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Cheers to the long Memorial Day weekend 🇺🇸🥃🙌🏼
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Link to the singles bowl please. 😞
My week so far
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Almost everyone that I know who went to a top 15 program (n=25+) said they do not regret it.
Almost everyone that I know who went to a program ranked 30 or worse (n=5) said, very confidently, that they regret it.
I did not get an mba fwiw. I would prob regret it if I just got it for shits even if it was a top program.
No I don’t regret it at all. I decided to get an MBA for myself, not as a guarantee for any type of promotion or career advancement. With that in mind, I very much enjoyed my program. And in fact did get a promotion and career advancement out of it.
Chief
Only time I regret it is when I have to pay those loans every month
No but I do regret what I did with it
Rising Star
If you have an MBA from a T20 program you’re immediately at the top of the strategy pay band. I would say 90% of strategy MDs and SMDs have MBAs from top 15 programs.
I’d say making 175K + 40K bonus for 40 hour work weeks is pretty solid.
I do not have an MBA, but I make more than my colleagues that went to Harvard, Stanford, etc.
Do you have another advanced degree? Do you think not having an MBA impacted your progression in consulting at all?
Regretted it during the year after graduation. I felt my career choices (transitioned into consulting from different industry) were minimal and salary had been reduced.
10 years later and it’s the best thing I ever did. (Top10 schools really do make a difference on CVs.)
Perspective changes!
Yes, I only got a foothold in this industry because of my MBA.
The region I’m in favors PhDs. I still need to mention where I went to grad school to get beyond that.
If you’re at a top firm then it doesn’t make sense to do an MBA if you plan on sticking with that same firm. You can probably move up quicker without spending 2 years and 500k in lost income and opportunity cost doing an MBA. If you’re looking to switch what you want to do then it is worth it. For me it allowed me to pivot from systems integration at a mid-tier firm into Strategy at Accenture. Also did it part-time so didn’t lose as much in opportunity cost.
If you can’t get into a top 10-15 program your odds of regretting it go up significantly
Absolutely do not regret it. I regret not taking it earlier in life. I was 29yo when I started
I got an MBA, but unfortunately stayed with IBM. I don't d not get any more money, and since then I forgot what I learned. For me personally, I guess I lost the value of the MBA.
OP, you also deciding whether to apply to grad school 😅?
yes haha
Rising Star
Definitely regret it less than the all consuming phd I did beforehand
After the pathetic internal offer I got today, definitely. I enjoyed some of the classes, but dealt with way too many program issues. We'll see if I can make it work externally.
Why regret it, its not a face tattoo or a tramp stamp. Just don’t go around announcing that you have an MBA, nobody cares, its not that like its a PhD
same here. I was from the government. So, it helped me to pivot. But, not a great pivot that I had hoped for. The least it could do was to help me get into Accenture, where I felt it was not put to use as much as I wanted. But, after Accenture experience, I can see the MBA opening bigger doors.
Also, like a fine wine, the education starts settling down and makes sense.
Will be getting mine - don’t think I’ll regret it.
It depends on what you want to get out of the MBA. If you just want a career change, think about whether you can do that without an MBA. Doing an MBA is a huge investment of time and money and no one should do it if they can achieve their objectives in another way. If you have a broader objective of wanting to transform your career, building an international network and investing in your personal growth then an MBA will be the most transformative experience of your life (it was for me). You basically get out of it what you put in - a lot of people come in cynical, scared of looking within themselves and challenging the ideas that they always held true and unwilling to engage and participate in what’s on offer and these people tend to regret doing an MBA.
Not sure I would do it if I were at BCG beforehand unless you want to do something cool like a search fund or something crazy. You can already do pe etc now without it coming from BCG. I was in tech sales before and did top 20 mba and it changed my life. T2 consulting then PE
You seem to be assuming that PE/search funds are the only post MBA goals/rationales for doing an MBA - which is perplexing.
There are two kinds of MBAs - (1) the ones who need it to ‘get into’ a post-MBA role at a good consulting/finance firm; and (2) the ones who completed 2 or 3-year stints at an IB/good capital partnership/good strategy consulting firm and are now looking for some fun, networking, and new ideas at an M5 school - all of which benefits will pay off over time. They don’t need the MBA for the immediate next step e.g., PE.
Could’ve been where I’m at without it and with a lot higher net worth short term, but the friendships and memories are truly priceless. Would do it again in a heartbeat
that’s awesome to hear!