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Soft Skills
Mid-career MBA: The dilemma
Mohan Babu K lists the several alternatives that hound
mid-career IT professionals who are keen to pursue an MBA programme
Generations of young professionals have worked towards getting
a stamp of MBA on their resume as a stepping stone towards a career in business.
The typical profile of an MBA aspirant is a college graduate who has spent a
few years at the ‘ground floor’ in an industry vertical. It is also
not unusual for mid-career professionals from other specialised fields like
finance, law or medicine to go back to school to try and understand the workings
of business better. As a generation of technocrats and information technology
professionals who entered the industry before the ‘Y2K era’ and the
dotcom bubble matures in the industry, they are beginning to seek the same endorsement,
and perhaps some of the skills and knowledge that come with an MBA.
When more than a couple of my peers, associates and colleagues began to call
on me to advice or counsel them on the bewildering array of options at their
disposal, I realised that I had to pen down my thoughts. I can totally empathize
with peers who have a vast variety of courses and programmes, from a wide array
of universities, institutes and schools to research on. Even a cursory googling
on ‘top 10’ or ‘top 20’ programmes throws out a bewildering
list of ‘top’ schools in archaic categories, not counting the lists
published by the likes of US News and Business Week. To add to the perplexity,
every school or programme one researches is bound to find a mention in some
‘list’; it is another matter that smaller schools with unknown programmes
may only be mentioned in more obscure lists. The questions are not simply that
of RoI. Some of the three most common themes of queries include:
- Part-time vs full-time: This is a typical ‘branding’
and RoI dilemma that most MBA aspirants face. Branding is a significant factor
to consider while opting for a full-time MBA from a ‘top’ programme
and school, since the brand (read ‘stamp’) will help open doors
as the individual advances in a business career (here I am not going to attempt
a definition of ‘top’ but would fall-back on generally accepted
definitions of ‘Top MBA’ programmes). While aspiring for a branding,
one is faced by the RoI-dilemma: is it worth putting a career on hold for
a couple of years, and spending at least a few hundred-thousand dollars to
acquire the branded-MBA? These questions have no cookie-cutter solutions or
frameworks; one would have to weigh in one’s personal factors, fiscal
situation, risk tolerance and career aspirations. A decision on a full-time
MBA, benefits and RoI would require rigorous research and soul-searching,
a topic on which endless books and articles have been written. For our argument,
let us assume that a decision has been made in favour of a part-time MBA;
in which case the individual is faced with the next dilemma.
- Private schools vs state university: Most private
schools and many state universities that offer MBA programmes also offer executive
or part-time programmes; therefore the RoI argument extends to the decision
of opting for a private-school, versus a state university where one resides.
Many part-time programmes offered by private schools and institutes (some
carrying the moniker of technical college or ‘university’) offer
flexible programmes and some ‘branding’ though they generally tend
to be much more expensive than state schools, especially if one happens to
be a resident eligible for state tuition subsidies in the US.
- Part-time vs online courses: With the pervasiveness
of e-learning technologies and tools, online MBA programmes are increasingly
being offered by many schools and universities. A decision to join an online
course is highly subjective since one could possibly loose out on in-class
interaction and networking experiences that come with a classroom programme,
even part-time programmes. On the flip side, an online programme may provide
the flexibility of learning and at one’s own pace without disrupting
regular work and other schedules.
Unlike the ‘typical’ profile of younger professionals who are looking
at an MBA as a stepping-stone, my peers in the IT industry are torn between
the need to get a sounder grounding in the intricacies of business versus the
time and effort involved in getting an MBA. Towards the end of most discussions
on MBA options, I am asked to comment on how I benefited from my MBA; and am
I doing things any differently as I continue my career as a technologist and
executive. Though the answer to this would perhaps require a separate article
and analysis in itself.
Needless to say, many of the people I interact with are sure about the tangible
and intangible benefits of doing an MBA. The drive to work towards an MBA is
because of the desire to have the same grounding in the fundam entals of business
as their peers from the functional side.
Mohan Babu K is an MBA from the University of Colorado and
a Senior Project Manager with a large consulting and services company. He is
the author of a forthcoming book ‘Offshoring IT Services : A Framework
for Managing Outsourced Projects’. He can be reached at mohan@garamchai.com
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