Career advice re: MBAs

Posted by: Top Cat on 27 April 2004

Hi folks.

Having now passed the big 30 at the tail end of last year, and having spent the last 10 years in techie IT jobs I am ready for a fresh career challenge. I'm looking to move out of the inner workings of the IT industry and into a business strategy role, and am thinking about doing an MBA.

I wanted to ask anyone who's done, or started, an MBA what they thought of it as a way of climbing the career ladder, and whether they'd do it again. Also any reasonably priced recommendations - I wish to do either a part time or distance learning course which means that things like LSE and Harvard are out on both price and location grounds (and I'm probably too thick also

)

Anyone got any nuggets of wisdom to impart? The large organisation I am currently with may offer some support in this, but I'd like to keep options open.

Thanks,

John

Posted on: 28 April 2004 by Mark Dunn

Hi all,

Matthew wrote:

>The intellectual content of a typical MBA is about as minimal as one would expect and to think of it as a learning experience is to rather miss the point. Really it's about positioning oneself and networking and parlaying the whole thing into a lucrative job offer.<

Here in the U.S. this is incorrect. I have a BSc in Pure and Applied Physics from Manchester (England) and am currently doing an online MBA (I travel 4-5 days per week)in global business at the University of Dallas, TX. I was surprised how intense even the GMAT entrance exam was and the course itself is, on the whole quite intellectually challenging (with some caveats for certian courses). I've just finished my first year and had decided at the beginning to take my 'nemesis' courses first. These were Macro Economics, Statistics (tough one), and Management Accounting (which included a large chunk of financial accounting). I just (last weekend) took the final exam for the last nemesis course and eagerly (?) await my grade for it.

At UTD I need 45 credit hours (approximately 675 'calssroom' hours) to complete the course. At the rate of 2 courses per semester I have about a year and 4 months left.

I must confess though, at the orientation evening for new inductees my first thought was "Oh bugger, what have I done? These people are really smart." However, meeting all of the young fresh totty soon had me smiling again.

Interestingly, even though I work for an engineering company, they wouldn't pay for my schooling (and they pay ALL expenses) unless I did a business MBA. Hopefully I'm being groomed for greatness ;-))

I'm enjoying it and, somewhat perversely I actually miss the evening work at times such as now when we're between semesters. My recommendation would be to go for it, Top Cat.

Best Regards,
Mark Dunn

Posted on: 28 April 2004 by Former member

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For sure often things are out of your control to some extent but in my experience very able people who aspire to senior and leadership roles tend to find a way somehow.
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I quite agree - and some of them use an MBA as part of that process.

Others just do the networking and save themselves the MBA fee and course time.

James