What career advice and insights can an IIM alumnus with 20 years of global work experience share about MBA value, career progression, and success?

For a senior IIM alumnus with 20 years of international experience in asset management — currently earning ₹4 crore annually — the insights on MBA value, career trajectory, and what actually drives long-term success are worth unpacking carefully.

On college brand and its shelf life

The perspective shared here is one we've heard consistently from experienced professionals at this level: college brand matters most for your first job, and its influence diminishes steadily from there. In this alumnus's words, "college is mostly irrelevant after you start working." That said, the picture isn't uniformly optimistic for all tiers. From what we've tracked across alumni conversations, tier 2 institutions show mixed outcomes — some do break through — but the honest read is that very few from below tier 2 make it to senior leadership at scale.

What's valuable here is the counterpoint, and we think it deserves equal weight. A professional with a tier 3/4 MBA who started at ₹25,000 per month ultimately reached a $100,000 USD base salary in the Gulf after a decade of deliberate job-switching. That trajectory validates the core argument: over a long enough horizon, what you do after the degree matters more than where you got it. At the same time, we've seen the contrarian view hold ground too — particularly among professionals who've built their careers within India, where institutional networks and brand recognition tend to retain long-term value in ways that differ from the international context. Both perspectives are real, and the geography of your ambition matters when weighing them.

On career progression and the global firm advantage

One of the clearest pieces of directional advice here: if international opportunities are the goal, working for global firms — not Indian companies — is the more reliable pathway. The early years are genuinely demanding. The first 10 to 15 years post-MBA involve significant grinding, with 14+ hour days not being unusual in early phases. The reassuring part, from what we've seen across experienced professional perspectives, is that the subsequent decades tend to become more balanced and more enjoyable — the compounding of relationships, reputation, and expertise starts to do more of the work.

On sector choice, tech showed the fastest progression to CXO level. We'd flag, though, that a perspective we've encountered from experienced professionals is worth holding alongside that: tech also has "the fastest downward progression." The upside is real, but so is the volatility.

On entrepreneurship and the MBA question

If entrepreneurship is genuinely the end goal, the blunt take shared here is: "Why do an MBA?" The recommendation is to invest that time in podcasts, experiential learning, and direct exposure instead. We think this is worth taking seriously rather than dismissing. However, there's an important nuance — if the MBA is being used as a mechanism to generate capital that funds a future venture, it does serve a real purpose. The distinction is between the MBA as an entrepreneurial substitute versus the MBA as financial runway. These are very different use cases, and being honest with yourself about which one applies changes the calculus entirely.

On what actually drives success

This is perhaps the most durable insight from someone operating at this level for two decades. The trait most consistently linked to long-term success wasn't technical expertise — it was personality-driven: the ability to get along with diverse people, strong communication skills, sustained hard work, continuous learning, and being genuinely likeable without resorting to politics. In our experience, this mirrors what we hear across conversations with senior alumni — domain knowledge gets you in the room, but these qualities determine how far you go once you're there.

A point we've seen resonate strongly from experienced professional perspectives: communication skills transcend college tier entirely. The framing that stuck — "a star communicator from IMT will do better than a poor communicator from IIM A in life" — is a useful corrective to the brand obsession that can consume aspirants early in their journey.

On certifications like the CFA

The view expressed here is direct: the CFA is a poor use of time. The argument is that over the course of a career, specialized and applied knowledge compounds far more usefully than broad financial certifications. This is a minority opinion in some circles, but it comes from a specific vantage point — 20 years in asset management — and is worth factoring in when making certification decisions, particularly if you're already post-MBA and building depth in a domain.

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