Did you know that a single two-second distraction can cost you 15 minutes of your day? When your concentration is interrupted, it takes up to 15 minutes to get your focus back.
If you are responsible for hiring people, someone with a master’s degree in business administration might look like an attractive hire. While, “Never Hire An MBA” might be a bit extreme, I see a lot of people who overvalue an MBA. Here are some reasons you should be wary or at least careful in hiring them.
There are obviously exceptions to everything I’m going to say here, so read everything in the spirit of “increasing your odds of getting a good employee”. In particular, this advice is directed at smaller companies that don’t normally hire a bunch of MBAs, but are starting to see some job applicants with the degree and are considering hiring them. If your business has a strategic system to make use of people with this particular educational tool set, most of what I say here won’t apply to you.
Why do they want to work for you?
The cost of starting a business was once very high. You had to rent office space, hire an accounting and payroll department, buy a telephone system, etc. This isn’t the case today. Someone who is good at running a business can start one on a shoestring budget and look just as big as anyone else. Computers are cheap, a lot of software is free, and you can outsource many parts of your business as you go and simply pay as you go. It wasn’t that long ago that getting a web server and email server up and running would cost you $50,000 just to get up and running. Now you can get a web server and email accounts for $6.95 per month or even free if you use something like Google apps.
If someone has a master’s degree in running a business, why are they coming to you for a job? Years ago, it made sense. It was very expensive to start your own business. That isn’t the case any more. So if someone with an MBA is coming to you there are several possibilities:
- They can’t run a business. - If they can’t make it on their own, do you want them working for you? Is it possible you can find someone better without an MBA? If you need a particular part of their skill set, maybe it is a good fit. Just be aware that if you need someone with a really good skill at running a business, you need to understand why you should trust their skills more than they do.
- Want real world experience. - This is a valid reason, but just make sure you aren’t paying someone for their MBA experience if they are coming to you because they don’t really have anything beyond their diploma. Someone with an MBA who says they want real world experience could be an excellent find and become a very passionate employee. However, as we’ll discuss later, one of the drawbacks of many MBAs is that they often over-estimate their skill set.
- No ideas of their own. – Not necessarily a bad thing if you just want someone to execute your business plan, but make sure you aren’t paying a premium for them to have good ideas. If they can’t come up with a good business idea on their own, they may not be able to come up with good ideas for you.
- Too specialized. - Someone who specialized in one specific area may not have a wide enough skill set to run their own business. If their expertise fits well with your business then it can be a great fit for both of you. However, usually the idea of an MBA is that it is a general education in all aspects of business.
Lack of Experience
Someone with a fresh MBA looking for a job, may not come with much real experience. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you understand that having an MBA doesn’t automatically make someone good at their job. A large number of people are going back to school to get an MBA after having worked for a number of years. On one hand, you may find someone who has a great deal of real world experience that they can apply to your business problems. On the other, you may be dealing with someone who is making a significant career change. When you look at someone’s experience make sure you aren’t throwing them into a situation that goes well beyond what they are capable of doing. It is easy to tweak a resumé to showcase skills in the past to align with the jobs they want in the future. If their resumé says they have “management experience” don’t automatically assume they possess the skills to handle having 40 people reporting to them. Make sure you understand exactly what they managed, the extent of their authority and the results the achieved.
Lack of experience seems to show up the most when you put someone in charge of managing and leading others. If their only experience with leadership is being under the leadership of others, they are likely to emulate all of the bad habits without picking up on any of the good ones. If you need a manager, don’t give someone this position based solely on their MBA. Make sure they have real experience with good results in management either before or after getting their master’s degree.
