A colloquium on the topic ‘Job Readiness for an MBA in the World of MNC’s’ was held at the Sree Krishna Hall of School of Business, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, on December 20, 2017. The session was handled by Mr. Arun Prasad, Human Resources / Talent Acquisition Professional at Citicorp Services Private Limited. He has 17 plus years of global experience.

Mr. Arun started the proceedings with the question on the number of aspiring entrepreneurs and how many of the students want to get into MNCs. He then started to explain his career path and how he became what he is now. He explained the differences between the Indian and US education system. He also added, how while doing MBA at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, there were people with 5+ years of experience and only a handful had no experience. Mr. Arun, also spoke about the importance of having mentors. Speaking about the struggles he had to face initially, Mr. Arun also spoke about how he had to work for lesser qualified jobs at the initial stages of his career, to meet ends. “Networking is most important”, he quoted, explaining how networking helped him leverage further.

Mr. Arun explained about the topic – “Things you should be conscious about being job readiness”.

• Communication – One should always work on it. It is about being open minded, listening skills
• Personal Branding – What one wants to be known for, 10 years from now.
• Global Outlook – To be culturally flexible, because diversity comes in multiple shapes and forms
• Result Orientation – The 80-20 rule, Work on the 20 to finish the 80 as well
• Risk taking & Courage – For one to stand up to their values & be true to themselves, takes a lot of courage
• Being Organized – Why it is essential for a good planning. He also suggested to carry a notepad always
• Networking – Networking leverages your career
• Hobby & Sport – To initiate a conversation, you need to start with things other than work. For long term, hobbies provide with the emotional stability

Mr. Arun then left it to the audience to improvise further on the points. In the Q&A session, students asked about what kind of resume is expected nowadays. Mr. Arun explained about the importance of keeping it simple and short. More emphasis should be given on Industry connect, Volunteer and Charitable activities that one was part of. Some students asked about the approaches to change career. He spoke about surfing through job portals to get an idea of the current job market, update in Linkedin, research on head hunters and apply on company’s website directly and connect with HR and show them the value you can provide. He also urged students to start immediately. Finally, students asked about, the better of Generalists vs Specialists. Mr. Arun clarified, to first start with a specialization. If it is compatible with the natural talent, one can continue with it, else he insisted on keep rotating with specialization until the goal is reached. By that time, one would’ve become Generalist.