Some people argue that what you learn in an MBA can be covered in a few books.
I strongly oppose this opinion, which is the most stupid about MBA.
This article introduced exciting insights about the meaning of getting MBA.
He classified the value of MBA into four different groups.
- Academics
- Professional benefit
- Social life/Break
- Personal Growth
I am taking one-year MBA and I have 10+ yrs professonal experience, so my thoughts would be different from him. However, I believe we have some common insights, and I can highlight some specific benefits/drawbacks in MBA with this blog as well.
Let me start from professional benefit.
Professional benefit(B-D)
Compared to two years MBA, I can say the impact of MBA is a bit stable.
Many two-years students use MBA as a turning point of their careers and move to tech, consultancy, and startups. The completely same movement is achievable for one year and mid-career MBA, but the pre-career before MBA is more important than two-years. So, consultancy and tech(not now.) would give you some credits because of your MBA, but startups look at you as a professional of pre-MBA career.
Professional benefit(B or C)
A one-year MBA is extremely busy. We need to complete 70% of academic courses in 50% of the period. We have some vacation periods, but we can not enjoy parties throughout the whole time because we need to do many things outside academics, such as startup projects, searching for positions, and self-reflection. We have less vacations as well.
However, creating lifelong friends and enjoying different cultures are totally possible and one of the main experience in one-year MBA.
Personal Growth(A - B)
It depends on you. But with mature leaders, you can find yourself more precisely. With this program, I understand my strengths and weaknesses. Then, I tried to imitate some behaviours from my cohorts.
In the mid-career, it would be a little bit difficult to find your mentors apart from your professional industry and outside your company.
A mid-career and one-year MBA is the best place to find your lifelong mentor and unleash your potential to more multicultural and versatile leader.
Academics(A)
Just to be fair, the essence of courses is just the contents of a few books. I need to admit this point. However, I would argue the importance of slowing down "digestion of information" at that point.
In MBA, we discuss and practice around a bunch of case studies/examples about one tiny topic in books. If you read a book, it would take just two hours. However, we dedicate one month for those content.
What doe it mean? We equip ourselves with knowledge. It might be less practical than actual working experience, but I believe still better than reading a book.
If someone can understand the concepts and practice the methodology only with reading a book, he or she does not need MBA. However, I have not seen any person with such an ability and even with intense experience, they struggle with equipping themselves with specific skillsets.
