What are the MAJOR benefits of a MBA???? Looking for some ADULT advice.

An MBA can provide you with additional skills that can be utilized by a company to make more money. An MBA is more useful if you have a few years of work experience. Some of the better programs even require MBA students to have solid work experience before beginning the program. If you earn an MBA while working as a graduate assistant in track, you may find it difficult to get a job when you graduate due to lack of experience. I suggest accumulating 2-3 years of work experience prior to starting a full-time MBA program at a quality school. You will be forfeiting a couple years of salary for the MBA, but you should make more money in the long run. Another option would be to work for 1-2 years and do a part-time program. Your employer may provide tuition assistance. Be careful, there are a lot of knock-off online MBA programs that aren't legitimate.

Agreed. You need to work a few years before going for your MBA. Some programs might take you straight from undergrad, but you won't get as much out of it.

The only thing an MBA is good for is networking. You're going to take a bunch of easy mickey mouse classes, but you'll meet a lot of successful people if you go to a good school. It's like joining a country club.

Don't go right out of school. Work at least 3-5 years. A good MBA is more than networking. You will learn a ton if you go to a top school. Pick up a US News and World Reports. Some small school MBA program will not hold the value in the market-place that a top 10 - 20 program will, keep that in mind.

Harry Kooter wrote:

Agreed. You need to work a few years before going for your MBA. Some programs might take you straight from undergrad, but you won't get as much out of it.

Harry, It's time you were told to shave that thing.

I am telling you this because we are friends.

Now I may be young, (I am 13) and you might be more older than me but I think I can help you. Getting into the MBA is good because you get to make a lot of money, and be in commercials. Dont get caught dogfighting though or with any under age-girls like Kobe. Keep working hard and practice your game: and you just might make it.

Good luck dude.

With that undergrad in marketing you'll be able to get a great job in retail or copier sales. Those top 10 schools are sure to be very impressed.

I'll give you some advice that you can either take or ignore.

Get your MBA, but don't expect miracles. Then, move to a MAJOR city and find a job. Your first job may suck. It may take a few years to find a nice job, or you may get promoted up the chain.

The key to all this is moving to a MAJOR city. New York, Boston, DC, San Francisco, etc....you don't have to live there for your entire life if you're not a city dude, but it'll be key in the beginning. Or, at least, it'll make the first few years easier.

Of course posters will pipe up and tell you how they lived in po-dunk Iowa and kicked ass in their respective field, and that's fine, but trust me and move to a major city.

Thanks for the info. I figured most people would advise me to get a few years of experience before getting my MBA BUT I'm not sure I will be able to do that. I can NOT afford to pay for grad school, thus the GA position would take care of that. Taking a GA position would allow me to get my MBA for free, something I couldn't do after spending 2-5 years in the real world.

I'm still very torn between the two. But luckily I have a few years to think about it! What would be a decent starting salary for a college grad with a degree in business (not a masters) directly out of college vs an MBA directly out of college? I'm just looking for rough estimates.

Thanks again for the replys!

tuesdayswithmorrie wrote:

Thanks for the info. I figured most people would advise me to get a few years of experience before getting my MBA BUT I'm not sure I will be able to do that. I can NOT afford to pay for grad school, thus the GA position would take care of that. Taking a GA position would allow me to get my MBA for free, something I couldn't do after spending 2-5 years in the real world.

I'm still very torn between the two. But luckily I have a few years to think about it! What would be a decent starting salary for a college grad with a degree in business (not a masters) directly out of college vs an MBA directly out of college? I'm just looking for rough estimates.

Thanks again for the replys!

There are too many variables to give an accurate answer. You could probably do a search with the Beauro of Labor Statistics, but even that isn't going to be too helpful as it will just shows medians and means, the distribution around which can vary widely.

How much you'll earn depends on what you majored in (less important), where you live (very important), how much non-academic experience you have (also very important), the local economy where you're applying for jobs, and multiple other factors.

The biggest question you need to answer is, what do you want to do with your life? Until you answer that, advice from random internet strangers isn't going to do you much good. You need to decide where you want to go before asking how to get there.

great advice, thank you Tim C

It will be finished faster if you go straight from college to MBA but many companies will pay their employees tuition costs to get that MBA while working for the man. But it does take a lot of night courses and weekend courses.

