A few weeks ago, we had a good conversation about the merits of an MBA degree. Today, Anne Fischer from Fortune Magazine says it’s a good time to be an MBA.
She claims there’s been a change in hiring patterns. Instead of companies hiring MBAs in advance, companies are picking up new graduates “just in time.” On top of that, graduates are not concerned with the uncertainty. The top concerns of employers looking to hire are ethics training and critical thinking skills, while the top concerns of students are lifestyle and work-life balance.
The bottom line is that while 2004’s hiring numbers were flat, there has been a 51% increase in 2005 hires.
Loyal readers may recall that I’ve been working on my MBA (master of business administration) degree through the University of Phoenix Online. Other MBA students from more traditional graduate schools are often surprised when I describe the amount of work required for the degree. I have a little less than a year left if I continue without a break, but will the hard work be worth it?
There are still some people who believe that a degree from an online program isn’t as valuable as a degree from a traditional brick-and-mortar school. The very few people who have expressed that opinion to me have had one thing in common — they have no experience with interviewing or hiring people and base that belief on their own biases. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion of course, but when the time comes, the only thing that matters is the attitude of the person who is making the hiring decision.
A Wall Street Journal subsidiary, the CollegeJournal, published an article about the top employers for MBA students. A survey was conducted to determine the students’ ideal employers. Here are the survey results (top 100). I notice that my company isn’t listed but a couple of our majors competitors are.
The article in CollegeJournal also notes that more MBA graduates are expected to be hired this year than last year and men expect to earn $89,933 (plus a signing bonus of $18,028) while women expect $81,962 (with $15,415 bonus) at their first post-MBA job. The expected salaries about double after five years.
Here are more articles and data on MBA salaries:
* MBA Salaries on the Rise, January 2005, and related survey
* CareerJournal B-school surveys, 2004
* MBA Applicants are MIA, BusinesWeek, April 2005
Since I resumed taking classes for my MBA, I now have a new student loan. The way this works is I take a loan at the beginning of the “semester” and after each six-week class ends, I wait two weeks for a 90% reimbursement from my company. On my next monthly update, you’ll see my net worth decrease quite a bit, but as I get reimbursed for the education expenses, my value should normalize.
In other news, Consumerism Commentary, this website, is now available at its own domain name: consumerismcommentary.com. Please update your links when you get a chance.
Some more late-breaking news: the rumor has come to fruition. Emigrant Direct is now officially offering an interest yield of 3.25%.
A few weeks ago, I took the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). My “career” hasn’t had much direction lately, so I’m considering changing course. Since I probably won’t have a decent enough test score to get into the top schools, I figure it’s best to save money and go for one less expensive and in-state, such as Rutgers School of Law. Alternatively, I may decide to move out to California or some other place not New Jersey, whether I choose to go to law school or not.
This is just an idea I’ve been kicking around lately and I’ll have to completely commit myself to the education if I choose to follow through. I’ve always had so many varied interests, it’s been hard for me to settle on one and turn it into a “career.” I suppose having many interests and talents, while a great quality I’m happy to have, makes it difficult to focus and thus hard to get ahead on any one path.
For example, last year I stopped working in the corporate world to teach in a high school, only to come back to the same corporation when the program was cut back in the fall.
My dissatisfaction with my current job keeps growing and I have a hard time dealing with the fact that the work that I do makes very little use of the things at which I excel. And I’m certainly not getting ahead financially. Maybe law school is the answer. I could take a law degree and have many options for an interesting career.
Let’s start with the bad news. The bad news is public college costs jumped 9.8% and private college costs went up 5.7%. The good news is that colleges are giving out more money to students. The bad news is that this money is in the form of loans, not grants. The good news is colleges have increased spending on things that benefit the students, like technology. The bad news is that college costs outpace inflation and sometimes stock market returns. The good news is… sorry, there’s no more good news. The bad news is higher education is eventually going to be a luxury for the rich, if trends continue.
MSN Money – Is your degree worth $1 million — or worthless? – Saving for college
Find out which degrees and fields pay off, based on average amount spent obtaining the degree and average increase of lifetime salary. You’ll probably be happiest, though, if you don’t dig yourself deeply in debt for a field that traditionally doesn’t pay well. Make sure the size of your investment, in time and money, bears some relation to your eventual reward.
Do graduates of economics and similar courses have an edge over the layman?
When it comes to investing, the results aren’t clear whether one is more successful with or without a financial-related degree. That’s probably true in most facets of life. However, the degree can help the initial success come a lot sooner.
The author of the article goes on to extoll index funds over actively-managed funds.
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