Ask the Experts:
Get Experience Before You Get an MBA

Question:

I'm going to be graduating with a degree in Finance next year. My goal is to get an MBA. I feel that I can get a better job with an MBA but everyone tells me it is better to wait till you have experience. What should I do?

First Answer:

There's a lot of wisdom in the advice you've been getting. It's true that an MBA can boost your earning power, but the combination of the MBA and relevant experience is worth so much more than the degree alone.

Consider that the top-ranked MBA programs will not even admit you if you don't have at least several years of experience, and a freshly minted MBA grad with little or no job experience is often in a much tougher job hunt than a recent college grad with little or no job experience.

If you've been steadily amassing relevant internships and/or other relevant experience and you plan to continue pursuing such experience while obtaining your MBA, an argument could be made for going directly to an MBA program. But if you don't already have some good experience under your belt, getting some before you enroll in an MBA program may be your best bet. You will likely personally get more out of an MBA program once you've had the opportunity to see how the skills you will learn in an MBA program can be applied in real business situations. A former student of mine, for example, told me recently that the business cases she studied as an undergraduate in business school were nothing like what she encountered in her first job.

Also consider doing some research among the types of employers you'd like to work for. On a strictly informational basis, ask some hiring managers whether they'd prefer to hire an MBA grad who went to grad school straight from college or one who got some experience first.

A good article to read on the subject is The Master of Business Administration: Is the MBA Worth the Time, Effort, and Cost?.

-- Katharine Hansen, former speechwriter and college instructor who provides content for the Web site, Quintessential Careers, edits QuintZine, an electronic newsletter for jobseekers, and prepares job-search correspondence as chief writer for Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters

Second Answer:

Without a doubt any work experience beats hanging out. You can learn something new even from seemingly unrelated jobs because many skills and much knowledge is transferable. Employers definitely are more likely to give serious consideration to the candidate with related experience but, you can describe your work experience in such a way that makes you appear to be a strong candidate. Draw parallels between the two jobs' areas of responsibility, skill sets, work environment, etc. to illustrate that you are ready to take on the challenge and master the tasks from the get-go. So to answer the question of whether to work before graduation, yes indeed, especially if you can develop new skills, make business contacts to build your network, or learn more about a particular industry.

-- Debra Feldman, founder of JobWhiz, creator of the JOBWHIZQUIZ, and specialist in cyber savvy strategic job search consultations

Third Answer:

Getting an MBA before you have at least a year or two of solid, career-related work experience may create more problems for you than it solves. Many employers who would have been willing to hire you with a finance undergraduate degree will not be willing to hire you with an MBA because they will believe that you are over qualified. Although you may be willing to take the job, they may not be willing to take you because they will fear that you will quit before they can really get a positive payback from the cost of hiring and training you.

Conversely, employers who are interested in hiring someone with an MBA may not be interested in hiring you because almost all of your classmates will have far more practical work experience than you will have attained, which will put you at a distinct disadvantage in the eyes of the employer. They will view you as having the right skills, but being untested. The right decision for them will be to hire one of your classmates whose skills are similar, but who has been tested in the workplace.

Try very hard to find employment upon graduation. Get great experience. Then go back and get your MBA. Don't mess up your future by trying to shove it into the present.

-- Steven Rothberg, President and Founder, CollegeRecruiter.com.

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