Is it just me or an MBA (once you pocketed a CFA) is a waste of time?
seriously, say you are out with a CFA charter at 24 years old, do you really want to go back in school for a long two years? It seems to me that those are crucial years of your career when you are 24 years old and in need ot acquire experience.
Moreover, when you spent 4 years learning business for your bachelor, will you really learn anything at the MBA? I mean people coming from arts faculty or wherever that don’t know anything about business have to be trained too, and they can’t just go to advanced topics without going through the basics that a bachelor of commerce mastered already.
I find it not conceivable that someone who did not study business as bachelor degree can be better after two years in business vs someone that spent 4 years in business for their bachelor.
I feel like coming out form a business undergrad, MBA isnt’t useful MOSTLY if you already have a CFA.
It’s pretty unlikely you’ll have the required work experience at 24, but that’s beside the point. The answer to your question is that it depends. What MBA program are you talking about and what career do you actually want?
I can say that someone with an engineering undergrad from an okay school and an MBA from a good or really good school is going to be more employable overall than a charterholder with a BS in business from anywhere but a top 10 undergraduate program.
i also think that, for an engineer, would be better off with a finance quants type of master. In an MBA program you’ll learn all over again the basics of finance… waste of potential.
The thing is you’re not learning business for 4 years.You’re learning it for about 2 -2/1 2 years. The first 2 years you are taking all GE classes which a lot of them have nothing to do with business. Even when you’re taking upper level classes they are not all 100% business. Basically just because you took 6-7 classes of business in lower division classes and say another max 10 -15 classes at the upper division don’t mean you know business. I would go so far as to say that someone that worked in business for 5-10 years will have much more business experience compare to someone that just finished with their bachelor degree. Now is MBA wasted of time,that is all depends what MBA. If general MBA you probably will be taking same or similar classes as you took in your undergrad study but if it’s like mba of taxation then no it’s totally different.
Thanks. Agreed for a specialized field like tax its different. I think such a master has a bachelor requirement though unlike any general MBA (although those specialise in some area of business).
It all depends on what your career objectives are. You need to figure that out first and work in that field before asking yourself wether an MBA is a good idea.
At 24, if you have a good undergrad, CFA, network, you should be fine. I don’t think a MBA will do anything for you at this point.
Then once your in that field you’ll see where you stand and then you might want to do an MBA later on.
It ultimately depends on one’s current professional state, career aspirations, the school in question, and many other variables.
I think a top MBA is very valuable even for investment management because of on-campus recruiting, networking events, and company presentations that allow one to get easy exposure to the big names. That’s something a CFA can’t give you. People in analystforum also tend to underestimate the importance of a prestigious MBA brand as a signaling value in the marketplace and the importance of the network in advancing one’s career.
There are certainly people who are on partner track at top firms by 24 and they don’t need an MBA or a CFA charter. One of my buddies quit after failing level 3 once because he realized he didn’t need it. He also got into Harvard B-School and decided not to go. But the guy was already making huge money and had hedge funds offering him a 1 million dollars per year to go to them. He’s the kind of guy that wants to do the same thing for the rest of his life and he was already doing it and doing it at the higest level of Asset Management. So yes, MBA AND CFA would be a waste of his time. He already had top MBA’s working underneath him. Are you like this guy?
This was the US in the mid to late 90s - so full on bull market. Hedge Funds were expanding in a big way.
Graduate at the top of his class at an Ivy league school.
Got a job at as buyside equity research analyst at a top Asset Management firm (beating out all the other applicants who were also top ivy leaguers with perfect grades)
Outperform at that job for his first three years in a big way.
He is now (10 years later) a partner at said firm (did not leave to work at hedge fund). Spends what seems like half the year on vacation. Hires Asians to do all his work for him. Pops into the office once or twice a week. No CFA, No MBA.
This is what I mean about getting the job in the first place, Vicky. Some of his colleagues have the charter, many do not. The point is they got the job. The charter was intended as a mid-career qualification for people with experience in the industry. It was not designed for people trying to break in.