Question 1: I finished my M.Sc. Biochemistry and presently working in a Biotech Company and having 1 year experience. I am interested in pursuing MBA through correspondence mode. Could you please suggest me which branch in MBA is best suitable for me and also which has demand in the market in terms of job opportunities?

Answer: You have two options. You can go for general M.B.A with specialization in marketing OR you can choose M.B.A Biotechnology specifically. But it is better to go for M.B.A general with marketing specialization as the other options will be too narrow.

Integrated MBA – B. Pharma

Question 2: I am doing B. Pharmacy third year. I would like to do M.S. in any of the Pharma related subjects. I would like to take GRE coaching. But recently MBA- B. Pharma integrated course is started in our college. Is it a better one / shall I opt GRE?

Answer: GRE is for future security. If you don’t have any problem in leaving the country or you are very much capable to live your own in a remote place concentrating on your studies then GRE is always the best option. You can finish your M. Pharm or any other Master’s with better learning and hands-on. Later on you can opt for job or can pursue your further studies. MS pharma students are doing wonderful job since it is highly lucrative and attractive. They get more salary than software engineers and I strongly suggest you to go for MS pharma. Regarding MBA- B. Pharma course it will be the last option and you need to look into the faculty and infrastructure.

Here is some educational and employment information for Biotech Students. As most of you are aware, AIIMS is the best institute in India for medical related courses. Apart from medicine, it is also offering biotech related courses. AIIMS conducts Post Graduate Entrance Exam for admission to PG courses. The P.G. and Doctoral (Ph.D.) programmes of AIIMS are mainly focused on the specialisation of Medical Biotechnology. If you are preparing for the AIIMS entrance, your focus should be more on the topics such as vector borne biology, recombinant DNA technology etc. Since AIIMS is highly reputed institute for medicine and related courses, pursuing Post Graduation or Ph.D. is strongly recommended for those willing to take up higher studies. The coming era belongs to Medical Biotechnology and that will surely play a major role in disease diagnosis, iRNA technology in disease management etc. For further details please contact www.aiims.edu OR Dr. Y.D Sharma, Professor and Head, Department of Biotechnology.

Opportunities after B. Tech Biotech:

Here is question from a student who has completed B. Tech (Biotech) in 2008 and looking to improve communication skills to succeed in job efforts. Communication is a major problem for many of the job aspirants. If your native language is not English and your basic education is not in English medium, usually you will face this problem of communication. This is a common problem for the students having different educational background than mentioned above. There are so many students lagging behind in job efforts and career due to lack of communication skills, though they are quite brilliant in the subject.

This is not at all a tough problem to overcome. Firstly do some training course in speaking and writing. Later on keep on practicing the same with more variance. Try to use the language (English) as much as possible in your daily life. Don’t bother or feel shame about the mistakes while practicing and learning. If you want to learn there will be mistakes and with practice you can overcome those. Initially use some Basic Conversation kind of book. Read a standard grammar book properly, but definitely remind you bookish English is different than spoken English. Read The Hindu Newspaper regularly, including editorial column. That may certainly improve your vocabulary and skills.