Advice to Mu Sigma Management Trainees (MT Batch 2013) - werkgeversreview Anonieme werknemer bij Mu Sigma

Let’s understand the analytics industry and how mu sigma is better/different compared to them.. so that we can understand how relevant the MT role is for MBAs Analytics per se is a very technical field and hence generally companies offer the role of a business analyst (BA) or senior business analyst (SBA) at B-schools. Since the world of analytics revolves around “data”, the analysts are expected to gain good hands-on experience on SAS, SQL, R, MS Excel etc. The Managerial role (acc. to industry standard) comes after around 3 years of “relevant” experience. Mu Sigma on the other hand offers the role of BA to fresh engineering grads for whom it is an excellent learning experience as they get to learn the business aspects along with the technical aspects (coding). Now, the technical part is something MBAs are generally averse to, mainly because most of them left their Technical jobs after engg. and did an MBA to enter fields like finance/marketing/operations/consulting. Many people also confuse Consulting with Analytics as these are generally considered to be in the same vertical according to B-school placement reports. Analytics involves churning out numbers in the format that can be easily consumed by clients. The clients then form strategies based on what the numbers say. An MBA would typically like to be on the other side i.e looking at the analysis from data and forming strategies, to give sense to their MBA education. So, MBAs generally find the Analytics field as boring or not what they expected it to be. The Business Analysts (fresh engg grads) at Mu Sigma are hired at below industry standard packages, but due to good hands-on experience on tools like SAS they get double/triple the salary with just 1 yr of experience. Hence, the attrition is very high at this level. Most of them also go for their MBA as the work exp is given preference in B-Schools. Mu Sigma infact prefered people leaving the company after 2 years since they have to pay them more and focussed on developing their "Maths factory" with an army of fresh engg grads. Eventually the company started facing a mid-management crisis due to very high attrition. The MT program of Mu Sigma was introduced in 2012 to solve their mid management crisis. Typically it takes a BA 3 years (with satisfactory performance) to reach the Associate Manager (AM) level. But for MBAs (with min 22 months prior exp) they make them go through a rigorous MT program of 9 months (was 6 months last year) to be promoted to the AM level. So a typical MBA would have spent minimum 22(prior MBA)+24(MBA)+9(MT prog)=55 months after completing engg to reach the AM level which is, package wise also, not that rewarding compared to the time and effort you have put in to reach there. Moreover, after reaching the AM level, one moves into the typical project/team management role. But the market demand outside is for a hands-on role in Analytical tools (SAS,SQL etc) and not project management. So, the people in the role of AM (after their MT prog) find themselves in a fix as what they are doing now is not what the industry (with better pay and life) is asking for.