Why Prateek Jain topped up his CA with a 1 year MBA from Europe

Consultant | MBA (IE Business School & HKUST Business School) | CA | CS | PwC | EY | Globetrotter | PI Industries https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateekjain1411 Playlists

Q1. What made you not pursue CA?

Ans: My life was quite comfortable in the Big Four, I was pretty much happy climbing the corporate ladder. Taxation as everyone sees is pretty much comfortable from outside but it’s not really the fact that there’s a lot of hard work involved. Many of us perceive taxation as something like where you give an opinion on tax matters but it’s really not easy. You have to get down, do the dirty work, there’s a lot of compliance issues especially in the country that we live in, in the economic scenario that the entire world operates into, yes advisory is there to top it on but it’s not the ideal utopian world where we all live in. At times it might get boring, not that it is not interesting, but it is not what I want to do throughout my life or maybe five or ten years down the line, I might be more interested or more inclined towards the business part and main operations part of any business that is. So my dad made me shift from the core taxation job or core CA profile to a more business-focused profile and that is what exactly I have been doing. So far, I have been enjoying it clearly.

Q2. Why have you gone for the 1-year MBA instead of the 2-year MBA? Why did you not do an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, PGPIX or ISB? Why did you choose IE Business School Europe?

Ans: I was having a 3–3.5 years of work experience prior to my MBA that I thought as a good enough stepping stone for me to actually see the next part of the corporate journey. Two years, according to me, is too much for someone who has spent 3.5 years in corporate especially something like Big Four where I have actually gained experience, so I thought 1-year should be good enough for me to invest. I couldn’t afford to keep myself out from the job market for two years. I wanted to be in a class with more experienced people unlike in India where most of the crowds complete their undergrad and opt for B-school. There have been CEOs and CFOs at my B-school in Spain, so that is why I thought of picking up a one-year MBA.

I have studied and worked all my life in India, I had actually gained a good number of years of work experience, good experience interacting with Indians and the Indian working culture, style, etc. and I wanted a foreign flavor of how the world operates, all the business across geographies operate, so I thought this is a good way to go out and see what is happening where. Definitely India has a good diversity when it comes to cultural differences, or diversity in the mindset, tuning, or interactions, but when you are interacting with people across the globe, it’s really a different experience. When you are in a class with people who are 7–10 years work-ex pretty much senior to you, who have climbed the corporate ladder, who are looking for a different corporate ladder now, you get to learn a lot from them, because professors, books, case studies, they are pretty much normal. Education these days is actually not difficult to obtain, it’s all about the experience of the particular. Why specifically IE Business School? So there was one B-School in Europe which I was most focused on that is specially because it’s core focus was in entrepreneurial mindset and entrepreneurial spirit, so Indian B-schools how I used to pursue and I still pursue has not changed over the period of time. They are typically placement agencies if we call it that way. Many people get into an Indian MBA mostly because either they wanted to have a great career shift or they actually want to bump up their current earnings. That’s a reality I have faced — my friends, my colleagues, relatives. I wanted to get out of this, I wanted to invest myself and invest my time in gaining some proper education, gaining some entrepreneurial mindset development and gaining knowledge from the cohort of my class. Hence I thought of taking this course at IE and here I am pretty much enjoying every day during my IE.

Q3. Tell us a bit about the application process.

Ans: Application process is pretty much standard as any other for Indians, so admission is through GMAT, I specifically had another exam which is IE GMAT, so they have their own GMAT and there’s this normal GMAT which is common across all B-Schools of the globe. So if you have to appear for that, I appeared for that, the GMAT score is not much relevant at IE because it ranges from 500 to 750. So there’s a huge frame even among the B-schools and that is not the range you will generally witness but I had people who scored 500 in my class, I have had people who scored 750 and even 780 if I am not wrong. There is no cut-off, I never had 90% plus in my class 10 and 12, I got a 3.8 GPA in my undergrad, I never had a rank in CA, I just barely managed to pass. So I am coming from a pretty average education background, so I am coming from a pretty average background. IE does not put much weightage on the GMAT score but rather on the professional experience, on the value that one can bring in a class and the diversity that can add in a class. The application process was a standard three pointer essay, specifically discussing what you have generally done in life, how do you pursue MBA and what future plans do you have post your MBA and how you can add value to the community, so on and so forth. I did take professional help, not because of IE but because of the other B-Schools I was also targeting as my backup plans. Taking a professional help does not mean I cannot do it myself, professionals basically helps me to keep disciplined, to keep me informed of the different requirements because time is always short, you are working so you don’t really have time to write an essay and once you point a consultant, basically is nothing but someone with the stick so he will run around you to chase timelines, to finish your essays on time, and give you fresh perspectives from the ad com views. Another good thing about IE is that it interviews everyone. Interview rate is pretty much high unless you have seriously goofed up in your application and the reason behind is that they would want people to actually interact with everyone before they decide, so for example, even if I have a 500 GMAT, I still get a interview call from IE and post the interactions there will be a decision as to whether or not I will be given the admit, and the interviews are generally alumnus which are there around in your country or closer to your country specially who have worked similar to your profile and who have had similar career aspirations to yours so it’s a close match to what you have been doing and what you want to do, in that way they keep it pretty much aligned and hence the interview process is pretty much simple and standardized.

