6 ms·

Having started my own company and done everything from doing coffee runs for my team to writing investment briefs, I'm not sure what an MBA would teach me? Not

by aoveri 7y ago

Having started my own company and done everything from doing coffee runs for my team to writing investment briefs, I'm not sure what an MBA would teach me? Not being snarky, genuinely curious as to what benefit I could derive as I've always seen as something that I'd eventually pursue.

bitL 7y ago
It'd would give you an overview of instruments already existing you can plug into your business and skip some "research" phases without reinventing the wheel multiple times. It's basically time-compressor if you use it right; you can spend 2-5 years in inventing already invented stuff or just take what is out there and customize for your needs. You could probably get something similar if you have access to good advisors, but those are difficult to find.
- cfontes 7y ago
  Or you can read some good books and learn from your peers through networking with other "business" people.
  - bitL 7y ago
    Yes. In my case paying for something is however a motivation to finish it actually as there is a stream of cool distractions I could do instead. So I pay for courses with hard deadlines which forces me to study the topics. If it were for free, I'd most likely prioritize something else in its place. It also allows systematic approach that is hard to do just by interacting with peers or from books only.
zerkten 7y ago
> Not being snarky, genuinely curious as to what benefit I could derive as I've always seen as something that I'd eventually pursue. Very little unless your company grew to a huge scale. MBA courses don't help that much with smaller organizations because historically there was little research involving small companies. This has possibly improved, but the focus is probably more on fast-growth startups since this is a much more comfortable and sustainable area for MBA-types. That said, there are things that you can learn from an MBA education that can stand you in good stead. It can give you a broader worldview on topics like finance and economics, if you haven't had time or previous exposure. Strategy and case studies of other orgs successes and failures can be helpful for the analysis skills versus the exact things you learn. Whether it's worth it is going to be up to you. There are some rules people seem to follow like doing it more cheaply if you can't get into a top school. The things you need are accessible in other places. I grew up outside the US and my enterprising business and economics teachers covered things when I was 16-18, that just got repeated later on. Perhaps find a Coursera course for topics you are interested in to see if you want to go further?
bobjordan 7y ago
From my experience getting my MBA from Darden in 2008 and then starting my own businesses by 2010. The number one benefit was how it helped to build my professional network. Before, I was a shop floor manager in a few fabrication facilities in WV and Southwest VA in rural areas. Without my MBA experience, I'd never have a chance to meet people working at major Wall Street banks. I didn't have any finance industry experience. Fast forward into my summer break between 1st and 2nd year, I received an offer from Bear Stearns to work in NYC. I didn't take that job. Instead, I took an offer to work in Newport Beach, CA as a management consultant. Hard decision, right? NYC or the beach in Orange County - I chose the beach. These are options that never would have happened without my MBA. Now as an entrepreneur, if I want to go raise funds, I have a network to help with introductions. Also, studying for my MBA at Darden changed my thought patterns in making decisons under conditions of uncertainty. Courses in quantitative decision analysis and option valuation introduced me to monte-carlo methods and real option analysis. Now, I don't often break out a black scholes model to help me make decisions. But, I gained a fundamental understanding of how to analyse uncertain situations and find decision points to cut downside and increase upside. This has helped me to stay in business working for myself for 10 years now.
- refurb 7y ago
  These are options that never would have happened without my MBA. Very similar experience for me. I had a science background, so an MBA was a nice way to get a very broad education in a number of business topics. My path post-MBA would never have been possible without the degree.
TheHypnotist 7y ago
My undergrad is in Finance and my advisor back in 2008-2009 said don't get an MBA, you already have a business degree. So to answer your question, i'm not sure it'll teach you a whole lot. Currently going for my MS in IS.
- fdjlasdfjl 7y ago
  I took my undergraduate business degree at the same time as a colleague took his MBA. They were similar enough that we were taking exams on the same topic at the same time. I'd only consider an MBA if it were a top program, and only to build my networking.
pastor_elm 7y ago
MBAs are a gatekeeping mechanism for the rich
- iamasoftwaredev 7y ago
  Downvoted but not actually opposed by comment. I think you touched a nerve for some people.
- thehappypm 7y ago
  This is pretty damn false. Most state schools offer online MBAs for extremely affordable tuition rates.
sputknick 7y ago
I did a night school MBA in my 20s (paid for by my employer). Nothing prestigious, nothing particularly hard. My undergrad was in CS, so it was a lot of classes I had never had. I had no idea what the difference between accounting and finance was. It taught me the fundamentals that are now helping with building my business. Today you could probably learn the same thing from a good Udemy course, but it was nice to have a REAL accountant I could ask questions.
behnamoh 7y ago
It's the systematic approach to business problems that makes an MBA worth pursuing. I finished my MBA program last year and I couldn't be happier with the breadth of knowledge it helped me acquire. Some other comments are also true: MBA will provide lots of opportunities to meet with the giants in your field and make connections. Internships also contribute a lot to your future job prospects. I've also come to really appreciate the "don't re-invent the wheel" phrase. Most MBA courses include a number of case studies that are your most precious source of information about real events in the business sector and how those led to peculiar problems and the creative solutions that were thought of to solve those problems. In this sense, an MBA is much different than just crunching financial numbers to calculate NPV, etc. Hope this helps!
codingdave 7y ago
The analogy that I find helpful is that an MBA is to the business world the same thing that design patterns are to coding. Neither are an answer to all things, both can be used in the wrong places, but both give you a toolkit that saves you from re-inventing wheels if you first recognize that you are in a scenario where these tools will help. Odds are, an MBA will help you less getting a small company going, but more when you are re-organizing larger companies, or integrating organizations after a merger/acquisition.
BeetleB 7y ago
The only really appropriate response I can give is: Ask someone who, like you, built a business and then went for an MBA. Definitely don't ask people who don't have an MBA. The only example that comes to mind: Angie Hicks of Angie's List fame. Although she didn't run Angie's List, she probably knew all of the ins and outs of it. Then she left it to get an MBA from HBS. You can hear about her experience on "How I Built This": https://www.npr.org/2018/08/17/639532403/angies-list-angie-hicks https://www.npr.org/2018/08/17/639532403/angies-list-angie-h... The summary: She found some aspects beneficial. She also found some of what they taught to be bad advice given her knowledge of running a business. So yes, she did gain something out of it. I'm sure I've heard other How I Built This episodes where the founder later got an MBA, but I don't recall which ones they were. Now having answered that: Some comments for you: Your question is isomorphic to "Having taught myself programming and earning over $200K/year, I'm not sure what a CS degree would teach me." The answer is "It will likely teach you things, but it's not clear they will further your career," The other response to such a question would be: "Not everyone can be as effective in teaching themselves and getting a job as you were, so there is still value in the degree for many people."
sieke 7y ago
Certainly the networking is beneficial. For those not coming from a finance/consulting background, it's probably also useful to learn financial modeling techniques.
thehappypm 7y ago
For my wife, who works in sales, the value in business school was rounding out her knowledge. She went part-time, so it was all about the content, not about networking quite so much. It also was an order of magnitude less expensive with no (financial) opportunity cost. Yes, you learn a ton on the job. On-the-job learning also leaves gaps and blind spots; sometimes even an excellent working knowledge has gaps that you don't even know exist until you crack open a textbook. The MBA provides structure, motivation, discussion, teaching resources, access to documents you otherwise wouldn't, but perhaps most importantly, it forces you to deep-dive on topics that maybe you haven't yet encountered or frankly didn't feel interested in. At least for part-time, I wouldn't go in expecting it to change your life; but it is certainly an education, and one that's directly applicable to many aspects of a career. There's no way you'll learn nothing.

