Am i too Old for this

Question

Hi, I am a 38 year old with 11 years of work ex in the Insurance sector. Have already done my MBA 11 years back (from a B rung B School).

Am planning to do a one year MBA (ISB or E-MBA from IIM's). Is it too late for me?

AndreMBAitNOW · Answer

Hello,
It’s never too late! Many people do second MBA degree to strengthen job prospects. You would have an opportunity to interact with people who have professional backgrounds from an array of countries. Hence, it provides you new career advantages. If you share your career goals, it’s gonna be easier to consider whether a second MBA is a logical step for you, or not.

Please don’t hesitate of sign up for a  FREE consultation.

Best of luck,

Mo2men · Answer

Go and pursue your dreams. The age is not an obstacle at all. You are withing the age range for EMBA. You can check this easily in any class profile.

Good luck

MBADecoder · Answer

Hi Saurabh,

You can definitely apply to IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow and ISB. IIM Bangalore has an upper cap of 12 years work experience, so you should check your eligibility in case you are planning to apply next year.

ISB accepts people with your level of experience, but you should look deeper into this- would you be comfortable being among the oldest (maybe the oldest) in class and also have people with 2+ years work experience as peers? If you don't have a problem with this, then its all well, but nevertheless, I wanted to point it out to you. ISB also has a program called PGPMax for senior executives, check that out.

The IIMs on the other hand are likely to have more peers.

There is always an age for reskilling/upskilling yourself. An MBA done 11 years ago could have maxed out its benefit to you, so doing another one now will not be an eyebrow raiser. Just articulate your career aspirations and the necessity of an MBA at this point in time.

Lastly, if you are not aware, you will need to take GMAT before applying to all of these programs.

prabhakar09 · Answer

Well yes. but not too old. there are many schools with the average of ~30. so there are many students with more experience. Also there are some programs in many schools where minimum work-ex needed is 10 years. Look into them. (for example https://www.iebrown.com/applicant-profile.php) good luck.

99Colleges · Answer

Hi saurabhsingh24,

I’ll not sugarcoat this.

You’ve two issues in your candidacy: high age and second MBA. Let’s take them one by one.

High age

This is the main concern. Schools can consider older applicants to be employability risk (not in the absolute sense, but relative to younger applicants). This is because most of the companies that come to campus for recruitment have specific roles in mind wherein number of years of past experience doesn’t count for much. For example, a management consulting firm will offer the same position (and salary) to a 26-year-old and a 35-year-old. Older candidates, therefore, typically find themselves out of the common on-campus placements, as few want to compromise on seniority and compensation. Therefore, job search for most older students is self-driven, which can take long, and therefore an employment-risk for the school. (Schools are most wary of unemployment stats, as it usually constitutes the largest share of most MBA rankings.)

Other concerns are academic rustiness, fit with the younger community, and non-malleability.

You may read details on these challenges and how you can address them in this post:

Are You 30+? MBA Programs May Have 3 Concerns on Your Application

Second MBA

An applicant need to give solid reasons for pursuing a second MBA, otherwise schools may see the second attempt as a sign of a struggling career.

You may read more on this here:

Pursuing Second MBA: Why the Bar Is Higher and How You Can Cross It?

Now, I’m not saying older applicants can’t get into full-time MBA programs. They can, but it’s difficult. It’s difficult because you’re up against odds and biases. You’ve to put in more thought (in articulating your reasons for pursuing an MBA at this stage and post-MBA career goals) and effort to pull it off.

Am i too Old for this

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