Is The MBA Useless Or More Than Useless?
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View Poll Results: MBA - Useless or ????
The MBA Is Worth Every Penny 26 37.14% The MBA Is Useless and So Are Most of Its Graduates 15 21.43% The MBA Is Useful For Showing Off To Anyone Who Doesn't Know Better 15 21.43% The MBA Is Useful As Something To Put After Your Name Eg NAME , MBA To Make You Look Smarter 24 34.29%
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Re: Is The MBA Useless Or More Than Useless?PhDs are relatively cheap compared with the MBA and depending on their structure can produce 40000words of interesting research or for a professional Doctorate several interesting projects.
If you want to manage , my view is that an MBA can give you the business knowledge if you are already an experienced professional.
If you want to be a do-er (technical specialist or researcher) then a Phd would make much more sense. The way it was described to me :
MBA -> How to apply the theory (practical)
Management PhD or DBA -> Why the theory exists (theoretical or academic)
Whether it is worthwhile doing one straight out of college with no experience is much less clear.
Payback period at say 20k$/year over five years if you actively make the effort and capitalise on your investment. Not everyone can or will do this.
TBD
(Original post by Akkuz)
This is an interesting debate.
I worked in a very large firm in the summer, and interestingly the firm was paying for several employees to do 6 year part-time PhD's, rather than MBA's.
That's not to say the MBA is useless. It probably is helpful for people from a non-business background but if I were to enter education again at some point in the future I'd rather do another masters degree or ponder the PhD plunge.
It certainly makes no sense for anybody who has an undergraduate or postgraduate degree in business/management to pursue an MBA. I would only pursue an MBA if the firm paid for it tbh. Otherwise wasting $100,000 learning things I already know, makes no sense to me. However I must point out, I am from a business background, hence my rationale.
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Re: Is The MBA Useless Or More Than Useless?Yes I have an interest in a concern that sells MBA placements and we place a ton of students, most of them slackers who want a postgraduate degree in anything they can get their hands on and most of them I wouldnt trust enough to employ as a cafe worker. They are bone lazy, lack skills and most of all think that spending 50k on an MBA is a good investment. Imagine the type of sucker who would think about taking investment advice from one of these clowns lol.
D
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Re: Is The MBA Useless Or More Than Useless?Time after time- in fact for months - you post on this and other threads with offensive vitriol concerning MBAs, the people that study them, and the people that employ them. Clearly you have an axe to grind and the issue of your failure/envy/incompetency/lack of progression shines through.
Let it go, and move on.
TBD
(Original post by Ory)
Yes I have an interest in a concern that sells MBA placements and we place a ton of students, most of them slackers who want a postgraduate degree in anything they can get their hands on and most of them I wouldnt trust enough to employ as a cafe worker. They are bone lazy, lack skills and most of all think that spending 50k on an MBA is a good investment. Imagine the type of sucker who would think about taking investment advice from one of these clowns lol.D
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Re: Is The MBA Useless Or More Than Useless?There's no axe to grind. The general public are aware that MBAs are as weak as water and if they had any puff they would have studied a real degree.(Original post by TBD)
Time after time- in fact for months - you post on this and other threads with offensive vitriol concerning MBAs, the people that study them, and the people that employ them. Clearly you have an axe to grind and the issue of your failure/envy/incompetency/lack of progression shines through.
Let it go, and move on.
TBD
Where is my envy, failure and incompetency? Seriously, did you go to MBA school to learn those words.
Envious ? Of an MBA grad serving frries at McD or if in the top 1% working as a bunny in an IB about to have his job replaced by a person in Chennai for 1/10 the the cost? BHAHAHHAHAHA!!!
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Re: Is The MBA Useless Or More Than Useless?I'm not going to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.
Please continue, and the "general public" can draw their own conclusions from your drivel.
TBD
(Original post by Ory)
There's no axe to grind. The general public are aware that MBAs are as weak as water and if they had any puff they would have studied a real degree.
Where is my envy, failure and incompetency? Seriously, did you go to MBA school to learn those words.
Envious ? Of an MBA grad serving frries at McD or if in the top 1% working as a bunny in an IB about to have his job replaced by a person in Chennai for 1/10 the the cost? BHAHAHHAHAHA!!!
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Re: Is The MBA Useless Or More Than Useless?Most reputable Unis won't allow you to do an MBA without a degree. I have a hard degree, but don't see myself spending another year doing a MSc in Advanced Computing.
