I write about careers so much because your career is your greatest asset. With a stellar career, you're not only happier, but you also have a huge financial advantage over those who don't have a great job.
I generally agree with Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success
, but she recently wrote about the demise of the MBA and I can't agree with much of what she said. Here are her thoughts and my corresponding comments:
The difference between the value of a top-tier MBA and all the others is very big. In fact, if you don't get into a top-tier program, the value of your MBA is so compromised that it's not worth it to stop working in order to get the degree. Go to night school instead.
It depends on what she means by "top-tier." If she literally means the top 20 business schools in the country, I disagree. I think the list is much deeper, say maybe the top 50 schools. Now don't get me wrong, someone going to Harvard does have an advantage over someone going to a decent state school ranked #30, but unless you want to get into a very specific profession that only recruits at the top, the advantage drops off as the years go on.
I recommend that instead of picking a school and hoping to get a job at graduation, you instead think of what you want to do and where you want to work -- and do this BEFORE you decide on an MBA school. Then look at the schools that have companies recruiting at them for the job/profession/industry you want. THEN decide what school to attend. This way, you can be more sure that you'll end up where you want to end up.
This is what I did (true, it was 20 years ago and things have changed since then.) But I left grad school with $5k in debt and the same job that people from Harvard, Wharton, and Stanford were getting (my school was ranked #25 at the time.) And as I've stated, getting an MBA was a very good financial move for me.
Business schools are compromised by a lack of female applicants.
Trunk argues that since less and less women are applying to MBA schools, the schools have lowered the work experience requirements to get accepted in order to allow more women to make it in. As such, this has compromised the value of MBA programs.
In one way, I agree with this. If you used to need four years work experience to get into an MBA school and now only need one, then the candidates leaving MBA schools theoretically won't be that as good as they were.
On the other hand, I never really agreed that work experience (especially two years of entry level experience) was something that was needed before a person was an acceptable grad school applicant. I went straight through from undergrad to MBA and felt I still got a great education. Sure, my education was hampered a bit by not having work experience, but those who did have work experience were hampered too -- they now had to learn to be students again and had a major reduction in pay (two issues I didn't have to worry about.)
The best thing you get out of business school is a good job afterward. But how do you know you wouldn't be able to get that job without business school?
Again I agree and disagree. For instance, I agree that "the best thing you get out of business school is a good job afterward." An MBA gets you a good/great job and from there on, your experience and success take over (mostly) and your degree becomes less and less of a factor.
Here I disagree: "But how do you know you wouldn't be able to get that job without business school?" I knew because: 1) the company, industry, and profession I wanted after undergraduate school didn't recruit at my school and 2) when I contacted them, they told me to go to grad school (in essence) as that's where they did most of their recruiting. Yeah, some people MAY be able to make it up the work ladder without an MBA, but in most cases, and especially for those who went to smaller, lesser-name undergraduate schools, an MBA can propel your career ahead by light years.
Hotshots don't go to business school anymore.
Disagreement #1: Entrepreneurial types NEVER went to MBA school before, so saying they don't now doesn't really mean much.
Disagreement #2: I don't see executives thinking that "business school might start looking like something for people who are feeling a little bit stuck in their careers and need a jumpstart, rather than just a starting gate for superstars." Maybe this will happen in the future, but I don't see any sign of it now.
People go to business school for the wrong reasons.
I do agree with this -- many people go to all sorts of post-grad schools to still "find themselves." So if this is you, I agree with Trunk that an MBA is probably a waste. However, if you know what you want and an MBA is a way to get there, it's probably a good investment of both time and money. Just don't pay a fortune for it unless you're fairly sure you'll make a fortune when you graduate. In other words, perform the same cost/benefit analysis to getting an MBA that you did when getting an undergraduate degree.
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