Job opportunities for MBA candidates in various functions such as marketing, finance, HR etc depend on the economic conditions and these change year to year. Specialization should be based on many other factors and not just job opportunities. Some of these are:
1. The personal qualities, knowledge and skills you want to use in your work.
2. The purpose to which you want to apply yourself.
3. Your personal value system and beliefs.
4. The type of work environment and organizational structure you want.
5. The salary you hope to receive.
6. Your desired relationship between your work life and your personal life.
For example marketing jobs require a lot of travel and involve irregular timings. You should be clear whether you are comfortable in such a situations. If however you like desk based analysis or research jobs you may prefer finance or HR.
Before thinking about any good job, you need to complete the course with good subject knowledge and skill set. The skills needed to complete an MBA program successfully are not different from those needed to perform in any managerial job. To compete and win you need many skills. The first step is to decide which skills you already have and classify them as your strong and weak ones. You should strive to strengthen your strong skills and work towards improving the weak areas. At various stages of your study and working life different skills will be required and you will be required to use them for success in the classroom or job. Some of these skills are listed below:
1. Ability to Communicate
2. Flexibility
3. Intelligence
4. Interpersonal Skills
5. Self-confidence
6. Self-knowledge
7. Willingness to Accept Responsibility
8. Ability to Handle Conflict
9. Initiative
10. Competitiveness
11. Leadership
12. Goal Achievement
13. High Energy
14. Analytical Skills
15. Imagination
16. Direction / Focus