Personally, I believe that most people are risk-averse, hence the negative 'general public' perception of MBAs. They probably ask themselves why you should spend such a large amount of time and money in further education.
The price of an MBA at the uni I'm going to go to is about 6x the cost for doing an Advanced Computing course. Is it really 6x better than Advanced Computing? Probably not. Will it increase my earning power over the course of the next 20 years? I certainly hope that it will contribute.
For me, as a Software developer, I think that companies will pay a bit extra for a person with an Advanced Computing degree, but a lot more for someone with Computing and a Business degree, purely from the things that they think that you can do.
Then again, I don't want to work in IT anymore, full stop. I am confident that I can make my MBA experience useful without working for anyone
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Re: Is The MBA Useless Or More Than Useless?Well friend there are too many factors against you doing an MBA. You could do better by undertaking a course in advanced book-keeping or in accounting and then learn the soft underbelly of the MBA (about 80%+) of the course by reading books in the library - things like management, advertising, marketing, communications - things which will all make year 8 math look difficult.(Original post by Frozenace)
Most reputable Unis won't allow you to do an MBA without a degree. I have a hard degree, but don't see myself spending another year doing a MSc in Advanced Computing.
Personally, I believe that most people are risk-averse, hence the negative 'general public' perception of MBAs. They probably ask themselves why you should spend such a large amount of time and money in further education.
The price of an MBA at the uni I'm going to go to is about 6x the cost for doing an Advanced Computing course. Is it really 6x better than Advanced Computing? Probably not. Will it increase my earning power over the course of the next 20 years? I certainly hope that it will contribute.
For me, as a Software developer, I think that companies will pay a bit extra for a person with an Advanced Computing degree, but a lot more for someone with Computing and a Business degree, purely from the things that they think that you can do.
Then again, I don't want to work in IT anymore, full stop. I am confident that I can make my MBA experience useful without working for anyone
It's good you realize that IT is a bottomless pit, but you have to understand that almost everyone who can't do anything also wants an MBA - so your qualification won't be worth much when you think about it. Everyone who wants one gets one. Read this, there are some interesting articles dating back 10 years where mainstream media sources predicted the MBA would be the degree for grandmas of the future. ie even your grandma has one.Last edited by Ory; 19-05-2012 at 12:06. -
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Re: Is The MBA Useless Or More Than Useless?General statements based off some random site don't really convey any kind of credible information.
As for the mainstream media predicting something... you really have to decide for yourself what's worth your time or not.
MBA types do sometimes come across as either dumb or know-it-all (Besserwisser in German).
One of my mother's old colleagues has an MBA, but he did the part-time exec route, and was funded by Siemens China in the 90s. I doubt that they would have sponsored him if he didn't have potential. -
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Re: Is The MBA Useless Or More Than Useless?That's not some random site - it's a dicussion about a collection of articles from Forbes, The Atlantic, NY Times, The Economist - they are all there to read.(Original post by Frozenace)
General statements based off some random site don't really convey any kind of credible information..
The MSM and management figures with real world experience have been laughing behind the backs of these graduates for a long time, example here. and example here.
As for doing a paid for MBA in the 90s, you may as well be talking about the 1890s. In the 90s an MBA was valuable. Even before the crisis in 05, an MBA was not so valuable. One successful person getting an MBA and continuing to be successful doesn't show anything; perhaps he would have been even more successful spending the time getting to understand his company/company advisers/customers better rather than being at grad school - this cannot be quantified.
Either way, post 07, MBA is worth practically nil on Wall Street, the Square Mile and everywhere else. Good candidates are good, the MBA wont make them better at anything they couldn't learn for themselves. Networking is done for free over the interwebs, no need for an MBA for that either. -
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Re: Is The MBA Useless Or More Than Useless?What's there to discuss in those articles when the outcome is fixed. At best, the articles contained can be described as a collection of articles that support a certain position.
The management gurus you described also laugh behind their backs, because they try to convince them that doing pmbas and other self training is money better spent
When was the last time you went for a virtual pub session? I'm pretty sure the beer doesn't taste the same when you see your mates in person.
In real business (not financial services or consulting), if you want to source something etc., it's much easier to go to a conference and meet the people, before deciding whether you want to invest your money.
Personally, I bought a few books, and the retention rate is just really low, because my current job doesn't provide a platform to utilise or prototype the theoretical content.
