

Set your heart on an MBA? Don't bother - louhong
http://www.economist.com/whichmba/think-twice?fsrc=nlw|mgt|02-02-2011|management_thinking

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marshally
I picked up an MBA in 2001-2003 and I couldn't agree more.

Did I learn a lot? Absolutely.

Did I meet some great people? Sure.

Worth the expense? Hell no. I could have plowed that money into a startup and
learned 10x as much in 1/2 the time.

These days skip the MBA, join a startup incubator, and use the saved hundred
grand or so as runway for your startup.

Exception: Ivy League schools put you in a "boys club" for the rest of your
life that will open doors at startups, banks, service providers, Venture
Capital firms, etc. If you are going to spend the money, for heaven's sake go
to Harvard, Stanford, or somewhere else with the killer network.

~~~
shawnee_
Although I agree, the MBA-dissing is really old. Every time I see yet another
one of these articles, I heave a sigh and think "Again? Really? Slow news
day?"

That so many people make it out like a stigma to have one, is ridiculous
considering that really all it is is a _Master's_ degree.

I decided to get mine because the advanced-level courses it offered were
interesting; there is no other degree where you can learn so much about so
many industries. A master's degree is also a pre-requisite for a CPA, and at
that point I hadn't decided if the CPA was a route I might want to take (my
undergrad is in Accounting).

Finished it in one year (2004) at a state school, so the expense wasn't
necessarily cost-ineffective. Took classes about strategic thinking for the
global marketplace, competitive positioning and marketing, employment
discrimination law, negotiation, and learned a lot of the "lingo" that is
necessary for industry analysis.

Do I regret it? No. Do I recommend it? Not unless you're a person who likes
learning for the sake of learning.

Semi-related topic <http://oss.zentu.net/?q=node/153>

~~~
te_chris
Yes an MBA is kind of a Masters degree, but it's not a real Masters degree. If
you want to go back to school, better to do some sort of research where you
can really exercise your brain and continue on from whatever inspired you @
undergrad, than waste your time learning value frameworks with other MOU
wannabes.

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thompo
My girlfriend is the assistant director of nursing at a 175 resident long term
facility.

She is two months from finishing her MBA online through University of Phoenix
and will be taking an $8,500 raise (from $66,500 to $75,000) just for
completing the program.

This article discusses what a mistake it is to leave your current job to
obtain an MBA while completely ignoring the fact that you don't -have- to
leave your job to get your Masters anymore.

"When you look at today’s most evolved business organisms, it is obvious that
an MBA is not required for business success."

You could argue that an undergrad degree isn't even required for business
success. That's not the point. There are plenty of career paths that having a
Masters is still a HUGE benefit and the health care industry might be one of
the biggest.

<http://www.va.gov/opa/bios/>

Read the executive bios for the VA and count the number of people that don't
have a masters degree.

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iuygtfrgth
If you are going to a World Top 5 - then it might be worth it to network with
the people who are going to be hiring CEOs. But for the same money you can
join the golf club.

Otherwise the world is full of middle managers who were sent on low grade MBAs
by mega corps who didn't know what to do with them and couldn't fire them

When you are interviewing managers were given a year off by a now-defunct
multinational to do an MBA, ask how all the projects they claimed to be deeply
involved with managed to run without them during that time.

~~~
mindcrime
_If you are going to a World Top 5 - then it might be worth it to network with
the people who are going to be hiring CEOs._

Maybe not even then. I don't have the reference in front of me, but I seem to
recall something about a study of the Fortune 500 CEOs, and there were as many
from some state school (University of Wisconsin, maybe?) as there were from
Harvard.

Edit: some links about this point.

[http://content.spencerstuart.com/sswebsite/pdf/lib/2005_CEO_...](http://content.spencerstuart.com/sswebsite/pdf/lib/2005_CEO_Study_JS.pdf)
(Warning:PDF)

[http://bernardmoon.blogspot.com/2009/05/go-wisconsin-most-
fo...](http://bernardmoon.blogspot.com/2009/05/go-wisconsin-most-
fortune-500-ceo-alums.html)

[http://www.usnews.com/education/best-
colleges/articles/2011/...](http://www.usnews.com/education/best-
colleges/articles/2011/01/03/where-the-fortune-500-ceos-went-to-college)

Here's another fun observation from that 2005 study (said as a North
Carolinian who resides in Chapel Hill):

Of the Fortune 100 CEOs, the top schools for their undergraduate degrees were:

 _Harvard, Stanford, Yale, U. of North Carolina - 3% each_

Which one of these is not like the others? :-) (To be fair though, even though
it's a state school, UNC is generally pretty highly regarded and their
business school is usually pretty high in the national rankings.)

~~~
iuygtfrgth
That's not the statistic you are interested in though. The question isn't - if
you go to Harvard will you become head of facebook/apple. The question is if
you go to Harvard will you do OK as a senior VP of a firm where the person
hiring you went to Harvard.

MBA isn't for leaders - it's for followers, just very well paid followers.

------
wesgarrison
I've been dreaming about finding other business owners that want to do a Do-
It-Yourself MBA ( <http://personalmba.com/manifesto/>) -like reading program
and discussion group, but have yet to make the time to organize such a thing.

I've considered getting either my MBA or my CPA, but didn't find the return on
investment to be worth it.

~~~
tst
About two years ago there was this idea of a "HN book club":
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=407067>

I didn't know if it was realized probably not. But I would be delighted if we
could start one! This year I started a book challenge for myself
(<http://111in2011.tumblr.com>) and looked for discussion platforms. GoodReads
is not really useful because there are too few people interested in business
books. And writing short reviews/summaries about books is nice but I miss the
conversations :)

So, if you start a discussion board or whatever, I'm happy if I can
participate!

~~~
rjett
<http://www.hn-books.com/>

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brd
I went back and forth about the idea of pursuing an MBA for a few years. One
day I had a conversation with a very successful small business owner and his
response on the subject was "I know a lot of entrepreneurs and I can't think
of a single one that has an MBA. Take that for what its worth." My
deliberation ended after that conversation and articles like this just
reaffirm that decision.

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minouye
The author of this article wrote a interesting book chronicling his
experiences at HBS. It's a quick read and helpful for anyone considering
B-school (skip over the technical chapters and focus on the anecdotes). I
don't agree completely with his assertions, but it's another useful datapoint
to take into consideration.

[http://www.amazon.com/Ahead-Curve-Harvard-Business-
School/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Ahead-Curve-Harvard-Business-
School/dp/1594201757)

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jamesbressi
One day we will see the (higher) education bubble burst. It's overdue already
in my opinion.

I watched the bubble swell in the late 90's--and it has become insanely bigger
and bigger in the last decade--as higher ed really turned into a business
first and an education institution second.

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cambriar
For most of my college career I was set on continuing it further into a MS in
CS. I'm approximately a year away from my BS, and there is no way that I'd
deviate from this current explosion of awesome present in today's job market.
I see a lot more enthusiasm for creativity and output, something that lacks
from a few of the traditional college systems. Then again, I once heard
"college is there to test you, not teach you."

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ojbyrne
Posted 2 days ago: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2160105>

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dr_
Thought this was an article about why i shouldn't get a macbook air.

