How is it to be a Sales & Marketing student at Christ University: Chetan Songara

Sales & Marketing has always been a challenging, yet one of the most sought after branches to do Masters in Business Administration in. If you are creative enough to tackle market dynamics, like solving real life problems in real time, then this field is for you. You can make a successful career in Sales & Marketing. There are several roles that a Sales & Marketing Manager handles viz. Sales, Business Development, Marketing, Promotions/Advertisements, etc. The best part in making a career in this field is that there are no stereotypes as to how to work. It depends upon the person taking up the job and how he/she deals with it. They have all the freedom to use their skills and handle things accordingly. They can create advertisements and marketing campaigns which suits the market conditions and much more.

Career decision, exam tips & admission journey

I also had a dream of pursuing MBA in Sales & Marketing and to be a marketer who knew no limits. I appeared for CMAT (Common Management Aptitude Test) 2017 and then went through the whole admission process of Christ (Deemed to be University). If you prepare thoroughly for about 6 months for this exam, there are decent chances to crack it. The difficulty level is well-balanced in this exam for all the sections.

I prepared for this at my coaching classes which conducted mock interviews to prepare for this. If you just be yourself throughout the process, you do well in group discussions, extempore, interview along with the aptitude exam. They generally have a conversion ratio of 1:6.

Infrastructure & Pedagogy

Christ has a very good infrastructure and pedagogy which a student dreams of. The MBA program is very rigorous and students need to be on their toes every time to finish the assignments, but all this has its own pros and cons (as seniors say that the habit developed here stays with every Christite and is very useful in the corporate life). The dress code is also strict (formals only).

Learning

Students get to develop themselves through regular classes and assignments. Students have to do at least two Live Projects, one Organization Structure Training and one Summer Internship during the course which give corporate experience to students and help in applying theoretical concepts in real life situations. Students are encouraged to take part in management fests to enhance their skills by participating in various events of their interest. There are several other events (Extra-curricular) such as Altius, Gracias, Magnificat, Ushus, Darpan, etc. which help in balancing the stress level. All this adds value to the MBA course and the students never feel inferior to their peers in and outside the campus. One of the mistakes that students do is focusing only on one area (study or co-curricular activities). It is important for MBA students to focus on the overall development. It can be done by learning various pieces of analytical software, certification courses, management fests, etc. Companies want people who are more creative. Marks are useful, but only up to a certain extent. It’s the overall learning and skills developed during this program which help in sustaining the corporate pressure.

Placements

One might feel a little skeptical about the campus placements initially (given the number of students in a batch which is close to 700), but there are various companies that come for recruitment and hence people get placed (90%). The pay package ranges from 4-14 lakhs per annum while the average package falls somewhere around 6.5 lakhs. HUL, ITC, Phillips, R&B, Amazon, Flipkart, Cisco, etc. are some of the companies that recruit from Christ.

About the Author

I am Chetan Songara, a Sales & Marketing student at Institute of Management, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru. I completed BE in Automobile Engineering from Shri Vaishnav Institute of Technology & Science, Indore. My hobbies include reading & playing cricket.