Reasons for Getting an MBA Degree
When weighing the pros and cons of whether or not to get an MBA degree, you'll quickly find that the scales tip heavily to one end. Yes, there are some definite arguments against MBA school, but they are minuscule in number – the cost, the hard work, the tremendous time and study commitment, and a tiny number of other objections. On the other hand, the arguments in favor of getting an MBA are almost limitless. Everyone's career dreams, lifestyle aspirations, ultimate goals, etc., are quite varied and would number in the millions if added together, and an MBA can help make every single one of them come true.
Although every person’s circumstances are unique, there are some arguments in favor of the MBA that apply to just about everyone. Also, in many cases, people tend to make the decision harder than it should be. While it would be an oversimplification to say the decision of whether or not to earn an MBA is simple, the benefits and rewards of earning one so far outweigh the drawbacks and risks of doing so that calling it a simple decision is not a gross exaggeration.
Consider this scenario. Assume that a younger family member was about to graduate from high school. This person is very intelligent, has lots of drive, and plenty of other great qualities. Facing a dilemma, they come to you and ask your advice. Your relative isn’t sure whether or not to attend college. Wouldn't you be shocked? Wouldn't you try your hardest to show what a huge mistake it would be to pass up a bachelor's degree, and how your relative would be consigning him or herself to a lifetime of low achievement and low wages?
Of course you would. You'd do everything in your power to show how foolish it would be to skip college or university. You'd explain that although getting a college education would take years of hard work and sacrifice, the long-term rewards far outweigh the drawbacks. Well, these days an MBA degree is becoming almost as much of a career necessity as a bachelor's. Anyone who doesn't have one is going to be at a severe disadvantage when it comes to climbing the career ladder. Always keep that in mind. There are lots of other reasons to get an MBA, and we'll discuss some of them, but necessity is probably the main reason these days.
An MBA Degree Gives You More Control over Your Career
One of the best reasons to get an MBA degree is that possessing this credential gives a person so much more control over one’s career path than people who simply have a bachelor's degree have. Don't underestimate this important this MBA benefit. It's extremely important and will become even more so as your career progresses. Psychologists and other behavioral experts tell us that there is a direct relationship between the feeling of control people have over their own lives and their levels of happiness and life satisfaction. Those individuals who sense that they have a lot of control over their life and destiny tend to be the happiest and most well adjusted, while people with a sense of less control over their lives are often very unhappy. At the bottom of the scale, those who feel they have very little control over their lives often suffer from depression and other serious psychological problems.
In other words, there is a lot more to life than money, and a sense of being in charge of your life is one of the most important factors. Having an MBA can give a person that sense, as well as the ability to make a lot of money. Of course, no one will ever have 100% control of how one’s career trajectory takes shape; that's impossible. The key is having choices, and a person who has an MBA always has a lot of different options to choose from.
Having a multitude of options begins even before graduation from business school, as the student who is about to graduate is recruited by businesses that appreciate their skills and want to pay them handsomely for their services. That is only the beginning, however. As you gain more and more experience to go along with your MBA, it becomes that much more valuable, and eventually you'll discover that you're a highly sought-after prize. Recruiters will be calling you (you won't have to call them), so you'll always have plenty of options besides your current employer. Your bosses will know this, and they'll strive to keep you happy in order to retain your services. You'll have veto power because you'll be able to walk away at any time, knowing that you'll have no trouble finding another excellent position.
Along with having options of whom to work for, of course, once you have an MBA you'll have a lot more
say in how much money you'll be paid. A person with an MBA simply has much more leverage and bargaining
power than an employee who has only a bachelor's degree. In addition, an MBA degree confers flexibility.
You might choose not to pursue a corporate career at all, instead opting to work for a non-profit group,
or a school, or something else that ignites your passion. You'll be free to do that, and if you change
your mind, you'll have no trouble landing a corporate position, all because you have an MBA. Having as
much control of your life and career as possible is one of the most important factors when it comes to
happiness and life satisfaction, and an MBA really delivers in this area.
Getting an MBA Degree Unlocks a World of Opportunity
The opportunities you will receive after earning your MBA degree will be some of the biggest rewards that come your way as a result of making the decision to go to business school. Doors will open to you that are closed to the vast majority of people with whom you work, simply because you have “MBA” after your name. In fact, you'll begin to enjoy the expanded opportunities before you even graduate, as you'll be offered employment with firms and high-level jobs, which you would never have had the option of exploring if not for being in MBA school. Never underestimate the benefits of an MBA.
- That's just the beginning, too. Once you've got that precious degree in hand, your life will never be the same. You'll be able to dream big, knowing that unlike most people, the chances of your dreams coming true are very high indeed. If you want to climb the corporate ladder and wind up in the chair of the CEO, your odds of doing so are much better because of your MBA. Maybe that holds no interest for you, and you'd rather focus your talents on helping non-profits achieve more with the resources they have. If that's the case, you'll have more opportunities than you can even consider, and you can have your pick of positions.
