Would obtaining an MBA degree enhance your
career opportunities? This issue gives you a chance
to explore that proposition and tells you how
to decide if the time and expense are worthwhile.
The Master of Business Administration: Is the MBA Worth the Time, Effort, and Cost?
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
Are you a job-seeker who is looking for more
responsibility and pay, seeking more leverage
in obtaining a work/life balance, or contemplating
a move into management -- and are considering returning
to school to get your MBA? Or perhaps a job-seeker
exploring changing careers by going back to school
for your MBA? Or perhaps a consultant looking to
add a credential to your
dossier. Or perhaps a
college junior or senior contemplating going straight
through and obtaining your MBA right after your
undergraduate degree?
Regardless of your reasons, if you are
contemplating attending graduate school to obtain
your MBA, you should read this article before
you make your final decision.
Read more of Dr. Hansen's article,
which will take you through all the important issues
you need to contemplate before making your
decision of whether -- and when -- to obtain your MBA.
Special Feature: Mastering Your MBA Application
by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.
So you've decided to go to graduate school
and obtain your MBA. Simple, right? Not
necessarily, especially if you are applying
to one of the premier MBA programs, where
applications can outnumber accepted students
by a 50 to 1 ratio.
This article will help you through the most important steps in completing
your MBA applications. Read the entire article.
We Want to Profile You!
Quintessential Career Profiles feature readers
who have interesting career stories to tell.
Did you obtain a job in an unusual way? Has
your career path been out of the ordinary?
Have you held one or more unusual jobs? Has
your job search been especially troublesome,
inspirational, or remarkable? We want to hear
from you! Tell us a little about your career
story, and we may contact you for a full
profile. Write to us
and let us know about you.
(If your e-mail program doesn't let you click on the link above
to open a new e-mail message, just write to
quintzine@quintcareers.com using the subject line
Quintessential_Career_Profiles).
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your Web-based resume and career portfolio (20 megabytes), up to 50 email addresses, and lots of publishing
and promotion resources -- for under $20 a year!!
This deal is amazing -- almost too good to be true. If you don't have a Website, but want to put your
resume and portfolio on the Web, take advantage of these services! Fee-based.
What we especially like about MBA Depot is that
it provides useful information not only for its
core audience of current MBA students, but also
for prospective MBAs and MBA graduates. The site
describes itself as "an online community focused on
-- and marketed to -- MBAs."
MBA Depot features a Collaborative Vault, an
area where MBA students can upload
and download useful, original content, such as
presentation material of a renowned business person
who spoke at one's school, a model developed in a
course that has far-reaching application, or
market research performed for a class project
that would be of value to others interested
in that industry. The site also offers Member Forums
on topics of interest to MBA students, a mentor
program, interactive calendars, class notes, an
expert marketplace, and more.
Jobsquare.com
-- where job-seekers looking for potential employment worldwide can post your resume (confidential option),
search job listings (by job category, keywords, location, and term-of-employment),
and use a job search agent that emails you new jobs that match with your criteria. Free to job-seekers.
MBA Mentors
-- an independent organization designed to fill the mentor gap found at many MBA programs by providing consultation
services with a geographically dispersed network of professionals with significant experience in management,
business administration and information technology management. Fee-based.
Wages.com.au --
a great resource for wages, salary, and total compensation information for job-seekers in Australia.
Also has a growing list of company recruiters, jobs links, and recruiter listings. Free to job-seekers.
WorkInSports.com
-- the official sports employment provider to CNN/Sports Illustrated, with more than 1,000 job postings,
ranging from internships to executive level positions, in the sports industry. Members can also post your resume
and search for contacts from hundreds of sport organizations. Fee-based.
Find even more career and job site additions to Quintessential Careers by visiting our
Latest
Additions section.
William Bailey writes: "I currently live in Pittsburgh, PA.
I eventually want to live in Cincinnati, OH. Having said that,
I am the process of deciding which MBA program to attend.
If I am not going to go to a top-tier school (Ivy League,
Maxwell School of Business, Stanford, etc.), does it matter
which program I attend?
My two choices are either University
of Pittsburgh or Robert Morris College. Pitt is a little
bit better known. When it comes right down to
it, do employers look at the degree or the school or both,
and does it all matter if it isn't a top-tier school?"
Peter writes: "I'm currently working in
economics consulting (Big 5) in London and have done
so for 2.5 years. My short-term career aspiration is
to get into corporate finance and I am therefore planning
to apply to a grad school.
The question that I'm facing
is whether to go for master's in finance or an MBA and which
school to choose. There seems to be very little information
about master's courses as there is for MBA's i.e., rankings,
comparison, etc.
I would therefore appreciate if you could give me advice
on the above and also point me in the right direction in
terms of publicly available information."
Terrance Dunlap writes: "I am scheduled to begin my
master's in business administration this spring.
However, the ranking of the grad program that I am
attending is low; will the ranking of a graduate
program affect prospective employers' perception of me?
I do not anticipate working for a Fortune 500 company,
but I do wish to be marketable."
Paula Hallahuhta writes: "I've been trying to find
a Web page where I can get advice how to write a
letter to a company that has offered me a job. After
careful consideration I have decided not to take the
job and wanted to send a nice, polite letter
declining the offer. I don't have experience in
this and wanted to know where can I find sample
letters that I can modify."
Q TIPS: Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Consulting magazine reports that McKinsey & Co.,
Boston Consulting Group and Cisco Systems are the
three most popular employers among MBA students
in the U.S., according to a survey by Universum
International, a Swedish company that specializes
in graduate recruitment and student relations.
McKinsey has ranked at the top of the list every
year since 1997. Management consulting was cited
as the most attractive industry among the 2,030
survey respondents, though most of the participants
don't plan to stick with their first employer for
more than three to five years.
A survey of 400 experienced MBA members of MBA
GlobalNet's 10,000 members provides clear evidence
that current mass-appeal job board solutions have
mostly not met expectations when these MBAs are
actively searching for a new job. Recruiting Trends
reports that while 84 percent of respondents said
that the Internet has made their active job searching
easier, some 36 percent of respondents indicate they
leverage four to six Web sites to gather career
intelligence and post their resumes online. An additional
31 percent use seven or more Web sites for those
purposes. "Experienced MBAs have a low tolerance
for job boards where they submit job applications
and never hear from the company," says MBA GlobalNet
CEO Rob Steir. "Rather than blame the company, they
tend to blame the job board." The survey is available,
for free download, at the
MBA GlobalNet Web site.
Business Week recently reported that some business
school MBA programs are taking students on field trips
to prospective employers' companies. The trend is designed
to combat the drop in recruiting of MBAs on campuses.
Cornell's Johnson School, for example, takes its students
on trips to Wall Street and Silicon Valley. If you're a current
or prospective MBA student whose school or future school
doesn't have such a program, you might want to push
for a commitment to field trips -- at least until recruiters
start returning to campuses.
QuintZine: Topics in Upcoming Issues
WATCH FOR feature articles on these topics in upcoming
issues of QuintZine:
* Identifying your workplace values
* How to choose a headhunter/recruiter
* How to write a counteroffer letter
* Home-based careers
* Career strategies for women
* How to start a job club
* How to use keywords to enhance your resume's effectiveness
* Letters of recommendation and references
* How to create and use a networking card
* The biggest myths in job-hunting
* How to resign from your job gracefully
* Quintessential Career Profiles of YOU, our readers
* Q&As with well-known career experts
* Book reviews
. . . and much, much more!
Don't ever want to miss another issue of QuintZine? Get a free subscription to
the email version of QuintZine by completing our
subscription form.
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