MICA GE/PI chat session with Chandan Pansari!!

Q) Career shift from IT industry to communications industry

Chandan: There are a lot of people in MICA currently with IT work ex so don't be too worried about that. In terms of justification for why MICA from IT everyone will have an individual answer but to some extent you can always mention that you were interested in media/communications management however, in order to do so you need to first be a graduate. The education system in India allows you either do a general grad/medical/engineer etc. and you chose an engineering course.

Q) About Group Exercise?

Chandan: The GE process has not changed much - last year there were group tasks allotted where people were asked to make a model, etc. and judged on team work and later they were asked to discuss and explain what they made - this year we don't know what the format will be but whatever it is just ensure that you do not try to be too aggressive or assert your self - be a good team player and follow normal GD ethics.

Q)  Call conversion Ratio?

Chandan:  in previous years the ratios have been 6:1 for final selection - m not sure of how many people they have called but should not be more than 6:1 could be lesser.

Q) About SOP?

Chandan: SOP - see just include your reasons for why MICA - rationalize your choice from what makes MICA different check the website for this info and then put some points for what you plan to do here and and after you graduate like your 5 yrs plan in brief after you graduate

@ everyone - just ensure that you know all that you have filled in the form really well.

Other points:

Chandan: @ all those who are making career shifts please prepare a logical answer for why you are planning to do so...don't be too worried as long as your answer is logical it is fine

Chandan: most questions will be around your Form, why MICA, your future plans.

Chandan: @prithvi - ABM profile is really good for a MICAN most people want to start as ABMs if you want to get int marketing

Chandan: @umang - almost 60-70% people do take loans if you think you need one its fine - i m on loan for 2nd yr

Chandan: @ prithvi - you can move to become brand managers in different countires different products and move up the director level etc...

Chandan: @ Shivf1 - no scholarship straight away but if u do well in first year you do get refunds for some amount.

Thanks to Nidhi Acharya (Xanthipe) for sharing this...
-----x-----

MICA videos

MICAT video - From Cracking careers 

MICA PAT's interview:

Thanks to PG user "krunal4amity" for sharing these videos.... www.krunalshimpi.blogspot.com

Communications Management

Communications Management, as the name suggests is a course in Management. Post liberalization (1991), the markets are flooded with several categories of products and several products with similar properties. Like so many toothpastes and soaps and detergents...

Hence the industry needs more than product and marketing managers because now they need to sell 'brands', not products. Brand is more than a logo or packaging or name. So you need people who can create association in the minds of consumers about that specific product. For example, even though both Colgate and Close-up are toothpastes, you buy close-up because you need 'total protection', I buy close-up because I believe it gives me 'confidence to come closer'. 

So we have 'BRAND MANAGEMENT' No one can create brands without understand consumers without proper 'Marketing Research'. And hence at MICA besides Brand Management you learn Marketing Research.

Once you have understood the consumers and created a brand, you need to communicate that to the TARGET consumers and so comes in picture 'ACCOUNT PLANNING' function of Ad agency where the agency person works in close association with brand team and creative team and helps create appropriate communication.

Having done that, they now need to know where their TARGET audience is and choose appropriate media to communicate their message. That is Media Planning, buying and strategies. You can understand how difficult this would be with more than 200 TV channels, so many newspapers, Magazines, outdoors, events, radio etc...so this is an equally critical component of managing business.

Supporting the above four functions are foundation courses in management like marketing, finance, accounts, Quantitative Techniques, Organization Behavior etc. Then there are communication courses like 

Theories of mass communication and mass media,

consumer behavior, 

language, 

culture and communication, 

semiotics, 

metaphors and
narratives etc...

You also have courses in Urban and Rural Retail and marketing, social and development communication, business ethics and strategic management. I hope this clarifies what do you learn at MICA.

Where do MICAns work and in what kind of profiles??

OK...as you see, there is no business that does not need 'communication'.Even cable companies like Finolex are in to 'brand building' and need to communicate with customers who never knew what cables did to their lives...So opportunities are plenty.

MICANs are in to 'managing communications' in several businesses and if you see the list of companies where MICAns work, you will find that.

Prof Deval's answers for common admission queries

Hi,

Here are the links which contain gyaan related to MICA admissions answered by Prof.Deval Kartik of MICA.

Compilation of 2007 thread can be found here.

Compilation of 2008 thread can be found here.

Cheers,
Shiva

Previous MICAT Papers

Collection of MICAT Papers:

Official MICAT 2008 paper from MICA website.... Download here

Old MICAT papers
1) MICAT 2004 (Thanks to CheckEETS for posting this)
2) MICAT 2003
3) SIMCAT From IMS Training institute (Thanks to CheckEETS for posting this)
4) MOCK MICAT from Career Launcher
5) Some old MICA interview qns

CAUTION: All these are old papers, so use this only as a reference. Please refer to the original MICAT 2008 paper for your preparation :)

MICASPIRANTS

Hi this Blog will be used to share all the required info regarding Mudra Institue of Communication, Ahmedabad (MICA)...

Since MICAT is on February 22 lets not waste time in decorating this blog.. lets keep this blog as simple as possible and start sharing the information needed for MICAT...

There is obviously a mountain of information regarding MICA which would be really impossible for anyone to go through in go... so lets just take up the important info and post in this blog!!!!

Your comments/Suggestions are welcome :)