Q4. Tell us about your campus life.

Ans: The MBA program at IE is a one-year course which is divided into different terms including elective terms. I did my elective term which is around a 4-month course at HKUST majoring in finance. I always wanted to come back in and around India, closer to home, HKUST being a wonderful B-school especially in majoring in finance, that was my dream come true. I took up most of the electives there something related to private equity, merger acquisition, evaluation, corporate finance, negotiations. The other reason for me to choose HKUST in addition to what I was already doing in Spain, was because basically in any European B-school, the businesses we are taught about are majorly focusing on the US, the American style of business, the European style of business. When you come back to HKUST, I am seeing the Chinese, Indian and basically the Asian style of business, so in that way I am covering the entire globe. I am not an expert but basically you get your perspectives from different professors focusing on two different ideologies. The Chinese style of business is totally different from the Japanese style and totally different from the American style of business. That was one learning which I got.

Telling about my class experiences and my life at IE, we were a batch of around 330 during my time, including the Spanish track, so the English track was around 270 odd students, 270 students coming from around maybe 90+ nationalities. My class had around 50–55 students and coming from around 37–38 nationalities, so you see the diversity which is there. There were people from countries which I hadn’t even heard of so it was embarrassing for me at times to actually go out and say that I am from India, where are you from and they take up some name that I haven’t even heard of. In addition to the cultural and geographical diversity, there was also professional diversity, for example, we were a group of 7 people coming from 7 different nationalities, 7 different education backgrounds and 7 different professional backgrounds. So it is challenging for the school to actually enter towards such diversity in our class in the essence of the learning life.

Q5. How much does it cost to do an MBA in the Europe?

Ans: It was approximately 70,000 euros for the tuition fees and then you can add around 25,000 euros for living and you will definitely travel once you are in Europe, you become a globetrotter, so it must be around 95,000 euros, which is around 65–70 lacs but if you compare it with India also, ISB has also started charging around in the 35–40 lac range, IIM Ahmedabad also charge like 30 lacs, so that way it is not like exorbitantly priced as compared to India. A lot of Indians think that if it is European, it is super costly.

Q6. Do you get loan for this?

Ans: Definitely, I took a loan for that. I took an INR loan as I wanted tax benefits back home. I am glad I did not take a dollar loan specially seeing the current foreign exchange rates. People generally do this mistake of taking a dollar loan because the interest rates are low, they generally tend to forget the forex fluctuations and tax benefits which are there. The other part that you have to consider is INR you will get from Indian banks so you need to keep a security, but with dollar loans you might not even need to keep anything as security, for example, something called Prodigy finance, they give you a mortgage on the basis of your degree. You don’t have to keep anything as mortgage. I was fortunate enough to have some of my savings, I had my family backing my security and hence I managed to do that but someone who is not blessed enough, will definitely want to go for a dollar loan and they approach Prodigy finance and it’s absolutely fine because tax benefits and forex fluctuations, those criteria are not that important as of now or during that moment when you are actually deciding to invest in your education, it is more important to actually get that education first.

Q7. As you said, you have this notion that Indian B-schools are eventually turned up to be big placement factories, that you join a 25 lac course, you will get a 50 lac placement. By that logic, if you joined a 70 lac course for MBA in Europe, then will you get like one and a half crore job out there?

Ans: I wish it half as true as what you mentioned. Statistics is the biggest lie that one can speak of. The foreign B-schools they don’t really act like placement agencies, there is no placement season, there is no company coming down for interviewing people in one day, so on and so forth. I have friends in Harvard, Stanford, Bolton, the situation is almost the same everywhere. They don’t really have 100% placements; they don’t have B-school coming and fishing for students. The typical scenario there is like you have to create your own network, you have to reach out to the alumni, reach out to the corporates there, build your network back home back there, interact with students, interact with professors and get your own placement. Placement is difficult, but in the long run it pays off. If you just compare the placement scenario, then definitely there Indian counterparts will win against the foreign counterparts, but if you see the long-term scenario I think you will not be making a wrong decision or a decision that’s drastically different and can destroy your career or something like that.

Q8. You developed a lot with the typical startup services, etc. in the course of your job so tell us more about the consulting part of your life where you were an independent entrepreneur.

Ans: The startup bug hit me during 2014–2015 era of during PM Narendra Modi started Make in India policy and all and I was fortunate enough to work during my Big Four days in some of these policies and that’s when I decided okay this is really interesting. I was doing some part of it prior to my MBA also and when I was back in India and even during my MBA I was pretty much associated with all these startups so there was this food-tech startup which I was consulting for especially on the fundraising and the investment part and then there was this travel-tech startup for where I made a business plan, so interacting with all these startups I didn’t realise that we can do a lot for them right from the strategy part to the marketing to the tech part then finance, which obviously was my core strength and hence I was more directed towards work. The challenge that lies with working around these startups is a whole dynamic thing because one fine evening you might be getting a call mentioning the requirement tomorrow morning you wake up, finish something half of it, by the afternoon you see that the requirement is completely changed because we all are learning — be it the founders, investors, the employees, we all are learning and that’s what actually was a bit difficult there. Working along with early-stage startups is a huge risk, statistics say that betting on a casino is more worthwhile than investing in a startup, so be it your time, your money, I think you have to play that game, it’s a double whammy sword actually.

