Advantages of the MBA Degree

Going to MBA school bestows numerous and wonderful benefits, and the advantages that go along with the MBA degrees are so large compared to the benefits of a mere bachelor's degree that it's a wonder even more people don't go to business school. Their loss is your gain, however, if you're one of the people who are driven and talented enough to make it through the rigorous demands of MBA schools. You'll find several other articles on this site discussing the huge rewards and benefits having an MBA degree can bring you.

Here's a brief overview of some of the biggest benefits. You'll make more money, and who doesn't love that idea? That's why we go to work, after all. You'll have stronger job stability and security. These days, those are more important than ever. In a hurry to make your mark? With an MBA, you'll enjoy faster career advancement. You'll also be in a position to make a real difference in various ways. Your career will likely be much more intellectually stimulating than most bachelor's degree level careers. You'll be seen as a leader and a role model. If you want, you can be your own boss. Finally, you'll be able to travel and experience the richness and diversity of other areas of the country, or even the world. All these (and many more) benefits go along with having an MBA degree.

An MBA Degree Brings Higher Salaries

If you want to maximize your lifetime earning potential in a business-related career, then you have no choice but consider MBA degrees. People who graduate from an MBA school have far higher average salaries than people who have no higher than a bachelor's degree on their resume. Now, at this point, some people will probably try to argue by pointing to people such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Neither has a bachelor's degree, let alone a master's in business, and they did just fine for themselves. That's true, but these two men out of a population of 300 million are hardly the rule to go by. In the real world, however, most people are intelligent enough to know that they're not Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Nevertheless, you don't have to be a Gates or Jobs. You can still be a very intelligent, hard-working, and disciplined person whose skills can help a business prosper and expand. Employers know this, too, and they also know that the quickest way of identifying these people is to require an MBA degree. Because of the skills and knowledge a person acquires in an MBA degree program, firms are happy to pay people with an MBA much higher salaries than they'd pay someone with only a bachelor's degree.

This isn't true only at the beginning of your career; it holds true as long as you keep working. High initial salaries are like interest: they compound. In many cases, an MBA grad who starts his or her first job out of school making twice as much as the average person with a bachelor's degree will eventually be making several multiples of those same bachelor's level salaries. One study found that ten years after graduating, the average MBA holder had made a total of nearly $175,000 more than their average colleagues with bachelor's degrees. That's a huge difference, and the gap keeps getting bigger as the years roll on. There's nothing wrong with earning as high a salary as you can, and the best way to qualify for a high salary is with an MBA degree.

An MBA Degree Brings Job Stability and Security

In today's economy, one of the biggest benefits of having an MBA degree is the increased job stability and security it brings. This is not to imply that it has only been recently that having an MBA meant more job security and stability, but only to note that in the current challenging economic climate these factors are more important than ever. The peace of mind that graduating from an MBA school bestows is a great thing to possess, and these days it seems that fewer and fewer people have it, especially when it comes to their jobs and careers. In fact, many people now rate job security as more important than salary.

Well, anyone looking for job security and stability will certainly want to acquire an MBA degree as soon as possible. How does having an MBA confer stability and security? Actually, it does so in several ways. First (and this is especially important for those who are thinking about enrolling in an MBA program in the near future), if you're not currently employed, but looking for a job, and you have an MBA, you'll be way ahead of the average applicant for many positions. Right now, with more job applicants than openings, employers have their pick of job candidates. Naturally they're usually going to hire the person with more education, everything else being equal. An MBA degree will give you the edge.

This edge never goes away, either, and it works both ways. When times are tough, and a company has to let some people go, the person making the difficult decision of which employees to keep and which ones to lay off is going to think long and hard before letting someone with an MBA go. Your skills and knowledge are too valuable, especially in rough economic waters, and will afford you several layers of protection from the dreaded pink slips.

There's still another way having an MBA brings job stability and security. Sometimes life doesn't go the way we'd hoped. A once prosperous company hits the skids, a new and intolerable VP takes over your department, or you're just burned out on your present job, and you need to find a position with another firm as soon as possible. Well, when you have an MBA degree, doing so is going to be a breeze compared to if you had only a bachelor's degree. People with MBA degrees are highly sought after, and this means that you won't have to worry about job stability and security as much as other employees.

An MBA Degree Means Faster Career Advancement

For anyone who hopes to make a mark on the business world as soon as possible, earning an MBA is almost always the fastest and most efficient way of doing so. This isn't really a big secret; it goes along with the fact that MBAs earn higher salaries than colleagues who have only bachelor's degrees, and have more and better job opportunities to boot. No matter which way you look at it, a career in business is always enhanced by graduating from an MBA school. Having an MBA means one will start off one’s business career at a higher level than most and will generally move up the corporate ladder faster than others for the duration of his or her career.

