VERY often we hear of training programmes conducted by recruiters ranging from 1 month to 12 months for training the fresh employees just to suitably train and align them to the corporate requirements.

It is to reduce this training need and provide job-ready candidates that sectoral MBAs came into being. “If a person is joining a sectoral MBA course, he has already made the choice of joining the sector. So for the company, there is a person who is inclined towards the industry, is not going to run away to another sector, and they don’t have to do extensive management training,” explains Dr. Parag Diwan, Vice Chancellor, University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun.

IT/ SYSTEMS
Technology Management is essentially a response to the industry’s need for engineers with a managerial mind-set and skill set. This leads to the development of the techno-managers who understand both the technology and management as well as the nuances of engineering. “These people are useful to a large number of companies which are involved in technology acquisition, technology adoption, new product development, or project management areas, or project appraisals etc.,” explains Dr. Rajan Saxena.

Apart from the engineering college graduates and general MBAs, many telecom MBAs are now entering this lucrative and technology-driven industry. “We have a distinct preference for engineers,” says Dr. Debajyoti Mukhopadhyay, Director of Balaji Institute of Telecom Management (BITM), Pune. “Approximately 70% of our students are engineers, and we only take engineers from select branches for our flagship programme, PGDM (Telecom),” he elaborates.

Telecom MBAs get absorbed in the industry in two broad profiles. One is the ‘back end’ profile where they manage the operational side of the network. The other is the ‘front end’ profile involving functions like Sales and Marketing of Telecom services. Surprisingly, the salaries offered for the former profile are approximately 30% more than those for the front end profiles, clearly indicating the demand for technical people in the industry.

PETROLEUM
Traditionally, employment in this sector is employment for life; if one starts his career with well-known Indian or international companies, you find him generally retiring with the same company. Like Telecom, this sector is also technology-oriented and one finds a large majority of MBAs with an engineering degree.In addition to the Oil & Gas sector, many students find employment with IT, consultancy and IT firms catering to the Oil & Gas sector.

 “Big IT companies like Wipro & TCS have a vertical focused on Oil and Gas which is responsible for projects in these industries. If the students don’t have any knowledge of Oil & Gas, it becomes very difficult for them, so they prefer people who have both IT knowledge as well as domain knowledge,” says Prof. P.K. Banik, Director, School of Petroleum Technology, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Petroleum University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat (Read our Energy sector career review).

FINANCE/ INSURANCE
The Banking and Financial Services Industry (BFSI) has witnessed a sustained boom in the last decade. Three sectors - Banking, Insurance, Capital Markets - have seen the highest amount of development, both on the regulatory and research front. The technology development in these areas has changed the way business is done in the sector itself. 

RETAIL
General retail companies and niche retailers generally recruit from retail MBA courses. The reason for sectoral recruitment is specialised theoretical knowledge, practical training and skill sets of students in the respective field. “A recent development, exponential growth is happening in retail just as in the Insurance sector. There is an urgent need to prepare professional managers with specialised knowledge and practical skills relating for both,” says Dr. H. Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH, Greater Noida.

What students must know
A major drawback of sectoral MBA programmes is that students might find themselves straitjacketed and lose out on opportunities in other sectors. Though a downturn affects all businesses, if the chosen sector happens to be undergoing a downturn in your year of graduation, then employment almost dries up.

That’s where the students are expected to make a well-informed decision. Having some work experience definitely helps. Further, if your primary degree is allied to the sector, your risk is mitigated as the demand for you in the sector is always going to be high. An example of this would be a related Engineering bachelor’s degree for the Telecom or Petroleum sector.

All sectoral MBAs have been started with a clear focus on a particular sector, which is either witnessing good growth or with a policy perspective of development of the sector. Each sector has some typical job requirements and also some typical preferences for your graduation and work-experience. So join a sectoral programme only if you are sure of your interest and fitment. 

“Sectoral interest is key” Prof. Rajan Saxena Director,NMMS,Mumbai

Q. What is the thought process behind running so many sectoral MBAs at NMIMS? A. Our perspective on developing the programmes is two-fold: one, these sectors have been growing over a period of time, over the last decade, and possibly in the times to come, these sectors are going to grow in a big way. All these programmes - Banking, Capital Markets, Actuarial Sciences or Insurance - are in the financial services area. So, in a way, what we really wanted to do was to develop the managerial manpower for this particular sector. Q. Why that particular focus on the financial sector? A. Over the years three sectors - Banking, Insurance or Capital Markets - have seen the highest development, both on the regulatory as well as the research front. In fact, the regulatory developments in the past one decade have been phenomenal. Also, the technology development in these areas has changed the way the business is done in the sector itself. So naturally, it becomes a good area for us to research and also develop the managerial manpower with the right fit of understanding of the domain as well as the right set of skill sets required for serving this kind of a market. Q. Don’t these kind of programmes straitjacket a student and close the door to other opportunities for him or her? A. It could be, there’s no doubt about it. These are very much strait-jacketed programmes. But I think that’s where we expect the student to make a well-informed decision. If a student is coming into an MBA programme, and if the student is not able to make a decision as to what he or she wants to do, then in that case, I believe that student doesn’t deserve to be in the MBA programme.