Overconfident
This is more of an issue with people who have had very little real work experience. While most MBA programs offer good content, simply being exposed to a lot of great ideas doesn’t say much about your ability to implement those ideas in real life. Just because someone took a class in negotiations doesn’t mean they are any good at it. Worse, they may think they are good at it and blindly cause a number of problems. Confidence is good, but not when it blinds you to your inability. A person with a bunch of confidence in their ability to fly a plane, but no actual skills is infinitely more dangerous than someone with a lack of confidence and a minimal amount of skills. Someone without confidence will double-check their results. Someone with a lot of blind unfounded confidence won’t know there is a problem until right before they crash.
I once met with a newly minted MBA who was taking a new position. I asked about what she considered her greatest strengths. She gave me a list of 5 or 6 things that she felt she was really good at. A few months later in a 360 degree evaluation (where everyone evaluates everyone else) her weakest attributes exactly matched the list she had given me a few months earlier.
If you think you are bad at something, it probably doesn’t hinder you much. When you get to a situation that requires that skill, you are extra careful, ask for help, delegate, etc. People who think they are bad at driving on ice, rarely have ice related accidents. However, when you think you are good at something its easy to overlook obvious signs that you are doing something wrong.
In looking for ways to reduce accidents, some experimenters removed all the road signs from a city and watched what happened. The number of accidents went down. It turned out that the signs made people overconfident. They paid attention to the signs instead of to other obvious clues–like the truck that doesn’t look like it is going to stop. When there weren’t any signs or lights, people had to make eye contact with the other drivers to decide whose turn it was to drive. The signs made people less careful.
I went to a college where everyone was required to pass a swimming proficiency test to graduate. It wasn’t that hard if you had ever done any type of swimming. You had to swim across the pool and tread water for five minutes. However, there was one guy named John who had no skills in swimming, but he tried to make up for it with sheer confidence. John was a nightmare for the life guards because he kept jumping in the deep end and sinking to the bottom–confidence and all.
For an MBA, the pretty piece of paper they have hanging on their wall can make them less careful. It can encourage them to jump into things that they have no preparation for. It doesn’t take too much life experience to correct this, but you may or may not want to be their employer during this learning experience. Further, the value of the MBA is quite a bit lower if their real skill set is developed on the job at your expense.
Economy and Education
A down economy is great for the educational sector. When people lose their jobs they often go back to school to improve their skills. People with just a bachelor’s degree who can’t find a job after a few months may start looking at MBA programs. Going back to school can help pause their existing educational loan payments and let them get another one at a very low rate. Both of these things will help them keep their head above water while they wait for the economy to recover. Getting a degree also helps make the gap on their resumé look less damaging and it can help give them a better shot at positions that require highly educated employees. So all in all, this isn’t a bad idea. You get laid off and can’t find a job–go back to school.
But, if you are hiring, you may want to consider a bit more how the economy works. When companies need to cut back, they generally want to get rid of the employees that have the least amount of productivity according to this formula. In many situations the highly productive employees are often many times more productive than the average–but usually they aren’t paid many times more. This means that of five employees the top two or three are probably going to still have a job. (This assumes a rational employer, which isn’t always the case, but the idea works when dealing with dealing with large statistical samples.)
So the person who gets laid off and goes back to school for an MBA is somehow a less profitable investment than the other employees. Either they weren’t as productive as the others or their pay was high enough that they were more expensive than less skilled help. However, the wildly productive employees are still working and are thus less likely to go out and get their MBA. People who have reasonably good jobs during economic uncertainty are less likely to drop $20k to $50k (or more) on a master’s degree.
So a fresh MBA right after an economic downturn may have the MBA because they weren’t an ideal employee in the first place. Obviously there are exceptions to this and there are all kinds of things that can happen on an individual level, but these are things worth considering when looking at the MBA job seekers as a whole.
You may get a better employee by hiring the guy who had a job during the downturn because his employer couldn’t afford to let him go. He may be worn out from doing the work of several people so a different job may look very attractive.
Of course with this logic, it may never be a good idea to hire someone who doesn’t currently have a job. You don’t want to hire someone else’s problem employee. Yes there are exceptions, but if you are trying to increase your odds… Just be aware of the timing of someone’s MBA. It might be a bit more complicated than an overwhelming desire for self-improvement.
