Archive for December, 2010
Starting the MBA Process
Now that you’ve decided to pursue an MBA, you must decide where to study. How do you know which program will be best for your needs?
- Decide whether you want a general MBA or one of the specialist programs.
- Do you want to study online, in a classroom, or in a hybrid program?
- What is your GMAT score?
Once you answer these questions, check out the websites of schools you’re interested in, to see how well they match up (for example, what is the minimum GMAT score they accept?). Score the institutions on each issue. This should give you a start.
Once you have narrowed the choices down, you need to talk to the individual institutions about their approaches to study, professors’ backgrounds, graduate career support, financial aid, and other questions that can get you closer to your final choice MBA program.
Business Schools
Preparation for studying an MBA is a major issue. It is really important that you find a business school that will give you the kind of business education that both fits the career that you want and that delivers education in the way that suits you.
Some business schools teach in a very didactic fashion, with a formal approach to both subject areas and methods of teaching. For some people this is really helpful and allows them to understand the boundaries of the area of study. However, if you are considering studying an online MBA you will probably find that your study materials are much more discussion based, and a lot of your study will be self-directed.
Take time to talk to different business schools to find out which educational approach they take. If you find a good match for you, it will make a great deal of difference to how you study and ultimately how well you do.
Entrepreneurial MBA
After playing with my cat yesterday, I had an interesting conversation with an MBA student, which brought me back to focus.
My friend was just finishing his degree in an Entrepreneurial MBA program, and we discussed whether you could teach entrepreneurial skills. We both agreed that you could not, since it requires these primary character traits:
- the willingness and ability to take risks
- the ability to put ideas into shape so that they could become reality
We concluded that the MBA proves invaluable for people with these traits. The right program combined with the right person can lead to great things. In other words, for true entrepreneurial spirits, MBAs can help to fine-tune their entrepreneurial character, which can result in smarter risk-taking and a greater ability to apply the vision-to-reality thinking to organization-building and -structuring.
My friend and I agreed that this was exactly the kind of support that a true entrepreneur needed.
Going with the Flow
It’s Tuesday, and I’m finding it hard to focus on online MBAs, executive MBAs, GMAT and so forth. I’m spending the morning talking to my new kitten – the first I’ve owned for around 15 years, as I have been traveling so much. Today it seems much more important to think about my cat – one has to have a sense of proportion about these things.
She seems to like playing on my kitchen units, although she has fallen off a couple of times – but she didn’t hurt herself. However, what she likes most of all is to see if she can avoid the spray from the kitchen tap when I’m running water to do some washing up. We played this game for around 30 minutes this morning, which is why I haven’t thought much about what I should be writing for this blog.
But this is, in fact, linked to the world of business: some days just don’t go the way you had mapped out in your planner, and one simply must goes with the flow.
Good Acting
My comments the other day about MBA courses not being strong on the soft skills started a train of thought in my mind. I tried to identify who, of the people I know who have MBAs, are good at people skills – and the answer is a very small proportion.
There is one person I know who, after completing his MBA, went on to do a PhD in Industrial Psychology. His thesis questioned how the Organization deals with people, and he very firmly concluded not very well. But he asserted that this would change soon, because the economy now has to deal seriously with knowledge workers.
But he himself maintains that he does not naturally deal with people well; in fact, he has had to force himself to exhibit the appearance of understanding (but that he does not necessarily feel these things). I suggested to him that this was, at least, as start. But I’m not quite sure…..
Boost Your Career
Building up your salary can take a long time. To do this usually requires one of two things:
1. Working through the management grades as you progress through your organization
or
2. Looking for the next job to make your resume look better, which might lead to higher pay.
Studying for an MBA can make a big difference to your career: you’ll learn new skills and knowledge needed to be a more effective manager. You’ll also gain a graduate degree recognized as one of the best professional qualifications out there.
Most people who study for and get an MBA degree have real dedication to their career, and therefore, companies view them as the kind of people they want to employ. Getting your MBA can also make a real difference to your salary. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, MBAs offer higher average earning power than almost any other qualification.
GMAT Necessities
My Russian friend who pursued an MBA last year told me that the hardest part of the process for him was passing the GMAT with a score high enough to get into the school of his choice. He did well on the quantitative part of the test, but getting his English sentence construction up to scratch was really difficult.
While he did not get into his first-choice school, he was happy with his MBA program. And he conceded how relevant those writing skills were to his studies, especially since he pursued an online MBA. Online, especially, you need the ability to communicate very well on “paper.”
This, of course, is indicative of skills needed in business careers. It’s nice to know that what you’re doing is absolutely applicable to what you’ll do in the future (remember in high school when students whined to the teacher, “when will I ever need to know this?”). Here the connections are clear: doing well on the GMAT increases the likelihood that you’ll do well in your MBA program, which increases the likelihood that you’ll do well in your career.
Nice when things work out this way.
New Jobs for Old
For many online MBA programs, the end of the calendar year signals the end of the study year. Many MBAs ignore the traditional academic calendar, and run with the pulse of the industry and commerce that they serve.
This means that new graduates are looking for their next career moves during the last quarter of the year, ready to start a new job in the new year. Employers, of course, are aware of this, and some lucky graduates find new jobs through the normal advertising channels. However, it is more likely that new graduates will find jobs through their network of contacts, gained from previous jobs or from people they met while earning their MBAs.
Never underestimate the value of professional contacts.
Online MBA Apprenticeship
I was talking to a group of business people earlier this week about how they can recruit the right people for their businesses. We talked at length about how graduates need to spend time working in jobs after they gain their qualifications, in order to absorb the work ethos they need to be useful to their employers. We also talked about the value of graduate qualifications.
When we discussed MBA graduates, one employer said that he had noticed how much more effective his latest MBA recruit was. This graduate had pursued an online MBA while working in a junior management position. The employer said that, in his opinion, this approach was even better than working in an apprenticeship. By studying for her MBA while working in junior management, the woman was able to combine theory and practice over a long period of time.
In his opinion, this employee was likely to make it to senior management because of her pragmatic and practical approach to management. He also noted that such an approach would be valuable while studying in any MBA focus. The employee he noted earned an MBA in Global Management, but her approach could also work with Finance MBAs, Marketing MBAs, or other.
People Skills
In reading reports about MBA courses — especially those focused on the hard areas, such as MBAs in Finance — it seems that more focus needs to be paid to “soft” skills. The “hard,” analytical skills are usually thoroughly covered, but as important as these are, social proficiency is also important.
Many managers come from backgrounds in engineering, IT, and finance — all analytical areas. Relatively few come from HR and sales — traditional soft areas. It would be great if more MBA courses focused on helping analytical whizzes to learn those important soft skills.
In a world where the average CEO spends around 95% of his/her time talking to people, we are going to have to start addressing this point. But since MBAs are often designed and delivered by people in the hard areas, I wonder if the pressure from the industry will grow strong enough to make a difference.