by aoveri 7y ago

bitL 7y ago

It'd would give you an overview of instruments already existing you can plug into your business and skip some "research" phases without reinventing the wheel multiple times. It's basically time-compressor if you use it right; you can spend 2-5 years in inventing already invented stuff or just take what is out there and customize for your needs. You could probably get something similar if you have access to good advisors, but those are difficult to find.

cfontes 7y ago
Or you can read some good books and learn from your peers through networking with other "business" people.
- bitL 7y ago
  Yes. In my case paying for something is however a motivation to finish it actually as there is a stream of cool distractions I could do instead. So I pay for courses with hard deadlines which forces me to study the topics. If it were for free, I'd most likely prioritize something else in its place. It also allows systematic approach that is hard to do just by interacting with peers or from books only.

zerkten 7y ago

> Not being snarky, genuinely curious as to what benefit I could derive as I've always seen as something that I'd eventually pursue. Very little unless your company grew to a huge scale. MBA courses don't help that much with smaller organizations because historically there was little research involving small companies. This has possibly improved, but the focus is probably more on fast-growth startups since this is a much more comfortable and sustainable area for MBA-types. That said, there are things that you can learn from an MBA education that can stand you in good stead. It can give you a broader worldview on topics like finance and economics, if you haven't had time or previous exposure. Strategy and case studies of other orgs successes and failures can be helpful for the analysis skills versus the exact things you learn. Whether it's worth it is going to be up to you. There are some rules people seem to follow like doing it more cheaply if you can't get into a top school. The things you need are accessible in other places. I grew up outside the US and my enterprising business and economics teachers covered things when I was 16-18, that just got repeated later on. Perhaps find a Coursera course for topics you are interested in to see if you want to go further?

bobjordan 7y ago

From my experience getting my MBA from Darden in 2008 and then starting my own businesses by 2010. The number one benefit was how it helped to build my professional network. Before, I was a shop floor manager in a few fabrication facilities in WV and Southwest VA in rural areas. Without my MBA experience, I'd never have a chance to meet people working at major Wall Street banks. I didn't have any finance industry experience. Fast forward into my summer break between 1st and 2nd year, I received an offer from Bear Stearns to work in NYC. I didn't take that job. Instead, I took an offer to work in Newport Beach, CA as a management consultant. Hard decision, right? NYC or the beach in Orange County - I chose the beach. These are options that never would have happened without my MBA. Now as an entrepreneur, if I want to go raise funds, I have a network to help with introductions. Also, studying for my MBA at Darden changed my thought patterns in making decisons under conditions of uncertainty. Courses in quantitative decision analysis and option valuation introduced me to monte-carlo methods and real option analysis. Now, I don't often break out a black scholes model to help me make decisions. But, I gained a fundamental understanding of how to analyse uncertain situations and find decision points to cut downside and increase upside. This has helped me to stay in business working for myself for 10 years now.