Conclusion
What if you are looking to get an MBA? I don’t want to make it sound like an MBA education isn’t valuable. There are a lot of worthwhile things you can learn getting an MBA. It can do a lot to strengthen your existing skill set–particularly if you are already practicing an on-the-job MBA approach. But, if you have no skills in running a business today, getting an MBA isn’t going to change that.
If you are looking to hire someone, don’t overlook them simply because they have an MBA, but at the same time don’t over-value their degree and let it blind you to their actual real-life skills.
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I don’t really agree on most of the things said, not because of concepts explained but more for the motivations supporting them.
As many time times you cannot generalize, but some of the points are worth some thinking, because there’s a loto of myth and “overselling” on MBAs.
I agree on the fact that most of the people seem to over estimate MBA skills, but I also think that as, all education matters, is not a differentiator. MBA becomes a differentiator only if supported by a solid working experience.
Having a Master degree helps in not being too much generalistic and can complete, again, education and working experience.
Being a MBA graduate at 23 is not a differentiator at an absolute level: is a good starting point but definitely a starting point.
It requires to be valued but also needs the applicant to be humble and available for learning just like all the others.
Too often I see companies asking people to be at most 22 years old, with a degree and a master speaking fluently 3 languages. This creates a not so applicable bareer at the entrance, because there will obviously be an excess of requisitions and so a compromise will be needed. But of course being so often required a MBA forces people to take the challenge thinking that this will make them compete for more, while they’re alligning to the rest of the offering.
Is everything in an MBA exchangeable with experience? No. There’s always the right time to make things and I put the timeline for a MBA between 3 to 5 years after starting your work. taken Before is not usefull (is a sort of specializing, but without the critical approach coming from experience), taken after is overcome by experience.
Making an MBA should be an investment to upgrade current position or give you a competitive advantage? Overall I think that the answer is yes, but cannot be a general rule, since, many factors influence this.
I have a degree while my wife was not able to complete hers. My wife, however has an impeccable wealth of experience, and I would hire her over myself. (Ha!)
I further despise the attitude – “I have a degree so I deserve ‘x’ salary and ‘x’ position.” It generally comes from a younger, self-deserving generation. Most people I know with degrees look condescendingly down on others who don’t have one.
Because of my brief points – I would hire someone with experience and no degree over anyone with a degree with no or little experience.
You know, maybe it’s because of the recession, but I don’t generally see too many people my age (younger) thinking that way anymore. I’m going back to school part-time to get my MBA and I don’t think I’ll deserve to make $X, I know I’ll need to make $X to pay back the $100K in student loans! :)
Yes, but it’s not the job’s responsibility to pay for your loan.
The same as the other reader, the logic behind the explanation does not compell me.
I am not a fan of the MBAs, I studied 3 years at university and I started to work immediately, preferring study Chinese and working abroad as feeling it was more suitable for me.
“If they can’t make it on their own, do you want them working for you? …you need to understand why you should trust their skills more than they do.”
The premises here are that run your own business is the best choice for everyone and that everyone dream is to start his own business and that everyone has at least a good and feasible business idea.
Moreover even if it is cheaper then before, you still need money to start a business bigger than a freelance business model.
“If they can’t come up with a good business idea on their own, they may not be able to come up with good ideas for you.”
The word “idea” has different meaning in this sentence but you put them in teh same level. The business idea is a completely different thing from the ideas you can have within an existing business context. If I can not come up with a compelling business idea it does not mean I can not lead people or find a way to market a product or control costs…..
You have some good points, but I believe you over estimate how little capital it takes to start a number of businesses today. Plus, shouldn’t an MBA be trained in how to get investors, etc.?
Keep in mind that I’m writing to people who own a business and are looking at possibly hiring an MBA. I’m not saying that getting an MBA is a bad idea, but I do think most owners of small businesses will overpay for the skill set that an MBA will bring unless the new hire has a great deal of real world experience.
