying, submitting assignments 0.0000001 seconds before the deadline, partying, doing 200 page pre-reads 10 minutes before class, filling laundry forms, partying, drafting resumes, placement preps, networking and somehow squeezing in some sleep to stay sane. Soon you realize the need to rise above FOMO and focus on what matters to you the most.
Lets talk academics.
If you are looking to crack into management consulting (McKinsey, BCG, Bain, A&M, ATK, etc.), then GPA matters. You need to focus on academics enough to get the perfect 4s in most courses leading up to placements. And the atmosphere is highly competitive and intense. For most of the other roles and companies, GPA doesn’t really matter and you don’t even have to mention the GPA on your resume. I took the opportunity to balance out between academics, case competitions and exploring the campus. Post placements (the 2nd half of the 1 year), it is mostly all parties and meeting new people. The professors at ISB are some of the best in business and you have a lot to learn from them in a relatively short time as each course is just a few weeks long. Classes are 1–2 per day, 4 days a week and you spend a lot of time on assignments — multiple at once, group and individual!
As a Chartered Accountant, you will have an advantage in the accounts and finance related courses. However, the crowd at ISB is super smart! You will lose that advantage in a few weeks and wonder how these engineers are able to solve tough finance questions in such a short time when it took you years to understand and master those concepts.. and this is what I loved the most about working with brilliant people at ISB. Some people view a competitive environment as negative but I believe it really pushes you to excel in many situations. You have course spanning accounts, economics, finance, marketing, operations, soft-skills, strategy and tech. Post the core-terms, you get to select your courses depending on what you want to major in.
Case competitions
I happened to win one case competition and in another one, my team reached the semi-finals. I tried to work with different set of people across different case competitions simply to network and learn more! Use your time at B-School to participate in case competitions.
Consulting case prep
I was focused on getting placed in finance and investment roles. But 90% of the school seemed to be going for PM and Consulting roles. 2 months before placements, people are forming their groups to prepare for these roles. I would strongly recommend case prep to everyone, even if your end goal is finance, operations, marketing, etc. There are so many new concepts to learn: Guesstimates, market entry, pricing, etc. As a Chartered Accountant we are tuned to think a certain way and case preps challenge your thinking process (and make them more refined).
Social life
For CAs, ISB gives you the social life you most probably didn’t have while pursuing CA. Unlike under-grads of other streams who’ve been to and lived on campus, this will most likely be the first proper college experience.
Social life is an important part of B-School life. There are a lot of parties happening on campus and you sooner or later realize you cannot be a part of every party! You make friends for life — your first SG, your quaddies / neighbors, etc. and you make connections with hundreds of some of the country’s brightest minds. After gaining a few KGs you realize that you need to focus on physical health and the campus provides for amazing running tracks, recreation center and sports facilities. ISB also focuses on mental well-being and you have resources to help you find your balance and talk-out to (if you need that help). You try your hand at new things for the first time — dancing, standup comedy, music, theatre, poetry, a new sport, etc. and discover new things you are good at.
Accommodation
Life at ISB campus is nothing short of luxury. You have amazing quads and studios and round the clock services to spoil you for life. I don’t think I will ever forget the luxury of leaving my studio open in the morning to return back later and find it all tidied up! Thank you housekeeping :’). Spotted a lizard at 2 am in your room? Call the pest-control and boom! they’re there in 10 minutes. The safety of the campus, the luxury of lazily walking around the campus at 3 AM, the everything-is-a-call-away lifestyle.. sigh! You have to live it to experience it. ISB doesn’t let any chores distract you during this one year.
Career opportunities for CAs (and CFAs)
ISB is not a finance school. But some of the best professors at ISB are the finance ones. Although the finance roles coming on campus are limited, the competition for those is also relatively limited. Prior work-experience does matter a lot but there have been exceptions. If not out of campus, finance roles do open up 3–4 years after ISB (as per what I’ve been told by few alums). You will be surprised to see the number of ISB folks in top positions in leading PE/VC firms, and most of them didn’t crack these roles during campus placement!
As a Chartered Accountant you can expect opportunities in management consulting (the likes of McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc.), corporate finance and strategy roles in both start-ups and conglomerates, Investment banking, PE/VC and wealth & asset management. There have been few instances of CAs even cracking into product management roles because of their interest and preparation for the same.
While IB, PE/VC and investment related roles do come up, they usually require some relevant prior work-ex and the roles are usually 1–3 each in numbers.
Funding the MBA and ROI
You will get collateral free education loans, at low interest rates (7% fixed at the time of this post), which will cover the entire ISB MBA cost (fee + living) for you. The monthly EMI on a 15 year loan works out to ~ Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 a month. I wouldn’t really encourage this logic, which few people have:
I make 80,000 a month (in-hand) pre MBA and post MBA if I make Rs 1.2 Lakhs (in-hand) then I am at breakeven as post EMI I am making my pre-MBA money. MBA is not a shop that you have opened, for which you calculate a breakeven. As I mentioned earlier, MBA is a long term goal for those pursuing it. While you may use this calculation for salary negotiations, don’t use it to decide on the MBA question itself.
On the ROI front: CA was not expensive but MBA will be. There are people who end up with a 35 Lakhs package and some who end up with 22–25 Lakhs package. I cannot give an average or median as it really varies on multiple factors. However, ISB’s average package ranges from 26 to 28 Lakhs. The real impact of an MBA from a tier-1 college is best felt 2–4 years after graduation. You can simply search up IIMJobs or any other job portal for the opportunities available for tier-1 college graduates with 2–4 years of post graduation work-experience. An MBA is a long term investment and adds value as you grow up in the industry both professionally and personally.
Finally, to do an MBA or not is a personal decision and there is no holy grail to decide on this. I would suggest first get a 700+ on the GMAT and then think of this question as most CAs drop off at the GMAT preparation stage itself.
