The Value of Your MBA

The MBA is no longer a guarantee to a higher position and better pay.

But experts say the degree still holds strong value. It all depends on your aspirations with the degree.

Ilana Kowarski, a reporter for US News, recently spoke to experts on how having an MBA affects your career prospects.

Access To A Valuable Network

Prestige is important when it comes to the MBA. But that’s not to say an education at a less prestigious b-school will teach you less. Experts say prestige tends to be most important when it comes to accessing valuable networks.

“There’s a huge difference in marketability of an MBA grad from an elite or top-tier university versus other business schools,” Kinh DeMaree, a recruiting executive in Silicon Valley, California, tells US News. “Not to say that someone from a program that isn’t as prestigious can’t be successful, but many of the most successful executives … are alumni from top programs. A big part of an MBA program is building a network, and access to future international leaders is priceless.”

Some say the network you gain from an MBA is the single most valuable asset of the degree.

“At business school, you’ll interact closely with talented individuals from all over the globe, which enhances the experience by exposing you to different business practices, cultures and points of view,” Stacy Blackman, of Stacy Blackman Consulting, writes for US News. “While the quality of the education at the most elite programs is guaranteed across the board, when you’re spending two years of your life and paying more than $100,000, it’s the network of contacts you build that make your MBA experience truly priceless.”

How An MBA Can Help

Experts say the MBA is helpful in teaching students how to think in a variety of ways.

“So, if as a student, you want to have the capability of operating in lots of different companies and to be able to think in lots of different ways, an MBA opens up lots of doors for you, because now you understand lots of aspects of business,” Scott MacDonald, the director of the University of Dayton’s MBA program, tells US News. “You bring a wider breadth of value to the firm.”

When it comes to real-world application, MacDonald says, MBAs can be helpful in allowing different departments in a firm understand and work together.

“It’s a force multiplier, because rather than having everybody working on their own, pulling in their own direction, you’ve got somebody (who) really says ‘we can utilize and leverage everybody’s strengths and get us moving in the right direction,'” he tells US News.

Specialized Skills Matter More Now. Especially For Tech.

Tech companies are increasingly interested in MBAs.

At a b-school, like Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, the tech industry captured a record 28% of the Class of 2018. That’s only two percentage points below consulting, the traditional career route for MBAs.

But that doesn’t mean that just because you get an MBA, you can get hired at a tech company. Experts say recruiters at tech companies tend to seek MBA grad who have some understanding of hard technical skills.

Liz Arnold, associate director for tech, entrepreneurship and venture capital in the Career Management Center at Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, says b-schools are heavily emphasizing hard skills such as predictive analytics in addition to project-based learning opportunities to help prepare MBAs for tech jobs.

“When students are looking for MBA programs, they should really dig into the curriculum,” Arnold tells US News. “I also encourage all students interested in tech to build their entrepreneurial skill set, to really understand how to take the initiative on their own to go from idea to launch. I think that particular skill set is relatively … valued at most tech companies, because the tech companies want students to be autonomous and take projects and run with those ideas and move them forward.”

Laura Troyani, founder and principal of PlanBeyond marketing agency and an MBA grad from Harvard Business School, says MBAs interested in tech should think about what kind of role they’ll want to be in.

“If you want to manage a team of software developers, you really need to speak only one language, which is the language that you code in,” she tells US News. “However, if you really want to be influencing business decisions (and) strategic decisions and the path a company will take or not take, then you really need to be able to talk with other senior leadership in the organization, and that’s not a software language. That’s a business language.”

Sources: US News, Poets & Quants, US News