Q9. Tell us more about your role in PI Industries.

Ans: I think I am applying everything that I learnt in life to my job and I am applying everything that I learnt in my job to my life. So yes I am in the corporate strategy division and I am the director’s office assisting initiatives such as merger acquisition, process improvements, cost optimization, new product development, you can name anything that lands into the Chairman and the CEOs inbox is basically my to-do list. I don’t really have a profile and the fun part is I am not restricting myself into any particular function or division. The challenging part is itself the same, that anything can come flying through anywhere. One fine morning I am seeing some tech requirement, another fine morning I am seeing some supply chain issue because of corona virus, then I am seeing finances, then new strategic initiatives, then I am sitting and evaluating a new potential target for an MNA, so you never know anything can happen during the day. I typically don’t have an 8–10-hour work day at home.

Q10. Tell us about your engaging management consultants out here, because that is a dream job for a lot of people. Is it as glamourous their life as much as you would think? Do they work crazily long hours? What exactly does this world entail?

Ans: We all say that we did our MBA in PPT so PowerPoint is an unavoidable tool in our day-to-day life. I don’t know how many ppts I create in a day, and yes the glamourous part, I don’t know how exactly you put glamourous to a particular profile or to a particular sector, when I say glamourous I mean to say that they are encountering themselves with interesting problems day in day out, it’s wonderful to work along with them. They are one of those greatest people I have seen across, all coming from the top-notch institutions of our country, be it the engineering ones, be it management ones, they have wonderful experiences, they have done super jobs, when you interact with them you learn through them on a daily basis. When I say a B-school student, getting into it was always a dream, for some reason it could not happen and when I come back and I am interacting with them as a part of my work, that dream I am living it here. I am learning not only by being a part of PI but also being one of those consultancies, so basically it’s wonderful to be along with them. Jazzy ppts, yes, they are wonderful at those but those are actually their communication tool, data crunching, wonderful abilities, interpersonal communication, personality, you name it and they have all the skills.

Q11. Tell us the dark side of management consultancies.

Ans: The dark side is pretty dark actually. They don’t really get to sleep for more than 5 to 8 hours a day, I think. I don’t think so they sleep more than 5 hours a day, and extensive travel is involved, I think they are taking 8–10 flights a week, they don’t get to see their family, it’s pretty much difficult at times. I know a consultant who gets to see his wife only at the airport because both of them are consultants so it’s like “hey what’s up longtime no see” at the airport. That’s the dark side but it’s a fantastic learning experience, how I would put it that way.

Q12. What is your vision 2030, if we survive corona?

Ans: I am already into strategy and strategy is not one function, it’s a mix of all other functions, we work along with different corporate functions such as finance, supply chain, sales, marketing, tech, digital initiatives, manufacturing, we work along with everything. It’s pretty profile to work in. it’s been 6 months for me with PI and I have interacted with almost every function head, business head, and most of my assignments are related to strategic initiatives I have been involved in an MNA transaction, you get to learn a lot especially when you are buying companies, selling companies, so it’s pretty much interesting for me. So how I put this is, finance is my core strength but the overall business and the strategies is also where I am interested in. I use finance as a tool to evaluate different business problems.

Q13. What do you do for fun and fitness?

Ans: I think I am god-gifted that I am not pot-bellied, I can eat the world and I will still be lean as ever so I really don’t have to workout or work hard to remain fit that way. Life is pretty much fun, I have segregated hours for work and when I am off-work, I am totally focused into my fun part. I love socializing, I love travelling, I have been to 19–20 countries and I plan to touch 30 soon so let’s see when that happens. I am an avid traveler, be it India, be it abroad, every weekend you will see me pack my bags Friday evening and leave. The fun part is wonderful that way. It’s all about the support that you get from your colleague, from your friends also, so pretty much sorted in that way.

Q14. Your final thoughts on does MBA really help?

Ans: Yes that helps, but that is only if you have the need and if you really think that MBA will add value, because you are investing time and resources, if you really want to do something which you could have done by being just a CA then you really don’t need an MBA. As I said, don’t consider B-schools as placement agencies because you will not go far in your life that way. You can get a good placement even when you are a CA, you see Cas have done wonderfully well in their lives. There are people are not even chartered accountants, they are just B.Com. grads, college dropouts, they have done fantastically. During my interaction with startup founders, I have seen education wise they are coming from any normal B-school or normal engineering colleges and they have achieved a lot in their life. So if you really feel the need for an MBA then you should plan, think and then invest. Don’t do it just for the tag or because the world around you is rushing to a B-school.