The subtle art of MBA in Healthcare Management| Chapter-1

Chapter 1: What is the connection between electives, summer internships and your aspiration for a job?

You are in your first semester of an MBA in healthcare management. The first notion of being clueless and equally excited grips you hard. Let us understand how everything is designed and connected to your ultimate goal of having a job.

It is very important that you initially fix your mind on the healthcare sector you want to work for. As per my knowledge, these are the following healthcare sectors:

·???????Healthcare IT

·???????Healthcare Pharma

·???????Health insurance

·???????Healthcare administrators in Hospitals.

All these sectors can be divided and subdivided into various sectors. I will prepare a separate chapter on these sectors. For now, you need to decide which sector will you be aiming for.

1.????You can get in touch with healthcare professionals in the following fields to understand the ‘cherry and cement’ aspects of these sectors.

2.????Your current faculty will be the guiding light if you can get in touch with the queries.

3.????Your seniors can be equally helpful.

Once you make up your mind, remember to choose your electives based on the sector you want to work for. Now many a time you feel like choosing a different subject just for the sake of exploring other sectors as well but remember, an MBA starts and ends before you even decide on your salary expectation. So, you need to have a steady pace.

Once you choose your elective, your next phase is to find a suitable summer internship in the same sector. Why?

Summer Internships are important because they will give you a real-life idea about the sectors where you want employment. As per my experience, subjects (in MBA) could never teach me as much as I have self-taught myself in my first six months of current employment. This is not an understatement to ignore your subjects in MBA. Why?

It is because those subjects will build attributes in you which can change your perspective of life. Plus, interviews are mainly conducted based on your subject expertise and the experiences you gained from your summer internship.

Let us wrap everything up and conclude with an example.

Let us assume that a lad named Arjun has opted for MBA in Healthcare. In the first semester itself, he decided to go into the healthcare insurance sector. As a result of which he began his research about his career prospects in this sector. He went for elective subjects related to healthcare insurance and paid extra attention to getting theories correct. He selected an insurance company for his summer internship and wrote his paper on a topic related to healthcare insurance in India. All these experiences helped him to earn a seat at a prestigious healthcare insurance firm and then Arjun lived happily ever after.

I hope this chapter has provided a bit of cheese as a takeaway. Good luck with your future.

Author: Dr Arindam Ballav (BDS, MBA HHM)

ID: [email protected]