The Value of MBAs

**barbaro** · 11-03-2008, 12:09 AM

The diploma mills in the US are churning out all kinds of Bacherlor's and Master's and MBAs. Important for some jobs yes, but their value is becoming diminished. This, is appropriate.

MBA not always key to landing a plum job

Many top executives succeed without advance degrees, recruiters say

Charles Rex Arbogast / AP
Andrew Favreau, a part-time MBA student at DePaul University, poses with a pile of text books in downtown Chicago last year. The importance of a MBA is getting diluted, and it’s never really been a guarantee you’ll get that choice executive job.

By Eve Tahmincioglu
MSNBC contributor
March. 10, 2008

Melanie Holmes is an executive for a Fortune 500 employment services firm and two years ago, at age 55, she decided to go back to school and get her MBA.
Why? It’s not what you think.

“It was a personal thing. I just wanted to achieve it,” says Holmes, a vice president for Manpower Inc. “I didn’t expect anything differently in my job nor did I expect to go higher up the ladder.”
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">document.write('<a href="http://clk.atdmt.com/go/msnnkhac001300x250xNBCMSB00082msn/direct;wi.300;hi.250/" target="_blank"><img src="http://view.atdmt.com/view/msnnkhac001300x250xNBCMSB00082msn/direct;wi.300;hi.250/01/" /></a>'); </script>

Holmes is one of those executives who doesn’t believe you need a MBA (Masters of Business Administration) to become successful in business. And she’s living proof of that, moving up the corporate heirachy after starting out as a secretary.

Lately it seems that everyone and his or her brother has been going back to school to get an MBA, but the importance of this higher degree is getting diluted, and it’s never really been a guarantee you’ll get that plum executive job.

Believe it or not, the majority of CEOs running major companies in the United States actually do not have MBA degrees. Research done by BusinessWeek magazine in 2006 found that fewer than one in three executives who hold high level positions in Corporate America had an MBA.

And a more recent poll conducted by Pace University professors Aron Gottesman and Matthew R. Morey found that out of 488 top companies surveyed only 159 had CEOs with MBAs at the helm.

The study also uncovered an interesting fact that may sound counterintuitive: There was no evidence that having a CEO with an MBA helped the stock-market performance of the firm. In fact, “there was some marginal evidence that it might hurt,” explains Gottesman.

Even though tough economic times are usually thought of as a great time to go back and get some more education, plopping down big bucks on an MBA doesn’t mean doors will automatically open.

“Colleges seem to churn out MBAs like tissue paper. There may have been a time when those three letters actually distinguished job candidates from the pack, but no more,” says Joanna Smith Bersson

Managing Director and Talent Officer for New York based DB Marketing Technologies. “As a senior manager at a business insights management consulting firm, I have found that the MBA is more embellishment than substantive.”

While there are still some jobs, particularly in the financial sector, where an MBA is usually a must, recruiters and hiring managers say they’re looking for applicants with real world experience, that have actually run something.
A higher degree can surely open doors, says Jonathan Mazzocchi, a partner in Wyman’s accounting and finance division, but “experience will always trump MBAs.”

Entire: Your Career: MBA isnâ€™t a guarantee - Careers - MSNBC.com

**Texpat** · 11-03-2008, 12:27 AM

Nearly every educated person I know agrees that experience is more valuable than education -- but takes you twice as long to get it.

What's your point?

**obsidian** · 11-03-2008, 01:10 AM

its just another way of setting your resume apart from the next guy. (unless you have gone to a good school then it can really help you)

**barbaro** · 11-03-2008, 08:07 AM

Originally Posted by Texpat

Nearly every educated person I know agrees that experience is more valuable than education -- but takes you twice as long to get it.

What's your point?

That's basically my point.

In US there is a huge campaign to get people back in school. Pay sizable amount of money, mostly borrowed to "increase your socio-economic status." This can help, but as you and others know, experience is the key.

There are tons and tons of "higher ed" programs out there today. It's a mantra.

This article reinforces the fact that many other qualities than taking classes improves your ability and strengthens your character.