Mark,
The cost to open a business may be low, but people also need two years worth of survival savings (to pay rent, utilities, food, school loans, etc.). That cost will never go away no matter what the business model.
I agree that someone who is surviving from paycheck to paycheck is not in a good position to start a business. However, I disagree that a talented person needs to wait two years before they start making enough money to cover their basic living expenses. That would be the whole point of getting an MBA–getting the knowledge on how to get a business running profitable as quickly as possible. Some businesses will take two years to reach a profit, but many can start out profitable. Those are the types of businesses you want to start.
I kinda of disagree with a lot of your points as well.
I think the primary point that you are neglecting is that not everyone who has an MBA does so as a path to starting their own business or automatically reaching a managerial height in an organisation. The MBA that is offered at the university I go to, and some of the nearby ones, are both quite in depth and span a huge range of business fields. I think ‘general’ education is a bit of a cheap comment. ‘General’ education is something you would get doing something such as a bachelors of commerce. Take a look at just your average MBA’s corporate finance content… I wouldn’t call that ‘general.’
It is just a qualification, much like a masters of applied finance or management, albeit much more lucrative on its face. You can’t just discount its merit because of a set of arbitrary confinements which would only apply to some MBA students.
I do agree with the pay sensitivity issue though. I don’t think an MBA graduate should use the qualification to lever a far greater salary.
awesome post. i have started my entrepreneural journey. and this will really help me in the near future
I disagree with some of the articles core points – never mind the title itself is antagonistic, it’s pertinent and should be read to avoid the pitfalls before and/or after earning an MBA.
I never said you shouldn’t earn an MBA. If you are any good at all, there will be plenty of people very happy to hire you. In some cases you don’t even have to be any good. :)
Do you have an MBA?
No I don’t. I do have two masters degrees. At one point, I was looking at MBA programs, but decided that I’d personally be better of with a degree that was a bit more specialized.
As I said, I think the skills most MBA programs teach are very valuable. This article is written from the vantage point of someone who is looking to hire employees.
Bottom line, I don’t agree with much of anything in the post. I understand you are writing for entrepreneurs, but they are a unique group. About 5% of the population are natural entrepreneurs and want to be. That does not change for MBAs. The traditional path for an MBA is not as an entrepreneur, but as a lifetime manager starting as an associate and rising WITHIN a company. Entrepreneurship and business administration are entirely different, and I think as an entrepreneur you realize that.
The reason you are seeing so many MBAs is not because they’re poor workers or devoid of ideas. It is because the companies and roles they would normally seek are withering severely in this economy. A lot of talented and accomplished people are out of work simply because cutbacks are arbitrary. Entire divisions and layers are cut. Companies don’t have time for the metrics. They just fire (and these roles may never come back).
In any career, a person with some years of experience plus a masters’ degree is a much better hire than the person with a degree and zero years in the field. If you’re comparing a fresh MBA against someone with years in the field, you’re right. But if you’re comparing two applicants with equivalent years, and one has an MBA, hire the MBA.
I think there are some arbitrary cutbacks, but there are also a great number of strategic cutbacks. A big company may lay off an entire division, but there are a lot of cut backs that are carefully thought out. You keep the people whose work is most directly related to making a profit. I agree that a lot of people are out of work, but there are many more people who make you wonder how they ever got a job in the first place than high quality employees. I know a number of employers are hiring strategically to try to snatch up any of the truly high quality employees who have somehow lost their job. Further proof of this is the number of positions that are unfilled. Companies are looking for workers, but finding it hard to get highly skilled people. Since a job notice can produce hundreds if not thousands of resumes, companies are being selective and trying to get the very top people.
If you take two candidates without management experience, one with an MBA and one without, I wouldn’t automatically choose the MBA to put into a management role. You have a significant chance that they will run in with overconfidence and make all kinds of mistakes they wouldn’t have otherwise. The candidate without the degree may be more careful in what they do and avoid problems. As I mentioned in the article, someone with no skills is much more dangerous if they have a lot of false confidence than without.
