Thursday 27 September 2012

Reasons to study for an MBA ?

Why study for an MBA ? 


As academic Director for the prestigious Royal Holloway MBA this is a question I get asked quite a lot.  Glass ceiling ?  Change of direction ?  Broadening in preparation for a C-suite role ?

High Flyer ?



The School of Managements dedicated MBA careers advisor asked the MBA group exactly this question "Why study for an MBA ?" and this is what he got in response, graphically displayed using the highly visual www.wordle.net word cloud application.  The simple to use web tool strips out common words from a body of text and displays duplicated words in proportion to the number of mentions, essentially the more mentions, the larger the word.


The careers advisor team was awarded a rare teaching, recognising the Royal Holloway careers team innovation of designing and delivering a day long assessment centre experience for 200 post graduate students which saw MBA students role play recruiting line managers in a very realistic range of selection exercises that included a one-to-one interview and group discussion exercise.

Why study for an MBA ? Happiness, personal growth & thinking differently

Analysis of the MBA cohorts feedback on why they had chosen to to study for an MBA was summarised thus:
  • Desire to buy into the MBA brand

  • Learning theory from experts

  • Worried about reaching the glass ceiling in their corporation – wanting the keys to the Exec toilets

  • Build credibility· Share an international collective learning experience

  • Seeking a return on investment – salaries in some countries can triple if you have a MBA

  • Change of lifestyle / career break

  • Set up a new business

  • Making new friends & learning about new cultures

  •  Career development, industry exposure & networking

  • Personal growth & happiness

  • Making a difference

  • Turning dreams into reality

  •  Learn leadership and management skills

  • Learning to think differently