How has your online MBA helped your career?

Nope......

 

I think you nailed it on the head. Having an MBA isn't a golden ticket. But if you can learn valuable skills which can transition into a real world business environment, you'll find the pursuit advantageous.

 

I agree. I don't think that just having an MBA will magically open doors. I know it will take hard work and applying what I learned to open those doors and I'm fully prepared.

 

The other issue of an online MBA, is that you get to create life long connections if you physically attend courses. It's always been clear for me that MBAs are a networking opportunity as much as a learning one.

 

Do you feel that you would be pursuing an MBA for purely academic reasons and the acquisition of new knowledge/skills? Or do you feel that having it on your resume will help advance your career?

 

A little bit of both. As a consultant, I would like to be able to better understand or identify the needs of my clients and I think going back to school will help with that as it will teach me about things outside of my current field (tax). It will also help me get the required 150 hours for the CPA license. And looking at the profiles of people above me at my company, it seems most have MBAs or some other kind of Master's degree.

 

To my mind the MBA is a practitioners degree and holds limited, if any, 'academic' value in and of itself.

 

What do you mean by a "practitioners degree"?

 

It's been awhile since I started this thread. Anybody else care to add to it?

 

I also agree with Dr. Lady in that the MBA degree is a practitioner's degree. Practitioner degrees prepare you to apply what you learn in the classroom back into the workplace. Think of a nurse practitioner's degree, knowledge gained in the classroom is then transferred to real life situations.

An academic degree on the other hand is different. The sole purpose of an academic degree is to prepare you to move along further in academia, i.e an academic masters degree sole purpose is to prepare you for the rigors of a PhD degree. And a PhD degree-- its Raison d'être-- prepares you for a life-long career in academia as a professional researcher (professor).

Think of the MBA degree as a fancy vocational degree. A vocational degree prepares you to enter the workforce running by applying what you learn in the classroom back to the workforce. That is all I have for now, gotta get back to work. :yikes:

 

Hi everybody,

It is true that MBA is a practice-oriented Master's degree, but still it is an academic qualification. The fact that it is practice-oriented and in that different from a MSc or MA does does not drag it out of the definition of an academic qualification. It is offered by academic institutions, teaching academic content, with a high focus on practice. If we classify MBA as "vocation" and not academic, then most BSc degrees preparing students for professional life would well fall out of the academic context at all, which would not be right, in my opinion.

 

As far as I know, RA would be just fine for that. AACSB seems to be a plus in terms academic prestige and an advantage if you want to teach at a US business school. Even in that case, only some schools in the US, roughly %30 of which are AACSB accredited to my knowledge, would require that.
Legitimacy, on the other hand, does not depend on having AACSB accreditation or not.

 

Although I am working towards my MBA, I can speak to healthcare. An MBA or MPH is becoming more and more advantageous. To get to the management level, a bachelors and enough work experience is all that is needed. But if you want to move up to the director level, or the executive suites, a MSN, MBA, or MPH is required depending on your particular profession. Many MBA's excel quickly, and so long as you graduate from a state school or private non-profit, you'll do find. As far as salary goes, it really varies by your profession. In healthcare, I've seen some MBA's make only slightly less than a specialty RN like a surgical nurse in a trama suite. But I have also seen some directors who make 180K per year and CEO/ CAO's who make several million per year with just an MBA. An MBA opens the door, but its really your professional ability that dictates how high you'll climb.

 

I chose not to go the MBA route because the market was/is saturated with them. I went with a MS in Organizational Performance. In fairness, I was already enjoying a successful career, but the MS took me to another level. It provided a lot of credibility to the work I was already doing. Additionally, it allowed me to become an adjunct professor at a brick and mortar institution which in turn added even more credibility. I was able to bring in more clients, sharpen results, become the Executive VP of my organization and now, 2 years later, am in the final stages of purchasing the organization through a merger with another company, all of which I organized.

As I stated, I can't attribute all of it to the MS, but it definitely helped. Being a man of faith, I consider myself blessed. Good luck doesn't hurt either!

 

My MBA helped in the role I was already in (National Service Director) and was needed to help me land some adjunct work teaching marketing. Without the MBA in marketing, I would never have been able to work for a wonderful school as an adjunct!

 

Those are pretty much my thoughts. I'm not getting an MBA expecting it to open doors for me. I'm sure it will help some but not a huge amount. I want to learn more about other aspects of the business world and it will help me get to the required 150 hours for the CPA requirement.

 

Bumping an old thread...