A Genuine Review of MBA in CPM program at RICS SBE by Mohit Agrawal

Here, I’ll be talking about my experience at the top real estate and construction management Institute of India - RICS School of Built Environment. The primary reason I chose this Institute is, its MBA in Construction Project Management (CPM) course is accredited by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) & Project Management Institute (PMI-GAC). Hence, three years back, I enrolled in RICS SBE MBA in CPM program, and trust me, it was a life-changing experience for me. The knowledge I gained here about the industry standards and procedures is above expectations. I learned about all the required concepts that are still helping me in my career journey. Mainly, during the course, I studied about:

  • Building information modelling
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Internet of things
  • Digital technologies
  • Big data analytics
  • 3D printing
  • Cloud Computing
  • Business Development
  • Real Estate Development
  • Real Estate Marketing
  • Real Estate Valuation and Finance
  • Corporate Real Estate & Facilities Management

All this knowledge helped me gain a broader horizon of the key roles throughout the delivery process of a construction project. Also, this conceptual knowledge helped me crack the interviews of my dream companies, and eventually, I got a job opportunity from my dream company, i.e. CBRE.

As summer internships are a part of the RICS SBE curriculum, I worked at MACE as a project management intern. I never dreamt of landing an internship at this top and prestigious firm but RICS SBE faculty immensely helped me to achieve this accomplishment. They helped me via mock interviews, CV preparation, and imparting the technical knowledge required to crack interviews. Due to all this, my confidence was boosted and I was able to impress the interviewers. Now, as a project management intern at MACE, I was responsible to work with the Technical Due Diligence team to effectively perform all the role responsibilities. Working with other teams was an easy job for me as I already developed good communication and interaction skills at RICS SBE. To be honest, I was a shy and introverted person but with the help of group projects, class interactions, and more, RICS SBE transformed my personality into an open team member and leader. Coming to more work experience at MACE, here I managed the M3M 65th Avenue Gurgaon project team. All thanks to the knowledge gained at RICS SBE that I was able to understand the role and its responsibility and stand out as an excellent project manager in the entire company.

At RICS SBE, I got so much support from faculty, be it learning at my pace, resolving doubts on time, and constant guidance throughout placement. One main thing that helped me while learning is impeccable faculty interaction. All of my faculty had prior working experience in the industry and that helped us, students, to learn from their real-life experiences. The faculty taught us almost every concept with a practical example that helped me retain concepts in my memory. In brief, here I learned about how to plan, execute, monitor, control, and close any construction project. I gained in-depth knowledge on how to play a lead role in managing the project team and resources that ultimately determine the success or failure of the project. During the entire course, I learned about ten knowledge areas of PMI viz. integration, scope, time, cost, quality, communication, human resources, risk procurement, and stakeholder management. These ten knowledge areas play a crucial role in determining the success of a professional project manager and I am thankful that RICS SBE focused on each of them and enhanced my knowledge. Undoubtedly, I would totally recommend this college to someone who wants to learn things by heart.

In terms of infrastructure, I give it all 5 stars. The staff keeps the campus clean all the time. It is situated in a serene environment that facilitated me to concentrate well on my studies. Also being a nature lover, the greenery around the campus helped me to stay peaceful and happy. The learning infrastructure is up to the mark as each classroom I attended classes in was equipped with modern learning tools that not only made lectures more interesting but also less complex. Besides, this college has multiple computer labs with expert professors, who helped me develop industry-specific software skills. And trust me dear folks, with the passing time, technological knowledge is becoming more crucial so acquiring software skills during the program will come in handy during your career advancement stages. Moreover, the college has a huge sports ground, where you can play basketball, baseball, cricket, badminton, etc. It definitely helped me stay fit as the huge ground in front of my hostel room gave me constant motivation to get up early and focus on my physical health. 

Now let’s come to the most important point - career journey before and after pursuing MBA in CPM from RICS SBE so you will understand how valuable this course can be for someone. Before joining RICS SBE, I used to work as an assistant engineer at Capacit'e Infraprojects Limited. I worked here for almost 1 year and 9 months. Sure, I learned a lot here but I aspire to be a lot more than just a mere engineer. I wanted to manage full projects but I lacked the requisite knowledge and skills to effectively perform project manager’s responsibilities. Hence, with lots of consultations, I joined RICS SBE MBA in CPM program. My decision was right as not only I gained industry-specific knowledge but also I was able to develop requisite skills, such as Emotional intelligence, Cognitive flexibility, Judgement & decision making, Leadership, and Business Communication. As mentioned earlier, this helped me land a project management internship at Mace which added to my experience while I was pursuing the course. The idea of a mandatory internship truly benefitted me as I gained both theoretical and practical experience at the same time. 

One of the prime reasons I selected RICS SBE is better placement opportunities. I heard international firms come here to recruit talent during campus placement and I surely wanted to grab the best opportunity. It was all true! During the campus placement of my batch (2018-20), almost 100+ leading firms (both domestic and international) came to hire, some of them were CBRE, DLF Building India, LODHA, Rider Levett Bucknall, DSA Architects International, EMRILL, and KPMG. Similar to the time of the internships interviews, our faculty guided us during the placement round as well and prepared us with mock interviews and resume-making sessions so we won’t miss any chance. All the preparation and guidance bear fruitful results as I confidently gave the interview and got selected at CBRE within 3 months of my course completion. I was honestly worried because the people around me losing their jobs due to the global pandemic. I feared that maybe during this economic slowdown, I will not get any good job. But all my fear and doubts became wrong when I saw so many industry leaders coming to RICS SBE for hiring its talent. I don’t know how but this college definitely managed to attract over 100 companies to ensure each of its students get their dream job irrespective of the job market slowdown. I will be forever grateful to RICS SBE because they truly shaped me into a professional project manager. 

At CBRE, as a consultant and valuation associate, I am responsible to assist in auditing, assessments, and appraisals to determine the value of multiple businesses. I perform comparative research to establish market value, which helps the valuation team to create appraisals, valuation reports, and other documents. Also, I compile and analyze financial data and relevant information for better decision-making. Other than that, I conduct onsite inspections or physically view a property/assets to verify their condition and other characteristics. Now you might be wondering why I am listing down my job responsibilities at CBRE in the RICS SBE review. Well, coming straight to the point, I wanted to highlight what roles and responsibilities you can professionally perform after gaining knowledge and skills from RICS SBE MBA in CPM program. Even only after 8 months at my workplace, which is a very short duration, I get highly respected due to my work ethic and skills - all of which I acquired at RICS SBE. 

So, yes! If you ask me which college to choose for real estate and construction management programs, I will undoubtedly recommend you to enroll in RICS SBE programs. From experienced faculty, amazing infrastructure, serene learning environment, skill development to innumerable career opportunities, RICS SBE provides it all. Trust my words and turn your career in the right direction with one of the prestigious real estate and construction management courses of RICS SBE. You will be highly valued and recognized by built environment leaders as they know what wonders RICS SBE can do to an amateur aspirant. The cherry on the cake will be you can grab international opportunities as RICS SBE degree programs are globally recognized. So, stop thinking and start acting to be a top professional project manager in the industry.

Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohit-agrawal-2b3199117/

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