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This article makes that point indirectly. If the primary value of an MBA is the network, you should only go to a school where the network has meaningful impact

• chii 14y ago
  which begs the real question - why is "networking" so important (i mean, i know its important, but how come many things hinges on you knowing the right person, instead of hinging on your innate capability instead)? I don't like the sound of an elite clique forming that excludes those who are unable to pay or for some reason can't participate in that clique, and this is prevented from roles such as CEOs/upper management.
  • rayiner 14y ago
    It's because we are, at the bottom, monkeys in shirts and pants.
  • suyash 14y ago
    I have the same question, what does everyone emphasis on Networking so much? I think it's purely overrated. If you really want to network, you can do that for a fraction of a cost by attending industry events/conferences and don't need to spend 2 years to go to Business School.
    • wpietri 14y ago
      It's a different kind of network. The people you meet at conferences are not likely to be highly placed, and you will not have a particularly strong bond with them. Spend 2 years in a highly-ranked MBA program, though, and you will develop deep, long-lasting bonds with people, many of whom will end up in important positions. It's the same sort of deep connection you get from being, say, an early participant at an important company. The PayPal Mafia [1] are important partly because they are smart individuals, and partly because they're part of a well-connected network. I hear you also get a similar effect from incubator programs like Y Combinator: it builds bonds that last. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia
      • suyash 14y ago
        Ok, that explains..but I would still not go to MBA school mostly to build network.
  • SoftwareMaven 14y ago
    Because there are a lot of pieces to running a business that fall outside of your innate capability, and your network allows you to draw on others for those capabilities.
  • wpietri 14y ago
    I agree with you on the moral issues. I'm especially concerned about that kind of clique persisting across generations. This country worked too hard to get rid of royalty to let it happen again. However, I also appreciate how valuable a good network is. People are social animals, and good networks allow you to cut through a lot of bullshit. When I'm hiring, for example, the first place I always go to is my network. Placing ads is such an arduous and chancy process. If I can hire somebody who has strong recommendations from people I know, it's much easier and much more likely to work out well. Those people have collected information over time on things I can't possibly discover in an interview. And the social relationships provide a context that make the relationship more solid than one brokered via Craigslist.
• zecho 14y ago
  Why not a top 6 school? These articles are rarely very useful.
  • ckurdziel 14y ago
    I'm not sure it's really the number that matters - each network has a distinct focus - some non top-10 or top-5 schools (Carnegie Mellon for example) may have less highly-ranked MBA program/network but have a really strong engineering/undergraduate network. For an MBA who has an engineering background or is pursuing engineering management, getting an MBA at that sort of program may make a lot of sense. I think the real key here is that blindly following rankings makes little sense and that picking a program that's really right for you is what does make sense.
    • zecho 14y ago
      Sure. I guess that's what I was trying to say in a snarky way. I just don't understand the anti-education mentality here at HN when it comes to this specific degree.