List of MBA Specializations: Which One Should You Do?

Master of Business Administration (MBA) is among the most popular post-graduate programs in India. Taking an MBA can help you unlock doors to new opportunities and make it easier for you to climb the corporate ladder.

Like every other course, MBA courses have evolved with the changing times. Nowadays, MBA programs offer different specialisations to suit your needs and aspirations. 

In our following list of MBA specialisation options, you’ll find the different specialisations you can pursue while getting an MBA and how their scopes vary. 

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How to choose an MBA Specialisation?

Many students and professionals worry about picking the right MBA specialisation for themselves. However, the process becomes relatively easy if you break it down into steps. 

To pick the right specialisation for your career, you should keep the following points in mind: 

1. Your Interests and Strengths

Everyone has certain strengths, and so do you. Focus on identifying your strengths and the domains you excel at. Once you’ve identified your strengths, you should focus on picking a specialisation that aligns with them. 

2. Offered Pay

Always check the career scope and the salary package before selecting a specialisation profile. This information will help you create a detailed career plan for yourself and help you decide which roles you want to pursue after completing your MBA. 

3. Employers 

Knowing the prominent employers of a field will also aid you in picking your specialisation. If you’re interested in pursuing a career in a specific company, this information will come in handy. 

4. Subjects in the Field 

Once you’ve finalised a couple of choices, you should check the core subjects offered under those specialisations. This way, you can figure out which domain matches your interests and pick accordingly. 

The goal is to pick a specialisation that best suits your career aspirations and interests.

Now, we’ll look at the most prominent MBA specialisations available in our following list of MBA specialisation options: 

List of MBA Specialisations

1. MBA in Business Analytics

Business analytics has become one of the fastest-growing fields in India. This field focuses on studying and implementing continuous iterative exploration of past business performance to generate insights. It allows businesses to make data-driven decisions. 

Business analytics enables companies to identify patterns in large amounts of data that would have remained invisible otherwise. They use these insights to make better-informed plans about their operations. 

An MBA with a specialisation in business analytics would teach you the fundamentals of business analytics, the technologies you’d use in this field, and other related concepts. 

We offer an MBA with a Specialisation in Business Analytics course with NMIMS Global Access. The program offers 200+ hours of live faculty interaction and business simulations from Harvard Business Publishing. 

Salary

The average salary of a professional with an MBA in business analytics is INR 5.59 lakh per annum. Your pay in this field depends on many factors, including your experience and location. 

Career Opportunities

With an MBA in business analytics, you’d be eligible for management and leadership roles in many companies such as Chief Analytics Officer (CAO), Head of Analytics, Chief Data Officer (CDO). More importantly, you can apply for senior business analytics roles with this qualification. 

For example, you can become an analytics manager whose average pay in India is INR 16.89 LPA. 

Eligibility

You must have a bachelor’s degree (10+2+3) in any discipline from a recognised university with at least 55% marks and 3+ years of professional experience to be eligible for this course. Or, you must have a bachelor’s degree (10+2+3) in any field from a recognised university with a minimum of 55% marks and a postgraduate or professional degree with 55% marks and 2+ years of professional experience. 

2. MBA in Digital Finance & Banking

One of the most popular MBA specialisations is finance. An MBA in finance will help you pursue a lucrative career in the finance sector. 

The market size of the Indian finance sector has expanded substantially in the last few years. For example, the first-year premium of life insurance companies reached INR 2.59 lakh crore in FY20. 

Our MBA in digital finance and banking program will teach you the latest skills and technologies employed in the finance sector. Some of the subjects you’ll learn in this program are artificial intelligence in business, financial management, risk analytics, data visualisation in finance, etc. 

Salary

The average salary of a professional with an MBA in finance is INR 7.18 lakh per annum. Prominent employers for this qualification are ICICI Bank, Accenture, EY (Ernst & Young), Tata Consultancy Services, and HDFC Bank. 

Career opportunities

You can pursue many careers in the finance sector after completing this program. You can become a Finance Manager or Financial Analyst and pursue senior roles in banking, insurance, startups, and Fintech. 