Some might object that this is unfair. Whether or not it's fair or unfair is actually beside the point. What matters is that this is the way it is, and anyone who doesn't recognize this is going to be at a huge disadvantage. Some might say that a person with only a bachelor's degree could have the drive, discipline, and zeal to achieve as much as a person with an MBA. This is true, at least in some cases. However, that is a moot point to the person who's doing the hiring. Hiring managers rarely know a job candidate well and can judge candidates only by their experience, credentials, and references. The person with the bachelor's degree might have the same abilities as the person with the MBA, but the recruiter or HR person has no way of knowing that. When a candidate with an MBA walks in, however, that person’s knowledge and skills can easily be verified.

There's an old saying that the rich get richer, and this applies to many areas of life besides money. The area of career opportunities is one place where it's especially true. Someone who begins a corporate career in a higher-level position than run-of-the-mill new hires is going to keep getting more and better promotions, in general, for the rest of his or her career. That person will also receive more prestigious and lucrative offers from corporate headhunters and other recruiters, and much of this will simply be because of having those three letters, “MBA,” on his or her resume.

An MBA Degree Means the Opportunity to Make A Difference

Why get an MBA ? One of the biggest benefits of graduating from an MBA school is that once you have it, you'll be able to go on to make a real, tangible difference in the world. This isn't something most people can say about their career, yet at the same time it's something that virtually everyone dreams about. The average employee in America is in no position to bring about real change or make any kind of real difference. For the most part, employees do what they're told and don't ask too many questions. If they miss work due to illness, someone else can fill in for them. If they quit or retire, a replacement can easily be found.

In other words, the vast majority of workers are just cogs in a machine, even many of the ones who have bachelor's degrees. This isn't to imply that they're not doing important work or that their lives don't have value, not at all. It's simply to recognize that they have very little influence or power to bring about change in their jobs. That's simply the nature of business and work. The lower-level workers do what they're told, while the upper echelons of people decide policy, implement changes, and generally call all the shots.

This power to make a difference is huge. Just look at how many companies have voluntarily adopted "green" manufacturing and packaging practices to a degree that would have been unthinkable 25 years ago. How did that happen? It happened because the movers and shakers of these companies, the people with the MBA degrees, took it upon themselves to push for these changes and to move their companies in that direction.

That is just one example of the power you'll have to make a difference when you possess an MBA degree. You'll have lots of other opportunities to speak up, speak out, and actually influence the policies and practices of your company. It could well be your suggestion of a new product line that skyrockets your company's revenue and catapults it into the ranks of the Fortune 500. You might be the person who saves your firm millions of dollars a year by revamping its logistics operations. There are countless ways to make a difference, but you'll be able to take advantage of them only if you have an MBA degree, and are therefore in a position of authority.

Earning an MBA Degree Is Intellectually Stimulating

Earning an MBA is not only good for your bank account, it's also very good for your mind. It's true: earning your MBA is one of the biggest intellectual challenges you will face in your lifetime. For most people it will probably be the biggest one, period. Many people have an entirely wrong conception of what goes on in MBA schools, and they think it's easy. One thing is for certain – anyone who feels that way doesn't have an MBA, because "easy" is the last word that should be used to describe what an MBA program is like.

On the contrary, for the vast majority of students, B school will be far more rigorous and challenging than their undergraduate program was. To paraphrase a well-known ad from a few years back, an MBA degree program will be the toughest school you'll ever love. Most MBA grads say that they really enjoyed getting their degree, even though it was so rigorous and demanding.

So don't let the fact that an MBA program is intellectually stimulating make you think twice about enrolling because you think you won't be up to the challenge. On the contrary, if you did well enough in college and on the GMAT to be accepted into an MBA program, you've got what it takes upstairs to make it through. Admissions officers aren't in the business of enrolling students who haven't got the smarts to make it through the program, and they're very good at weeding out those whom they don't believe can rise to the challenge.

During your MBA program, you will learn a great deal about a wide variety of subjects. More than that, you'll challenge your limits, push past them, and learn what it means to truly think. If you think your analytical skills are good now, just wait until you graduate from MBA school. There's an old saying: "Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about other people." In MBA school, you'll devote yourself for a couple of years to talking about ideas, and you'll see how enjoyable it can be. You'll also prepare for an intellectually stimulating career spent talking about ideas, and make some lifelong friends to boot.

With an MBA, You'll Become a Leader and a Role Model

This is one of the more intangible benefits of having an MBA , but it's probably one of the most important ones. It's impossible to put a price on the respect you will earn by graduating from one of America's MBA schools. Respect, or being looked up to, is something that a person can never have too much of, and the more a person has, the more it's worth. Possessing an MBA will bestow upon you a lot of respect, and you'll be seen as a leader and a role model. Few feelings in life can top that.

