Is an MBA a good choice? Is it worth it? Is business school really a good choice for you? It's the biggest question you need to answer before your MBA applications.
We’re back for a new season of MBA Mondays! And to kick off 2021 with a bang, Angela Guido tackles that very question.
The benefits and advantages of an MBA can be a huge boost to your career. Whether it’s to improve management skills, develop networks or for career development or even pulling off a smooth career change, business school can get you to where you want to go. So while the advantages of an MBA are clear, at the same time, it’s not going to solve all your problems. Watch the video to kickstart your MBA research and find out if business school is right for you!
Prefer to read? Here’s the transcript:
Hello, everyone, I'm Angela Guido, the founder of Career Protocol. Welcome to season two of MBA Monday. Today, I'm going to talk about potentially the most important question you can answer on your MBA journey, and that is, should you even apply to business school? It's a big mystery who the MBA is for and who it's not for. Who really should be applying to business school and who, frankly, really shouldn’t? Today, I'm going to help you answer that question for yourself.
An MBA Is Not A Quick Fix
The first thing to understand about an MBA is that it doesn't solve any problems. You know, that old truism, mo money, mo problems? It's really true. An MBA doesn't actually lead you to have more money right away. In fact, it leads you to have a lot less money, because most of you are going to have to take out significant loans to pay for that hefty, expensive education. The question for you really is, is it worth it? Is going to get you to where you want to go? So, as you enter this process of applying to business school, the first thing you really have to come to terms with is that the MBA is not going to solve any of your career problems. You still need to be self-aware and understand what you actually want to get from your career, from your job, from your team, from your work experience. You still have to cultivate your own skills of communication, networking, upward management, analytics, all the ways in which you're going to need to be successful post-MBA are going to require more work than what it took you to get to this point. The MBA doesn't solve any problems. It's not a magic wand. It's not a magic genie. It can't grant any career wish you have. And importantly, the MBA is not going to help you figure out what you want to do with your career. It's not like a luxury spa vacation of two years with dedicated career coaches. If you haven't figured out what you want to do post-MBA before you apply, you're going to be in trouble. Not only because recruiting starts really fast when you get to campus, but it's also a big part of your application. Showing that you have a solid career game plan is an essential part of your application package. I'm going to talk about that in a future MBA Monday. But today, let me give you three really good reasons why an MBA might be for you.
The Benefits of an MBA
- Number one: there are jobs that you really want that you can't get without an MBA. Some examples of this include management consulting, investment banking, certain other jobs and financial and professional services like venture capital, private equity, etc. and then even jobs like brand management, marketing, operations, management. Certain companies, certain roles really mandate an MBA at some point.
- The second really good reason why you might want an MBA as opposed to needing one is that if you continue on your current pathway, you're headed in a direction that you like. You're in an industry, you're in a function that appeals to you, you're doing work that you already really love and you're in a good company even maybe, and you're on a good trajectory towards leadership. So, you don't necessarily need an MBA to bridge the gap from where you are now to where you want to go. But if you get an MBA now, your path to executive leadership might get much shorter. An MBA in this case is going to really accelerate your career in the direction that you want to go. And that's another really good reason to want and to pursue an MBA.
- And then the final really great reason to get an MBA is maybe you don't need a short-term job that requires an MBA. Maybe you're not even really sure what you want to do immediately post-MBA. But you know that you have really big long-term goals. You're an ambitious person. You want to have an impact. You want to grow. You want to be a leader in some major capacity. If the titles of CEO or entrepreneur appeal to you, then you're in that ballpark. Any job where you're responsible for making a ton of important decisions that have cross-functional impact. In that case, you're going to find an MBA very, very useful because a CEO, for example, is responsible for finance, marketing, supply chain, operations, people, management, environmental impact, everything. The CEO has to have an understanding of every aspect of their business.
Those are three general really good reasons to get an MBA. What I just said is nowhere near good enough for what you're going to need to put into your applications about your goals, your career game plan and why you want an MBA. All of that will come in a future MBA Monday. But for now, really be honest with yourself. Do you want an MBA for the right reasons, or are you just sort of hoping that it's going to solve your career problems? If it's the latter, then watch this video again, do more research and see if you can figure out a path forward in your career that really necessitates an MBA. And if that's the case, then keep watching next week. We've got a lot more MBA advice coming. You right here on #MBAMonday.
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Angela Guido
Student of Human Nature| Founder and
Chief Education Officer of Career Protocol
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