Beyond the MBA Hype: A Guide to Understanding and Surviving B-Schools

Let me start by saying this - Sameer Kamat’s “Beyond the MBA Hype: A Guide to Understanding and Surviving B-Schools” can be rightly regarded as - “A Comprehensive Solution” for those who have a dream. Dream for a better career, Dream for a better lifestyle and …most importantly – A Dream of pursuing an MBA. This book provides brings in realistic and descriptive process of the entire life cycle of a typical MBA Aspirant who believes that MBA is the key to success.

This book starts off from the very basic question – Why go for an MBA? The answer to this question is never simple but Sameer demystifies the question by challenging the assumptions, common beliefs by providing the big and the entire picture. The entire application process is explained in simple layman terms making it easy for a candidate to understand the process. At the same time this book provides you with suggestions of improving your profile. This crucial step is not only helpful for MBA aspirants but also for general public to make themselves different from the league. Sameer makes strong points so that you are aware of the evaluation techniques and yardstick used by Universities throughout the world.

The book enters altogether in the next stage when the aspirant is able to secure himself as a student in B-school. The myths and the academic rigors of student life internationally have been discussed. Amazingly true real world issues with students have been cited related to the networking, internships, and career fairs. It gives you the insight of career change and again asks some basic questions and makes you realize that ultimately every action narrows down to just one thing – What’s your goal?

In the end Beyond the MBA Hype leaves the reader with a plan. A plan for realizing what’s best for him, a plan for pulling up the socks and a plan for taking important steps to achieve the feat.

If you are an MBA aspirant who is a true believer of the saying- “A lot can happen over coffee”, spare your body with some less caffeine. Plan to invest that minimal amount of money in to this book because this book can surely be THE GAME CHANGER.

With a reference to Sachin on the very first page,Sameer instantly connects with his readers.He maintains this connect throughout the book by taking us through the journey of a fictional MBA aspirant 'Mitu' . Many an MBA aspirant will be able to relate to this as they would have been in similar situations.The book has a very 'Chetan Bhagat' feel to it in the way it handles the entire 'phoren MBA' process and reading the whole book is a rather enjoyable affair.

Key takeaways from the book include interesting perspectives to the reader about the entire MBA industry and some practical ideas on how you might achieve what you need without the MBA degree.The introspective list of questions given in Appendix-D provides a framework not just to MBA aspirants but also to anyone who wishes to move from Point A to Point B in their life by taking a particular decision.

All in all a good book to read and an even better one to introspect on for any MBA aspirant.

Firstly, a big thanks to Sameer for writing out such a wonderful book. I'll confess that I do not fancy reading books a lot & I haven't read a book completely in the last few years. But this book caught my interest from the very first chapter, due to the lively manner in which it kicks off.

Like most MBA aspirants even I had a lot of questions about schools, application process, job prospects etc. So went through many forums & blogs online, but most of them seem to talk about stuff either from the author's point of view or from a very general stand. So it doesn't help you much as each applicant is considerably different & you cannot take a general approach on this.

But in this book, each stage of an MBA is analysed with multiple options. It starts from a guy deciding to go for an MBA. The book tells you what that guy did at each stage & what other options are available. So you can decide for yourself which way to take. The general approach might not always suit your needs. Most importantly it made me realize that an MBA is not a passport to a high paying job. It really depends on what you did before your MBA & how well you choose the right school and course.

I would totally recommend this book to any MBA aspirant. At the least, for 200 bucks its well worth the information you can get :-)

Here I am done with reading your book 'Beyond the MBA hype' a short, sweet and an interesting read :).

I knew about the book sometime back yet I didn't buy it for two reasons :

1.The after-effects of reading 'Managers not MBAs' by Mintzberg. Though the first part of his book was with convincing arguments, the second part does more of a promotion for his version of an MBA program. According to him, I am a wrong candidate, doing MBA at the wrong time and at the wrong place. So I thought I shouldn't read another book immediately that portrays badly the course I am pursuing.

2. I have a perception(or assumption) based on interaction with Ivy league MBA folks that US/European MBA programs are great and the Indian MBA isn't worth discussion. Here comes a guy from Cambridge's Judge Business School with a book on 'Beyond MBA hype'. And I have been following your posts in Pagalguy and BeatTheGMAT forums, you're providing valuable advice to aspirant on Phoren MBA. So I felt here's another book bashing Indian MBA and singing hymns for Phoren MBA.

Yet, I thought, why dont I give a try. And ordered the book.

I was completely wrong in my assumptions. Your book was a refreshing read. Infact, surprised to find a mention of my B-School (NITIE, Mumbai) in your book.

I could definitely connect the book with my aspirations. The teaching methodologies employed, SIGs, committees, their pros and cons explained in you book are very true. And I see it everyday here in my B-School.

However, I felt the book could help better the aspirant community than the B-Schoolers. Had I read the book in 2007(the year I embarked upon MBA journey as a fresher), that would be one of the best read book for me at that time. I felt the chapters 6 through 11 had more relevance to me than the first 5.

To the contrary of majority of aspirants, I had very less expectations when I entered the B-School(getting into IT consulting or business advisory of EY,Del,Pwc or KPMG). But after getting in here and with an interesting internship opportunity in Marketing(Pricing) Strategy, I have raised my expectations to look beyond. It seems MBA could offer much beyond what I have imagined. There s a school of thought that say 'MBA is over-hyped' but in my case 'Its Not! MBA opens up a world of opportunities. Its upto us to be prepared to spot those'

Finally I didn't feel like reading a book. It was a like a lively discussion with you on various facets of MBA. I wish you write more books like these in future. Good Luck :)

Frankly when I preordered this book I was expecting some general gyaan on the MBA application process. Since most of it is out there on the internet I was a bit apprehensive to actually buy this book. But I couldn't have been more wrong!! :-)

Actually I picked up this book because I had followed Sameer's blog for sometime and was also aware of his general knowledge on the MBA world through forums such as Pagalguy.com. So it was natural that I was expecting to pick some tips about how to apply for Bschools etc.

Though that is mentioned in a very clear way in the 1st 3 chapters, a substantial 7 chapters of the book is on stuff about which you don't find too much anywhere - on life during and post-MBA.

This is stuff you don't find in other books and most blogs from current students end up sugar coating the whole experience. Sameer talks right from what is taught in a bschool to the real meaning of "networking".

However beware that this book is meant for people who are applying to MBA through GMAT and not meant for the CAT junta. So if you are like most people in IT and frustrated after a few years of coding, and asking yourself - Is my talent/potential bring only so much? What does it take for me to take that 1 shot at super stardom? i.e. doing an MBA from Harvard! Then this book is for you.