<p>Hi, guys, I have been a laboratory manager in Colorado for 2 years, I am now finding a way out of the lab/bench work into business development or marketing. the pay is ok, but I am just getting sick of lab/hospital/technical stuffs. I am currently looking at MBA in marketing; however, my local schools are not nearly as good as top tier or even second tier... should I even bother applying to them now? (University of Colorado @ denver, boulder, university of denver) as I understand, top tier = top 20-30? second tier = top 50? those schools I mentioned are about 100-150... :S</p>
<p>also, how is the job market looks like for BS bio/MBA grads? I kinda don't want to be holding a MBA degree and still doing the same job I am doing now. I used to be a sales rep for 2-3 years about 10 years ago (non-bio/pharma); don't think that will help with my resume at all...</p>
<p>An MBA wouldn’t really do anything for you because you don’t have the experience.</p>
<p>You don’t have what would be considered “sufficient work experience.” Most MBA candidates have worked 5+ years for corporate companies, usually in some department related to finance, sales, accounting, operations, etc.</p>
<p>Biology lab experience =/= pre requisite MBA experience</p>
<p>Also, if you’re looking for a career change, it’s worth mentioning that only the top schools are really worth attending. A MBA from a bottom tier or mediocre school isn’t terribly valuable.</p>
<p>Actually, biology lab experience may, under some circumstances, be acceptable experience for an MBA. The only thing biz schools are looking for is leadership. For example, if you were someone in charge of or helping with running the lab, running weekly meetings, soliciting grants, and/or organizing different research teams, etc., that would certainly be something that business schools would accept.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t that business schools wouldn’t accept it, it’s that many actual businesses wouldn’t care. An MBA is not a technical degree; if you don’t have work experience indicating that you would be good at business administration, it’s just a worthless piece of paper.</p>
<p>^I think it is rather obvious that some jobs after your MBA might not be open to you depending on your prior work experience, but that in no way justifies making a blanket statement that the MBA would be worthless.</p>
<p>For example, I know someone who worked in a biology lab before her MBA, and then after her MBA she got a position running a hospital, and later worked her way up to running a regional chain of hospitals. In her case, that lab experience was relevant. I imagine that her experience pre-MBA would have been directly relevant to biotech management, pharmaceuticals, health insurance companies, government/NGO health agencies, etc.</p>
<p>Furthermore, in between your first and second year of your MBA you typically do an internship, which many people who are lateraling to different field/industries use to gain experience.</p>
<p>A more extreme/obvious example is that if you go get an MBA at a top-5 school, you would probably get an interview for a business role at any business out there.</p>