Choosing an MBA Specialisation: Major Factors to Keep in Mind

Every year, around five hundred thousand students in India pursue an MBA (Master’s in Business Administration). This makes MBA one of the trending post-graduation courses in India. Due to this, universities have started providing a bunch of specialization options for students.

This is a good thing, but this is also creating great confusion among students.Many students are struggling to choose the right MBA specialization. They don’t know which specialization will help them to get their dream job with the dream package. Don’t panic if you are also one of them. This article will discuss what factors you should keep in mind while choosing the right MBA specialization.

3 Trending MBA specializations

Many MBA specialization programs help students build a strong foundation in essential business concepts. This makes choosing the right MBA specialization becomes very important for students. So many MBA programs are trending and also have great scope for the future. Some of the most in-demand MBA specializations are mentioned below.

1. Marketing

MBA Marketing specialization is one of the most trending programs.This specialization includes customer behavior, market analysis and research, building marketing strategies, brand or product management, etc. Due to the emergence of social media and AI, the nature of marketing has changed a lot. Nowadays, marketing has become more and more targeted and personalized. If you love analyzing customer behaviors or are interested in human psychology, then Marketing specialization would be the best option for you.

2. Human Resources

Human Resources is all about the people of the organizations and managing their talents. Business owners know the importance of building a team of highly qualified and talented people for business growth. Due to this, it has become necessary for HR professionals to pick the right talent for the organization. HR in business organizations is responsible for hiring the best talents, providing training, and building a stress-free work environment. If you have strong communication and negotiation skills as well as interpersonal and leadership skills, then you should go for the Human Resources specialization.

3. International Business

International Business specialization is one of the top choices of MBA students. It deals with the international business operations of the organization, including global finance, international marketing management, international trade and labor laws. Export and import management also comes under this specialization. Due to rapid globalization, almost every business organization is thinking about expanding the business to the international markets. As a result, the demand for specialization in International Business is increasing significantly. Apart from these 3 specializations there are other options as well.

• MBA in Supply chain management
• MBA in Finance
• MBA in Tourism Management
• MBA in Business Analytics
• MBA in Healthcare Management

5 Major Factors to keep in mind when choosing the specialization

There are multiple factors that need to be considered while choosing the right specialization. Some of the critical factors are discussed below.

1. Personal Interests

Before thinking about your career goals, you should find out what your interests are and what excites you the most. This is because your interest will increase your overall performance and keep you motivated.

Let’s take an example; If you love playing with numbers and derive insights from them, then a specialization in finance would be a suitable option for you. This way, you will enjoy your studies, and you will provide high-quality work after getting placement.

2. Career goals

Once you identify your fundamental interests, you can start considering your career goals while choosing a specialization. Find out in which sector you want to see yourself in the next 5 to 10 years. Also, define your short-term goals so you can choose the right specialization. Your career goal will tell you which business sector you should focus on.

3. Personal strengths and weaknesses

Understanding your core strengths and weaknesses is one of the crucial steps for choosing the right specialization. To know your personal strengths and weaknesses, you can perform a personal SWOT analysis. SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats) analysis is generally carried out by business organizations to develop better business strategies, but you can use it for personal purposes. To perform a SWOT analysis, you just need to grab pen and paper, and make four columns named Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and start writing. There is no standard way for personal SWOT analysis. This will clear up a lot of things for you and will also help you choose a specialization.

4. Job opportunities in the market

Now you are aware of your personal interest, strengths, weaknesses as well as career goals. Now, you can quickly eliminate those specialization options that are not aligned with your interests and career goals. After this, you just have to research current market trends and demands to understand which specialization will give an extra edge to your skill set.

Now, you need to keep an eye on the market trends to find out which specialization would provide good job opportunities and security. Getting a good amount of salary is a huge motivation factor, and due to this you should find out which job roles are getting high salaries in the market. There are so many [high-paying job opportunities available in India}(https://edukyu.com/blog/job-opportunities-after-mba) for every specialization.Nowadays, the demand for data scientists and business analysts is increasing, and as a result, they are getting good salary packages. If you are looking to build a career in data-related fields, then Data Science would be the perfect specialization for you.

5. Faculty and resources

Please take a look at the faculty members and get information about their experience and qualifications before finalizing your college or university. Highly qualified faculty members are critical to getting a high-quality education. You can compare the faculty members and the resources of different institutions. In this way, you can again narrow down your MBA specialization options.

Conclusion

As you can see, plenty of options are available for MBA specialization. Still, with the proper step-by-step approach, you can select the most suitable specialization for your career. If you are still trying to find the right specialization program, then you can talk to the counselors. Edukyu provides counseling services and assists you in finding the perfect MBA specialization program that will help you achieve your career goals. Edukyu mainly provides online MBA courses from top Indian universities for students and working professionals at very affordable prices.