Not exactly surprising. Large companies have been slowing down or freezing hiring and laying people off for over a year now. Did anyone think MBAs would be immune?
it is obviously a systems problem if you cannot place people who are capable. It is a bad signal when constructive inputs are piling up and wasted right?
No? You want negative feedback signals in a free market economy not just positive ones.
An excessive number of people got MBA degrees therefore it ends up being a bad choice for many of them. That then feeds back and noticeably reduces the number of people getting an MBA in the future.
More excess credentials than people. Someone with an MBA can easily be employed in a job that doesn’t make use of that MBA.
Also, nothing says those people can’t find a management/consulting job in 1 or even 5 years. That delay would still discourage people from getting an MBA.
ok - there are several different lenses with which to look at this story.
try - personal story; wider market for new MBAs in 2024; importance of the MBA degree at all; then much larger topics about business size and structures, level playing fields, advantages and leverage of established entities in the finance environment, other things.
Can we agree that employment replaced by automation is in the news daily; capital asset bubbles as well; post-covid, brick and mortar retail, restaurants, and local small business of all kinds, continue to die off in most of the USA. replaced with a single Walmart or Home Depot for example. It is a given that most business, business is very competitive even in stable situations.
Here is a charismatic and recently trained person who completed an MBA. The degree is for increasing their own business skills, to both maximize personal gain perhaps, and to be saavy in practical ways to lead, sell and manage. (I agree that the MBA itself is oversold by its nature, and that plenty of graduates are looking for personal gain first) One could cynically say, and not be wrong, that this MBA found a way to get some publicity, often an asset.. and really, why does this one person need so much attention.
but .. is the whole society really so overflowing with able people who commit to formal training that they are "not able" to work with their training? lots of caveats to that but.. this is a trend on a large scale. Other societies may not work this way at all.. (thinking Asia and Islam offhand). In this environment, can this MBA really just "easily work in some other capacity".. I know a guy that got a real ulcer from working in a demeaning situation in an office, while looking for other jobs.
so - any empathy at all for an individual who is making clear advances but ends up badly .. or any concern for a system of economics that may be overcharged heading in a destructive direction .. or in the middle thinking about how real people start to fit into non-trivial, competitive business environments.