I am absolutely shocked. “They may have a run in with overconfidence?” WOW
There is a critical relationship between self assessment and skill level. Studies have shown people with poor skills (lack of education) are quite bad at assessing their own abilities. They tend to be grossly overconfident, demonstrating a notable deficiency in self monitoring skills. I have run my own business for 15 years and have an MBA as well as an M.S.
In addition your view of what is currently going on in many parts of the country is absolutely dillusional. Your wet behind the ears kid.
As I said, a lot depends on the program and a lot depends on the individual. Most of the bright people I’ve met with an MBA were bright before they got the MBA. The degree enhanced their skills. Perhaps you are the exception to that, but I’m speaking from my experience.
Are the studies you reference specifically related to MBA programs? I have seen similar studies, but the point of this article is that MBAs are especially prone toward creating a false sense of skill in people with little experience. If you have been in business for 15 years, you probably don’t fall into this category–especially if you’ve been running your own business. Keep in mind that I’m not saying that an MBA isn’t valuable. I think there are some great programs out there that offer a great education and very helpful skill set. This post was written to people who are hiring and warns them not to overvalue an MBA–particularly with people who have no real-world experience. Make sure you are hiring the person–not their degree.
In your last sentence you said I was “delusional,” “wet behind the ears” and a “kid.” You are, of course, entitled to your own opinion and free to expend as much effort as you like trying to call me names, but I’d be much more interested in what specifically you disagree with. I think you are talking about my statements that employers are firing the less productive employees and those former employees are now going back to school. The uptick in MBA enrollment is pretty well documented, so I’m guessing that you are taking an issue with the idea the employers are letting go employees who are less profitable to keep around. However, I’m just speculating because you don’t really say. I would be very interested in reading your reply explaining what you see happening.
While I would agree that an MBA could have value to the right person, I think in general it brings a lot of hype in terms of management abilities.
There are a lot of good leaders who did not decide to get an MBA but got looked over for someone with less experience but has one. It makes people feel like they need to get an MBA to compete in the leadership realm.
In terms of smaller businesses, it’s important for them to know what they really want then get the skills that can deliver on those areas.
I believe personally in keeping salaries at the about the same level for all but have good bonus system for the good performers.
An MBA is a good overview of modern, corporate business practice from a top-down perspective. It delves into many business areas one might never touch otherwise in one’s professional specialty. In this way it helps to manage cross-functional teams, a skill which is getting more and more necessary. I know many MBAs, none of whom are arrogant or think their degree means everything. It is a chance to spend 2 years looking at best practices and research-supported methods. In executive MBA program all students have 10 years of progressive experience. I am pursuing mine as well and do not think it means everything, but it is certainly a lot of work that one should get credit for in the job search process. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Everyone is not doing it, often preferring to sit on the beach rather than spend the extra effort. Much of what you said sounded like someone who did not understand MBA programs very well. Entrepreneurs are their own breed, MBAs are more corporate types these days, or consultants. The recession has pretty much leveled EVERYONE’S arrogance.
Doesn’t it depend on which MBA program?
Most top 10 MBA program admits have an average of 6-7 years of work experience before their application made it to the ADCOM. I had 11 years of work experience when i sent my application.
Most of my learning was through colleagues who had significantly lesser experience than I – some of them had experience in working at Senate, some worked in Structured Finance, some in mobile, some in internet, some in white-goods, some worked in steel, some worked in consulting, some worked in banking and some worked in policy departments of some governments and so on…
Only at the MBA program did i get the – experience – of [a] the models and the frameworks that make these people have an experience to begin with and [b] the language, the views and the inner workings + the challenges of working in such diverse industries and competencies/functions..
