Work Experience: Fill & Download for Free

I will answer this question strictly from the perspective of an MBA from India. My perspective comes from my observations at IIMA and might not be applicable to all MBA colleges in India, so take my observations with a pinch of salt.Even though the majority feels that one should work for a few years before going for an MBA, I do not agree with this opinion due to the following reasons:Firm shortlists: Most of the top consulting, finance and marketing firms prefer people with less work experience, unless the work experience is relevant work experience, that is, unless the work experience is in the same field for which the candidate is applying. Only the product management and technical profiles require candidates to have work experience.Career prospects: In the top consulting and finance firms, you join at the same entry level position (typically as an associate) regardless of your work experience. There are some firms who have a work experience prerequisite and some others who offer a higher level role to people with more work experience, but the number of such firms is low. This basically means that someone with 2–3 years of work experience will join at the same level as someone with no work experience, giving the latter an advantage.Learning: When it comes to class performance and learning, it is a common notion that people with work experience learn more. However, if you look at the top rankers in the IIMs, the majority of them have little or no work experience. I agree that there are some concepts that one can understand better if one has worked in the industry before, especially the concepts related to human resource management. However, it might not be worth going for 2–3 years of work experience just so that you can understand some such concepts better.Rigour: According to general observation, those who start their MBA directly after their bachelor studies are able to cope up with the rigour better as they are used to the studying and attending classes. The job life is very different from university life, and it might take some time to adapt to the university life again.I started my MBA directly after my B.Tech, and I have no regrets at all. If I had to do it all over again, I would still follow the same route.

I really do not think so, at least in the context of the top IIMs.I was a fresher. Zero work experience. Zero corporate internships (my prior internships were all research internships).I had shortlists from each company that visited the campus, across consulting, investment banking, financial markets, sales and marketing, general management and product management. Each and every company that visited the campus.Being a fresher is not going to be a deterrent in the MBA admissions, and it is not going to be a deterrent in your placements.Let me be frank. If somebody says that you need work experience to do an MBA in India, or that work experience will benefit you in the placements, these are all lies propagated by people who could not get in as freshers. Please do not believe them.If you have work experience already, well and good. But if you are a fresher, and thinking about gaining work experience just to get higher salary after MBA, I would highly discourage you from that decision.Yes, there are a few companies that offer specific positions at a slightly higher level and are open only for people with 2+ years of work experience. But those are very few positions.The top companies do not have any inhibition in taking freshers. It is your overall profile that matters, not your work experience.

Most undergrad interns at Google have either no or very minimal work experience (just another internship).When I interned at Google in 2015, I had no prior work experience and it wasn’t required at all. Same goes with many of my friends who interned at Microsoft. You have to be academically good enough to crack the resume screening and the interviews.