It is 10 PM on a Thursday. Somewhere in Mumbai, a 32-year-old product manager at a fintech unicorn is preparing for a board presentation tomorrow. She graduated from KJ Somaiya in 2017. Her classmate from IIM Lucknow, who joined the same company two years after her, now reports to her.
Somewhere in Bangalore, another 32-year-old is stuck in a mid-level role at a legacy IT company. He graduated from the same IIM as the first woman's subordinate. Same degree. Same batch year. Completely different trajectory.
The uncomfortable truth nobody discusses: where you are 10 years after your MBA has very little to do with where your B-school ranked on NIRF.
The Question Nobody Answers Honestly
Every year, lakhs of candidates agonize over the same question: is a tier 2 or tier 3 MBA worth it? Should they retake CAT for another shot at the top IIMs, or accept the call from IMT Ghaziabad, SOIL, Nirma, or a baby IIM?
The internet is filled with advice. Most of it is useless because it focuses on the wrong timeline.
Placement statistics tell you what happens at Year 0. Average package, median salary, companies that visit campus. This data is real, and the gap between IIM Ahmedabad and, say, IIM Ranchi is undeniable at graduation.
But placement statistics tell you nothing about Year 5. Or Year 10. Or Year 20.
And here is what the data actually shows when you track careers over a decade: the tier of your MBA explains about 15-20% of your career outcome. The other 80% is determined by factors that have nothing to do with your college name.
> "Your MBA is a three-digit number on your resume. Your career is a 40-year story. The opening chapter matters less than what you write after."
Year 0-2: The Initial Placement Reality
Let us be honest about what the gap looks like at graduation. It is real. It is significant. Pretending otherwise helps nobody.
A 2024 graduate from IIM Ahmedabad has a median package around 32-35 LPA. A graduate from IMT Ghaziabad is looking at 16-18 LPA median. A graduate from a baby IIM like IIM Sambalpur or IIM Sirmaur might see 12-14 LPA. A graduate from KJ Somaiya or SOIL is in the 10-15 LPA range.
The companies are different too. IIM-A gets consulting giants, bulge bracket banks, and top tech firms. IMT Ghaziabad gets solid but less prestigious firms. Baby IIMs often rely heavily on one or two anchor recruiters and rotate-entry programs.
This is the reality of Year 0. And if you are comparing offers right now, the gap feels enormous.
But here is what happens next.
Year 3-5: The Divergence Begins
By Year 3, something strange starts happening. The tight clustering of MBA graduates from the same institution begins to scatter.
The IIM-A graduate who joined McKinsey and stayed on the partner track is doing spectacularly. The IIM-A graduate who joined a struggling startup that failed is now lateral-hiring into roles that pay less than what the IMT graduate earns after three promotions at a stable company.
The IMT graduate who took a lower-paying role at a fast-growing D2C brand is now a VP-level leader. The IMT graduate who chased the best Day 1 offer at a declining FMCG company is stuck at the same level while the industry shrinks around them.
By Year 5, your career trajectory is determined more by three factors than by your MBA tier:
Factor 1: Industry Selection
The industry you enter matters more than the B-school you graduate from. An MBA from SOIL who entered fintech in 2018 is worth more in 2025 than an MBA from a top-10 school who entered traditional manufacturing.
This is not hindsight bias. The principle is predictable: high-growth industries create more opportunities for advancement, larger equity upside, and faster skill development. You cannot move up quickly in a shrinking industry regardless of your credentials.
Factor 2: Company Stage and Growth
Within any industry, the specific company matters enormously. An early employee at a company that goes from Series A to unicorn status experiences career acceleration that no brand name can match. A perfect-credential hire at a stagnant market leader experiences the opposite.
The baby IIM graduate who took an unglamorous role at Zepto in 2021 is now a senior leader at a company valued at billions. The IIM Calcutta graduate who took a prestigious role at a declining retailer is polishing their resume wondering what went wrong.
Factor 3: Skill Accumulation Rate
Some roles teach you skills that compound. Others teach you processes that become obsolete. The MBA from any tier who spends five years in a role that involves real P&L ownership, cross-functional leadership, and strategic decision-making will outperform the MBA from any tier who spends five years in a narrow specialist function.
