MBA and your experience

[bjones926]

A ton of good information here and I’ll try to add on a few things that might help.

For context - I have an MBA that I completed while working full time - was in person and was a grind.

I sit on the board of advisors for a business school in my area (that caters to both undergrad and grad) so your question is very common and close to home. I will give you the same thoughts and advice I give to prospective students and my employees.

#1 know your “why” Be borderline obsessive around this. MBA does not guarantee more money although that this the metric is used by many schools. you will be more successful if you clearly identify your personal objective (and in doing so can help determine if MBA is right or a different path).

#2 May be a bit of a hot topic, but graduating from an MBA program isn’t actually that difficult - applying what you learn is. MBA programs are setup to make sure you graduate - it’s up to you to apply your learnings in real life

#3 you get out what you put in - this goes back to #1 and #2. if you are willing to work hard be willing to share and learn from others and apply this at your job, you will be successful. If you just are there to get three letters behind your name on LinkedIn - waste of time. This goes back to your “why”

hope this helps and happy to answer additional questions

 

[Afhunter1]

I have an MBA from WVU. It was an online / limited in person structure. I thought it was a great program and well thought out. If you check it out and have any questions shoot me a pm and we can talk. They don’t charge “out of state” tuition for the EMBA program.

 

[Hardtak]

I have found that an MBA arms an already educated and smart person with just enough business knowledge of rope to hang ones self.

 

[Rich M]

I have found that an MBA arms an already educated and smart person with just enough business knowledge of rope to hang ones self.

It provide us with tools and we need to understand how specific businesses use those tools. I mostly learned how to break business into diff parts and how to make the parts profitable.

 

[Flyrodr]

I'm long retired from a fairly large company (>20,000 employees). When I was there, the company supported (financially, paying tuition) employees who wanted an MBA (I think there were some job classifications that didn't qualify for support). And there were several major universities nearby. I have to presume the company had decided its investment in supporting the MBAs was worth the cost. I also think that additional/further advancement as a result of having the MBA was largely dependent upon the individual person's performance. Simply put, the MBA helped those who demonstrated greater performance.

On a personal level, when my son began his career (business/finance), one of the universities suggested that a CPA would be more beneficial in his situation than the MBA. He got the CPA, and has done well in the workplace.

 

[Afhunter1]

I'm long retired from a fairly large company (>20,000 employees). When I was there, the company supported (financially, paying tuition) employees who wanted an MBA (I think there were some job classifications that didn't qualify for support). And there were several major universities nearby. I have to presume the company had decided its investment in supporting the MBAs was worth the cost. I also think that additional/further advancement as a result of having the MBA was largely dependent upon the individual person's performance. Simply put, the MBA helped those who demonstrated greater performance.

On a personal level, when my son began his career (business/finance), one of the universities suggested that a CPA would be more beneficial in his situation than the MBA. He got the CPA, and has done well in the workplace.

You pretty much have to have a MBA now to be a CPA.

 

[TreeWalking]

I went full-time to get the MBA at a top school and only did a few side gigs during the school year. Was competitive and I needed that. 1 in 6 were international students which added greatly to discussions. Not sure I am wealthier due to the MBA but was a great investment in my ego and opened doors that may have not opened. I gave up 20 months of earnings while getting the MBA and built up about 3 months salary equivalent of debt to get the MBA. A cheap date even with the foregone earnings. Would do over in a heartbeat if went back in time though you are not in 1989 and you are not me.

 

[Crghss]

Well it can’t hurt getting an MBA can it.

I never got one. I‘ve worked with people that have them and didn’t seem to benefit from it. Almost everyone in my company upper management has one. It still comes down the drive, effort and ethics.

 

[TaperPin]

Did you do it?

 

[TXCO]

Depends on your career and industry. Id say it all depends on what you think youre lacking. Only a few careers truly require it to check the box for advancement. Most of the value is the networking or ability to pivot in a career. This reduces the online value unless you really need to improve areas of your education that youre currently missing. Id say do it if youre truly trying to fill education gaps but otherwise no. Especially if youre staying at your company and its not required. They know you, so Id only look at it if you were trying to leave.

This is from an undergrad business major who did a hybrid masters.


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[541hunter]

Did you do it?

I did and will finish this May. Roughly 11 weeks of classes left.


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[croben]

If you can afford it in terms of both time and money, I’d opt for a JD over an MBA. I don’t think you’ll find an online law school though. Several folks in my class worked while attending law school and did just fine.

