Choosing an EMBA program

Question

Hello,

I am Melbourne, Australia based IT consultant with 15+ years of experience data analytics and consulting, and am currently working as Principal Consultant in the space. In my role over last 5-7 years I have lead projects end-to-end and have been involved in all the aspects of deliveries right from pre-sales to final sign-offs. My last and highest educational qualification is Masters in Computer Application.

I am at a career stage where I am at the intersection of technical consulting and senior management roles and I am looking at avenues to learn the ropes and making a cut in the senior management positions.

I am looking at EMBA, as I am full-time working professional and do not want to take a career break to complete my MBA. I do not want to pursue EMBA for the sake of doing it or peer pressure, but I think I have the skills to make a difference.

I have been looking at EMBA programs across the globe and found top 10 list, which varies significantly depending on which source you look at.

Living in Melbourne, Melbourne University has an EMBA program but not ranked in top 20's or even 30's. The only advantage will be that all the on-campus modules, apart from the overseas modules, will happen in the same city where I live, which is not a big constraint while choosing a program.

I understand most of the top 10 EMBA programs are from American universities, which will be a operational nightmare with 1+ days of travel each side from Australia.

I have been looking at brochures from INSEAD, Oxford Said, etc and would really appreciate some guidance around decision making here. It will be great if someone who has gone through similar situation can share their experiences.

Thanks in advance

bb · Answer

Interesting question. I think a lot depends on whether you want to stay in your current position or if you want to recruit for a new job and how you were expecting to do that recruiting.

And there is value in going to a local program because that’s going to get you looped in into the Australian net work. You may go to Ruth or Kellogg or one of the other top business schools but your closest classmate or alumni will be in Japan and what uses that?

In terms of the program, the main value is the skills you learn, the personal qualities you build, confidence you gain, net work you get, and maybe some thing else I’m forgetting right now 😂

Frankie curriculum and what you will learn is highly dependent on the professor you yet and frankly you. If you are are wiped out and tired from flying in or dialing in at 3 AM in the morning, you know there’s a learn a whole lot no matter how good the professor is or the school.

But you will get confidence and leader ship skills improved in any program. The biggest disadvantage of not attending a top program is your classmates and their caliber. If you attend original program, you need regional folks, many of them perhaps not so successful which is the reason they need a degree…. But you should be able to meet a decent number of Taipei and all kinds of personalities who are legitimate and hard-working.

I don’t know much or rather anything about the Melbourne program so the best research would be connecting with some students or alumni. You can ask admissions to get you in touch with them. They would love to do it…. As you probably know, executive programs I’m more like clubs rather than academic institutions and they work hard to attract new students…

Bottom line, look at your goals, look how you’re planning to use this degree and that should help narrow down the field.

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TheMBAEdge · Answer

Hey  Subh273 ,

Totally understand your predicament since we have been working with a lot of IT professionals looking to transition into leadership roles for which an MBA / Business Knowledge does tend to become a prerequisite. It is specially true if your experience has been limited to the technical domain without any formal business exposure. 
To be completely fair, the quality of experience in these part time formats will be below the full time formats such as the MIT Sloan Fellows, LBS Sloan Masters, or Stanford MSx, and career pivots will be next to impossible if that is something that is on your mind. Having said that, your organization may see the value in endorsing you to pursue an EMBA and thus it would be recommended to have a conversation regarding financial sponsorship - admissions committee look at financial sponsorships very favorably for the EMBA formats during the admission cycle.
Coming to the program selection, rankings can be used as an initial starting point, however they aren't a holy grail since you will need to look at the program fit based on your personal circumstances and the offerings on hand. Since you are based out of Melbourne, flying to the US frequently will next to impossible, so its best to not even think about those. The  INSEAD GEMBA, LBS Global EMBA and the Wharton Global EMBA  are some of the programs which are conducted by some of the leading business schools that you can have on your radar. Do have a detailed look at the program schedule, the tuition, the class profile and the overall structure to determine if they will make sense with your professional and personal commitments. I would recommend scheduling an initial chat with the admissions officer to assess the potential fit and then maybe take a more concrete view if the program would make sense.
We have helped candidates get into the likes of Wharton EMBA, INSEAD GEMBA and most seem to be pretty happy with the experience keeping in mind their professional commitments.

Hope that helps!

Thank you,
TheMBAEdge

Subh273 · Answer

Thank you TheMBAEdge for your detailes response. I will reach out to LBS and Wharton and seek alignment.

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Choosing an EMBA program

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