**good2bhappy** · 11-03-2008, 08:45 AM

My MBA is useless in Thailand

**Jet Gorgon** · 11-03-2008, 10:05 AM

^ Weird.
I would never have gotten any work in Asia initially without copies of my degree and transcripts. Sure, experience on my CV got me on to other posts and where I am now. However, folks want to know if you can do the job. I was turned down initially for the company I work for now (I slashed and burned the copy). Their first pick failed miserably and they called me back. Been with them almost a year now.

But, the degree is important on the CV.

**reinvented** · 11-03-2008, 10:45 AM

#81 Graduate School

From stuff white people like

March 4, 2008 by clander

Being white means to engage in a day in, day out struggle to prove that you are smarter than other white people. By the time they reach college, most white people are confronted with the fact that they may not be as smart as they imagined.
In coffee shops, bars, and classes white people will engage in conversations about authors and theorists that go nowhere as both parties start rattling off progressively more obscure people until eventually one side recognizes one and claims a victory. By the time they graduate (or a year or two afterwards), white people realize that they will need an edge to succeed in the cut-throat world of modern white society.
That edge is graduate school.
Though professional graduate schools like law and medicine are desirable, the true ivory tower of academia is most coveted as it imparts true, useless knowledge. The best subjects are English, History, Art History, Film, Gender Studies, <insert nation> Studies, Classics, Philosophy, Political Science, <insert European nation> Literature, and the ultimate: Comp Lit. MFA’s are also acceptable.
Returning to school is an opportunity to join an elite group of people who have a passion for learning that is so great they are willing to forgo low five-figure publishing and media jobs to follow their dreams of academic glory.
Being in graduate school satisfies many white requirements for happiness. They can believe they are helping the world, complain that the government/university doesn’t support them enough, claim they are poor, feel as though are getting smarter, act superior to other people, enjoy perpetual three day weekends, and sleep in every day of the week!
After acquiring a Masters Degree that will not increase their salary or hiring desirability, many white people will move on to a PhD program where they will go after their dream of becoming a professor. However, by their second year they usually wake up with a hangover and realize: “I’m going to spend six years in graduate school to make $35,000 and live in the middle of nowhere?”
After this crisis, a white person will follow one of two paths. The first involves dropping out and moving to New York, San Francisco or their original home town where they can resume the job that they left to attend graduate school.

At this point, they can feel superior to graduate school and say things like “A PhD is a testament to perseverance, not intelligence.” They can also impress their friends at parties by referencing Jacques Lacan or Slavoj Žižek in a conversation about American Idol.
The second path involves becoming a professor, moving to a small town and telling everyone how they are awful and uncultured.
It is important to understand that a graduate degree does not make someone smart, so do not feel intimidated. They may have read more, but in no way does that make them smarter, more competent, or more likable than you. The best thing you can do is to act impressed when a white person talks about critical theorists. This helps them reaffirm that what they learned in graduate school was important and that they are smarter than you. This makes white people easier to deal with when you get promoted ahead of them.

i'd say generally MBA is more of an american thing, though the Thais seem to love it too

**Jet Gorgon** · 11-03-2008, 11:23 AM

^ MBAs help folks to read P&Ls and spread sheets, calculate earnings estimates and forecast future outlooks. Oh, and how to calculate P/E and discounted dividend models.

**chinthee** · 11-03-2008, 11:30 AM

In my experience, the most in-demand MBAs are those with a truly useful undergrad degree, such as in an engineering discipline.

People with Bachelor degrees in Business don't gain much with an MBA. And, anyway, today there are so many MBAs running around, I doubt it has the cache it had, say, 10 years ago even.

**mad_dog** · 12-03-2008, 12:18 AM

A lot of the MBAs spend so little time in the classroom they can hardly be classified as academic courses.

**njdesi** · 12-03-2008, 09:00 AM

I will be attending MBA school part time in starting in August. The focus of my MBA will be information technology, which hopefully will lead to a job as project manager. My company reimburses $5,000 a year for tuition, so if I can get one for free and eventually get a job making six figures, why not get one?

**Texpat** · 12-03-2008, 09:27 AM

Uncle Sam paid for mine. All but the books.

Thanks Sam.

**Jet Gorgon** · 12-03-2008, 11:52 AM

I forgot to add that I was in charge of investment research with just a lowly honours degree. The new MBA recruits were doing photocopies and stapling.

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