Many of my career clients often ask me if they should go back to school for an MBA. Most of the time they are asking as a result of some negative experience they just suffered. It usually comes while they are looking for a job and aren’t getting offers, or even interviews.
Generally, my answer is no, don’t go back. Why would I discourage someone from getting more education when the conventional wisdom might say otherwise. Well, it is because you must examine your motives whenever you do anything. If you are going back to school because you feel the additional knowledge will make you a better employee, then yes, you should go. But, if you are using it to add a pedigree to your resume, then forget it. The MBA might get you in the door and could possibly get you to the finals, but your work experience and the chemistry you create with the hiring authority is what will get you hired.
Sorry, your credits aren’t any good here
I am not a big fan of the industry of higher education. College is a business. The business of college is to collect tuition, turn out graduates, and recruit new ones. There are two groups of people that run universities – the faculty and the administration, and they are always at odds. The faculty is singularly interested in research, getting published, grant money and teaching – often in that order. The administration pays the bills and has to run the university as much like a business as possible. That is why you can’t easily transfer credits, or combine all of them from many schools into a degree. You must complete a set number from their school which is little more than forcing you to buy their product – credits.
Tell me why a physics major should be required to take 60 credits of subject matter not related to physics? “To get a well rounded education” you have been told. Not true. In true socialist fashion it is to force you (or your parents) to financially support the obscure and small departments that cannot fund themselves – like philosophy. If physics majors and engineers were not forced to take these electives, those departments would dry up and blow away.
What is the half life of a degree?
When I was in school, we used to say that the half life of a college degree was two years. What we meant was that you would not ever use or forget half of what you studied two years after graduation. I am here to tell you that the math definitely worked in my life. I have never used that class on “The History of Canada” or that great “Study of the Nixon Presidency”. Ridiculous.
Most lazy HR Departments create ridiculous, arbitrary requirements in an effort to keep people out. An HR Department’s primary goal is keep you out, not bring you in. By creating certain requirements that do that, they do no service to their company, but make their jobs easier!! Ok, I guess I should stick with advice here. Degrees, be they 2 year, 4 year or graduate degrees all have a place in the real world, but don’t waste time and money trying to use a degree to compensate for some other real shortcoming….shhh, I won’t tell.
Hope this helps!!
Mike