refurb 7y ago
These are options that never would have happened without my MBA. Very similar experience for me. I had a science background, so an MBA was a nice way to get a very broad education in a number of business topics. My path post-MBA would never have been possible without the degree.

TheHypnotist 7y ago

My undergrad is in Finance and my advisor back in 2008-2009 said don't get an MBA, you already have a business degree. So to answer your question, i'm not sure it'll teach you a whole lot. Currently going for my MS in IS.

fdjlasdfjl 7y ago
I took my undergraduate business degree at the same time as a colleague took his MBA. They were similar enough that we were taking exams on the same topic at the same time. I'd only consider an MBA if it were a top program, and only to build my networking.

pastor_elm 7y ago

MBAs are a gatekeeping mechanism for the rich

iamasoftwaredev 7y ago
Downvoted but not actually opposed by comment. I think you touched a nerve for some people.
thehappypm 7y ago
This is pretty damn false. Most state schools offer online MBAs for extremely affordable tuition rates.

sputknick 7y ago

I did a night school MBA in my 20s (paid for by my employer). Nothing prestigious, nothing particularly hard. My undergrad was in CS, so it was a lot of classes I had never had. I had no idea what the difference between accounting and finance was. It taught me the fundamentals that are now helping with building my business. Today you could probably learn the same thing from a good Udemy course, but it was nice to have a REAL accountant I could ask questions.

behnamoh 7y ago

It's the systematic approach to business problems that makes an MBA worth pursuing. I finished my MBA program last year and I couldn't be happier with the breadth of knowledge it helped me acquire. Some other comments are also true: MBA will provide lots of opportunities to meet with the giants in your field and make connections. Internships also contribute a lot to your future job prospects. I've also come to really appreciate the "don't re-invent the wheel" phrase. Most MBA courses include a number of case studies that are your most precious source of information about real events in the business sector and how those led to peculiar problems and the creative solutions that were thought of to solve those problems. In this sense, an MBA is much different than just crunching financial numbers to calculate NPV, etc. Hope this helps!

codingdave 7y ago

The analogy that I find helpful is that an MBA is to the business world the same thing that design patterns are to coding. Neither are an answer to all things, both can be used in the wrong places, but both give you a toolkit that saves you from re-inventing wheels if you first recognize that you are in a scenario where these tools will help. Odds are, an MBA will help you less getting a small company going, but more when you are re-organizing larger companies, or integrating organizations after a merger/acquisition.

BeetleB 7y ago

The only really appropriate response I can give is: Ask someone who, like you, built a business and then went for an MBA. Definitely don't ask people who don't have an MBA. The only example that comes to mind: Angie Hicks of Angie's List fame. Although she didn't run Angie's List, she probably knew all of the ins and outs of it. Then she left it to get an MBA from HBS. You can hear about her experience on "How I Built This": https://www.npr.org/2018/08/17/639532403/angies-list-angie-hicks https://www.npr.org/2018/08/17/639532403/angies-list-angie-h... The summary: She found some aspects beneficial. She also found some of what they taught to be bad advice given her knowledge of running a business. So yes, she did gain something out of it. I'm sure I've heard other How I Built This episodes where the founder later got an MBA, but I don't recall which ones they were. Now having answered that: Some comments for you: Your question is isomorphic to "Having taught myself programming and earning over $200K/year, I'm not sure what a CS degree would teach me." The answer is "It will likely teach you things, but it's not clear they will further your career," The other response to such a question would be: "Not everyone can be as effective in teaching themselves and getting a job as you were, so there is still value in the degree for many people."

sieke 7y ago

Certainly the networking is beneficial. For those not coming from a finance/consulting background, it's probably also useful to learn financial modeling techniques.

thehappypm 7y ago

For my wife, who works in sales, the value in business school was rounding out her knowledge. She went part-time, so it was all about the content, not about networking quite so much. It also was an order of magnitude less expensive with no (financial) opportunity cost. Yes, you learn a ton on the job. On-the-job learning also leaves gaps and blind spots; sometimes even an excellent working knowledge has gaps that you don't even know exist until you crack open a textbook. The MBA provides structure, motivation, discussion, teaching resources, access to documents you otherwise wouldn't, but perhaps most importantly, it forces you to deep-dive on topics that maybe you haven't yet encountered or frankly didn't feel interested in. At least for part-time, I wouldn't go in expecting it to change your life; but it is certainly an education, and one that's directly applicable to many aspects of a career. There's no way you'll learn nothing.