Not to derail this thread, but Syracuse University and Seattle University both have online law degree programs. I have a buddy working full time and going through SU’s program right now.

 

[TaperPin]

I did and will finish this May. Roughly 11 weeks of classes left.


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Way to go! Every program is different, but they piled the work on us the first half of the last semester to see how we worked under pressure, but then let up before we had mental breakdowns. *chuckle*

I predict you’ll find it really pays off. Being able to talk engineer and understand strategic balance sheet topics can be a valuable asset.

If you haven’t already, a leadership program pairs well. As a young MBA I worked briefly for a consulting engineering firm to help identify growth opportunities and potential changes to the organization to support this. At the time it was easy enough to identify what was driving new sales, and that leadership at different levels within the company was holding them back, but didn’t understand it deeply enough to make a meaningful difference. My next job insisted on putting me through a leadership program - that combined with a good mentor filled in many of the blanks that I should have had at the engineering firm. It also helped make sense of the organizational dynamics of seemingly identical work groups with greatly different abilities.

Hang in there!

 

[541hunter]

I appreciate the kind words! Things have been hectic the last couple weeks. The school work is manageable but adding in my full time job and my son’s travel sports / coaching, I feel I do not know where the time goes. It has been a good experience thus far. I truly believe you get out what you put into the program. I could have done much less work and passed classes but I do not think I would have learned near as much. It’s a much different experience than my undergrad.

Thank you for the advice. What leadership program did you do?

 

[TaperPin]

One more young engineer story and I’ll shut up. I new a guy who essentially had the business/strong leadership skills first then picked up an engineer degree went to work for a manufacturing complex. He knew enough about the people side to come up with plan to convince upper management to modernize the controls throughout the entire plant. He was the PM for implementing the changes, and it saves close to $700k/year, so he really hit it out of the park.

 

[TaperPin]

I appreciate the kind words! Things have been hectic the last couple weeks. The school work is manageable but adding in my full time job and my son’s travel sports / coaching, I feel I do not know where the time goes. It has been a good experience thus far. I truly believe you get out what you put into the program. I could have done much less work and passed classes but I do not think I would have learned near as much. It’s a much different experience than my undergrad.

Thank you for the advice. What leadership program did you do?

One focused on organizational leadership at the top and the other was more geared toward organizational change. Both used roughly the same selection of books, but were quite different because of the perspective.

I ended up sitting in on an org leadership class my wife was taking for her MBA, which was taught by a fantastic computer science consultant - he is no longer teaching, but his insights into technical companies was half the value of it. Then I fell into another local program that met on Saturdays for a couple months and was taught by a great guy who is a mover and shaker in regional government and non profit organizations - again half the value was his experience fostering increased leadership throughout orgs.

There’s no reason you can’t pick it up with self study now and use a formal program for continuing education brownie points later. The most valuable will be put on by someone in your industry, or at least a similar industry. Just by searching the syllabus of different programs it’s possible to get their reading lists.

 

[541hunter]

One focused on organizational leadership at the top and the other was more geared toward organizational change. Both used roughly the same selection of books, but were quite different because of the perspective.

I ended up sitting in on an org leadership class my wife was taking for her MBA, which was taught by a fantastic computer science consultant - he is no longer teaching, but his insights into technical companies was half the value of it. Then I fell into another local program that met on Saturdays for a couple months and was taught by a great guy who is a mover and shaker in regional government and non profit organizations - again half the value was his experience fostering increased leadership throughout orgs.

There’s no reason you can’t pick it up with self study now and use a formal program for continuing education brownie points later. The most valuable will be put on by someone in your industry, or at least a similar industry. Just by searching the syllabus of different programs it’s possible to get their reading lists.

Thanks for elaborating! I’m actually taking an advanced organizational behavior course right now through my mba program. It’s a great class so far and I’m learning a lot.

 

[adieatrick]

I was told long ago that a degree just means you're trainable. I dropped out of college because my schedule was too busy (start-up plant in renewable fuels). It consumed me and I worked crazy hours learning every detail and gained mentors along the way. I now oversee 3 plants and over 100 personnel with 15 MBA engineers, while not having a degree. There is still a lot to be said for hard work if you find the right field.

 

[southLA]

Looks like this thread has served its purpose but I'm a PE (civil) with MS and working on my MBA currently.

 

[Overlander]

Agree with above. The key would be finding a way for the employer to foot the bill, and there are definitely some who will. In any event, worse come to worse, cash flowing an MBA program would be the way to go. Avoid student debt like the plague!