My mentors at my employer have told me however that the MBA will have little to no Impact on my advancement and pay at the company and that the value is primarily in if I am aiming to rise above the level of CIO or if I might eventually leave the company. I am 25 years old and married. I work in IT and focus on Cloud and Big Data, two of the most lucrative areas in technology right now. I graduated from a top 20 undergraduate business school with a degree in MIS business and IT with a 3.
My wife and I are also starting a rental property business. She is currently working to get her real estate license to give us some added advantages while running the business and we plan to buy our first multi-family rental property spring of next year. In this business I would focus on the strategy, business, legal and finance end and my wife would focus on property management and tenant issues. I worry about the MBA getting in the way of this business plan but I also realize that an MBA would give me better skills to manage a business.
I also have the opportunity to make a third of the classes I take in my MBA real estate related allowing me to build applicable skills and get a graduate certificate in real estate.
Tier 1 would occur at age 45 and is based on rental business income. Tier 2 would occur at age 50 and is based on after-tax inheritance income saved. Tier 3 would occur at age 55 and is based on retirement income saved. Our ultimate number one goal is financial freedom. I apologize for the length of this post but I would greatly appreciate to hear what you have to say.
Thank you. I would absolutely get your MBA part-time if the employer is paying for it. This is exactly what I did, and I loved the experience and will never regret the extra time spent. The professors acted like consultants for my day job, and I met a lot of cool people. Thanks Sam! I appreciate the advice. It aligns with my own thinking even though I still have misgivings about the value proposition and time investment. I will keep your personal consulting in mind in the future but at this time it is too expensive for me.
The MBA opened up significantly more opportunities and industries that what I had with just my BS Computer Science; though the financial payoff has not been very good. Mba cfa work is really all education with key differences.
Other than a More broad education, Mba is valued for its network. When you enter a prestigious one everyone has been vetted or well connected. You pay for the privilege to be associated with the brand school. If you work for any big company this will matter.
If you are rich do this. Cfa accepts anyone with a bs degree that can pass a test and have investment experience. What you pay for is time. Expect to study over hrs. Assuming you go all the way to 3 spend hours the discounted value is a k. If you are poor do this. Work gets you paid but the amount of learning can vary. Where you work, and what you are paid, and your personal preference determine its true value to u. This is up to you. If you are content do this. Got my MBA last week not kidding.
I went part time as my Tuition Assistance Program at work would not cover the cost of going to school full time. I went because I was in a rut. I figured the degree was basically free and I needed a new challenge. Plus, if there is a massive layoff at my company, I wanted to have a leg up on my fellow employees. You were right-on about a lack of hard skills obtained. I did learn a lot, but could have learned the same by someone listing 10 texts to read back to back.
I have a good friend who got his MBA at Berkeley. He took his MBA and started a multi-million dollar manufacturing company. Maybe I should have done that with mine dreaming. Hello Sam, I graduated from a top 10 school in Canada with an Economics degree.
Before graduating, I landed a back office role at one of the Canadian banks in a support role for institutional bond trading. After a few lateral promotions and no salary increases , I decided to write the level 1 CFA exam. I failed it by 6 points passing grade was a 70 , then failed it again a year later. Mind you, I joined the bank in and lived through the credit crisis. After failing level 1 the second time around, my confidence was shot and I needed a degree that could propel me out of a support role as the company had been consistently laying off staff every year and was on the cusp of outsourcing jobs to India.
This program, as advertised, took 3. I started the program with doubt as society brainwashes us to believe that going to a well-known university is the only way to make it in the corporate world. Anyways, each year of the program, I struggled to land other opportunities outside of the same bank. Every time I went for an interview, I got to the final round was given the no. I was still stuck in the same entry level job for 6 years and felt that it was a complete waste of time.
But I get persisting and never let the thoughts of depression settle in. I was desperate to make my degree worthwhile. On the day that I attended my MBA graduation ceremony, I literally got a call from a job I had applied for right after the ceremony as I remember checking my newly purchased Rolex the time they called me. Now, my manager, who is close to retirement, has laid solid plans for me and another trader to one day take over the shop as the baby boomer retirement issue is of great concern for this organization.
I plan to re-write the CFA for the third time and I feel less pressure as I am in a career that I am truly passionate about and am studying for the sake of studying and not solely for promotional purposes all paid for by the organization.
The payback period for my MBA was less than a year and the increase in my salary was tremendous. I never gave up and persistent paid off. I use to eat Burger King for dinner while attending evening classes in the MBA program, now the banks take us out the finest restaurants overlooking the skyline of the city.
