The case for getting a master’s degree in business administration is pretty obvious. The salary after graduation is impressive and it increases quickly over the years.
An MBA can put your career on the fast track, not to mention greatly enhancing your marketability. And, it makes your parents so proud.
But there are so many intangible — but very real — reasons for earning this highly coveted degree.
High value
"An MBA degree is incredibly valuable, more so than any other degree, with the possible exception of a law degree," said David Petersam, president of AdmissionsConsultants, a Virginia-based admissions counseling firm. "Its key value is that it changes the way you think and analyze things. It changes the way you view the world. It teaches you to look at things in different ways, [to] break it down. The MBA is solely focused on how to analyze a problem and be proactive in thinking creatively in an undefined environment."
Peter von Loesecke, CEO and managing director of The MBA Tour, an independent information source for MBA admissions, agreed that students not only learn to think critically but "holistically. They look at the influences, think through an issue and problem-solve. It's a multidiscipline approach that you don't get with a master's in finance or marketing or human relations."
Real-world experience
Today’s MBA schools focus on teams that solve business problems or situations — often for actual companies.
"You really get down to the nitty gritty quickly," said Scott Shrum, director of MBA Admissions Research at Malibu, Calif.-based Veritas Prep, which helps students get into graduate schools. "You can learn from textbooks, but working on real case studies for real clients is so important. It's terrific.
“You’re experimenting and learning, and you have a safety net. You’re learning new skills and there’s something to be said for screwing up and not worrying about being fired. You just take a ‘B’ and move on.”
Joel Koblentz, senior partner with executive search firm The Koblentz Group, acknowledges the "richness of a program where students learn to investigate, innovate, anticipate, listen, work as a team in order to come up with a solution."
He also believes that now more than ever, aspiring leaders need an MBA.
“Business is evolving and the softer side of issues is now as important as the analytical side,” Koblentz said. “The teachings now center around judgment, as opposed to being strictly analytical. There are no right answers and all alternatives must be considered. It trains the mind to look at options.”
As part of that, Koblentz says ethics are increasingly being woven throughout the curriculum in MBA programs.
“Students today consider how one conducts oneself,” he said. “There are lots of ways to make money but especially today, students are learning about the culture of ethics and how to understand the tradeoffs between your board of directors, your shareholders, your customers and society and then make the right decision.”
Better job prospects
Now that a graduate is prepared to enter — or re-enter — the business world, how helpful is an MBA in getting a job? Koblentz said that in his searches, clients rarely say they want the candidate to be from a top-five business school, but an MBA is usually required or preferred.
Price Harding, managing partner of executive search firm CarterBaldwin, estimated that 20 percent of his clients require a potential candidate to have an MBA, with another 40 percent to 50 percent preferred.
“In some cases, it’s absolutely critical to have the degree,” Harding said. “In many other general postgraduate degrees, the specific technical knowledge begins to fade over time and is replaced by real-life experiences. The MBA retains its value.”
The MBA club
When someone earns an MBA, one joins an elite club. The person hiring you most likely has one — as well as his or her boss — and that’s a critical advantage.
“If I have two equally great candidates and one has an MBA and the other does not, the MBA degree is highly considered as perhaps the deciding factor,” Harding said.
Don’t underestimate the value of the MBA club.
“When you come out of school, you have a support network and it’s a club that you will call upon multiple times in your life,” Shrum said. “If you’re looking for a job or you want to move up in your job, you have those people in your life who can help you.
“Just recently I had a person in my class — who was trying to get a job in a field that she didn’t have any experience in — call me. I gave her a 101 class on that industry. She ended up getting an offer. It wasn’t because of my input, but I think it helped give her some extra confidence knowing that she had some industry insight that maybe the other candidates didn’t have.”
MBA graduates not only network among their class but with the upper class — of management, that is. In the GMAC survey, 53 percent of MBA alumni built relationships with upper management, the most common network-based strategy to help develop their careers.
So how valuable is an MBA?
“At the end of the day,” Koblentz said. “When you’re planning your career long term, it’s another arrow in your quiver. A very important arrow.”
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