Considering getting my MBA, Need assistance in choosing the right path to meet my goals.

[Acturus]

So what would you suggest to someone who still doesn't know exactly what they want to do after they finish undergrad? I just viewed an MBA as the next logical step.

What logic did you use to decide this? Generally speaking, "I don't know what to do with my life" doesn't mean "more school".

Consult with the advisor in your major, or your school's student services, etc. Even if you need to put off graduation for a semester or a year in order to do a work study, there are other ways to delay than simply more schooling and more debt.

Now, having said that, my friend went straight to a doctorate program from his undergrad, but he got his degree paid for by the college, and was able to be a Grad Assistant and research assistant, which helped him get teaching experience and programming experience, and that helped him get his job with DeVry after he was about halfway through his masters program.

If your masters program offers work experience, research, purposeful experience beyond taking classes, then consider it. But don't take on a new level of study just to delay the real world. Without work experience to pair with your additional education, you won't be getting much value.

PLUS! If you have experience to pair with your MBA, even if it's gained at the same time, you're that much better than the MBA-onry kids.

[Moss]

What logic did you use to decide this? Generally speaking, "I don't know what to do with my life" doesn't mean "more school".

Yeah, that was my logic. I could graduate this spring but I still have 2 more years of scholarship left. That is plenty of time to figure things out, I was just thinking ahead. Thanks for the advice.

[Conformity]

Yeah when I grad'd I worked at this shitty callcenter making salary + commission, one of the chicks that was working there was making 32k/yr with an MBA from Belmont. I was there making 60k/yr with new bachelors degree lol. Be wary of just an MBA, or you too will be supervising a shitty callcenter.

[Wulfgang]

Favorite Subjects:

Finance
Economics
Marketing
Entrepreneurship

Most Hated:
Accounting (fuck that shit playboy)


Ok, the kind of career I want to pursue is one that allows maximum international travel and makes a lot of money. So my immediate interest lead me to international finance management. The reason for international is the fact that I want to get to some of these emerging economies that are growing rather than ours that is stagnating and will be stagnating for the next 10 years. This way I can actually invest my money (and others) into growing companies; thereby, making more money, properly.

So, I ask you BG, am I on the right track? Are there any other majors that I need to consider? Is there anything else to life than fucking bitches; getting money? Is weltall a fgt?

Frankly you seem way off target / rocker in your evaluation of US opportunities; why wouldn't you go for PE / post-MBA IB and make 300k+ a year? That said, Georgetown has some excellent international programs, but you would be crazy to pass up Booth / SGSB / Wharton / Haas / etc. for Gtown.

I have three years experience in IB, did well on the GMAT (760), and am fucking dreading apps. If you didn't start UNICEF, you're not getting into SGSB / HBS it seems lately.

EDIT: Read the rest of the posts in this thread; most are clueless. If you go to a top 7-10 MBA program, you are looking at an enormous bump in career opportunities and salary.

[notorious bum]

Frankly you seem way off target / rocker in your evaluation of US opportunities; why wouldn't you go for PE / post-MBA IB and make 300k+ a year? That said, Georgetown has some excellent international programs, but you would be crazy to pass up Booth / SGSB / Wharton / Haas / etc. for Gtown.

I have three years experience in IB, did well on the GMAT (760), and am fucking dreading apps. If you didn't start UNICEF, you're not getting into SGSB / HBS it seems lately.

EDIT: Read the rest of the posts in this thread; most are clueless. If you go to a top 7-10 MBA program, you are looking at an enormous bump in career opportunities and salary.

This post is delusional at best and pretty narrowminded if you think everyone else is "clueless" for critiquing the now infamous lolMBA in today's economy.

I think its pretty solid advice to seriously put some time into research and getting into the job market somehow before deciding to plow through more school that may not actually pay off.

Nowadays having a masters is all about how well you market yourself and exploring the niche specialties that otherwise wouldn't have been necessary before(actually applies to all degrees, but that is one expensive piece of paper to get hired with at walmart).

[Conformity]

Ok, so you are saying I should put some research into an International Baccalaureate and Private Equity Degrees?

[toonces]

mba depends on your country & and what everybody else said, i think north America cares less about them. South America still a big deal.

Now if you plan to get it, i would do it on Finance or entrepreneurship (get to do lots of business plans and mock up companies)

[Wulfgang]

Ok, so you are saying I should put some research into an International Baccalaureate and Private Equity Degrees?

IB = investment banking, PE = private equity; they're exit opportunities, not degrees.

This post is delusional at best and pretty narrowminded if you think everyone else is "clueless" for critiquing the now infamous lolMBA in today's economy.

I think its pretty solid advice to seriously put some time into research and getting into the job market somehow before deciding to plow through more school that may not actually pay off.