I wake up every morning excited about the opportunities and possibilities of my future, the things I can afford, and the people I can help. All this was possible because of the MBA program. Congrats on your progress! A CFA is no guarantee. I really enjoy learning and the academic environment, as well as college life. That being said, I really do not think the cost is justified at a non-top 15 school.
This may seem counterintuitive at first, but while I want to go back to school for a mainly intangible reason, I am practical enough that I would only be willing to sacrifice so much financially in pursuit of intangibles if there is at least some tangible value to be had. And I think top tier schools are the only ones that really offer any semblance of financial sense to get an MBA. I donno man. Id keep banking that for as long as possible and read books or take community college classes or online classes for eduction.
I did a part-time MBA over 3 years with my employer picking up half of the tab. I tripled my starting salary and landed a job with a bank that paid my previous employer back via signing bonus. This was all done at a top public university. Maybe if I can get my work to pay for the degree partially and do it part time it might be worth it. Still doing some research myself.
A doctor. Sam — I used to think so, too…until I went through the program myself and realized how easy it was. I was recently doing some research on the value of a traditional college education and reached a lot of the same conclusions. The alternatives are becoming increasingly attractive as hard skills are more in demand. I, on the other hand, have a double major from a top university and am barely scratching k a year. It requires much more discipline to study after work and on weekends with no one grading you along the way, but it beats racking up student debt and setting my early retirement plan back half a decade.
Low cost for materials and exams relative to tuition and some employers pay for it! You get to continue working and getting paid salary while studying. You learn more about that particular subject area than you ever could from a university 4.
Those two schools look pretty sweet and are well received here in the US too. Sam Sam Sam…. I got mine part time over a five year period from a top 40 program. But I wanted exposure to different concepts, ideas and disciplines — not to mention people.
I never was a big fan of being in the classroom. I prefer learning new things on my own free time and on the job. Whether an MBA is worth it really depends on your industry and company imo. Tuition is crazy expensive and you have to figure out if your resulting salary post grad will truly justify the costs. Good to hear your viewpoints Sydney. Who wants to work for many, many, many years after an MBA to make a good return on investment anyway? I did not go to a top 10 school, and went part time at night — fully funded by my employers tuition assistance program.
For me it was incredibly helpful, since my undergraduate degree was in a technical discipline, and I was working in a corporate environment. Since in my technical role I needed to work closely with colleagues in other disciplines, the broader background I got through my MBA studies helped me immensely. I also felt that I had an easier time moving to more senior levels of management with the additional credential.
Thanks for sharing Cathy. Fully funded, and being a technical person makes getting your MBA a no brainer! Is an MBA degree worthwhile? I guess that depends. For people whom have not majored in business at the undergrad level, going to business school might be a good thing.
It sure is more productive than hanging out at bars! Will an MBA degree help advance your career? Will a graduate degree make an incompetent individual suddenly competent? I doubt it. Will you become a gazillionaire with your fancy new MBA diploma? Most likely not. I see it similarly. Expensive proof of some interest and understanding of business. Just as an example, Wharton has 4 classes right now on Coursera on everything to corporate finance to operations management.
Several Ivy League schools put entire lectures for entire semesters online. Not sure how this ends…. I have a feeling getting an MBA is going to be like joining a large private club. You can play on the public tennis courts if you want.
I believe that my MBA will be worth it and has already helped me to improve my career, while going to school at night.
Working and going to school simultaneously is definitely a grind, but I feel that employers really respect you for it. It is a form of signaling, where by undergoing this endeavor it shows employers that I am hard working and ambitious. I also think it teaches you a great deal, and helps to put all the pieces together in a business context.
I can speak about things intelligently and see how different business functions interconnect in a much more clear way than I ever would of been able to had I not gone back to school. And another huge benefit, especially at a good school, is the alumni network. I think that when you pay for it and you are more mature than when you are an undergrad, you get more out of the experience.
I would say however that going to get an MBA before you get any meaningful work experience is a waste of time and money. I agree that getting an MBA without at least two or three years of work experience is suboptimal. I make good money, too good to do the full time MBA as the opportunity cost would be prohibitive. I could pay for it in cash or within a year or two and have considered the executive MBA route.
Thanks again for the interesting topic and discussion. It seems absurd that these healthcare folks think they know about medicine than you. You absolutely deserve a seat at the table. Let me know how it goes! Some physicians do have both, though. I think an MBA is right for those that know with a fair degree of certainty that going through it will most probably help in their career trajectory.
I had a friend working for a mining company with an engineering degree and he wanted to move up into management. He did his MBA and quickly got hired at another big mining firm into entry level management.
