Having a Professional degree in Apparel Technology - A Boon or Bane for the career?
Three years back, when I was searching for a job with an experience of 2 years and a degree in Bachelor's of Fashion Technology from the prestigious NIFT Mumbai, I observed that most of the companies were hiring freshers because they agree to work on a low salary. Also, I've been told that my professional domain is limited to Apparel Technology.
So, I decided to expand the span of my professional knowledge in the field of management which itself includes many sectors, I pursued MBA from one of the best management colleges, IIM Trichy.
Today, it's almost middle of the month of May, my MBA is completed and I'm still waiting to get placed since the last six months. Ironically, the reason I've been continuously getting for not getting shortlisted or being eliminated in the initial rounds is that I have a different Graduation Background which makes my profile different from the various management roles offered by the companies. Though, this is the same profile and educational background, on which I've been given admission in the first place. I don't think this is a reason enough for not considering me for management roles, even after completion of my MBA with a specialization in Marketing and Strategy. Also, I would like to highlight that my previous job role was in the product management vertical and apparel was just a sector. While joining an MBA course, people come from different educational backgrounds, but after completion of the MBA, all of them stand on a same level to be hired for a management role. I believe it should be the degree, knowledge, and industry experience to be the primary basis for considering a person for a management role and not the Graduation Background.
I've reached a threshold, where I'm compelled to question that instead of being a plus point for having extensive knowledge of apparel technology, why is it creating a negative impact on my profile and resisting it to be considered for management roles. I seriously wonder that, is my graduation background still has that much influence that it actually started to appear as a curse in my career path???
#unemployed #mbastudent