MBA - To Do or Not to Do

Question

In the last couple of months, few MBA aspirants contacted me about my MBA experience. I just thought that it might be a good idea to pen down my thoughts to the questions that appeared to be repetitive & universal.

How are the job opportunities after the MBA? 
I do believe that the program has good credibility. I have been getting interview calls.

Have you found a job? 
I haven’t closed on an offer as yet. 
But look... that doesn’t mean that the MBA is good or bad. I mean, in fact, me getting or not getting a job may not be completely reflective of the credibility of the MBA. I mean partially yes, definitely… but not completely.

But if there are no job opportunities, then MBA does not make sense! 
I think the MBA can only take me to an interview, can make things easier for me to make it to the shortlist & get the call. But if at the interview, I flop, then it’s not the MBA, right?

So then, what sense does the MBA make? 
I think it’s for each individual to determine that for himself or herself.
Look… one of my buddies at school said his single biggest goal for taking this time off was to lose weight. And since he didn’t want to just sit at home, he decided to do an MBA. I mean c’ mon – if losing weight is the outcome that you wish for, then just go to the Gym or some Yoga Ashram or some remote village in the mountains for a month.
I strongly think that you need to know your WHY?

So how do we decide MBA – To do or Not to do? 
Look… I am no career expert. But for what it’s worth, I can only share my personal thoughts or beliefs. 
I would say - maybe you can take some time-off and:
• Step 1: identify your next career move
• Step 2: identify the delta between your skills & job expectation 
• Step 3: Identify how you can bridge that delta

Chances are the answer will be Do an MBA. 
Chances are the answer will be something else. 
Either way, the writing is on the wall then, isn’t it?

Gagoosh · Answer

Awesome!

Also, are you a fellows candidate? I wanted to know about the programme.

Posted from my mobile device

mangamma · Answer

Its purely depends on you only. If you think that your goals will fulfill with MBA in rapid speed, then go ahead otherwise focus on your goals rather than wasting 2yrs of valuable time.

rahulpetrocrat · Answer

Fast tracking the career

MBAPrepCoach · Answer

all of this is valuable, but this is what I hope people remember
Step 1: identify your next career move

So often clients want to take a ready-fire-aim approach to their next career move
work with a coach, do assessments, do informational interviews to get some focus on the goal and then apply. it's just too expensive to wander around hoping to bump into your life path at business school. That is crazy IMO.

I have worked with a few clients on really assessing if B-school is the answer and after doing their research, sometimes no, it is not. They might go into public policy programs, or even the research/networking on its own opens doors.

Really ask yourself does getting from Point A to Point B require that I spend $200K? There are so many great things about an MBA, but you must have a clear outcome and a clear ROI to justify the expense.

It's not a wise move to just "mix it up" or "take a break" or "try different things" (which is code for: get zero out of academics - the long-term benefit - and spend countless hours recruiting for multiple industries.)

bb · Answer

MBA - To Do or Not to Do

Not an exhaustive list - here are a list of WHY's?

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