I cant imagine how it would be possible for a 50 year old { quite experienced working in whatever it is that she/he is working in} – to have an EXPERIENCE of being Greek, Indian, Brazillian, Chinese, Russian , North American..
there are these 2 camps – the experience camp lives and dies by – the so called “industry experience” and the other camp that talks about conceptual models, frameworks and views – to make sense of the world we live in.
Before MBA i worked for 11 years in tech – had a startup and sold also. If someone asked me – prior to MBA – the impact of 30 year T-note yield on say China – I would have to fake that I knew the question – Google that and read up for hours – to be able to even know the question itself..
If you dont understand that , then either you dont have a job that ever required you to know what it means – or you just dont know to or care to know.. But believe you me, some jobs not only expect but also depend on knowing what CAP reductions will mean to the WORLD.
i know people who worked for 20 plus years in Technology – in say Java – and they are BRILLIANT at say, Client -server technologies -managing 40 people – leading etc etc..,
I am talking heads of IT at even big companies, let alone small companies -> but they dont necessarily know the impact of standard wars – on their own company and industry – let alone on the technology landscape …
IF someone had ZERO work experience, then you have a point. But after say 7-10 years of experience, without any conceptual understanding we run the risk of “MORE-OF-THE-SAME”. A lot of times, the people – {yeah exec from my generation} look down upon the younger ones – and that is plain wrong.. and i see that as nothing but a knee-jerk response. Me thinks – this younger generation is much better than my generation or the generation before me..
In my 15 years of EXPERIENCE – i have seen this debate being played – every time the economy is down and MBAs seem to be the target. I wonder why
ps: Barack Obama had less experience than Mc Cain. But of course, many people dont like him, less experience being one of them..
Just like any degree, the quality of education will vary significantly from one school to another. As I mentioned in the article, there are some businesses where the skills from a high quality MBA program are vital. However, for the average small to medium sized business in the US a knowledge how a T-note will impact China doesn’t matter.
The notion of “never” or “always” rules-of-thumb in hiring are the types of extremes that I have always tried to avoid, regardless of candidates credentials. This is as true for MBAs and for CPAs, JDs, or plain ol’ high schoool grads.
I have found that experience and willingness to learn can carry as much or more weight as formal education. I’ve also found that some (very prestigious) MPA’s employees have been good for little more than answering the telephone. . . in which case, I’ve assigned them to do just that, in a sense (you’d be amazed how many clients are impressed that they have their own personal MBA at their beck and call).
In the last situation, had we pressed a littel more into specific and detailed questions during the interview, I suspect that our staffing choices for that project would have been different. On the other hand, this indivual was also helpful in sharing his B-school knowledge with the rest of the staff, who themselves could apply the concepts to our work.
In short, the decision to hire, and the results of that decision, are management up to management, and good management should always take all factors into consideration – not only intitials following the candidate’s name.
I hired a few employees recently and I would have liked to have hired someone with an MBA, however I assume that (and have found) that they expect more pay due to their degree. I was willing to train a non-MBA to do the job I needed them to do without paying the extra money for an MBA.
The question of course is whether the degree would allow someone to perform at a level that would justify the higher salary. In other words, if you have to pay an MBA an extra 10% per year, will they result in profit of at least that much more. Obviously with some people the answer is yes. However, in other situations and with other personalities they may actually have a worse ROI than someone without the degree due to the factors I mention in the article.
I don’t have an MBA. So I don’t make any assumptions as to what should and shouldn’t go into MBA training, what kind of jobs MBA grads should and shouldn’t apply for, and I don’t pigeonhole them solely as entrepreneurs or failures otherwise.
And neither should you.
Since my job is as a business consultant, I routinely help companies find, interview and hire employees. So I’m not making assumptions here. I’m speaking from experience.
Also I didn’t say anything about what type of jobs MBAs should apply for. This article is written to people who do the hiring and are likely to be impressed with an MBA–particularly in an economy that is increasing the number of unemployed MBAs looking for jobs.