Considering you need 2+ years of work experience to even get into the vast majority of MBA programs, I thought it would be a given; most people wait 4+ years. The OP said he has been working for 2.5 years in corp fin, I don't understand what you are saying about "getting into the job market." Wagon's response on the first page was pretty solid. And if I am narrowminded, you are definitely in the same bucket Mr. "the now infamous lolMBA in today's economy." There's a difference between University of Phoenix and Chicago.

[Acturus]

There are a number of MBA programs that do not, in fact, require relevent work experience. Webster University, for one, comes to mind (I am going through one of their local campuses for my MHA, and their entry requirements are very lax), and there are also some local schools that encourage students to stay in-house, so to speak, for post-sedondary education and will waive or overlook work experience to get you in the program. Education is a business after all, and not every MBA program is filled to capacity to where they weed through candidates.

The McMasters MBA programs dillute the quality of the average MBA-holder, but Phoenix and Webster and NOVA and those schools are paired right up with quality MBA programs. Unless you are in a field where a masters degree is required, odds are good that the company doesn't care where your masters degree is from. They will care if you have one, and they might care what field of study it is in.

At the same time, companies that require masters level education are specialized to where an MBA isn't going to be an asset, like Social Work or Accounting.

*edit* For students looking to avoid the real world after undergrad (not the OP), I cannot stress enough the value in work-study, or collegiate internships, or similar programs that may be offered by schools.

The OP has two things that are beneficial to a person seeking further education 1) experience, and 2) a goal. That's what masters programs want to see, because it means they are accepting driven individuals who know what they want and are going after it. But at the same time, an MBA is becoming less valuable out in the job market. If, however, all you need is a piece of paper to show in order for a promotion or a transfer, then yeah, get the MBA, use it for that next step, and then start building more experience as you use that next step. But MBAs don't open as many doors as they used to.

[BarthelloSylph]

Not sure if I should continue replying since OP got banned, but I have to lean towards Wulfgang's responses on this one. You can say Top 20 MBA programs are a dime a dozen but reputation is everything with an MBA program, because it's the recruitment aspect that's most important. The top companies will actually come to the top schools to interview, giving you a leg up on any regular Joe trying to get that job. Whether or not it ends up being worth the money, I'm not sure. You'd have to do a NPV analysis to get at that.

If on the other hand you are trying to stay with your current outfit and get your MBA, it matters a lot less where you get it. Just be aware that having the MBA from a top program helps out if you ever leave your company.

To respond to Moss, I got a Corporate Finance concentration, but also took a boatload of accounting classes. Accounting is extremely important for any finance person. And I'd say the average work experience in my class was about 5-6 years, though that number is probably trending downwards for most MBA programs. If you've founded a company or done something else extremely awesome, that requirement is less binding.

[Acturus]

I think I'm being misunderstood. I'm not discounting "top 20" MBA programs in and of themselves. I'm saying that the sheer volume of MBA programs out there dillute the pool of MBA holders, and in turn lessen the value of holding an MBA from one of the "top 20" programs.

[kyod]

I disagree. Since MBAs are a dime a dozen, the reputation of the school means everything now more than ever. It's not like the Top 20 are substantially increasing their enrollment with the increase of people looking to get an MBA. Programs become even more selective than they once were. This is how I view it at least

[Wulfgang]

Haha what did the OP get banned for? And what did Neosutra get banned for? Saw that recently.

[Acturus]

I disagree. Since MBAs are a dime a dozen, the reputation of the school means everything now more than ever. It's not like the Top 20 are substantially increasing their enrollment with the increase of people looking to get an MBA. Programs become even more selective than they once were. This is how I view it at least

I encourage you to talk to a hiring manager some time. Again, unless the job of field specifically calls for a minimum of masters-level education, the people doing the hiring generally care less about the education and more about the work experience. If a masters degree is not necessary for the jobs that you are pursuing, then it means fuck-all where you got the masters degree.

And the ugly truth is that this pattern of "delay the real world for two more years by getting an MBA because I don't know what I want to do with my life" is watering down the pool of applicants. You don't need an MBA for many entry-level business positions, and getting an MBA without matching experience means that you're overqualified when you go looking for enty-level.

At the end of the day, if all you have is an MBA and you are applying for entry-level positions, you're not getting the full value out of that MBA, regardless of whether it came from Yale or NOVA.

At this point, we're well past the OP's question. His situation with his job is different than the 20-22 year olds who are using higher education as a stalling tactic. If that's the case for some of you on this board, then I'd rather you to look into work study, internships, or hell, even minor degrees of study or second majors. Don't get a masters because you think it's the next step. It shouldn't be unless you've got work experience to pair with it, and once you graduate with a Bachelors, you lose a lot of free money from federal scholarships, at least here in America.