The Opportunity Costs of an Early Career MBA
These days, the average full-time MBA student has between 4 and 5 years of professional work experience.
Is that too much? Too little? Or just right?
A growing – or, at least, a growingly vocal – number of people think that it's too much. They argue that a shift to greater use of early career admissions would benefit both students and business schools. Aspiring MBAs would be able to get their degrees at a more convenient point in their lives, without having to make the financial and family sacrifices needed to return to school in their late 20's or 30's. In return, business schools would get a more diverse and energetic body of students.
In fact, as the proponents of early career MBAs point out, there's nothing sacred about the current standard of 4- to-5-years of pre-MBA employment. Fifteen years ago, it wasn't
that unusual for someone to go directly from college to business school. At one time, as many as one-third of the students in a Harvard MBA class had been accepted to HBS as college seniors.
But the question that prospective early career MBAs should ask themselves is not "Could I win admission to b-school with my current level of professional experience?" The question they should ask themselves is more along the lines of, "Is this the best time for me to invest 2 years of my life in an MBA education?"
Some Questions To Ask Yourself
There are, clearly, some attractive arguments for getting an MBA soon after college. You won't have to readjust to an academic environment. You'll probably have more energy and fewer family obligations than you might in even a few years' time. You'll line yourself up for job opportunities that you probably could not expect without the MBA.
But there are some possible downsides to being an early career MBA, too. These are some issues that you should consider:
You may be limiting your business school options. If you're dead set on
getting your MBA right after college, you might have to accept setting your
sights on a less prestigious program than would be the case if you had a few
years of work experience under your belt. It's not just a question of 'paying
your dues.' The values and insights you can gain from a few years of full-time
employment really can enhance your competitiveness for admission to the very top b-schools. (By the way, don't make the mistake of assuming that you can get one MBA from one school and then go back for a second degree from a higher-ranked school. MBA programs hardly ever accept applicants who already hold one graduate business degree.)
You may not get everything you should out of your classes. MBA coursework is designed for people who have some first-hand experience of how businesses and organizations work. That experience provides a crucial context for the theories and tools you'll learn in class. You'll be at a disadvantage without it.
You may not know what you want from a career yet. One of the biggest advantages of having work experience before beginning an MBA program is that it helps you narrow down your range of career interests. By knowing the day-to-day realities of one or more jobs or industries, you have a good idea of what you do and don't want to do with the rest of your life. Without that knowledge, you may wind up choosing internships and concentrations at random, wasting valuable educational and experiential opportunities.
You may limit the 'shelf life' of your MBA. In general, the longer ago you earned your MBA, the less of an impression the degree makes on employers. Your MBA credential could lose its shine just at the point in your career when you need its boost the most.
You'll undercut your ROI on your b-school investment. Recruiters don't just want MBAs. They want MBAs with work experience. Without the experience to back up your degree, you won't be able to compete for the same positions or salaries that your classmates will.
In fact, according to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the average starting salary for an MBA who began b-school right after college is one-half of what a classmate with 4 years of work experience could expect. That means that if the going rate for MBAs from your class is $100,000 a year, you could expect to be offered only $50,000. That's not much of a return on a $100,000-plus business school investment.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line on business school timing is that you should go for your degree when the timing is right for you. Your MBA education is one of the largest investments you'll make in your life. You want to maximize the return you will realize from it.
For most people, it's worthwhile to make the sacrifices necessary to gain a few years of substantive work experience before entering an MBA program. It may be frustrating in the short term but will pay off with greater career opportunity and greater career satisfaction over the long run.
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