"Have a pulse? Get an MBA!"
I'm not impressed with MBA's. In business school I learned and took the exact same classes the MBA's did and the truth is things like "management" or "leadership" is all BS when you try to codify it and turn it into a class. Things like "management" and "leadership" cannot be learned, only experienced. Thus, when I see some 27 year old MBA putz who when not wearing a suit and tie is wearing his baseball cap on backwards with the latest in Ambercrombie and Fitch whilst at Applebee's and calls girls "hawt!" I have a hard time really taking the "rank" or "title" of an MBA seriously, let alone would charter the individual with a position of power.
So it does not make me have great hope for the future that when GDP goes down, MBA applications go up.
Regardless, my position on MBA's runs contrary to the realities of the labor market. Firms do pay more for MBA's. Ergo there must be some benefit, and I think I've found it.
You don't hire an MBA to lead or to think. You hire them to obey. And if there is an advantage to an MBA, they certainly obey. Which only make sense, because in corporate America conformance and obedience is much more sought after than thinking or progress.
7 comments:
That's a very interesting point. I have met several MBAs in my professional life, and many of them seem no more qualified than anyone else. (However, the MBAs that I have seen succeed over a period of several years all seem to be very good at what they do.)
What do you think of those with Bachelor of Commerce degrees? I have found them to be some of the most enterprising and driven leaders I have ever met.
Actually I think MBA is like being a Lawyer for a lot of people.
"Hmmm I've graduated with a useless degree that impresses no one, I don't wanna be a lawyer ( i have standards) but need to know a little more (math. ok, for the finance MBAs only) and business stuff to get ahead.
That's not to say there aren't a lot of engineers and accounting majors too, but they are mostly in it as "hey management, pick me, I'm supposed to be able to see the bigger picture." nature.
I received my MS in Finance just before the university switched their entire program to MBA. The course structure for the MBA was definitely less rigorous and more general than the previous courses stressing specific fields like Finance, Accounting, Real Estate, etc.
I think the MBA "surge" of the last twenty years will one day be seen for what it is - a fashion statement.
That's really not accurate, and not just because B schools and their curricula vary incredibly. It used to be that B schools really discriminated in favor of applicants who'd been in business for a while and that's still the preferred clientele; going and getting an MBA right after a bachelors isn't the idea. So you go to B school once you've racked up some management experience, the idea being you have some idea of application and can actually benefit from case studies and the like. People who do that usually do gain something.
With the number of MBA programs in the marketplace, rigor cannot possibly be maintained. One can, however, garner what he/she wishes from the program. In other words, you will get out of the program a benefit proportional to the work put in.
I knew many morons in my MBA program, and I doubt their jobs changed significantly. It has been my experience that internal motivation, combined with charisma and keen interpersonal skills, will get a person much farther than any degree.
I would add, regarding your graph, that the sale of pogo sticks spikes whenever there are more wildfires in Argentina. But interesting nonetheless.
Your theory is plausible. One could also look at that graph and think that MBA graduate numbers correlate with economic growth on a 2-3 year delay. This would also make sense since 2-3 years before graduation is about the time when a lot of people pick their major, and the current economic environment would have a lot to do with an MBA choice.
You could hunt down the same graph that shows the same correlation with Law Degrees. The fact is when the economy tanks, people think about going back to school. Also, yes, there are too many law and too many mba programs, but the kids from the scrub schools don't get any real bumps from their schooling in terms of $$$
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