By
ANON
Senior Professor in a major Graduate Business School

Do You Need an MBA?

Since you are on this Web site - your first question will be, or will have been, should I try to get an MBA degree. Unless you are aiming to do it for fun or pure intellectual satisfaction - and few people do - this means asking yourself whether an MBA will benefit you in some way. What are the potential benefits? Here are some possibilities:

1. It will help you in your present job – i.e. help you do it better
2. It will help you in your present employment – e.g. help you gain promotion
3. It will help you get a new and better job – i.e. move from your present employment to better one
4. It will help you change career – i.e. move into a new area and onto a new career path
5. It will help you get a job – e.g. maybe be your first

The potential benefits to you will depend on your present circumstances, e.g. whether you are presently working and, if so, what you feel about your present job. So – some of the points below will not be relevant to you.

Here are some observations - based on many years of experience in 'producing' MBA graduates. Take what is relevant to you.

Having an MBA degree will not create a good job for you. If an appropriate job does not exist – it makes no difference if you have an MBA or not. So – if there is nowhere for you to go in your present employment – getting an MBA will not change that situation, and the only reason for getting it will be to leave. Equally – if there are no appropriate jobs 'out there' having an MBA will not create them. This is particularly relevant now – at a time of general recession. At present there are lots of unemployed MBAs – who a few years ago would have walked into appropriate jobs. Graduates leaving full time MBA programs at major Schools now often find themselves competing for jobs with those that left the previous year.

If you have an MBA and find yourself competing for a job - either in your company or outside – you might stand a better chance of getting it than an equivalent person without and MBA. However – it is rarely as simple as this. Competitors for jobs usually have several things on which they differ – so an MBA is not usually the key. For example – especially at the present time – employers will often be looking for particular relevant skills. They will want people who can make an immediate contribution- not people who will need to learn or be trained. So, often, the person from a Marketing (or IT, HR etc) background, or from a relevant industry, will get the job rather than the person with an MBA and less relevant experience. This perhaps suggests some general advice – i.e. get a specialist qualification and experience before your MBA - don't get an MBA instead of it, because there are few good jobs for generalists except at the very top of organizations. Putting this another way – the 'General Manager' role is perhaps disappearing from the lower and middle levels of organizations,

It follows from the last point – that getting an MBA in order to get your first job is a risky strategy – if you think it will get you a better or more accelerated career start. Certainly a company interviewing two people who are identical, expect for one having an MBA – may choose the MBA e.g. if the job is a management or graduate traineeship – but such a person will probably not get an accelerated start. And if the job is a specialist one – the MBA is unlikely to have any advantage. Doing an MBA straight after graduation and before your first job- may demonstrate that you are willing to invest in your own development- but it is less likely to be the gateway to anything.

Your second question- especially given some of the points above – should be how to get the MBA. i.e. what type of program. The obvious starting point is program structure – full time, part time, modular or distance/online.

You will be attracted to a full time program if you want to get an MBA fast. (There is also the question of whether you can afford it etc – but I will ignore that here). If you do a full time program - you will soon need a job. If your present employer has given you 1 or 2 years off to get the MBA – and you can return to your job – or possibly a better one, you are lucky – and my advice would be – do it! If not – you will be looking for a job quite soon after starting your program - and not just at the end. In a tight job market – as now – this can be tough. If you are in a job, you might consider that taking an MBA part time - is a safer option at present. It will not necessarily transform you present career – but you will not end up out of work. You will probably see it as an investment for the future rather than the solution to a present problem. If you can get your employer to agree – you could take some time off and do a modular or part time attendance program. If not you will have to take an evening or weekend program, or a Distance/online program – and it will be tougher. If this is the case – think very carefully. Ask yourself how you will answer the question, some time in the future, when an interviewer asks you why you did that MBA then and in that way. Did you compromise and do a lower quality MBA? Did the way you did your MBA give you're the normal benefits – i.e. are you in some way inferior to someone with a full time MBA?

The second point is focus – General Management or Specialist MBA? Given what I have said about the limited jobs opportunities for young generalists, consider a specialist MBA, e.g. with a focus on IT, Marketing etc – not just options or electives in specialist areas, but a focussed program. If you are young, e.g. less that 27, this could be a good strategy as you will probably be aiming for a specialist job not a general one. If you are older, e.g. over 32, and want to get into Strategy – then maybe not. Make sure that if you do a specialist program it is a good one with a good reputation, as someone later in your career will ask you why you did not do a conventional, i.e. general management program

It is no longer the case that an MBA is a passport to success. Having an MBA is not the key to a great career. There are far too many MBA programs around for an employer to assume that what you have is really worth having, and in many cases having it is not relevant. Getting an MBA from a top School is like joining an exclusive club. It is not likely to do you any real harm, and will probably be beneficial in the longer term. But most people do not have the opportunity to join the club. They should take great care. Business Schools, in my view, now have far too many students whose principal gain in the short to medium term will mainly be intellectual satisfaction and some networking.