For the old ones who chose not to pursue MBA

Question

Hey Folks! How is everyone doing? A fellow oldie here

. I had gotten a Sauder admit (and mostly confirmed Smurfit) 5 years back in 2021 after scoring 660 in 2019. I could not improve the score over the years and gave up. The preparation though compounded off now in raw critical thinking ability! At that time, before finally accepting the offer, I just had gotten a good package in a FAANG. It was easy decision then to park the idea (with covid and all, hence earning more remotely). Looking back now, I am glad I did not opt for MBA. But by not pursuing MBA, I did create a vastly different professional career. In that regard, how is everyone been faring with their lives if they did not pursue MBA? Anything they would have thought/done different?

bb · Answer

Hey! Thanks so much for sharing your journey. An M. B.A. is really just a step in a series of life choices... it’s never the final choice or permanent state since you have to graduate after two years

Naturally, I don’t hear a whole lot from people who chose not to pursue the degree and I only hear from them when they come back to rekindle the journey but I know a few stories from the past - one was from a tech p.m. graduated from an M7 who ended up at Amazon as a product manager only to realize that many of his coworkers did not have an MBA, one had a masters degree and another one has been doing this job for 10 years so he was a bit surprised and proved the point that an MBA may not be the only road to your goal.

Another story was from 10 years ago when a person who was getting ready to apply for an MBA, I think she was going for executive or evening program and she signed up with a local organization to volunteer to get some community experience and things like that. During volunteering, she met a very active person who was involved in this organization and they got along really well and it appeared that that person was really high up in one of the investment organizations and she offered her a job, a job that she would’ve dreamed of getting after getting her MBA so she took the job and canceled her plans because she didn’t need to get an MBA anymore to get the job that she ultimately wanted.

At the same time I only know of two people who regretted getting their MBA. One of them was stayed home mom who never ended up using her skills and basically said it was pointless which yes from the investment perspective you could say that but she may change her mind in case she starts working.

I would say that an MBA is always a lot of risk. You really have to be in a bad spot to go through the painful application journey, abandon a good paying job be unemployed for two years and then recruit from scratch 😂

bb · Answer

I think if you are or going to be based in Canada, you probably made a good choice because the Canadian employers and opportunities often don’t value an MBA

gravito123 · Answer

Thanks a lot for sharing the insight! Delightful to hear there are folks in the same boat here. I am based out of Dublin now, but the sentiment is same as Canada. Here salary scales linearly with relevant experience and local network rather than academical degrees. Funny thing, I wrote the original post after working in a post MBA (Account Management) job without MBA, and now leaving it to go back to Tech because it’s not my cup of tea. The irony is real 😂.

For the old ones who chose not to pursue MBA

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