I completely disagree with going to a job straight after your MBA. I would say that anything between 3 to 5 years of work ex between your undergrad and MBA gives you an unfair advantage in your MBA not only relative to your classmates which is a minor advantage but major advantage will be to have receptors in your brain which will make sense of the theory that is being taught. So, you get more out of your MBA with work ex. About how much work ex? I would say, anything upwards of 4 to  years would probably be better. My submission is if there is anything in the world, it is more fluidity between the 25  years of learning and 25 years of earning and 25 years of retirement, that train has left the station. Lifelong learning is absolutely important. It has shifted from being an aspiration to being a necessity. The people who get ahead are those who keep up long after they have left the physical infrastructural schools. The world belongs to learners. Heraclitus was a historian who said, "You can never step in the same river twice" and what he meant was that the river has changed, the world has changed and you have changed but people keep trying to step in the same river. For people who are considering an MBA now and who are in jobs to take 4 to 6 years. People who are considering joining employers now, please choose the employer by salary but also choose them for resilience and learning opportunities.

Manish Sabharwal,
Chairman and Co-Founder of Teamlease Services, India’s largest people supply chain and HR services company