Business School: Is it time for you?

Most of us contemplate this question at some point in our careers - and as always, it is hard to make up ones mind on this one. I would like to write about my own experiences with this question, and hopefully help people make a better decision about this question.

So what was my situation, you would want to know. Undergraduate from a top school in India, Masters in Engineering from the US, three years of work experience. Now was the time to decide, too late and the game was over for most US schools. Most students who get to Harvard Business School are only 24, two years after undergrad is the sweet spot, no oldies with Masters degrees in irrelevant(to business) disciplines. So what was I thinking?

Some things that emerged out of this after some years of thinking were that one should know precisely what sort of careers the MBA feeds into. So I attempt to list them below:

1. Senior position in the same industry you are in
2. Management Consulting
3. Finance
4. Marketing

Again, these are broad categories and each of these has a wide variety of different jobs, for example, finance jobs can go from corporate finance (lets says Mergers and Acquisitions) to sales and trading, and warning: the nature of these are completely different.

Having said that, the first question to answer is, what if 1) is what you are looking for? My suggestion is if you are an electrical engineer or a software guy who wants to climb the ladder in your area, stay put at where you are. Maybe you can do an executive MBA 5 years down the line. Going for a MBA at this points means 2 years lost at the company you work for, and being in debt a minimum $150,000. In the meantime the guys in the next cubicle who decided to stay on would be senior manager in charge of 10 people in the two years you spend at business school.

On the other hand if you are feeling a little adventurous and would like to try your hand at consulting, or you think you got the Venture Capital spirit in you (find out what they actually do, I suggest one of those Vault guides to careers, its worth your time and money) then do check out the MBA programs. I will write further about the different kinds of jobs available to MBA's and I hope this is where this blog will go.

And I can assure you, don't waste you time on a tier 3 program. And to me, here is a ranking off the top of my head:

Tier 1: Stanford, Wharton, Harvard, Chicago, London

Tier 2: All other well known schools

So I leave it a little open, its for you to decide. On the other hand if you are looking to learn the concepts of business school training to advance in your career (i.e choice 1), a state school would also do.

My advice to my international friends who are looking to break into Europe or the United States is that make sure you know what you want to do after the MBA, placement services only help you so much. And unless you are from a top tier school, nobody want to hire an international with all the visa complications unless you bring in some pre-MBA experience that will help you clinch the job.

All in all, the MBA is worth it for a lot of people who undertake it. Big schools have good networks and that helps you find a dream job, but I have seen there are people who come to business school who regret their decision. Don't be that person!

More later.