G. Vijayadiwakkar feels that only a specialized MBA can give you a clear-cut direction to follow your dream job.

G. Vijayadiwakkar
Architect
MBA CEQS 2014-16
Placed in Integrated Management System (IMS)Department, Al Futtaim Carillon


G. Vijayadiwakkar, an architectural graduate who chose to specialize in an MBA in Construction Economics & Quantity Surveying (CEQS) and got placed in Al Futtaim in Dubai in the job role of IMS. Read here what he has to say about why he chose to do an MBA in CEQS and what his experience has been like at RICS SBE.
 
An MBA in CEQS from RICS SBE makes perfect sense
After my graduation I worked for a year with a developer and learnt about cost parameters which are an important part of a development project. After a year, I knew I had to study further in order to be able to rise in life. My brother works for L&T and regularly attends conferences organized by RICS as a professional body. Since I wanted to have a career in real estate, I wanted to do a degree that would be accredited by RICS.  A google search for cost management competency courses in India led me to RICS SBE and I was convinced that I wanted to do a specialized MBA from here rather than spend a lot of money and do it from abroad.
 
My learning experience at RICS SBE
Since the faculty is also from the industry, they knew all the practical and theoretical aspects of the subjects. They gave us relevant knowledge which will be very useful when we join our jobs. It was a new experience for me to have such a friendly faculty who are always available to us. Guest lectures by leaders of the industry exposed a wide spectrum of opportunity to understand the dynamism of the construction industry. We also had hands on experience in handling the student body committee that built our capability to become leaders. The student activities, workshops, site visits were all very useful.
 
What I learnt during my internship experience
My internship experience was quite intense. It provided me with a great learning platform.  During my internship, as a construction economist, I have worked on the feasibility report for a commercial project at its conception stage and prepared construction cost estimation in all the design aspects of the project. In addition, I also worked to develop an interior design schedule for a hospital project and post contract works like claim report, certification of bills with pre contract works like quantification of architectural design, client presentations and business feasibility analysis.
 
My placement experience
First of all we were guided by our professor to identify our inbuilt capabilities and decide what profile we wanted to work in. After technical sessions, we had mock interviews with external people before the actual interview. This served to highlight to us our strengths and weaknesses and gave us the opportunity to work on them before the actual process truly began. The suggestions that we received really helped us to hone our necessary skillsets. Then we chose the companies that we applied to according to our interest.  I had applied to Laing 0'Rourke, Faithful & Gould, Al Futtaim Carilion ,and Tishmen Speyer. I chose to work with Al Futtaim. They felt my competency in architectural design, cost planning aptitude and expertise on the LEED building design starategies are good and suited their requirements in the field of sustainability.

My future plans
After gaining some experience, I would like to become a competent built environment specialist with an expertise in sustainable design, cost planning and learning more about the built environment globally. Eventually after gaining expertise in this vertical, I would like to become a portfolio manager on sustainability for the construction industry to develop professionalism in this field.
 
I strongly recommend a specialized MBA
A generic MBA will have a broad range of subjects with no specialization and often people can get lost without knowing where their passion lies and what they really want to do in their career and end up in jobs which they don’t like. Only a specialized MBA can give you a clearcut direction to follow your dream job.