What I took from this was; Don’t hire new graduates.
I work for a University and deal daily with postgraduate students, including MBAs. I can say that, hands down, MBAs are the most inept and disorganized student cohort.
It’s long been my opinion that most of the people doing the degree needed it because they were unlikely to be employed based on their merits. Based on my experience I would say that “never hire an MBA” is very sound advice.
I’ve been hiring quite a bit over the last few months. I’m always skeptical of someone who has tried to increase their earning power by purchasing a degree. Build your earning power by helping an employer build their business. Nothing speaks louder than a record of success in the real world.
Do you find that a lot of people looking for jobs have a history of helping their previous employers grow their business? I’d think those people would be less likely to be on the job market.
Highest unemployment rate in decades; there are plenty of great people on the job market.
As someone who has an advanced degree I tend to agree with the concept that an MBA usually does not replace reworld experience. I think someone who has an MBA has demonstrated the ability to learn and the persistence to get the degree. I therefore think that a good combination is someone who both has an MBA and real world experience in a subject matter that is relevant for the postion you are looking to fill.
Just my two cents.
I saw alot of the attitude “I have xxxx degree and deserve to make xxx $ when I was working in the corporate world. I never understood where that sense of entitlement comes from.
My employer subsidized my MBA. I have a wealth of knowledge, but can’t get my self out of the low level – dead end rut. I didn’t take an MBA for instant job recognition, rather, as an individual with a social science background, I wanted to gain entry into understanding the business environment. Degrees don’t change things. I’m not entitled to making any fixed amount of money. I’ve been one of the top employees at my current company and have taken advantage of every opportunity academically and professionally to come my way. However, when I try and reposition myself, no employer will look at me regardless of how low a position I apply to. I find many of today’s “recruiting” problems a recruiter/evaluator issue more than a job applicant issue. Today’s (as in the past decade’s) recruiter environment appears very closed minded and exclusively inside the box. (I understand that a lot of closed mindedness is organizational specific for whatever factor).
Bottom line, I don’t want to increase my earning power – I want to increase my employment power.
If you are interviewing for positions and being turned down, you might try just asking what you could do to improve your chances. So when you are told that you didn’t get the job, thank them for considering you and ask if there are any job experiences or additional training they would suggest that would give you a better chance at similar jobs in the future. Most of the time you probably won’t get much of an answer, but you may find that there is something specific that is making people overlook you.
Also do a search online and make sure there isn’t something in Google that is hurting you. I heard about one guy who shared the same name as a criminal in the same town. He kept having great interviews and no call back until he realized what was going on and started being proactive about explaining that he wasn’t the guy they were going to find in Google.
While Mark may have some apple-pie sort of points it is not worth the 2000 words spent on it. The MBA curriculum is generally geared towards large enterprises. Why would some pretzel seller small business pay anything above $7/hr? or even want to hire an MBA? Medium-sized and larger enterprises do benefit from hiring people with experience and MBAs. If a business is paying you to “consult” they really need to hiring exactly the people you don’t want them to hire. Conflict of interest?
Cheers mate
I’m in my last semester of a Bachelor of Arts, and as I recognise that it isn’t the most employable degree, I was considering doing an MBA not so I could charge in with over-confidence and change an organisation, but instead so that I would have that Business foundation which I lack in my Arts degree. I am aware of how much I do not know and I am not of the ‘if I have this piece of paper I’ll earn $X’ mindset – rather I am viewing it as a way of getting my foot in the door, due to the reaction I keep getting to my undergraduate degree.
I feel that if I have the MBA and am appropriately humble, I will be able to get the work experience I need to start me off, rather than wasting time endlessly applying with just an Arts. I do not intend to head straight into a management role, but rather build my skills up from the bottom progressively.
So then, my question is – put into this context, do you think an MBA would be useful for achieving my ends? Or are there are other courses you are aware of which serve the same purpose?
