Is an MBA worth the money?
Is education really so expensive? Personal reflections after my one-year full-time MBA.
“Doing an MBA is better than NOT doing an MBA” Rouzbeh and I agreed, towards the end of our “one year full time MBA” journey. I still cannot agree more.
Why does a Business School charge so much for an MBA program? Is education really so expensive?
Anything you are going to learn during your MBA can be learnt in many other ways, in your life experiences. Nonetheless, a Master in Business Administration is a safer environment than life, where mistakes, not only can be made without unexpected consequences, but are also welcome: A sort of yearly membership for your mistakes. Experience (“get out of your comfort zone”, very trendy these days), make mistakes, hence learn! The higher the amount of failures, the higher your learning outcomes.
Considering the price of an MBA program, you better make as many mistakes as you can, to lower down the unitary price of your mistakes.
It seems to be all about mistakes, yet, MBA programs to not charge based on the learning you achieve, or on the number of mistakes you make. Instead, they charge you, based on their position on the various business schools’ rankings.
Are you then paying for what you learn? Or are you paying for a reputation?
“It depends” a good MBA graduate would answer. It depends, as long as you are aware of what you are going to pay for. First, let’s distinguish between types of Business Schools. I consider 2 categories: Top tier schools and the rest. Would you like to work as a consultant for a top consulting firm? Do you need a good name for your future career path? Choose a top tier MBA. Would you like to learn about business? Probably, you can point your finger randomly among the rest of the MBA programs. Because, as I mentioned above, anything that you learn in an MBA can be learnt on your own, at your own pace, place and price. After all, life gives anyone enormous opportunities to make useful mistakes as well!
Only now, I finally understand the importance of paying for an important Business School name, because despite to learning, life experiences can hardly give you a name in one year time.
Looking back, the most important decision and also the most valuable mistake, I made in the last year, are both related to the choice of my MBA.
It was a relatively cold spring of 2017, in Copenhagen, Denmark, when I was evaluating the idea of doing a Master in Business Administration. Why doing an MBA? Which program? In spring generally many schools’ admission are closing down for the same year, therefore my choices were limited. My wise friend Jeevan had told me: “to reach your ambitious goals in life, you need the best tool, wait one year more, and prepare yourself for the best schools in the world”. Best, again, means reputation, names, not learning. I did not listen to Jeevan, and I chose my MBA program quickly, among the few that were available.
The reasons why I chose this specific program were: innovation specialization and leadership module. Eventually these turned out to be great choice, in accordance to my experience, career path, current trends in demanded skills (based on FT), design thinking approach (according to The Economist) and forecast of future jobs (report from World Economic Forum).
After a few months in the program though, I realized that my original expectations were way higher, or let’s say way different, than what my MBA was offering me, as I explain here in brief:
- Business knowledge: I was learning, yet not as much as I expected to, or nothing more than I could learn online, at a much lower price.
- Diversity: I was in a international environment, not different from the one I used to be while living in Denmark. The real diversity, that made a difference, was about background, not country of origin.
- Soft-skills: The short leadership module was partially new to me and that was one of the topics I enjoyed the most, even though I learnt more about leadership sailing across the Atlantic one year back.
- Innovation path: This was the best part of my program, where I learnt about Design Thinking and why traditional business knowledge does not fit to the modern business world.
- People: the best discovery, as always, in life.
I soon realized that, in terms of knowledge, I had learnt more during my University for a tuition fee of roughly 1,000 euro per year. It made me think.
Does money leads to knowledge? Today, knowledge is free, you can read books and attend online courses taught by Nobel Prizes, for free!
Why did I chose to do an MBA?
Knowledge, networking and leadership. This is what I had told the MBA admission and also what I had told myself.
The deeper truth is slightly different: now that I can think backwards, I can say that my decision was driven by:
- Rush
- Lack of self awareness about my soft skills
- Idea that, what I do not have yet, is better
Enrolling in a MBA program in a rush, without first understanding the real reasons of my decisions, was a mistake. A mistake that taught me great lessons:
- Patience before taking important decisions
- Stronger awareness about my soft skills
- Appreciation of the present
Important lessons, but what about the MBA leanings?
I learnt as much as in other important experience in my life. Business lectures did not change my life. The mistakes I made, yes. I learnt that I can change my life by myself, if I want, without a relative expensive title called MBA. If you want a title, or a name, go for the best schools, do not give your money to a “one year subscription for mistakes”. Use Life to make mistakes instead! If you come up with the usual reason (networking, knowledge etc..) then you better spend more time thinking deeper, because most likely these are not your real reasons. Go volunteering instead, so you ll understand the value of money, what money means to you and what you want to do with it.