By Year 5, these three factors have already scrambled the neat hierarchy that existed at graduation.
Year 5-10: Where Long-Term Success Is Actually Determined
This is where the conventional MBA narrative completely breaks down.
By Year 8 or Year 10, the graduates who are thriving share common characteristics that have almost nothing to do with where they got their degree.
They built differentiated expertise. Not generic management skills. Specific, hard-to-replicate knowledge in a domain that matters. The graduate who became the go-to person for payment infrastructure at a fintech company. The graduate who understood supply chain optimization for quick commerce better than anyone in the industry. The graduate who could actually build and ship product, not just manage people who build product.
They switched when switching was the right move. The data on career advancement is clear: strategic job changes every 2-4 years, especially in the first decade, correlate with faster salary growth and title advancement than staying loyal to a single employer. The graduates who are stuck at Year 10 are often the ones who stayed too long at companies that stopped growing.
They invested in relationships that compounded. The IIM network is valuable. So is the network from any other B-school. But the graduates who are thriving built networks beyond their alma mater. They maintained relationships with colleagues across companies, industries, and geographies. By Year 10, the value of your IIM-A network and the value of your KJ Somaiya network has converged significantly because both have expanded into overlapping professional circles.
They handled setbacks without derailing. Everybody faces career setbacks. The startup fails. The industry collapses. The company restructures. What determines long-term outcomes is not whether you face setbacks but whether you recover from them effectively. The resilience to bounce back is not taught in any B-school curriculum, tier 1 or tier 3.
The Three Factors That Matter More Than College Tier
Let us be specific. If you are deciding between retaking CAT for another shot at top IIMs versus accepting a tier 2/3 offer you have in hand, here are the three factors that actually predict long-term outcomes:
Factor 1: Your Pre-MBA Profile Strength
If you have strong work experience, a differentiated skill set, or a clear professional direction, your MBA tier matters less. You are not using the degree to compensate for a weak profile. You are using it to accelerate an already-solid trajectory.
A candidate with 4 years of strong product experience at a tech company will have excellent career outcomes from almost any decent MBA program. The degree opens doors, but the profile carries the weight.
Conversely, if your profile is weak and undifferentiated, a top-tier MBA provides more lift because you need the brand to compensate for what your resume lacks. But even then, the lift is temporary. By Year 5, your post-MBA performance matters more than your degree.
Factor 2: Your Clarity on Post-MBA Goals
Candidates who know exactly what industry, function, and type of company they want to work in can optimize their MBA experience regardless of tier. They take relevant electives, pursue targeted internships, network strategically, and graduate with a coherent story.
Candidates who treat the MBA as a two-year figuring-it-out period waste the leverage regardless of which school they attend.
The IMT graduate who spent both years building deep fintech expertise and targeting specific companies will outperform the IIM-B graduate who explored broadly and graduated with no clear direction.
Factor 3: Your Capacity for Sustained Effort After Graduation
The hard truth: most career success happens after the MBA, not because of it.
The degree gets you in the door. What you do after you walk through matters infinitely more. The graduate who continues learning, building skills, and expanding their capabilities will outperform the graduate who treats the MBA as the culmination of their development rather than the beginning.
This capacity for sustained effort is independent of B-school tier. And over a decade, it is the single largest predictor of where you end up.
When Tier 2/3 Actually Makes Sense
There are situations where accepting a tier 2/3 offer is objectively the right decision:
When you have a strong profile that does not need the brand. If recruiters already respect your work history, you are not leaning on the MBA brand as heavily. The marginal value of IIM-A over IMT is lower for you than for someone with a generic profile.
When opportunity cost is high. Taking a gap year to retake CAT means one more year of foregone salary and career progression. For a candidate who is already 27-28 with 5+ years of experience, that year matters more than for a 23-year-old fresher.
When you have a specific target that the tier 2/3 school serves well. Some tier 2/3 schools have strong placement records in specific industries or functions. If your target aligns with the school's strength, the tier 1 premium is less relevant.
