Why MBA: Career change, brand, network and more reasons

The three top advantages an MBA provides you with, include:

• Career Changes

Careers change.

Industries change.

The world changes.

With MBA at a top business school, you’ll not only keep pace with that change — you’ll drive it.

A business education can be a valuable investment in your own future.

And, the right learning experience returns value in ways that go well beyond the monetary.

An MBA will help you move up in your chosen field, or changing paths completely.

It will help you explore new ways of thinking, or discovering how to make the contribution you always wanted.

Perhaps even in ways you never imagined possible.

The education you receive during your MBA will empower you with the knowledge, skills, and long-term vision that lead to innovation and growth.

And, you’ll build a powerful network of accomplished, inspiring colleagues that will continue to sustain you, long after you graduate.

Going beyond enhancing your resume or landing your next job, an MBA experience will shape your entire career and transform your life.

An MBA will prepare you to navigate the unprecedented economic, social, and other complex changes the future will certainly bring.

• Skills & Opportunities

An MBA will supply you with the tools to develop a perspective on almost everything around.

To be able to think about a topic and be able to speak and communicate about the nuances of that topic is a rare ability.

An MBA gets you started on this journey.

An MBA opens up many opportunities for you.

Irrespective of what you did before, your MBA will definitely contribute to your appeal as an employee for many employers.

• Network

MBA does give you a network. This network comprises of MBA students, alumni, faculty and business and community leaders.

This network can be very useful when beginning a job search, developing a career path, building business relationships in your present career or pursuing expertise outside your current field.

• Brand

The MBA degree is a recognized brand that signifies management and leadership training.

The particular school and the type of MBA program you attend will also have brand associations that can help open doors based on the school’s reputation.

The school’s brand strength depends on its history, its ability to provide students with “hard” skills and opportunities for personal growth, and the reach of its alumni, faculty and industry network.

A powerful brand can give you the flexibility to make changes throughout your career.

There could be various reasons to pursue an MBA and a lot depends on your background, aspiration and abilities.

If you are looking to change your industry, domain or role or want to gain management skills or knowledge in an experiential or classroom setting, an MBA would be the right option for you.

If you want to gain knowledge and hone skills that would help you build on the domain experience that you have acquired so far, an MBA would be helpful.

If you want to understand the nuances of international business or experience working in a cross-cultural, diverse setting, an MBA would be beneficial.

So spend some time thinking about it and figure out why you want to pursue an MBA.

This piece is a little dated but it still holds true.

Not so much as it used to, but it still provides a substantial boost.

However, to give you an idea of the the consistent decline in increase in salary percentage over the years, check out the statistics below.

• London School of Business – 189% (2003) – 124% (2010)
• IESE Business School – 194% (2003) – 136% (2010)
• Yale School of Management – 223% (2003) – 131% (2010)

The trend is similar across other European schools.

At the same time, MBA tuition fees have risen at 7%, on an average, over the past 15 years.

Such a dramatic change in salary could be accounted for, to some extent, by the situation of the economy during these periods.

Companies were paying fresh MBAs high salaries in the late 1990s for the fear of losing them to dot-coms.

Quite a few MBAs, who joined dot-coms, did incredibly well.

On the other hand, MBAs who graduated in the midst of the great recession of 2008-10 failed to receive a greater increase in salary, as compared to those from earlier years.

Salary and job prospects of everyone, whether MBA or non-MBA, is strongly linked with the economy, so it’s true that the market value of the MBA degree has gone down over the years.

But it’s more because of the global economy and less because of the intrinsic value of the degree itself.

What ultimately matters is that the MBA still provides a significant boost to a person’s earning potential and is widely recognized by employers across the globe.