- Do you want to travel and see the country? No one will be in a better position than a recent MBA grad to name his or her location and get it. A few years down the road, if you're still desirous of traveling, and you decide you'd like to live and work a thousand miles away, your employer will probably do their best to accommodate you. If they won't, there will be plenty of firms in your desired area who are eager to have your services.
The friendships you make as you earn your MBA degree will also be the source of many opportunities
over the course of your career. In business, who you know has always been just as important as what you
know, and you're going to be friends with a lot of people who wind up becoming very successful. When
they need a new partner or manager, you'll be at the top of their short list. These networking
opportunities will only increase as you progress in your career and associate with other people with
MBAs. If you want a career filled with opportunities, then getting an MBA is the best way to have
one.
An MBA Degree Is an Investment in You
There's no getting around this fact: MBA degrees are usually going to be quite expensive. Traditional programs at top-tier schools are around $50,000 per year. That means shelling out over $100,000 to get an MBA from Harvard, Wharton, etc. Second-tier schools are in many cases not much cheaper. On top of this, if you enroll in a traditional MBA program, you're looking at approximately two years of earning no salary. Even if you manage to get admitted to one of the more selective (but less expensive) programs at a public university, that fact alone is going to have a serious impact on your finances. So, do the benefits of an MBA outweigh the costs?
It can't be stressed enough that thinking about the money involved in getting an MBA this way is all wrong. That's short-term thinking, and you need to think in terms of the long run. Don't worry about a couple years; think of the several decades in which you'll put your MBA degree to work, and earn much, much higher salaries than you would have otherwise. Getting an MBA is an investment. However, it's important that you realize that it's unlike any other investments on the market.
If Americans have learned anything in the years from 1980 onward, it's that there's no such thing as a reliable investment anymore. Gold went to nearly $900 an ounce and then collapsed almost overnight in 1980. The stock market? It was in the doldrums for decades, and then took off in the 1990s, only to collapse when the high tech/Internet bubble burst. Real estate? Millions of average Americans were wiped out between 2006 and 2008 when the real estate market bubble burst. And so it goes . . . some of America's biggest companies, once considered rock-solid investments, are either teetering on the edge of bankruptcy or out of business altogether.
These days, there's only one investment you can rely on, and that's an investment in yourself.
There's an old saying that an education is the most important thing to acquire because no one can take
it away from you. These days we're seeing the wisdom of that old proverb more clearly than people have
seen it for generations. It wasn't that long ago that a person could count on getting a solid return by
investing in bonds, stocks, real estate, precious metals, etc. These days those markets are closer to
being a crap shoot than a reliable investment. An MBA degree, though, is something you can count on to
earn you a very substantial amount of money over the course of your lifetime. Although MBA school might
sound expensive now, when you look at it that way, the cost of attending is tiny in comparison. It's
almost certainly the best investment you'll ever make.
MBA Salaries
Let's talk about MBA salaries! After all, earning a good income is one of the reasons behind every MBA graduate's decision to attend business school, no matter what they tell other people. We all know that's true, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to make good money. So how much can a person with a new MBA degree expect to make as a starting salary? That's the question on the minds of a lot of people, and we'll do our best to give you a pretty good picture of what kind of starting salaries new MBA grads can expect to receive these days.
First, though, it should be noted that there is a lot of variance in starting MBA salaries, so it's impossible to give a precise, cut and dried answer. There are several factors behind these huge salary ranges. One of them is where you earned your MBA. A degree from Harvard or Wharton is going to command a substantially higher salary than one from a school with a second tier MBA university ranking . Second-tier school grads will tend to make more than grads from schools at the bottom of the university rankings . (The good news is that ten years down the road, these difference tend to average out, and a Harvard MBA isn't much more valuable than one from a second-tier school in the long run.)
Another factor is a person’s chosen industry sector. Right now health care is booming, and average MBA salaries are higher there. Location is another factor. Jobs on the coasts pay the best, big cities in "flyover country" are next, and jobs in small to medium-sized towns are the lowest. One very important factor is how many years of experience the newly-minted MBA has in his or her chosen field. Obviously, people in non-traditional MBA programs will often have a leg up here, with graduates of executive MBA programs receiving inordinately high starting salaries. There are other factors, too, but these are the big ones.
In light of all that, here are some recent figures for average starting salaries for MBAs. These figures apply mainly to graduates of traditional programs and average schools and include benefit packages. For government jobs, which are increasingly popular, starting salary packages are in the $55,000 to $70,000 range. MBAs going into finance should expect offers in the $100,000 range. Consulting is another field where starting salary packages average close to $100,000. MBAs going into marketing and sales also receive offers in this range. High tech grads also fall into this range on average. Currently, MBAs going into health care are receiving salary packages averaging around $110,000, for a ten percent premium. With the exception of government work, a typical new MBA will receive an offer of around $65,000 to $70,000 in salary (add ten percent for health care salaries), and another $30,000 to $35,000 in annual benefits. Keep in mind that these figures aren't written in stone, and they are subject to change.