An excellent article about MBAs

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by daniellevine, Feb 25, 2010.

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  1. daniellevine

    daniellevine New Member

    I've been trying to figure out if this is the route I want to go. I've read so many fluff articles all over the internet, written by people who really write personal opinions and try to pass them as universal facts, when in fact they are really just guessing- or in many cases their opinions are limited to their specific company. This Q+A is outstanding; it is written by a very high-up recruiting company. The last paragraph, in particular, is very interesting considering the amount of candidates/qualifications they review every day.

    http://www.atlanticresearch.com/media/businesstimes-singapore.htm
     
  2. blaterson

    blaterson New Member

    One quote I didn't fall in sync with:

    "In countries where paternalistic, old fashioned or hierarchical business management styles have dominated, an MBA can be valuable not only as a personal window on a different way to do business, but it might be of tremendous value in convincing top employers to consider one seriously for substantial management responsibilities."

    I have been living in 'paternalistic' and 'traditional' countries for the last 6 years, and I was / am under the impression that in paternalistic societies, bosses don't like to be told what to do and don't like differing opinions. They don't care for outside expertise. What they prefer are 'good little employees' that do as they're told, and make the boss look and feel good as much as possible. A loose cannon new employee with expertise and an MBA would be a direct threat to the boss(es) face and dignity. The title -- alone -- would give pride to the company and the bosses, but the cognitive abilities behind the MBA would quickly ruffle feathers, I think. Anybody have light to shed on this?

    It sounds like this article was written from answers by a recruiter. The answerer used lots of phrases like "there are all kinds of situations" and "so much depends on the specifics". I can't help but not forget that a recruiter's job is to sell an employee and company to one another, not caring about whether the employee and company have a great chance of being with each other a year later or more.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 25, 2010
  3. ITJD

    ITJD Guest

    As a boss with a behavioral management style and as a person who has bosses in the classic, old school method, I can absolutely see your point and have been exactly there. Were I to have had a MBA when getting vetted for my existing job (or even my IT undergrad) I'm certain I wouldn't have been hired as I was almost not hired due to my credentials otherwise (so sayeth my peer manager group that was in on the vetting. I was OQ per the hiring manager who had worked his way up the chain from card punch employee to Director over 20 years)

    What I can also advise is the MBA doesn't offer or improve your cognitive ability. If you're smart and driven you'll lose out on a lot of jobs that are appropriate to you if you don't have the credentials. You'll also annoy the people you work with in your present job over time as smart and driven people generally get stuff dumped on them and they tend to do well regardless.

    However, there's also the dark side of smart and driven where you've been part of the Brady monkey study (look it up - it's a horrible thing to do to animals and questionable research but still interesting) too long and you get burned out from the constant dumping. There a danger of being so on top of things that you take time away from being nice and communicating in a way that's of proper etiquette. Once that happens you might as well turn in your notice cause you're not moving up the chain one step further.

    I really think that the focus in life needs to be to live responsibly, live to your means happily and get educated because you love knowledge. There's a lot of people living on salaries from McDonalds and Walmart in the world. The jobs will take care of themselves if you educate yourself, be balanced as a person, apply to things at the time that's appropriate and live simply.

    The stress of "I must get a MBA to get X job" or "I must have the big house and BMW" is unnecessary. Just an opinion and I'm off track from the original thread, so my apologies.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 25, 2010
  4. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    A really great article, one of the most practical and genuinely honest assesments of the value of the MBA I've seen in a while. Notice that AACSB, ACBSP, etc. was not mentioned once. It also sheds light that we here and elsewhere in higher ed communities have our discussions in a bubble seperate from real world realities at times. We nit pick, haggle over details, throw out "what ifs" etc. and though I truly do love it I think we lose perspective at times.

    I took away a few points from the article:

    1.) People who do what they love are successful.

    2.) An MBA isn't the right move for everyone trying to move up (so true)

    3.) An MBA does not make a good manager automatically

    4.) The mystique of Top 10 B-schools does not readily translate into marketplace employment

    5.) Experience trumps education almost every time (again, so true)

    6.) That skill and creativity are what gets people ahead, not so much credentialism

    7.) That the MBA might be more valuable in traditional hierarchial businesses. I can see #7 being true and might add that with the onset of a global marketplace, generation X and Y coming into more senior positions at organizations, the availability of information these days and portable skills taking place of "jobs" and "careers" these hierarchial business will become fewer and further between, personally I do not see them surviving legitimate global competition in a marketplace that demands agility and speed. That might make a good blog topic now that I think of it :)

    Thanks for sharing the article, I'll bet you a beer it never makes it to the U.S. News...
     
  5. heimer

    heimer New Member

    "Then there is the type of hiring manager who is just plain jealous of the person with the MBA from the prestigious school and he or she cannot see beyond his or her own prejudice in evaluating the pluses and minuses of the individual."

    Well, that's interesting… Maybe it's ADVANTAGEOUS to skip, say, Harvard Business School and opt for a Northeastern MBA instead? Maybe so depending on the industry?
     
  6. emmzee

    emmzee New Member

    Probably depends on the job/company ... if everyone else there has ivy league MBAs, then it's pretty much required. But if no one else there (including the person who will be your boss) has one, then they may feel threatened by the fact that you graduated from Harvard and not want to hire you. (ie, they may think "This guy's gunna come in and steal my job!")
     
  7. 03310151

    03310151 Active Member

    But your typical HBS grad isn't applying for the assistant manager position at Wal-Mart. They are going where other HBS grads have paved the way so the jealousy issue pobably won't be as it would if a Hahvahd grad was applying for some "less prestigous" type gigs.

    Your point about degrees by industry is a valid one too.
     
  8. friendorfoe

    friendorfoe Active Member

    Whoah Nelly!!! That wouldn't be the case if Harvard opened up their B-school programs to online students.

    I can certainly see a Harvard MBA working against an applicant in an area like Fort Worth, Texas where they have jobs other than Wal-Mart believe it or not, they even have a Duncan Donuts...and a mult-billion dollar oil and gas industry, large aerospace industry, various technology companies and don't forget the boot companies :). Dallas, Texas however being a large financial hub may be more accepting but still not going to swing as big of a stick as say SMU or even UT...in my opinion anyway.
     

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