MBA degree - wise or unwise in my situation?

College Search & Selection
21

<p>This is to the OP.</p>

<p>Listen, if you want to be a manager of software developers or something like that just start working as a software developer. If you want to work for a start-up, just start working for a start-up. Whoever said that you learn management skills on the job, not in the classroom was dead on. </p>

<p>If your a good developer, and show some management aptitude you’ll be promoted to a managerial role. Buy yourself some books on project management, cost accounting, etc and learn on your own if you feel you need an academic understanding of such topics. You’ll get where you want to be more quickly, and most importantly you’ll be getting paid to do it instead of wasting 2 years and missing out on $100K+ in salary. If your company wants you to have an MBA to be a manager, then they’ll pay for it and you can do it part-time at night. This would be scenario #2 (#1 being switching into consulting/banking) where an MBA is a worthwhile investment of time/money.</p>

<p>As to those saying that there are other things to do with an MBA besides consulting and banking, that’s true. However, like I said, 95% of the recruiting opportunities that actually justify the cost of a full-time MBA are in those two industries. Something like 500-600 out of HBS’ class of 900 will go into those two fields (McKinsey alone take ~75). It’s just like law school in that there are lots of things you can do with the degree. but only BigLaw is going to cover the loan payments you’ll be left with if your paying your own way. </p>

<p>It’s simple math:</p>

<p>All in cost of an MBA = $250K (~$150K in foregone salary over two years for someone with a good CS degree and 3-5 years experience + $100K in tuition)</p>

<p>All in comp for a 1st year brand manager at Procter & Gamble = $95K (this is typical of non-consulting/non-banking post-MBA positions). So your looking at maybe a $20K bump in comp from pre-business school, meaning something on the order of 15 years for you to see a payback on your degree.</p>

<p>All in comp for a 1st year consultant at McKinsey = $187K (base+bonus). This gives you about a $110K bump in comp, meaning something more like 3 years for you to see a payback.</p>

<p>As you can see, only one of the two career choices presented above makes economic sense once your $250K in the hole for your degree (even with $0 in tuition, the argument still holds). Listen, I may be making this a little too black and white, but that’s because its very clear to me that you haven’t even done the basic research yet. I’m giving you the macro picture here, and as you learn more you can decide if your case is unique enough that it falls outside of the framework I’ve laid out.</p>

22

<p>my final 2 cents,</p>

<p>I agree that you should put off the MBA until after you get some work experience. I would never claim that an MBA is a substitute for experience. My position is that it can be worthwhile to augment that experience with formal business training. You can be a great business leader or manager without an MBA, but there <em>are</em> things that you can learn in business school that are useful… things that you would have a harder time picking up on the job. Just through your classmates and case studies alone, you would gain exposure to many more different types of industries and strategies than you would by working in one company or vertical.</p>

<p>I also wanted to reiterate that you have more business school choices than:</p>

<ol>
<li>free MBA today</li>
<li>hope that your company pays for an MBA in the future, or</li>
<li>pay for your own MBA and then go into investment banking or management consulting</li>
</ol>

<p>If you do want to go to business school, there are other public school options that don’t cost $40k - $50k a year. Full-time MBA programs at the state and city universities in NY and NYC run about $11k a year. It’s not for future I-bankers, but that might not be what you want for your career.</p>

<p>There are also part-time MBA programs that wouldn’t require you to give up your current job. I believe Haas, Tepper, Anderson and Stern all have strong part-time programs.</p>

<p>Finally, even if you decide to go to a top-flight full-time program, there are many people that don’t go into finance or management consulting. Thirty to forty percent of MBAs at top programs (including Wharton and HBS) end up someplace else. Some of them go into consumer products. Some of them start their own businesses. Some of them even go into non-profits and government.</p>

<p>There’s a broad spectrum of MBA options to consider. As I mentioned in my first post, you’ll probably get a lot more out of it if you have work experience going into it. It’ll help during business school and help you decide what you want to do afterwards.</p>

23

<p>I would only do the MBA if the school has a part-time program that allowed you to work while getting the degree.</p>

<p>I would not forgo two years salary for an MBA unless it was from a super top-tier program.</p>

<p>The MBA isn’t useless. I have an MBA from a Cal State that my employer paid for…I thought the program was worthwhile and complimented my engineering background even though it was not a top-tier program.</p>