This will start the day you enroll in an MBA program. Your professors will treat you with respect, as one of the leaders of tomorrow. This feeling will gradually start to sink in, and by the time you graduate you'll naturally think of yourself as a leader, too, if you didn't already. Your confidence will grow as you begin to interview for positions with different firms and see the respect with which they treat you. They know that they're not hiring simply an employee, but someone who in the not-too-distant future will most likely be one of the leaders of the company.

Once you're on the job, you'll experience another aspect of this phenomenon. Employees under you, even those who have been there for years, will look to you for leadership and guidance. Some of them will see you as a role model and will seek your advice on career planning and other subjects, and you'll suddenly realize that you've become a mentor, which is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Your peers and superiors will look to you for input on important decisions, because you will truly be part of the company leadership.

This respect that accrues to you as a leader and a role model won't be restricted to your place of work, either. You'll find that people from every part of your life will feel the same way about you. They'll admire you for your ambition, drive, hard work, and accomplishments. You'll be called on to take part in many activities, such as charities and other non-profit groups, enabling you to use your position to give back to your community. Young children in your community will also look up to you, and you might have a chance to mentor several of them, helping them to get on the path to achieving their dreams just like you. And it will all be because you're viewed as a leader and a role model because you earned an MBA degree.

With an MBA Degree You Can Be Your Own Boss

If you want to own your own company and be your own boss, MBA schools are the perfect way to go. Does that surprise you? It might. Many people think of an MBA degree as preparation for a corporate career, and that's certainly how many people put their degree to use. You'll find that many of the biggest companies in America have upper-level management that's overflowing with MBAs, and a good number of the best- known and most successful CEOs have an MBA degree on their resume. So it's easy to see how MBAs came to be associated with corporate careers.

However, even though it's true that most people who graduate from an MBA program go into a corporate career, it's not true that all of them do. Every year, an increasing number of people with MBAs start their own business, and there's no reason you can't be one of them. The image of the self-driven entrepreneur who builds a business from nothing into a huge success is ingrained on the American consciousness. In fact, no matter how important their title, or how big their corner office, or how high their salary, there's probably a little piece of all the executives in America who secretly wish they were out on their own.

An MBA education is the perfect preparation for running your own business, so the surprising thing is that more people aren't following this career path. You spend an intensive couple years studying marketing, sales, accounting, information technology, managing people and resources, etc. What better preparation for starting your own business could there be? In fact, one phenomenon that's becoming increasingly common is for two or more people who meet in MBA school to partner up and start their own business. For many folks, that's close enough to being their own boss that it works for them. Of course, there's nothing that says you have to strike out on your own immediately after you receive your MBA degree. Lots of people work for a few years while they learn the ropes of their particular industry, make connections, and save a lot of money from their excellent salaries. Then they start up their own firm. There are many different approaches, but for anyone who hopes to be his or her own boss one day, an MBA degree is a great way to prepare.

An MBA Degree Brings Opportunities for Travel and Adventure

Getting an MBA degree is like getting a vaccination against a lifetime of boredom. There are a great many benefits that go along with graduating from one of America's MBA schools, and one of them is the opportunity to travel widely and experience all sorts of new and different things. Now certainly there are some people who have no desire to travel or experience the world. They're happy staying right where they are, close to family and lifelong friends. They feel rooted there and more comfortable. There's nothing at all wrong with that (in fact, in many ways it's admirable), and if you're one of those individuals, then you'll still have plenty of other reasons for earning an MBA degree.

To be frank, though, most of us enjoy traveling and seeing the world, at least to some extent. Life is short, and there's a whole bunch of fascinating things to do and see before we leave this planet. Wouldn't it be nice to not only be able to do so, but also get paid (and get paid very well) for doing so? You have to admit that it's pretty hard to beat that arrangement. It's not uncommon for newly-hired MBAs to spend several months in one location, then a few months in another, and then move on to another, etc. Of course, if things go right, these moves are also accompanied by substantial promotions and raises from time to time.

It should also be pointed out that we're not talking about simply traveling within the U.S. No, in today's economic environment, where it seems as if the world truly is turning into a global village, more and more businesses are multinational corporations, with branches and operations on several continents and a plethora of different countries. Does that sound like something that would interest you? Then you should definitely be working toward enrolling in an MBA program. A lot of companies have trouble finding employees with the necessary skills who are willing to travel to foreign countries. Many of them have young families at home, and moving to the other side of the globe would be quite a disruption. So the market for people with MBAs who enjoy traveling is wide open, well paying, and just waiting for you.