Postgraduate Program in Software Enterprise Management

Postgraduate Program in Software Enterprise Management or PGSEM (also called PGSM by most alumni) is a Management program for working Information Technology professionals who want to gain knowledge and get a post graduation diploma in Management. The program is run by Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), one of the premier management institutes in India. This program has become very popular amongst the IT professionals in the southern part of India - attracting the best of talent interested in pursuing a premium management post graduation.

Details of the Course

Student Profile

The program curriculum covers general management concepts and is open to candidates who have more than two years of work experience and are working in an Information Technology company. While two years is considered as a mandate for the admission, the institute feels that a person with four to five years of IT experience would be the real benefactor from this course and hence such candidates are preferred. That said, people with more and less years of experience also make it to the course. The average years of experience of the candidates have been six years for most of the batches.There is representation from all major IT companies spanning the length and breadth of the Indian sub-continent. (Employees from 100+ IT companies are currently doing this course).

Distributed Classroom

The program started in June 1998. Since June 2005 the program is simultaneously avaialable in Bangalore and Chennai. There are plans to offer the program in Hyderabad and Pune in the near future, though nothing is finalised yet. Thus the institute has pioneered what is known as the "Distributed Mode of Education"" in the country. This differentiates PGSEM from several other executive MBA programs.

Details about the program

As with the case of all programs offered by IIMs, PGSEM also provides for stringent yet flexible process of admission. As of current, this is a two step process to qualify for admission. As of first, a candidate can choose choose to write CAT or GMAT or an PGSEM entrance exam. IIM Bangalore based on the applications received along with their respective scores, provides a cross normalized shortlist of students which are then called for two rounds of interview. First round of interview, an initiative started in 2008, is taken by past alumnus of this course. Second rounds of interviews, which also carry more weightage are take by various faculty members as is the case with personal interviews of PGP program. Finally, admission offers are posted to selected candidates.

A participant can graduate at the end of two and a half academic years, while continuing their regular work. However, the participants have the flexibility to complete the course in a maximum of 6 academic years. Each academic year is subdivided into four quarters of eleven weeks each. The classes are held on Fridays and Saturdays. The program requires the corporation to either sponsor the candidates or agree to their participation in the program.

The program is structured around 10 broad themes. The course is offered in the form of quarters and typically a year consists of 4 quarters of 11 weeks each. A week of holiday is given to the students except during the fourth quarter of the year, when they enjoy a full one and a half month long vacation.

As is the case for PGP, PGSEM candidates are eligible to become exchange students in prestigious universities across the world. At that time PGSEM student is expected to become a full time student.

Also, as in the case of PGP, PGSEM postgraduates are also offered waiver from one year of course work while pursuing FPMs (Fellow Program in Management).

This program does not offer any placement service to its students as is the case of PGP, primarily because each student in this course is expected to work with the consent of their employers. The PGSEM program started in 1998 and has completed ten years since then.

Target Audience

This program is designed to come to the help of the software professionals at a stage in their career when they may need to augment their technical knowledge with knowledge of business concepts. Software Professionals looking for management education while still pursuing their jobs can look at this program.

People interested in knowing more about this program should visit the program specific page on Institute web site. Also there is a mailing list maintained at [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PGSEMInfo PGSEM Yahoogroup] . People can also get a feel of happenings in the program at the program blog at [http://iimbpgsem.blogspot.com PGSEM Blog] and [http://mydream-pgsem.blogspot.com Official IIMB PGSEM Blog] . Both the group and blog are maintained by PGSEM students and Alumni.

The PGSEM Batches

The following are the PGSEM batches that have already passed out from the institute:
1998-2001
1999-2002
2000-2003
2001-2004
2002-2005
2003-2006
2004-2007
2005-2008

The batches that are still doing the program are:

2006-2009
2007-2010
2008-2011

To obtain the latest information regarding PGSEM and how to apply, visit the [http://www.iimb.ernet.in IIMB] site and the [http://www.iimb.ernet.in/iimb/html/pgsem-overview.htm PGSEM] section. A new site [http://pgsem.iimb.ernet.in/ PGSEM] offers more information.

Application deadlines for PGSEM is usually February 28th of each year and the classes usually start in the second week of June each year

External links

* [http://mydream-pgsem.blogspot.com/ PGSEM IIMB Weblog]
* [http://www.iimb.ernet.in/iimb/html/m-frames.jsp?ilink=58&pname=pgsem-overview.htm PGSEM website]
* [http://www.iimb.ernet.in/ IIMB Website]
* [http://pgsem.iimb.ernet.in/ PGSEM Exclusive Website]
* [http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/03/emba_profiles/iimbangalore.htm BusinessWeek Website]
* [http://www.pgsem.net/ PGSEM Community Website]