Over the past few years, there has been an exponential growth in the number of students who aspire to do an MBA as this is often perceived to be a guaranteed route to having a successful career. Students from all kinds of educational backgrounds like computer engineering, civil engineering, Architecture, B. Com or BBA want to enrol in MBA programs to enhance their employability and have a better career progression. Some are already working but are dissatisfied with their salary or are disappointed about their professional growth prospects which leads them to take the bold step of leaving their jobs and joining a full-time MBA Program.

Is work experience mandatory to enrol in an MBA?

Aspiring students are often confused about this question. This answer depends entirely on the institute you choose to follow your MBA program as some management schools insist on the work experience of 2 years or more, whereas, some other institutes do not require any work experience. At RICS School of Built Environment (SBE) Amity University, you do not need any work experience to enrol for the MBA courses but prospective students who do have some experience already on their resume can also enrol. 

Why you don’t need Work Ex to enrol at RICS SBE

RICS SBE has a global standard curriculum that is curated by the industry and has a good balance of theory plus practical knowledge. Students are given adequate industry exposure via site visits, guest lectures by industry veterans and they get to work on a variety of real-time case studies. Plus, every student goes through an intensive 8 weeks onsite internship in the industry which ensures that even freshers get an exposure to work-life in the milieu that they are looking forward to being employed in.

Since having a work history is not mandatory to follow an MBA program at RICS SBE, we have a healthy mix of students who have work experience and those who don’t. The freshers often benefit from the experience of their peers and the experienced students learn to have a more open mind from their less experienced friends. The question often asked is whether students who have prior work experience have any advantages over the freshers. 

What is relevant work experience at RICS SBE?

For work experience to have any value, it must be relevant to the course chosen. RICS SBE offers niche management degrees related to the built environment. If a student has more than 2 years of experience in let’s say banking or media but has decided to join an MBA program in Real Estate and Urban Infra Structure or Construction Project Management, then that work experience may help them to understand management concepts more readily but at the time of placements, it would not add any value to their CV. 

Then within the real estate sector, there are several job roles like sales, marketing, valuations, site execution, cost management, project management, consulting, transactions etc. If a student has more than two years of experience in sales or business development in the built environment sector it is not helpful if they want to switch and move to a role in let’s say valuations; then organisations do not consider that as relevant experience. However, this experience certainly helps them to relate more easily to concepts being taught in class and it also helps them to turn out more professional assignments and projects as they can draw from their practical experience to analyse situations.

On the other hand, if a student has prior experience in quantity surveying and pursues an MBA in Construction Economics and Quantity Surveying from our institute then that experience would certainly give them an edge over the others at the time of placements. 

Do organisations prefer students who have prior work experience?

While evaluating prospective employees at the time of placements, some organisations like to recruit freshers as they come with a clean slate and can be trained and groomed according to their requirements. Depending on the job role, some organisations prefer more experienced students as they are ready starters and don’t need any handholding when they start their job. The demand is almost equal for both freshers and experienced candidates.

The experience, however, needs to be very rich to have any kind of impact on the career prospects of a potential employee. To be rich, the work experience should first correspond to the requirements of the organisation and be relevant to the field they are seeking a job in and secondly it should be between 2 to 5 years spent in a big organisation. The preference is specifically between 2 to 5 years as organisations consider anything less than 2 years as more of an internship and if it is over 5 years then the candidate is often considered to be too set in his ways and difficult to re-train. Thirdly, the experience should be backed with documentation from the organisation. One should have worked in a known organisation as work in a family-run show carries little value. 

Relevant Experience Edge

If a candidate fulfils these parameters, then he or she certainly would have an edge over the others during the selection process as they would get a better salary offer and sometimes a lateral entry into the organisation. Which means that most freshers join as management trainees whereas a candidate with rich experience could be taken in at a relatively higher post. Also, if for some reason one doesn’t have a good academic record; good work experience can help you overcome that obstacle.  

Several students from our institute have achieved higher levels of success during placements as they leveraged their work experience which they had enhanced with an MBA degree from RICS SBE, thus increasing their potential value for prospective employers. They got placed with organisations of their choice earning a much better salary than their previous jobs. While it’s not possible to name all the students here but some of these students are:

About RICS SBE:

RICS School of Built Environment (RICS SBE), Amity University is an industry led academic institution which delivers specialized undergraduate and postgraduate programs to students ambitious to work in real estate, construction and infrastructure sector. It also aids as a hub for research and development of technical proficiency in built environment.