Question for those in the business field -- Is a MBA really important?

[Benzgirl]

My two cents. Graduate, Get a Job, Wait a year until you have enough tenure to be reimbursed for education and let your employer pay for it.

No, you will not live on campus. Yes, you will be distracted by your full-time job. But, you will be able to bring something to the table during your class discussions and help out on projects.

Nothing peeved me more than to have a recent grad without any business experience to be on a project with me. They could not contribute a thing and we ended up assigning them the busy-work. Trust me, you will get a lot more out of your education and you will be less in-debt.

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

My two cents. Graduate, Get a Job, Wait a year until you have enough tenure to be reimbursed for education and let your employer pay for it.

I totally agree. If you have an employer that will pay all or some of the education, go for it.

My employer no longer foots the entire bill which is kind of a bummer, but they do pay up to a certain amount.

For the friends that I had that graduated recently, their entire program was paid for provided they passed all their classes with good grades and stayed with their company for 5+ yrs after they graduated, otherwise they would have to pay it back.

[dukedg]

Okay, I did the Fortune 10 (but can keep adding to the list if people are interested). All information is from Fortune, Reuters and Business Week. Please let me know if you notice any errors.

Infomation in following order: Company CEO Age MBA?

1. Wal-Mart Stores H. Lee Scott Jr. 62 No (JD)
2. Exxon Mobil Rex Tillerson 55 No (BS in Civil Engineering)
3. General Motors G. Richard Wagoner 54 Yes (HBS)
4. Chevron David O'Reilly 61 No (BS in Chemical Engineering)
5. ConocoPhillips James Mulva 61 Yes (McCombs (UT))
6. General Electric Jeffrey Immelt 52 Yes (HBS)
7. Ford Motor Alan Mulally 62 No (Masters in Science and Masters in Management)
8. Citigroup Vikram Pandit 51 No (MS in Electrical Engineering and PhD in Finance)
9. Bank of America Corp Kenneth Lewis 60 No (Bachelors in Finance and Executive program at Stanford)
10. American Intl. Group Martin Sullivan 53 Unknown (He is a chartered accountant (British CPA))

[EE-BO]

Originally Posted by dukedg

Okay, I did the Fortune 10 (but can keep adding to the list if people are interested). All information is from Fortune, Reuters and Business Week. Please let me know if you notice any errors.

Infomation in following order: Company CEO Age MBA?

1. Wal-Mart Stores H. Lee Scott Jr. 62 No (JD)
2. Exxon Mobil Rex Tillerson 55 No (BS in Civil Engineering)
3. General Motors G. Richard Wagoner 54 Yes (HBS)
4. Chevron David O'Reilly 61 No (BS in Chemical Engineering)
5. ConocoPhillips James Mulva 61 Yes (McCombs (UT))
6. General Electric Jeffrey Immelt 52 Yes (HBS)
7. Ford Motor Alan Mulally 62 No (Masters in Science and Masters in Management)
8. Citigroup Vikram Pandit 51 No (MS in Electrical Engineering and PhD in Finance)
9. Bank of America Corp Kenneth Lewis 60 No (Bachelors in Finance and Executive program at Stanford)
10. American Intl. Group Martin Sullivan 53 Unknown (He is a chartered accountant (British CPA))

Only possible correction would be to declare #9- Bank of America CEO a "Yes". I am not sure how it works at Stanford, but generally speaking any reference to an "Executive" program is a reference to an MBA- specifically the Executive MBA program I mentioned above at Texas for those who earn their MBA while continuing their career.

But I would point out that while 4 of the 10 on your list have MBAs, at least 7 of them have advanced degrees beyond undergrad- and advanced degrees specific to their professions.

Plus on the Oil and Gas side, it is not uncommon for engineers to be CEOs. However that industry is not in growth mode nor is it of interest to many general business students. Thus it is tricky to use that particular industry to recommend people get their MBA or not. If nothing else, once you get into oil and gas- that is pretty much where you stay. The regulations, nature of the business and accounting functions are highly specific- and at a fairly early point in your career you have to decide whether to go that route or not. It is not easy to jump from oil and gas to another industry once you are entrenched.

Not trying to beat up on you or anything- but just sort through the statistics with a more specific approach to explain why I strongly advocate people get their MBA if they intend to rise in the corporate ranks.

jubilance1922- I cannot speak to all technical professions, but a number of physicians and medical researchers have obtained MBAs in recent years so that they can move out of medicine and into the highly lucrative health care management field.

But this is a specific circumstance born of the growing power of business in the management and oversight of medicine, and not necessarily reflective of the need for people in other technical fields to get MBAs.

Doctor salaries for all but top specialists have been under significant downward pressure in recent years, and so with all the money to be made in the still growing health care industry on the business side- many physicians have made the leap through both their technical experience and by attaining an MBA.

[dukedg]

Originally Posted by EE-BO

Only possible correction would be to declare #9- Bank of America CEO a "Yes". I am not sure how it works at Stanford, but generally speaking any reference to an "Executive" program is a reference to an MBA- specifically the Executive MBA program I mentioned above at Texas for those who earn their MBA while continuing their career.
...
Not trying to beat up on you or anything- but just sort through the statistics with a more specific approach to explain why I strongly advocate people get their MBA if they intend to rise in the corporate ranks.

I added a link to the executive program -- it is not an MBA, but rather an intensive course for seasoned executives. I don't feel beat up on at all! I, personally, like to have some information to look at when I consider things like whether I would want to go back and get an MBA.

I think an MBA is a great way to get a foot in the door if you want to change careers, especially into something like finance or strategy. I don't think it is necessary for everyone who wants to move up in corporate america, though (just my opinion). For that kind of money, I would hope everyone does some thorough research into what he or she is looking to get out of the MBA and which programs, if any, would suit those needs.

[iastategal]

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

My two cents. Graduate, Get a Job, Wait a year until you have enough tenure to be reimbursed for education and let your employer pay for it.

No, you will not live on campus. Yes, you will be distracted by your full-time job. But, you will be able to bring something to the table during your class discussions and help out on projects.

Nothing peeved me more than to have a recent grad without any business experience to be on a project with me. They could not contribute a thing and we ended up assigning them the busy-work. Trust me, you will get a lot more out of your education and you will be less in-debt.

I agree with this advice. Get a real job, get some experience and then go back to school - you will get much more out of the program as you will be able to bring real life situations to the class discussions.

Also, I agree with the advice on getting your employer to pay. Getting an MBA or an advanced degree (MS or MA) is becoming more important in the corporate world regardless of what your undergraduate degree is in and many employers are willing to pay some/all of the cost. I am an engineering manager and I was strongly encouraged (and I encourage the people to who work for me) to get an advanced degree in management/business and my employer paid for it.

The corporate world is changing and advanced degrees in business/management etc are becoming necessary to climb to the senior leadership/executive ranks in many industries. Having hired several people over the past few years, your experience is looked at first when you apply for jobs, and the fact that you have an MBA/advanced degree (from an accredited school, not just top tier) or are working towards one is also looked at very favorably. I know many top executives who did not have advanced degrees and thier companies sent them off to Sloan etc for business/management masters as it was a prerequisite for them to advance to the highest ranks in their companies.