Kristy – As an employee, I’d say aim high. You may be able to find people running companies that don’t have anything beyond a bachelor’s degree that will be willing to pay quite a bit more for you because of your MBA. I lot of people misunderstood the advice in this post. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t get an MBA. I’m saying that employers often over value them. Which means that as an employee it is a great degree to get!
Still I’d recommend choosing jobs on what will give you the widest range of experience–especially early on.
Just shut up. Its all about ones talent not degrees. u seems to be jealousy on MBA people , just want to reduce their demands. Be good at heart. its not that people with other degrees are worthy. everyone has their own stuff and u dont have the rights to judge things just like that. Guess u must be doing some schooling or illiterate, go and learn some values first.
Your title is misleading. Sensationalism is for mentally poor people.
This article is of no use to anyone because:
a) if you’re a small start-up on a budget, you can’t afford a REAL deserving MBA (our salary is in the upper five and six digits). I suppose then that this article is trying to convince you not to hire an incompetent. Thank you, Captain Obvious for your advice.
b) if you’re not a small start-up and you do have a budget, hire a good MBA.
Please delete this article. It’s mere existence is an insult to MBAs and you, Mr. Mark Shead and your “expertise”.
Thanks for taking the time to write a comment. The goal of a headline is marketing and to get people to stop and think for a minute. I was pretty clear in the first paragraph that there are many exceptions. The article “IT Doesn’t Matter” and many many other influential articles use the same technique to get attention and make a point. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but I’m not doing something insane or mentally weak here. My first reaction to your statement was to try to take a look at what you’ve written, but of course I couldn’t because you didn’t leave a URL–or a real name. You may not like my opinion, but at least I claim it as my own.
I think you missed the point of the article or didn’t read the whole thing. I’ve seen a lot of small and medium sized businesses give more weight to an MBA degree than they should. They tend to not notice that someone doesn’t have experience when they have an MBA. The recent surge in MBA enrollment means there are going to be a lot more MBAs on the market. Now you may call that being obvious, but it is an actual problem so the article is likely to be use to someone. Probably not to yourself, but to others.
Many of the points you made are sweeping generalizations unfortunately in the real world you should look at most things on a per case basis. It sounds like you are being a bit cynical and unfair I also noticed in the comments alot of back pedaling indicating you may not really know what you are talking about on most of these points.
Interesting perspective. Where do you think I am back pedaling? There are a number of people who mis-understood what I said and thought I was suggesting that you shouldn’t get an MBA. This is not what I said at all. In fact, if you read what I wrote, it is probably strong support that getting an MBA will help you get a job more easily.
The article title grabbed my attention – but then I found it lacking substance. I’m 45, a degreed engineer and currently in an MBA program. I would contend that all the people here complaining that “people with degrees look down” upon others, simply don’t get it. It’s obvious jealousy and a complete lack of understanding what a good business program can teach. Where do you people think these business schools get the material they teach? It certainly isn’t from one person’s limited exposure to the business world. It’s from a multitude of practical and proven sources. Those that say “a degree isn’t worth it” or ” I know more than that college guy”… Well, suffice to say – You people don’t know what you don’t know. Now that I’ve worked for 20 years, I can tell you that there is a TON of things I wish I had known before and am now learning in my MBA program. Things that would have prevented a LOT of stupid mistakes. So, to those that may read this post – think about things this way: You can hire somebody that works hard, will make a lot of mistakes and might learn from them, or you can find somebody that has learned how to avoid those mistakes and do things properly in the first place. Who would you rather have in charge of making YOUR company more money? Hard work doesn’t mean smart work. It just means they haven’t figured out how to do the same amount of work in less time.
@Charles – I’m sorry you found the article lacking substance. It was really written to people who own small businesses and are in a position to hire an MBA grad. Also based on your experience, it sounds like you are the exact opposite of what I’m suggesting people watch out for. It sounds like you have the experience to make an MBA degree highly valuable so you are probably going to be exactly the type of person that businesses should hire.