Career Shifts

The Learning & Development (L&D) department, with its dedicated team of industry and functional experts, helps students to advance their long-term career discovery in a supportive, stimulating, and learning environment, with careful hand-holding and individual attention. Along with industry professionals and community of alumni, it provides resources and an enabling eco-system to assist students with their career choices. Students are prepared for long-term management careers and empowered with capabilities for assuming positions of leadership in the future.

Career progression is characterised by movement in one’s function, domain or industry and usually means taking up more challenging and higher-responsibility-roles in organisations. This needs a fair amount of introspection and self-discovery. To facilitate this instrospection, L&D works with students to create their profiles. Students give their input about their career goals post ISB, in terms of function, role, and industry. The bridge-building is fostered through a very involved one-on-one dialogue with individual students. The L&D tries to understand the thought processes that go into career planning, and helps students discover opportunities, taking into account their backgrounds, qualifications, and experiences. It is important for students to be familiar with the career opportunities available before they lock themselves into a permanent career choice.

Key Interventions for enabling career shifts:
Apart from the guidance that you will receive from L&D, there are a host of interventions available for you to move towards the desired career shift. They are as follows:

• Choice of electives: There are over 75 electives in 6 different concentration areas for you to choose from. You must carefully plan and study subjects which will help you ramp up your knowledge in any desired sector. The wide range ensures that you are able to pick and choose subjects, which will enable you to learn more about the domain that you wish to pursue your career in.
  
  
• Experiential Learning Programme (ELP): Apart from the theoretical knowledge, another excellent tool available for you is the ELP project. ELP projects are consulting engagements addressing live business issues that enable you to integrate a variety of concepts learned across the core terms, as well as develop specific industry expertise. With guidance from a faculty advisor, the PGP Projects Team and a corporate liaison, your team has to create a unique recommendation to fulfill an organisational need. Students typically use ELP as a tool to test waters. Some companies use this programme as their pre-recruitment exercise as well. Topics typically range across marketing, finance, strategy, operations, and technology functions and a host of other industries.
  
  
• Professional clubs: One of the best experiences for out-of-classroom learning at the ISB happens through the professional clubs. For example, if you are a marketing professional and would like to move up the value chain in the same function, you can play two roles in the Marketing club.
  • You can take an active role in the functioning of the club by being on its working council.
  • You can use the resources and tools available to make an informed decision and build your marketing career.
    
    The clubs help you to:
  • Gain exposure to cutting-edge trends within an industry.
  • Increase industry exposure and knowledge on a wide range of relevant topics.
  • Equip yourself with the right tools to harness your potential and excel during placement interviews.
    
    
• Icon Projects: Icon projects are internal consulting assignments which are given out selectively by various departments within ISB. They usually call for students who have shown in-depth expertise in their work and can help them with the assignments on hand.