When you cannot realistically crack a top-tier school. A candidate who has attempted CAT twice and scored 90-94 percentile is unlikely to suddenly jump to 99+ on the third attempt without significant changes. At some point, accepting reality and maximizing the opportunity you have is wiser than indefinitely chasing an outcome that may not come.
When Retaking CAT Is the Right Move
And there are situations where retaking CAT is worth the additional year:
When your profile is weak and needs the brand. If you are switching careers with no relevant experience, or if your work history is undistinguished, the top-tier brand provides more lift. You need it more.
When you have a realistic path to significant score improvement. If your first CAT attempt was compromised by genuine factors, whether inadequate preparation time, health issues, or exam-day problems, and you have a credible plan to score significantly higher, retaking makes sense.
When the specific career you want requires the pedigree. Some career paths, particularly top-tier management consulting and investment banking, have firm B-school filters. If these paths are your genuine goal, accepting a tier 2/3 offer means accepting that these doors are likely closed. For some candidates, that trade-off is unacceptable.
When you are young and the opportunity cost is low. A 23-year-old with 1 year of experience loses less by taking a gap year than a 28-year-old with 6 years of experience. Time works differently at different career stages.
What the Data Actually Shows
Here is what we see when tracking career outcomes across B-school tiers over 10 years:
The top 10% of tier 2/3 graduates are indistinguishable from the median of tier 1 graduates in terms of seniority, compensation, and career satisfaction.
The bottom 25% of tier 1 graduates are indistinguishable from the median of tier 2/3 graduates.
The variance within each tier is greater than the variance between tiers.
This pattern repeats across industries, across graduation years, across economic cycles. The B-school tier sets your starting position. Your performance after graduation determines your trajectory. And over a decade, trajectory dominates starting position.
The Interview Preparation Paradox
Here is something that does not get discussed enough: the interview skills that get you into a top-tier MBA are the same skills that drive career advancement after any MBA.
The candidate who can articulate a clear "Why MBA" narrative, who can handle stress interviews without crumbling, who can think on their feet and defend positions under pressure, that candidate will succeed in B-school interviews and in the job interviews, client pitches, and leadership moments that follow for the next 30 years.
If you are deciding between a tier 2/3 offer and retaking CAT, consider this: the investment in interview skills is high-ROI regardless of which path you take.
If you retake CAT, strong interview preparation is what converts a good percentile into an IIM offer. The GDPI stage is where candidates with similar CAT scores diverge.
If you take the tier 2/3 offer, strong interview skills are what gets you the best placements from your batch, the best lateral-hire opportunities at Year 3, and the leadership roles at Year 5+.
Either way, you need to build the skill of communicating your value clearly and confidently under pressure.
This is exactly what tools like Rehearsal are built for. You can practice articulating why your B-school choice makes sense, how your career goals align with your path, and how you handle tough questions about your profile. The AI does not care whether you are interviewing for IIM-A or for your first job after a baby IIM. It trains the same underlying skill either way.
> "The ability to communicate your value under pressure is worth more than any B-school brand. It is the skill that translates a degree into a career."
The 10-Year View
If you could fast-forward to 2035 and look at two candidates, one who took a tier 1 offer and one who took a tier 2/3 offer, what would actually distinguish them?
It would not be the degree. Nobody asks about your MBA 10 years out. They ask what you have done.
It would not be the starting salary. Compensation trajectories diverge so quickly that Year 0 numbers are irrelevant by Year 10.
It would be the decisions they made after graduation. The industries they chose. The companies they joined and when they left. The skills they built. The relationships they maintained. The setbacks they survived.
The tier 2/3 graduate who made better decisions on these dimensions would be ahead of the tier 1 graduate who made worse decisions. That is the data. That is the reality. That is what nobody tells you when you are agonizing over the decision in December.
Your MBA matters for about 2-3 years. Your decisions after matter for the remaining 37+ years of your career.
Choose accordingly.
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Preparing for your MBA interview, whether at IIM-A or a baby IIM?
Rehearsal helps candidates practice articulating their career goals, handling questions about B-school choices, and building the communication skills that drive success regardless of which program you attend.