What is an MBA? Is It Worth It?
Published January 7, 2022
Career paths are among the many reasons people feel pressured that they force themselves to do something they don’t like. Many people take a degree and program that their parents set for them. It can be dream-crushing, but that is the reality for some people.
Another reason why choosing the right path can be a struggle is that some do not know what kind of future they want. You may have all the options, and it may seem like a simple choice, but choosing a degree and contemplating whether it will be worth it or not is frustrating. On the other hand, others are lucky enough to make their own decisions and easily create their future.
What Is An MBA?
Speaking of professions, after graduating, some students do not immediately rush to get a job. Others will take a break, go to med or law school, and take master’s degrees. One of the many postgraduate degrees that young professionals struggle to decide is if they should pursue an MBA.
What is an MBA, you ask? An MBA, or a Master of Business Administration, is a graduate degree that helps enhance people’s general knowledge of what it is like in the business and management world. This is one of the graduate business degrees that enables you to sharpen your leadership skills, learn about business principles, gain a solid professional network, gain more job opportunities, and achieve a big paycheck.
Some MBA programs require MBA students to have at least two years of work experience, so it is essential to make up your mind. When getting an MBA application, students need bachelor’s degrees first. Master’s degrees, in another discipline, may do as well. Let’s elaborate on how MBA programs came to be, what you can gain from them, and the different types of MBA and specialty concentrations.
The History of The MBA
The MBA post-graduate degree was first officially offered by the Harvard Business School in 1908. The first set of students that took the degree amounted to 33 regulars and 47 special students. We now refer to them as registered but non-degree candidates under the guidance of 15 faculty members of the school. However, the concept of the MBA curriculum traced back to the late 19th century.
In 1881, the Wharton Business School at UPenn was the first collegiate school of business. An American entrepreneur and industrialist named Joseph Wharton sought to prepare graduates for the complexity of the economic industry. After Shiba, one of the first five graduates with a Bachelor of Finance in Wharton, the number of business schools opening continued to rise due to Wharton’s influence.
After the success of the first establishment of the first MBA program at Harvard, the graduate degree began to spread globally, inspiring many young entrepreneurs and business professionals to pursue the line of profession. The first MBA program to develop outside of the US took place in the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in Canada in 1948. It was not until after MBA concentration grew in South Africa that the degree was developed in European countries in 1957. MBA accelerated programs continued to rise from then on, and establishments grew in different areas of the globe.
The Benefits of An MBA
MBA programs require you to exert a lot of effort, time, and money. Basically, it is not an easy degree and program to take. Still, it can be worth it if you seek to strengthen yourself for any challenges when stepping into an entrepreneurial level in society.
Many people, especially aspiring entrepreneurs, constantly battle whether or not they should take an MBA degree or not. What is an MBA for? What if they end up regretting it? What if it’s a waste of time and money? What good can come out of it?
While there are many ways you can reach success as an entrepreneur, online MBA programs give you several benefits that you just cannot get from experience and time itself. A few of these benefits include having advanced knowledge on many aspects of business strategy and higher salary prospects.
Former Associate Dean at the Roy E. Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College, Ronald Yeaple, proved that executive MBA graduates showed an increase in their pay by 50%. On the other hand, money is not the only benefit you can gain. Here is a list of primary benefits from taking an MBA course:
1. Increased Job Opportunities
Choosing an MBA admission after graduating will increase your opportunities of acquiring a job. The business industry is a highly competitive field as entrepreneurs are constantly fighting and working hard to reach the top. MBA graduates use their degrees as an asset when looking for jobs in the industry. Large companies typically seek applicants with an MBA as they have enhanced skills in marketing and finance that ordinary applicants lack.
2. Communication Skills
To rise above in the business industry, you will need good communication skills as you will be interacting with a lot of people. When you earn an MBA, you will develop these skills to ensure that you are ready for any situation once you enter the market.
3. Time Management
Similar to most professions, business management has several tasks and requires a lot of work. Thus, you will need to have enhanced time management skills to ensure that you are doing your job well and delivering good work. An MBA will help ensure that your time management skills are on point.
4. Awareness of Global Market
Entering an MBA program allows you to interact with many people who share the same interest as you. Some of them will also have different levels of experience in expanding your knowledge. Learning from people who have different perspectives and experiences in the field will help you better understand the reality of the business world.
The Different Types of MBAs and Specialty Concentrations
Below are the types of MBA you may consider getting:
1. Accounting
In accounting, you will learn about the basic concepts of the financial aspects when running businesses. You will also learn about applications, data, and procedures that professionals use to analyze financial data.
2. Business Analytics
Business analytics enables you to explore artificial intelligence, data mining, machine learning, and any technical aspects that keep a business running.
3. Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship skills are the soul of managing businesses. MBAs are allowing students to learn how to create a business plan and succeed as business owners in the corporate world.
4. Finance
Learning how to manage your finances properly and mastering the typical and complex financial situations will help you become a better business administrator. You will need to sharpen your theoretical and analytical skills to become an effective entrepreneur, and MBAs can help you do just that.
5. Global Business Management
When entering the business industry, you will have to understand the different global trends and their effects on the market. To better understand this, MBAs will help you learn how to function in the global world of corporations and understand the different aspects of financing, accounting, and public policy.
6. Healthcare Administration
This specific specialty concentration of MBA focuses on teaching healthcare management and leadership skills to entrepreneurs in the field.
7. Management
Management will help sharpen your problem-solving skills as MBA shapes you to become an effective leader. You will be able to study social science to understand the best practices better, to motivate and increase employees’ morale efficiently.
8. Marketing
MBA programs enable you to cover the different competitions in the market and product portfolios to gain an edge in a highly competitive market.
9. Operations Management
Operations management lets you uncover different methods and principles to make your management abilities more effective in terms of the rise of your business.
10. Supply Chain Management
In MBA programs, you will tackle several aspects and understand the different perspectives of appropriately managing a successful product supply chain to provide services that meet customers’ expectations and standards.
Last Words
Regardless of what you choose to do in the future, you need to consider several things. Taking an MBA is not an easy choice. You cannot simply say you will earn an MBA because you want to gain more money in the future; such decisions cannot be made overnight. Give yourself enough time to gather all the information you need and analyze everything well enough to know whether you are the right person for this degree or not.
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About The Author
Krizzia Paolyn is an SEO Specialist and holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She started her professional career as a writer for various digital magazines and renowned publications. It has always been her passion to share her voice, and at the same time, to encourage other people to speak up.
