
Ask HN: Why should or shouldn't someone do MBA? - aryamaan
And will your answer will be different if a person is from tech background?
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nostrademons
Do an MBA if you want to enter middle-management in a firm that values MBAs.
(This is the majority of large companies by the numbers, although certain
industry-leaders like Google, Facebook, and all of Elon Musk's companies tend
to prefer to promote high-performing domain experts from within.)

An MBA is a master's in _business administration_. It teaches you how to
administer an existing business effectively. It does not teach you how to
start a new business, nor does it really teach how to innovate or develop new
products. Coursework includes things like accounting, corporate structure,
financing, market strategy, leadership, power & politics, and a general grab
bag of skills that help you optimize the efficiency of an existing enterprise
where the customers are known, production processes are in place, and you have
a lot of data available. The networking opportunities are often very important
as well, although like most networking opportunities, they are what you make
of them.

Some of the skills can be mildly useful for an entrepreneur or technologist
that's just looking to plan out their career and build cool things, but the
price tag is really steep if you don't need it as a credential. You can
usually get the knowledge for a fraction of the price if all you want is the
knowledge. And it won't teach you the core skills needed to innovate and bring
new products to market, which largely depends upon comprehensive domain
knowledge, technical skills, and courage.

(It actually could be counterproductive in that regard...my wife is doing an
MBA, and her boss told her "Y'know, doing an MBA at a top school self-selects
for the most risk-averse people you can get, because it is probably the _least
risky_ path to career advancement.")

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akulbe
Does the idea of more debt excite you? In my opinion, it's too costly, and not
a good return on your investment.

The things you'd learn from an MBA track can be learned from books, much more
cheaply.

I'd start with "The Personal MBA" by Josh Kaufman. He's got several other
books in there that he recommends.

~~~
tedmiston
Came here to recommend the same book.

I've also sat in on a couple MBA courses on leadership and management. One
thing you miss out on in this book is that level of critical analysis and
discussion about real problems from real businesses in the news. Case studies
are useful too, but I enjoy the very fresh stuff more myself.

There it was quite interesting to hear the variety perspectives and approaches
from how business undergrads going straight to the MBA vs. those with decades
of experience in business management. I particularly enjoyed being the oddball
engineering undergrad in the room. Josh's book is useful too, but it doesn't
hit that level of discussion you have in real MBA classes with dozens of other
students IMO.

~~~
akulbe
To that, I'd suggest MeetUp groups. There's _definitely_ a way get the same
discussion and forego the mountain of tuition debt. ;)

I'm much slower to recommend college these days, unless some form of
licensure/credentials are required (law, medicine, engineering).

I think it was Mark Twain who said something to the effect of "Don't let
schooling interfere with your education."

~~~
tedmiston
Meetups are a great point. Similarly, I wonder if there are any MBA related
MOOCs out there with strong discussion forums.

~~~
akulbe
I think the MOOCs seem the be on the wane. Excellent idea, but not getting as
much traction as hoped? At least the MeetUp stuff would cover the face-to-face
conversation piece.

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baybal2
Most of business schools are a graveyards for talent IMNHO.

I've heard many comments that are confirmed by my own experience that bright
people enter business schools to spent few years of their life to learn very
few useful skill, most of which can be learned in a month by reading "... for
Dummies" style book.

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tixocloud
It depends on what your goals are and what you're looking to do.

Broaden your horizons beyond the actual material that's being taught. Value is
what you make of it.

From my personal experience, I enjoyed my MBA experience more than others.
Many felt it was wasting time but since I was already part of the program,
there is no point complaining about life. I also have some experience trying
to start a company and an MBA is mildly useful.

I got a very broad education on what functions there are business. Some I
agree and some I don't. Coming from an IT background, it seems like IT is not
very well understood from a business perspective. All of this is fairly useful
for an entrepreneur when it comes to strategic thinking. However, when it
comes to execution of new products, an MBA won't be as helpful. In fact, you
can get stuck analyzing things and becoming risk averse.

Entrepreneurship is a journey and there's really nothing to analyze at the
beginning. You can make educated guesses but ultimately, it's an experience
that you need to walk to discover.

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tedmiston
An MBA from an elite school has a lot of potential for your network.

If you're just seeking the knowledge and skills of an MBA, you might look to
open material instead. I'm currently reading a book called The Personal MBA
for a similar passion. It's pretty unorthodox, but I do recommend it so far.
It might help you decide too.

You can see my outline of all the chapters and subsections here:

[https://github.com/tedmiston/notes/blob/master/books/The%20P...](https://github.com/tedmiston/notes/blob/master/books/The%20Personal%20MBA.md)

