5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t (and 6 reasons why you should) Get an MBA

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The following is an excerpt from After School.

 

Let’s take a quick pause. For those of you thinking of going to business school, do you know why you want to go? If you don’t, stop here. You need a plan. If you don’t have a plan, don’t get your MBA. It’s expensive and time-consuming.

 

Reasons not to get an MBA:

1. Someone you know got one and seems pretty successful. This is your journey, not theirs. You can’t guarantee you have—or better yet, want—the same results.
2. You want to get promoted at your company. Does your company even have an opening in the position you want? You think an MBA is going to change that? Many employers don’t value an MBA, so don’t be surprised that absolutely nothing happens after you graduate.
3. You want to start a business. Just go start a business right now. I promise you, it’ll be faster and cheaper.
4. You want to learn more about business. Go order some books and listen to some podcasts; you’ll learn the same things.
5. You’re stuck and you need some kind of change. While an MBA can help this, there are cheaper ways to get past this hurdle.

 

What an MBA can do:

1. Expand your network.
2. Help you switch industries and functions.
3. Give you time to think about your career.
4. Help you experiment with entrepreneurship.
5. Expose you to different ways of thinking.
6. Get you to another country.

 

So many students come into school looking to escape the irritations of the corporate world. You might be dealing with too much bureaucracy. Maybe you hit a glass ceiling. Maybe your job is just boring. The hope is that life after school is different. Well, guess what? It’s not at all. It’s the same crap you dealt with before school. You just have more debt now.

So what should you do? Find out next week.

 

If you would like to participate/be interviewed for the blog, contact me at nkem.nwankwo@lifeafterschool.co.