<p>I've read a lot about this on the forum but nothing concrete so I would greatly appreciate some info on this. Is this a common practice? What companies are known to engage in it and what are, if any, the usual restrictions attached to this?</p>
<p>Most companies will reimburse an employee pursuing an MBA for tuition, fees, and books. If the company’s officers believe the employee has strong promise and wish to sponsor the employee, the company usually pays for everything in an Executive MBA program, but this is usually only available to senior managers who hold long experience or another Masters degree already, and who sign a commitment for a period of time following the delivery of their MBA. It is also done for fast-rising talent on a one-off basis.</p>
<p>In short, sponsoring the Executive MBA is a common perk for talented managers but not for the normal MBA.</p>
<p>Quick counterpoint - many companies specifically restrict the funding for MBA’s, as they know that many new MBA’s jump ship within a couple of years of the degree. As an engineer at my company, I can get a fully funded engineering masters with only my immediate boss’s approval. To get an MBA funded would require a Vice-President 3 levels up to approve it.</p>
<p>It is different in different business units - most of the guys here who want the MBA start of by transferring into program management or some other business department first, as those departments are able to sponsor more MBA candidates than the engineering groups. Regardless they are only going to do it for those who they think will stick with the company a long time, and only after they know them for a few years.</p>
<p>As MBA Grad mentioned, approval for the executive programs is pretty rare until you are already pretty high up - if your salary is less than the full cost of the program, they are probably not interested in sending you.</p>
<p>Some (if not all) top management consulting firms will pay for a consultant’s MBA (full time).</p>
<p>Many companies that offer to pick up the tab for an MBA also require that the MBA candidate work for the paying company for some number of years after getting the MBA, with the penalty for jumping ship early of having to pay back all of the tuition, fees, etc. that were paid by the company.</p>
<p>Because of these payback rules, a big negative is that a sponsored employee can’t utilize the on campus recruiting, which is such a big part of why a lot of people go to business school.</p>
<p>If you are looking to change career, it may not work for you either.</p>
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<p>A corollary negative is that the sponsoring company doesn’t really have to entice you with much of a post-MBA salary boost - if any boost at all - because they know that you’re prohibited from recruiting with other companies, depriving you of any negotiating leverage.</p>
<p>A lot of those at a place like HBS come from M/B/B, but it seems that very few return to the same exact place for their internship and post-MBA job, or at least HBS doesn’t seem to publicize these people very much. So is it true that M/B/B offer to pay, but few take the offer? This would imply that many who were BA’s at McK want to move to things like PE/HF after the MBA, and that most looking to get into consulting post-MBA are career changers.</p>
<p>The vast majority of people in a full-time MBA program are not being sponsored by their employers. Most people who are sponsored by their employers attend either a part-time (after work and weekends) MBA program or an executive MBA program.</p>
<p>Most often a student doesn’t want to be encumbered by the rules of the sponsorship so he would pay out of pocket or through loans. If at graduation the economy sours and the best offer is from his old company (consulting) , more often than not, he goes back with a guaranteed tuition reimbursement stipulation if he stays with the company for x number of years.</p>
<p>Of course, if at graduation he gets a more lucrative offer, he will have to pay back his loans.</p>
<p>If a student is sponsored for an MBA program by his or her company, many, if not most, business schools, limit that student’s access to on campus recruiting. In addition, if a student who is sponsored does go ahead and interview with other employers through whatever means, it is a huge red flag to potential employers that the student is showing such “disloyalty”. There are students who get burned (blacklisted, so to speak) for trying to interview despite their sponsored MBA.</p>
<p>The example I gave earlier is one of tuition reimbursement, not through a sponsorship program.</p>
<p>For example, I know someone who worked as a consultant for Deloitte. She went back for her MBA NOT on a Deloitte sponsored program although Deloitte does have a sponsorship program. She worked as a marketing intern the summer after her first year and subsequently received a full time job offer from this company. Before she accepted the full time offer, she contacted Deloitte to see if they would be interested in hiring her. Deloitte then extended a full time job offer to her plus a bonus of full tuition reimbursement if she agrees to work at least x years for them. In this case, she returned to Deloitte because the tuition reimbursement was worth more to her than the other offer.</p>
<p>Whether a student is “sponsored” or in an MBA program through a tuition reimbursement program, more often than not the rules are the same. If the employer who is sponsoring or reimbursing the student has an agreement with that student that they will continue to work for the sponsoring/reimbursing company for X years following the MBA, then the MBA program will honor that commitment and other employers will be quite unhappy (and have been known to rescind job offers) if they find out that a student interviewed despite their prior commitment to the sponsoring/reimbursing company.</p>
<p>sallyawp, in the example I cited, I thought I had made it clear that the student did not have an understanding with her company about ANY post MBA employment with them when she started her MBA program. Many companies, including the ones I’ve worked for will extend offers to valued former employees when approached and very often will include tuition reimbursement as a bonus. The agreement to return to the former employer was made AFTER her internship with another company. She was free to interview and work for anyone.</p>
<p>I just wanted to point out that the title rhymes nicely.</p>