MBA overrated in future employment picture

It's true that an MBA doesn't have the pull that it initially had when it was first introduced. However, it's better to be the guy who has one than the guy who doesn't.

 

Well.....obtained my MBA in August '08, starting shopping for a new job in the NE state with the worst economy & received an offer in December.

The bottom line: Out of 6 final candidates, I was the only w/an MBA & hired on with a fatter wallet ($30k bump)!

BTW: Academics always wins.....and the only "crappy" MBA degree I know of comes from a fake piece of paper purchased from the internet.....or a foreign degree.

 

Mba = $$$

Well.....obtained my MBA in August '08, starting shopping for a new job in the NE state with the worst economy & received an offer in December.

The bottom line: Out of 6 final candidates, I was the only w/an MBA & hired on with a fatter wallet ($30k bump)!

BTW: Academics always wins.....and the only "crappy" MBA degree I know of comes from a fake piece of paper purchased from the internet.....or a foreign degree.

 

I love this kind of thinking... In fact this kind of thinking is probably the only reason I am gainfully employed right now

Reason being is I work with engineers who simply cannot comprehend business, kind of like I don't really comprehend what they do, however the company feels that if you put us in a room together and shake us up, like vinegar and oil, we work pretty well together to fill a need even if we are as different as oil and water.

Of course for my end people skills are huge and an MBA won't teach you that (7 years as a cop will though), which is probably where a lot of engineers bump heads with a lot of business types.

 

To my way of thinking, me again has hit the nail squarely on the head. Also, congratulation to Smirnoff! whose experience proves the point.

 

This is not true, in my opinion. Any (legal) MBA is better than none, but there is a perceived difference in quality across the spectrum of MBAs on offer, with good reason. In these days of increased competition for jobs there will be increased scrutiny of the 'where' in addition to the 'what'.

My own experience backs this up. When I tell people I am working on an MBA, almost without fail they ask me where I am studying. It does matter.

Peace,

Dave C.

 

You know, the high school diploma is over-rated these days. Maybe I should have just quit high school when I was 16 instead of pissing away all that time and money on additional education.

 

That is the difference. You are working on yours. Hence, where are you doing it is the next logical question.

"I have an MBA" - oh good that is what we need.

After you have the degree and then only if you went to a top name school will the name make a real difference.

IF you go to Bob's House of MBAs . . . well Dilbert that may make a difference.

 

Sorry, not convinced. Every conversation I have regarding credentials includes the 'where' factor. Maybe it's because I'm from the UK and we don't have quite the same plethora of schools right across the range.

I've had discussions with people doing MBAs where the rigour involved is laughable. Not even a dissertation or examinations. Any HR departments that don't factor the school into the equation are downright fools, which many of them are as we know.

Peace,

Dave C.

 

I'm not agreeing with the OP, but:

So you are saying that 5 out of 6 made it into the final round without an MBA?

Yeah, yeah...those smelly foreigners and their second-grade education.

 

Actually, I found in my experience that in the US employers respect more Canadian or some European degrees than low tier American Schools. An MBA from the University of Toronto or even an average Canadian school can sell more in the US than one from the UoP.

 

Ah, what lovely American ignorance, where would we be without it!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

True. Most employers don't care all that much about rankings and tiers anyways as long as the applicant meets the educational requirements for the job. But it's a plus if the school or program catches the HR manager's attention. This can be an especially well-known school, a school that the HR manager has personal affiliations with, or a foreign school name (foreign=interesting) from a country known for solid education.

 

I took this quote as sarcasm.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3433375.stm

You surprise me Mr. Fishy. You surely must be Canadian.

 

Oftentimes, if a university is named after a city or a state, then it immediately conjures up a favorable image of the school. For example, yesterday a woman said she got a doctorate in physical therapy from the University of St. Augustine. Since it's named after a city, it must be regionally accredited, right? It isn't.

When asked if she did a dissertation, she said no; she explained that she wrote a 24 page case study on a patient. Since it was such a short paper, she was asked if it was an empirical study -- at which point she got a deer in headlights look and started taking short, shallow and nervous breaths. To clarify the question, she was then asked if her paper was quantitative, but the nervousness continued, so to put her at ease, the topic was changed.

Later, a quick internet search revealed that the University of St. Augustine is only accredited by DETC for programs through the first-professional degree level e.g. it's not regionally accredited. The moral of the story is to not judge a school by it's name.

 

DETC accredits a doctorate that only requires a 24 page case study and not a more substantial work? Whoever was talking to her was too nice. I wouldn't have changed the subject and made her sweat more.

 

Oddly whenever I applied for jobs I was never onced asked during the interview where I earned my MBA, in fact my educational experience never once popped into the conversation. My work experience and project management knowledge however were the core of our conversation. They took MBA + understanding of technology + project management knowledge = hired. I interviewed against 6 other people. My no name, low tier MBA put me edge over on the other more technical applicants.

Since then I've been asked exactly twice by coworkers where I earned my MBA and the conversation goes like this...

Them "So you're the new project analyst right?"
Me "Yep"
Them "Didn't you used to be a cop?"
Me "Yep"
Them "Why did you change careers"
Me (I give a sometimes short, sometimes long version of the story)
Them "Wow, so how did you end up here?"
Me "I went back to school, earned an MBA and was hired here shortly after"
Them "Wow, an MBA huh? Where did you go to school?"
Me "Ashford University"
Them...blank stare.
Me "It's a little university in Clinton, Iowa".
Them (varies from) "oh, cool" to "I have relatives/friends/lovers/friends who are lovers but not relatives/etc. living up there"

But never once has anyone ever batted an eye to where I went to school for my MBA. In fact if you want to avoid the whole "online" discussion I have found that by saying "Ashford University, go Saints!" in a muted school spirit sort of way the next thing out of their mouth is where they went to school or a college sports topic sometimes both. It's almost like a knee jerk reaction. I'm sure there's a curious psychological phenom behind that.

 

Some professional doctorates do not always require a dissertation. I reseached the Au.D. some time ago and found that some RA universities require little or no research courses. But they usually require substantial internships. Maybe the Doctor of Physical Therapy falls in this category.

 

If a degree with a doctoral title (a) has no dissertation and (b) qualifies one to sit for some professional licensure exam, then it is a first professional degree, which is distinct from the professional doctorate, which has an applied dissertation or project. So, you are correct, to judge a DPT degree negatively for having no dissertation is like saying that an MD or a JD is no good if it has no dissertation.