The blogosphere consensus seems to be that getting an MBA is valuable for the following things:
- Networking and meeting other business-savvy people. This can lead to valuable career opportunties if leveraged effectively.
- Changing careers. My friend BobG put it best: “The MBA is mainly a big dating service/screener for HR recruiters,” and it can help you make the switch from one field to another. Ditto for people with engineering or liberal arts backgrounds who want to get a crash-course in business principles.
- Getting the “stamp of approval”. If you want to be a consultant or i-banker, you’ll have to fork out the dough.
The blogosphere consensus seems to be that getting an MBA is NOT valuable for the following things:
- Getting an education above and beyond what could be learned by reading good books, periodicals, journals, and work experience. Yes, you can learn a heck of a lot through an MBA program, but probably no more than if you just dedicated time to sitting down and learning about these things yourself. (You can also seek out people with experience in fields you want to learn more about without going through an MBA.)
Devin Reams on March 19th, 2005 at 8:58 pm
I appreciate the summary, now I have an excellent little guide I can point friends to. Explaining the aforementioned reasons becomes quite tedious. Always a good read, Dane.