#PuneSpeaks – Does The Pune MBA Really Get You Anywhere?

October 12, 2017

As the Oxford of the East, Pune holds much allure for scores of students Pan-India. The desire to secure a MBA or Master’s from a prestigious college brings them to the city with high expectations and career goals..

But what really happens to the talented youngsters migrating here with a head full of ambition and a heart full of dreams?

City-colleges refuse to comment. So, we speak to post-graduates with a Masters Degree from Pune colleges. They tell us what they actually achieved from their higher education in the Oxford of the East.

Having graduated from Ness Wadia College of Commerce, Puneite Rashne Darji scored a campus placement in Deloitte, Hyderabad. After a two year stint as an Auditing Assistant drawing an impressive paycheck, she quit to pursue MBA Finance from a college in Hadapsar.

Fast forward three years and Rashne reveals the placements post Masters were far from satisfactory. “I was offered even less than when I worked with Deloitte! Yet, after raking up a huge debt in student loans for my Masters Degree;

I had no choice but to take the job. Now I’m struggling to keep it, as people in my team have been given notice after being declared an unnecessary ‘cost to the company’,” she rues.

Siddharth and Bhumi Jaiswal hail from Jaipur. This brother-sister duo pursued their Masters in Fashion Design at a city college based in Loni (batch of 2013). Sid admits that only he secured a job after repeated efforts.

“Our college did not promise placements; however, we assumed in a fashion forward city like Pune, finding jobs wouldn’t be a stretch.”

Bhumi agrees adding, “Jaipur barely has any high-end fashion houses, so we assumed a Masters degree in Pune would even help us get a job in neighboring Mumbai. However, the city of dreams is teeming with design aspirants. And Pune fashion labels demand experience.

I work with a call center now, drawing barely 25,000 after four years of completing my Masters. My brother works in fashion though,” she sighs.

“I chose Pune because it has a rocking nightlife,” says Shantanu Naik a tad abashed. “Writing has always been a passion and a Masters in Journalism was the right path. Semester I saw me secure an 8.2 CGPA; however, that made me complacent. I experimented with party drugs for recreational purposes. I knew I could control it, but it fueled my creative energies.

“However, I had a nasty accident in my final year when a fellow and I were driving under the influence. I escaped with road rash, but my batch-mate was far from lucky. He was in the ICU for months and never really recovered completely. It’s a Masters degree left incomplete and my greatest regret,” he grieves.

Not all news is bad news though, as Manish Agrawal is 28 and thriving in the field of product design. Having completed his graduation from Chitkara University in Chandigarh, he moved to Pune for a Masters degree at a city college.

“Campus placements saw me grab a neat deal with a great annual package. I switched jobs two years in and now work with the product development team for Kent RO Systems.

“We had a batch strength of 60 students for Masters in Product Design; however, the college only placed around twelve. Campus placements in private colleges are a reality.

However, you’ve got to be among the top ten students in the class if you hope to qualify,” he signs off painting a realistic picture for Uni-Pune hopefuls across the country.

#All views expressed in this column are those of the individual respondents ( names changed to protect privacy ) and Pune365 does not necessarily subscribe to them.