naturallight wrote:
When I look around my firm, I see several young, highly capable people who have no interest in going to b-school. And why should they? They earn gobs of money, they get to work on whatever they like, they can work in some pretty exotic cities if they want, they already get some equity, and they're on their way to becoming partner.
And then I look at some of the kids at my firm going to top 15, top 5 b-schools next year (or considering it for the future or have gone in the past). These kids are qualified, innovative, and smart. I would be happy to call any of them a classmate. But none of them are slated to become the next CEO, I doubt any would make partner, and I'm guessing even managing director would be a stretch. Talented, yes. Stars, no.
So, in general, does the cream of the crop go to business school? What is it like at your firm?
Remind me again what industry you are in... I wanna know how I get an equity stake in a firm at 23 or 24...
But seriously... My take is that generally no, the best of the best don't go get an MBA. An MBA is an excercise in hedging your bets. It tends to attract the risk averse - those who prefer a sure thing than a maybe.
After all, if you really boil it down - why are we getting an MBA? You can spew any rhetoric you want about education, growth, opportunity, self knowledge, whatever -- but these are all things you can do without an MBA (and for a lot less $$). In the end, it boils down to wanting to get from point A to point B without taking too much risk. An MBA provides that.