The article was written by Penelope Trunk, who is an entrepreneur and founder of a professional social network for young people called Brazen Careerist. She’s also served as a workplace commentator on CNN and ABC’s 20/20, so she knows a thing or two about career paths and the factors that play into how strong one’s path can be. After reading her article, I found that it was less controversial than the title made it seem. I can’t say that I agree with all of her points, but I do agree with her general idea that the MBA has to actually be worthwhile to advance one’s career in order for it to make sense. While her perspective may shock some, she doesn’t a great job of backing up that perspective with research and ideas from key stakeholders. If you’re interested, you might want to check out some more of her stuff at http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/.
I’ve shared a few thoughts on the article in the video below and included a link to the article below it.
Interesting notion…”Why an MBA is a waste of time and money” from Marquis Parker on Vimeo.
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Title: Why an MBA Is a Waste of Time and Money
Author: Penelope Trunk
Source: BNet.com Blogs – http://www.bnet.com/blog/penelope-trunk/why-an-mba-is-a-waste-of-time-and-money/152
Excerpt text from the article:
MBA applications always go up during a bad economy. That is because business school generally attracts people who are lost, and more people who feel more lost when the bad job market is lousy.
But let’s be clear: This is not the type of recession where there are no jobs for young people. This is a recession where there are no GOOD jobs. McDonald’s is hiring in management. There is a bank teller shortage and a shortage of actuaries. There is a shortage of insurance agents. It’s just that people don’t grow up dreaming of these jobs. So they don’t take them. Instead, people who are early in their career – in that time when an MBA sounds like it might work – those people are determined to have only a good job. And if they can’t have that, they get an MBA.
The problem is that an MBA makes it worse.
Here are seven reasons why you should take a bad job instead of getting an MBA.
Honestly, I was surprised when I read this article. As you mentioned, MBA does open a lot of opportunities for career switchers or prospective career switchers like us. I would like to bring some perspectives here:
1. Penelope bases her facts from sources like Forbes. As she says, Forbes confirms in a study that a person with MBA does not bring more investors than a person without MBA. But, don’t you feel the basis is wrong? Most of the CEOs are of the age of late 40’s or so. Even at the age of 40, a certain person should have done his undergraduate in 1990 or so. Compare 1990 to today. What was the market that time and what is it today? Moreover, was MBA a hot destination in 1990s? I can’t comment on US so much but I can definitely say about India that people were hardly aware of an MBA or what it could bring to one’s career. Moreover, due to low population and less “competitiveness” (mark the word here), it was easy for a person to grow in his career. For example, one of my senior colleagues did not do his undergraduate also and today, he is at a very senior level at the headquarters leading a team of 20-30 odd people, all from top notch colleges of India and US. So, I completely disagree on the facts on which she has based her points.
2. About money and MBA, I feel it is the personal decision. Why? I know some friends who want to do MBA just because of the peer pressure. Only because their classmates are doing/have done MBA, prompts them to pursue MBA. Now, this is wrong. One is definitely wasting money. But not some people like us. I have a business idea but I cannot develop it into a solid plan due to lack of business knowledge. Will someone fall from the sky to help me? Will reaching the potential VCs be easy? I don’t feel so that is the case in India yet. In India, we are still stuck with the norm that if someone has studied civil engineering, 99.99999% of the time he is going to end with a job in Constructions, if someone has done Computer Science, he will end up in the software industry. People, here, look for one’s education background and not qualities. For example, I know a person (will tell you later personally because you know him too) whose manager feels that he is too smart, intelligent and aggressive to be a software professional. The irony is not about the comment but sadly, the efforts of the manager are zero to groom that person or to put him in the right track. instead, he tells decrease your speed, chill…I don’t know if it has to do with the attitude or the accepted norms.
Therefore, I believe an MBA is worth when someone knows why and does he/she really have the qualities for being a good MBA manager.