Kamaldeep
20 January, 2024
Table of Contents
Cost-Effectiveness. Flexibility. No physical hindrance. Time convenience.
Benefits like these of an Online MBA degree are myriad. Online MBA has, thus, become the favourite and the most preferred course among both students as well as professionals alike.
However, one drawback of any online degree is the inability to form real-life connections like in a classroom. You may not get instant feedback or help like in an offline degree. Here comes to our rescue, in this case, the alumni network.
Having access to an alumni community becomes all the more important in an Online MBA, since they can act as your mentors, your peers, your resource.
They can benefit you in multiple ways in your professional life and help advance your career with their important advice and observations.
In the present day and age of professional networking, where every other person is connected to each other through various virtual ways, alumni network is one such real connection that helps you push forward in your professional life.
An alumni network, despite the mode of your degree, plays a very important role in ways that may not seem important to one but actually are applied in real-case scenarios.
Online MBA can be a little tricky. Since everything is handled online from fee payments to lectures to doubt-clearing sessions to grievance redressals, it can often be daunting for a learner to handle it all. Since the alumni have already gone through it all, they can guide you well and can act as your walking stick.
One other important factor as to how alumni are extremely important to connect with is that they provide you with leads. Which sector will be the best for you professionally, which company should you apply at, which industry offers the best internship, and which payscale is good to start with, in all these domains, you can look for advice from your alumni since they have gained experience from already working for some time.
Having access to alumni networks can be a transformational link that can help you in so many ways that you can possibly imagine. A strong alumni network can help with the:
These are just some of the perks that a person with a strong alumni network can enjoy. An alumni with their mere moral support can be the most encouraging factor for a learner during and post his/her degree.
The presence of an alumni network can be a boon for one in terms of their professional growth after an Online MBA. There are various ways how alumni networks can benefit you in your work life. Let’s discuss some of these ways here.
Since Online MBA hardly gives any chances to meet peers in a real-life interactional setting, having an alumni community helps build a network for you. Your alumni network, at times, introduces people around you who can help you with your professional goals and aspirations. Since your alumni may have more working experience than yours, they can introduce you to clients and professionals that in turn may benefit you workwise.
Your alumni can be the best guide for you in some cases and can assist you in many ways. Since they also have pursued the degree from the same educational setup, they can guide you through it, help with resources, share their knowledge and experience, teach you some skills and can help with your professional acumen. Your alumni can be a stepping stone for you if you wish to move on the same career path as them. They can share what they have learnt, what they have missed out on, what should you focus more on and such trivial things that happen to make a lot more difference when you start professionally in an industry.
The alumni network can be one big resource for you if you know how to make use of it. They are an opportunity for job placements in themselves since they have been professionally involved in a sector for some time. They may even share their knowledge, support, inform you about some good chances of better job offers for you, help you stay updated with the latest trends of the market, provide or help get internships, etc.
Your alumni network will have many aspirational professionals and leaders that may have carved out different ways of bringing an impact in their respective fields. It is, therefore, really important that you learn from such leaders to know how different their minds function, how quick are their decision making skills, how creatively they think and handle affairs, etc. Engaging with them can elevate your own acumen and development.
Apart from creating a network, hunting job opportunities, looking for internships, honing your skills, connecting with the network can prove to be supportive in a lot more ways than you think. Engaging with alumni can help widen your perspective about only MBA and what exactly it has to offer for you personally and professionally. Their words of encouragement can, at times, act as moral support for you, that can help build your confidence. Their tips or advice can help you navigate through tough situations. Alumni network can be that strengthening pillar that upholds your path towards success.
Networking in the present era is extremely pivotal, especially on the professional front. The impact of the alumni community can be extremely profound in terms of your job search, internship opportunities, meeting with different people from different fields, engaging with the change makers, etc. Since Online MBA is delivered through virtual platforms, it becomes more important to connect with alumni to be able to create connections in real life.
