At a Career Crossroad, Help!

College Majors Business Major
1

<p>"Just go to the best overall school you get into."</p>

<pre><code> or
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<p>"It matters less where your BS was obtained if you have a masters degree from a well recognized university."</p>

<p>I had been accepted to the Univ of South FL college of business six years ago but eventually decided to attend Hodges University (national university vs comprehensive college) due to their more flexible class schedules and smaller/focused classes. </p>

<p>There were basically no good opportunities for internship being that I attended a small, private, comprehensive college. The course work in my major, business administration with management emphasis, was very close to USFs own curriculum. Upon graduation, I found it difficult to find a decent job with some of the corporations I had been scanning. </p>

<p>Considering my major and the abundance of business graduates out there, did I sell myself short by not attending a national university? Are the recruiters that review resumes looking at my resume and tossing it because I attended a lesser-known school? The college is regionally accredited by SAC and the business school is also IACSB accredited. I did finally find a decent job as a Credit Administrator with a larger corporation and now have 2 years of experience to add. I am wondering now because our company was recently purchased and my position is one of the many being eliminated next year.</p>

<p>I thought it may be foolish to go back an obtain another bachelors degree just for the sake of having a name brand college on my resume (even if it is a more focused major such as economics). I've been accepted to both USF and University of Tampa for graduate studies, but don't know if this or a 2nd/more focused bachelors degree would make me more marketable in the business world. I mean, if I obtain a masters degree in a focused field, isn't that going to somewhat limit my opportunities? Any advice from experienced individuals would be greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Get a new job. Obtain some more experience and then get an MBA.</p>

3

<p>Absolutely not, An MBA will indeed open many doors, regardless where you attended as undergrad the graduate degree will show your ability to thrive in that type of environment.</p>

<p>I see absolutely no point in going back to undergrad for the sake of university name. The best thing would be to find another job work for two of three more years, and then pursue an MBA or equivalent. Most employers will not pay attention to where you went as an undergrad if you excel in a good business school.</p>

4

<p>MBA or MBA equivalent. What would you consider an equivalent to the MBA withouot narrowing the focus, an MBS if it is offered in certain schools? I feel as if there are quite a few options at this point considering the broad base of my BS degree. Hopefully a few more years of work will provide me the opportunity to dabble into a few other areas of business discipline such as finance or economics. That will help me draw a better focus of what I really want to do, since I wasn't afforded this type of career-trial via internships. </p>

<p>As far as MBA or other graduate business focus, I assume it would be wise to choose recognized public over lesser known private institutions? USF vs. UTampa for example...</p>

5

<p>I'm not familiar with these schools, but take a look at average starting salaries from each. Also go to school near where you hope to work.</p>

6

<p>With an MBA, one can move into any business area. However, given that you are already 2 years removed from college, it's probably about time that you "figure out what you want to do when you grow up."</p>

<p>As for which business school to choose, you need to find out the avg starting salaries for the schools you are considering. Also, find out the avg age and avg work experience of the students.</p>

<p>Many schools that have decent undergrad programs (ie top 100) have absolutely horrible MBA programs. For instance, my salary coming out of undergrad was higher than the current salary of MBAs coming from the same institution. Most of the MBA students there are coming right out of undergrad so the degree is not worth that much. (this compares to top business schools where the salary is double what I made out of undergrad).</p>

7

<p>It seems to be, at least in the Tampa Bay area right now, that a bachelor's in finance from a reputable school (USF or UT area specific) is the ticket to a decent paying job with upward potential right out of school. I wonder if a bachelor's in finance degree would attract as many offers as an MBA if I was looking to get into finance... I would think the MBA wouldn't cover as much of the finance material....</p>

8

<p>MBA is a graduate degree.</p>

<p>BA is undergraduate.</p>

<p>As such, they will result in different pay, etc. The MBA is almost definitely the better option. Look at return on investment, and look at how long it takes to complete each. Why do 4 year BA when you can do the MBA? And the MBA almost 100% will result in better pay than the BA, so why even talk about the BA.</p>

9

<p>It would take me around a year to go back and complete a bachelor's in finance at USF, given that I already have a bachelor's in business from a comparable college. It would be a little more of a time and money investment to do the MBA at a similar institution. I understand that the market is flooded with MBA graduates from degree mill institutions as well as online-based schools at this time, and the return on investment is basically a joke. </p>

<p>That is why I would want to do it right, going to USF and actually taking the classes on campus. Don't they teach business grads about networking these days? I mean, being active on campus and in class is one of the greatest ways to leverage education vs experience with networking skills..</p>

<p>But honestly, I fear the MBA because I assume they will expect me to already have a strong fundamental knowledge of all business disciplines. I don't, as my general business undergrad focused on basic managerial accounting, economics, some marketing, and strategic management/leadership. My knowledge of finance, advanced accounting, investment banking, and such is very limited. I've talked to a few MBA grads from Georgia State, UF, and FSU, but I don't know what their background before the MBA was. I dunno.</p>

<p>Here is a somewhat related and interesting article:</p>

<p>"Dave, as a hiring manager at a large almost Fortune 1000 company, I constantly find myself looking at resumes and trying to weigh the relative value of degrees from different colleges. Does someone with a computer science degree from MIT or an MBA from Stanford but less relevant experience beat someone with a similar degree from Unknown U., and multiple years of directly applicable work? What do you think? </p>

<p>This is an interesting question because it mirrors the thought process I went through about four years ago when I decided to study for a Masters in Business Administration degree. </p>

<p>My first question was whether to do it online or at a physical facility. Since I was in the San Francisco Bay Area at the time, I toured the Stanford Business School and went to an open house at Santa Clara University's school of business too. In both instances I was much older than the typical incoming student and being married and a parent, didn't feel like I had much in common either. </p>

<p>Instead, I turned to online education and evaluated some of the many hundreds of different online MBA programs. I used Business Week as my reference list and decided that I would only choose a college that had both a ground-based and online-based MBA program. That eliminated quite a few possibilities. </p>

<p>But along the way, one of the questions I kept asking myself was: how much more valuable would a very expensive degree from a prestigious college be when compared to a relative no name or regional institution? </p>

<p>Rather than just guess, I polled a few dozen of my business colleagues, and the conclusion I reached after listening to a variety of opinions is that there are a very small number of highly prestigious schools in any given area of study, and if you didn't go to an "A-list" school, then it really doesn't matter what college you attended. </p>

<p>In terms of hiring from an A-list college or not, if you go into the office and walk around, ask yourself who is the most productive and who has most helped the company achieve its goals, and I bet you'll find that there's actually little correlation between college and value to the organization. </p>

<p>In certain areas, of course, the network of classmates is the secret value of a more prestigious school like MIT or Stanford, but even then, most alumni I've talked with tend not to recognize this and five years after matriculating aren't in contact with more than one or two fellow grads. </p>

<p>So my advice would be unless you really need someone from MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, or one of the other prestigious colleges, hire the person with relevant experience. I bet you won't regret it."</p>