Engineers are darn smart in terms of academics and test scores. They are generally perfect candidates for career change and joining an MBA program. My first day job, I was fresh out of high school, working in administration support for a large finance company. An MBA is very valuable if from a top school. Any other MBA is worthless, likely a waste of time and money. That must be tough. Yes, every year you wait is more opportunity cost.
From memory, he had done his MBA right after undergrad, which probably led to difficulties in finding work, and then taking what was available. IT contracting is so lucrative, that only very senior management typically out-earns the contractors whereas there are generally quite a few lower level managers earning a lot less than their staff.
When the safety net is so high, and 40hr work weeks are common, I would love to hear the upside on earning an MBA. It is so worthless I have to remove it for most jobs! Although I have less money than I would have had and realistically have delayed retirement by at least a decade. They are especially helpful for those who went to a mid or lower tier school who can transition to a top tier school for an MBA and then transition to a firm who only recruits from top tier.
A part time at a good school is an excellent option also. Thanks for sharing JM! Tell me about this 2 year extra time off post your MBA! Did you not feel some anxiety to try and maximize the MBA after graduation? Or did you take two years off before your MBA? And if so, how did you explain that to the admissions committee? I would have only gone for a full-time MBA at a top 5 school, even though I likely would not have been accepted to one of them. Hoping the CFA will get me to the same future role of working directly under a Portfolio Manager at a hedge fund.
The only thing about the CFA is that one is not guaranteed to get the designation. The hardest part about an MBA might be getting in. Most companies offer this — so negotiate and get one. Otherwise if you dont have that option, and you are at a point where MBA is the determinant to next level — by so any means do it, but do it at a good school. Make sure your bosses are aware of it. But MBA or no MBA, it is the way you carry yourself, your relationship with people, business maturity and your overal commanding persona is what gets you on top of the game.
I believe that is what you have Samurai and that is why we keep coming back to your posts! More than a few people have told me to go back and get an MBA. But I feel that the decision to do so would be out of desperation rather than a calculated stepping stone.
That being said, fortunately for me, my preferred school of choice is 27 on U. I have thought about pursuing an MBA in the future Id like to have at least a couple more years in the workforce. What are everyones thoughts about doing an MBA while working full time?? If you like the field you are in, and want to stay in your field for the long-term, it is the best thing ever.
I did it. Lots of hard work, but very worthwhile mentally, experience-wise, and financially. I appreciate you writing about this.
But I feel like the decision would be one of desperation rather than from a position of strength. I would be going in just hoping to find something rather than with a specific goal or reason in mind.
Fortunately for me, though, the school I would try to get into is 27 on U. Ben, you mentioned a lot of hardship post undergrad. In fact, it is so important to get the degree early in your career that Wharton and Harvard have started accepting women earlier than men because the biological clock truncates a woman's ability to leverage the MBA early enough in their career to make it worth the money.
An MBA is too limiting. You can't take an entry-level job after you get an MBA, so you had better know what you like to do. And can't take a job in a low-paying industry because you have to pay back the loans. So not only is an MBA useless for most jobs, but it also makes you unqualified for more jobs that it qualifies you for. An MBA makes you look desperate Top ten business schools will not accept you unless you have a clear plan for what you will do with the degree after you graduate.
You need to have shown that you have a propensity for some sort of business and that you need the degree to get where you want in that business. Unfortunately, most other schools will take you if you don't have a plan even though it's been shown that people who go to business school with no plan for their career graduate with no plan for their career. And then you look not just lost, but desperate. Business school puts off the inevitable. Look, it's really hard to be an adult.
You go to school for twenty years being told what to learn and what to think and when to show up, and then you get tossed into adult life and there is no one telling you what's right for you. You have to figure it out, but you didn't go to school for that. In fact, school is the opposite of that.
So it looks fine to be lost in your 20s. This is when everyone is taking time to figure things out. Face reality. Subscriber Account active since. Founder of PersonalMBA. Through the economic meltdown, of course, MBA bashing reached new heights.
Eager to find a scapegoat, critics happily assigned blame to business schools for teaching MBAs the merits of financial manipulation that led to a global financial crisis. Fong of the University of Washington. As Kaufman quotes the study, he is almost giddy. They asked whether getting an MBA provides benefits or not. Their answer was no. It does effectively nothing. It had no impact. But I was able to walk into a boardroom and hold my own [having been self-taught] with people who had graduated from Stanford and Wharton.
It was very exciting. Kaufman read about the incident on a favorite blog by best-selling business author Seth Godin who had an unusual view of the incident. After reading Godin's take, a light went off. His website, PersonalMBA. And even for consulting, investment banking or Fortune 50 positions, Kaufman says, the benefit is ephemeral.
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