Eligibility

You must have a bachelor’s degree in science/engineering/commerce/mathematics/business administration with passing marks. Candidates with work experience will get preference, but it’s not mandatory. 

The following entrance exams will be considered for exemption based on the scores and validity:

Exams that are valid for one year are CAT, MAT, CMAT, XAT, ATMA with a 50% and above. Exams that are valid for five years (2016-2020) are GMAT, NMAT, and GRE. If you haven’t taken any of these exams, you’d need to take JMAT (Jindal Management Aptitude Test). 

3. MBA with specialisation in Digital Marketing

Digital marketing refers to the activities used to promote an organisation online. It is a fast-growing sector, and an MBA in digital marketing will help you pursue a career in digital marketing. 

The rising usage of the Internet and social media has caused an upsurge in demand for digital marketing professionals. Organisations rely on digital marketing professionals to reach new audiences, generate more customers, and promote their products (or services). 

We offer an MBA with a specialisation in digital marketing with MICA and Deakin Business School. Some of the subjects you will learn in this program are leadership, SEO (search engine optimisation), business strategy, content marketing, branding, business growth strategies, marketing analytics, etc. 

Salary

An MBA in marketing attracts an average salary of INR 7.32 lakh per annum. Like most fields, your pay in this field would depend on many factors such as your skills and the location you work in. Some of the notable companies you can work in with this degree are Kantar, Flipkart, American Express, Fractal Analytics, and Zivame. 

Career opportunities

With an MBA in digital marketing, you’ll be eligible to apply for marketing roles in various organisations. Prominent careers for professionals with an MBA in digital marketing are Digital Marketing Manager, SEO Consultant, Analytics Manager, Content Manager, Digital Director, CRM Manager, etc.

These roles attract lucrative pay as well. For example, the average pay of a digital marketing manager in India is INR 5.4 lakh per annum, and it goes up to INR 10 lakh per annum. 

Eligibility

This program requires you to have a bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 50% marks. You’d also need three years of relevant work experience combined in business-related roles in fields such as strategy, financial management, people management, planning, project management, sales, and leadership roles. You must also meet Deakin’s English language requirements to be eligible for this program. 

4. MBA with Specialisation in HR 

Another trendy MBA specialisation choice is human resources or HR in short. Human resources refer to the workforce of an organisation or industry. 

Utilising the human capital available to an organisation is an arduous task and requires expertise and effort. Hence, companies entrust HR experts to manage this aspect of their organisation. 

At upGrad, we offer an MBA program with the Liverpool Business School that offers the HR specialisation. The program would teach you business economics, business communication, human resource management, employee engagement, and many other crucial aspects of this field.

The program features 20+ industry projects that allow you to test your theoretical knowledge. 

Salary

The average pay of a professional with an MBA in HR is INR 6.35 lakh per annum. 

Some of the most prominent employers for professionals with this qualification are EY (Ernst & Young), Capgemini, Larsen & Toubro Limited, Tata Consultancy Services, and IBM India. 

Career Opportunities

With an MBA in HR, you can apply for HR roles in companies in various industries such as banking, finance, healthcare, technology, manufacturing, etc. Equipped with an MBA degree, you can bag roles like HR Executive, HR Manager, or Senior HR Associate. 

For example, you can become an HR manager whose average salary in India is INR 6.97 lakh per annum and goes up to INR 20 lakh per annum. Similarly, you can also opt to become an HR generalist whose pay goes up to INR 7.9 lakh per annum. 

Eligibility

You only need to have a bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 50% market and at least two years of full-time work experience to be eligible for this program. 

All of the courses we have shared above offer access to our Student Success Corner, where you get dedicated mentorship, interview preparation, and personalised resume feedback to help you kickstart your career quickly. 

Conclusion

While there are numerous specialisation options for an MBA, at the end of the day, the choice depends primarily on your interests and career goals. If you’re confused between two fields, you should do thorough research on both of them and see which offers better career prospects. Understanding the scope of each field would help you determine which would be more beneficial for you to pursue. 

If you have any questions about our MBA specialisations list, let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!