Undergraduate business degress are no better than undergrad Phys. Ed. degress IMHO. I've seen folks with PE degrees get great jobs right out of school and biz degree guys get stuck in customer service jobs. Do your research, some networking (with REAL business people, not MySpace friends), and make sure that you have excellent social graces and communication skills. I see hiring decisions often hinge on simple things like a handshake, the words "Thank You", or a positive personality. I've seen countless aggressive candidates armed with biz degrees from respected schools lose out to candidates with general ed sheepskins who seem like a better personality fit for the company.

MBA programs are a dime a dozen. I agree with other posters - choose a respected program with a history of placing graduates into good positions. Network with alumni from those schools as they are your best resource after completing your degree.

Take my word for it (I taught MBA courses for years)...

unless you are extremely talented and are one of the 1 in a million math/physics/business majors who can get into a top ten B-school straight from undergrad - then an mba straight from undergrad is uselss. Repeat useless.

Any program that will take readily take kids straight from undergrad is crap, and what is more the fact that you have no work experience will make the degree from that school even more useless to you.

Usually (not always) getting an MBA is about learning to be a manager (hence the term administration). What employer is going to make you a manager when you have no experience... so you having an MBA will be a complete waste

Go work for a few years, at the point IF you can get into a good program, then get your MBA, otherwise it isn't worth it.

Getting an MBA is great if your undergrad was in engineering or anything other than business because it gives you the foundation in business principles and will help you get a job at a large company like P&G, Coke, Pfizer. With a business degree already in hand you'll find a lot of the class work redudant from what you just spent four years studying.

If you want to work at one of the top investment banks or consulting companies(Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey) not only do you need an MBA, but it better be from one of the top schools otherwise the competition to get a job there will be tough.

Your best bet is to get out into the real world and see what you like doing before you spend more time and money on your education. If it turns out the MBA is the way to go, many of the major corporations that put a high value on it will help pay for it.

You speak the truth.

Trust me, ten years after you graduate, no one will care what you majored in as an undergrad. Just major in something that interests you, get a job that interests you, and work hard at it. You'll be promoted/paid based on what you accomplish on the job, not based on how many sheepskins you have, or what letters are on said sheepskins.

This is great advice. I went to a school ranked ~10 and literally did not know a single person who went straight from undergrad.

MBAs from different schools mean very different things to top companies and firms. Lots of companies have recruiting programs focused on a core group of top schools. A brand manager position will typically get you between $90-100k base salary, signing bonus and expectation of an annual bonus ~10-15% initially at a big company. The majority of people getting these jobs are going to be from top schools.

If you go straight from undergrad, you are going to go to a 2nd or 3rd tier school and for the most part be competing for different jobs. I have no idea what you could expect to make. If I had to guess, I would imagine somewhere in the $60s.

Anyone who says you don't learn a lot in MBA school either:

1. Is an idiot with no idea what they are talking about

2. Went to a bad school and didn't learn anything

3. Completely blew off business school

4. Is trying to make themselves look good. The whole "yeah, I learned like nothing in business school. it was cake" line which is them spewing out a lot of bravado in an effort to make themselves look smart.

5. Really is that smart. The few dozen people who sail through a top 5 school and then proceed to make Director at McKinsey in 10 years or found some insane private equity firm.

In terms of money concerns, save some money after school. And if you get into a top program, go full-time and don't worry about money. MBA students are amazingly comfortable with taking on massive amounts of loans during the 2 years (depending on your savings and/or scholarships the $60-80k range is pretty typical).

Also, I disagree with the comment about getting an MBA if you already have a business undergrad. True, a number of the classes will be similar to what you took in undergrad (although the approach they take to teaching them is much different). But a lot of companies and firms still want to see the MBA.

Just having ANY degree is worthless. What you learn in school (or elsewhere) is what's valuable. However, the sheepskin can open doors that translate into actual cash. Certainly there is worthwhile stuff taught at most schools, and in some cases it's better at a "name" school. But even at those schools, you're probably taking classes in a building named after a donor who didn't get an MBA. I would second (or third, or whatever) the idea that you need real-world experience in addition to the coursework, preferably before. Theory is nice, but some really great professors couldn't run a lemonade stand.

GREAT info! Thanks SO much! The more and more I read it sounds like I REALLY need to get some experience in the real world first before pursuing an MBA (even though this is not what I would ideally like to do). As I've said, I still have a lot of time to think it over.

I go to a small private college which isn't def NOT known for being a power house in academics BUT I am a VERY VERY outgoing person, and I have GREAT communication skills, I believe this will help me find a decent starting job in 2 years and I KNOW I will be successful in whatever I pursue.

Thanks again!