5 ms·
This seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. "I worked with some bad MBAs, so anyone who holds that degree must be bad."
by basseq 10y ago
This seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. "I worked with some bad MBAs, so anyone who holds that degree must be bad."
- rdtsc 10y ago> This seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Maybe. It did end up working out very well for them. Whether it was because they never hired MBAs or other reasons, they'll always credit that policy as being a part of their success.
- Chris2048 10y agoDoesn't need to be that "anyone who holds that degree mu[st] be bad" - just that there's so much chaff a lot more time is wasted distinguishing the good ones. Consider that qualifications are themselves means of efficient filtering / signalling competence. What it's saying is, the qualifications doesn't add distinction to a candidate without.
- basseq 10y agoYes, but not in a binary fashion. Someone with a MBA doesn't signal incompetence, just the way that a lack of a MBA means I should immediately promote them to CEO. Likewise, a CS degree from Stanford is good, but some scrappy coder from a flyover state with no college education might be just as good when you dig in. Broad "filters" tend to have a lot of false positives.
- Chaebixi 10y agoIf MBAs often come with a particular ideology and attitude that you want to avoid, then it makes sense to not bother trying to find the good ones. A successful miner wants to focus on the rich ore.
- basseq 10y agoBy the way, this is the attitude that causes diversity issues. "The rich ore is Stanford CS grads who worked at Google and Facebook, so why should I recruit anywhere else?"
- dilemma 10y agoNo, it's not. Not wanting to recruit MBAs doesn't cause a lack of diversity in hires. It's possible that a preference for hiring MBAs, does, though.
- Retric 10y agoMBA's add other MBA's so having zero tends to be the better choice than looking for the 'good ones.' Remember, a primary focus of MBA programs is getting to positions of power, so they are great at self marketing. Further, if the market says X is valuable and you think it's useless then you are better off saving money by avoiding the price premium.
- basseq 10y agoRemember, a primary focus on MBA's is getting to positions of power... Now you're projecting! For every power-hungry poorly-managing CEO-wannabe MBA, there's someone who just wants to know how to administer a business well. A MBA is a (but certainly not the or the only) path to accomplishing that.
- Retric 10y agoDon't get defensive. a primary focus != only focus. But, networking for example is a large part of how MBA programs are setup. PS: Probably should have explicitly used MBA programs not MBA's for the place you quoted, but it's also a large motivator for many people getting an MBA.
- basseq 10y agoI don't have a MBA, so not much to get defensive about here. And I see what you're saying: yes, networking is a MAJOR part of a MBA. Morso than other programs. I don't think that translates to unmitigated desire for "power" so much as a desire to succeed and learn from well-connected peers. In which case, any well-regarded graduate or undergraduate program would have a similar benefit.
- muh_gradle 10y agoThis is a silly reason. How is this any different to engineers with detailed LinkedIn profiles. Everyone self markets.
- dilemma 10y agoPreferring to not hire MBAs is as bad as preferring to hire MBAs. Do you think both are wrong approaches?