With the right ideas and ambition, an MBA can unlock potential beyond your imagination.
That’s great if your imagination has already kicked in and delivered visions of amazing careers and accomplishments. But you’re probably not reading this web page if that’s the case. And you’re definitely not looking for generic platitudes about how wonderful your career will be and how the world is your oyster.
You’re most likely here looking to confirm what you already know.
Maybe it’s the big opportunities and big pay days you’re thinking about. Or maybe it’s the chance to bring something to market the world has never seen before. Whatever the case, you better believe an MBA is worth every minute, every ounce of energy, and every dime you put into it.
The truth is, every position that you might land with an MBA takes just as much work as getting that MBA in the first place. You’ve been to the gym, you’ve done your rope work, you’ve learned the moves from the greats.
When it’s time to step into the ring, here’s what you’ll face.
Whether or Not an MBA is Worth It Depends on Both the MBA and the Graduate
The master of business administration is a degree with a fearsome reputation. MBA grads are found at the top of California’s Fortune 50 companies like Apple and Wells Fargo. They manage hedge funds in the Financial District in San Francisco, and ink Hollywood deals that create the next global blockbusters. Some of them are hard at work in dingy office parks and Bay Area garages building companies you haven’t heard of yet, but which will change your entire world.
But it’s misleading to lay all that success on the simple fact that they earned an MBA from a California business school. That elite business education has value. But that value only comes in combination with a lot of other factors.
The school itself is a big one. You can generalize MBA value by looking at the broad numbers from the graduate outcome reports the schools publish. But something else those reports reveal is this: not every school sends students in the same directions.
For example, you’ll notice that a higher proportion of graduates—thirteen percent—from the University of San Francisco go into non-profit work. Berkeley’s Haas, on the other hand, has strong ties to the consulting and technology industries and places almost half of their class in those fields.
From school to school, there is considerable variation in what the most common industry placements are for graduates. So depending on your where you’re heading, choosing the right school for your MBA can make or break whether or not it’s worth it.
California’s MBA Programs Are Not the Right Place for Soul-Searching
A word of caution: if you are asking yourself the question, “What can I do with an MBA degree?” you may need to take a hiatus and come back when you’re ready.
The internet is littered with stories of people who went to school to earn an MBA without any clear and constructive plan for building their career with it. They’ll never see a positive return on investment for the time and money they put into earning their degree. They will generally continue on the same path they had been on, a little slower, a little poorer.
An MBA is not a step anyone should take based on speculation. A full-time MBA will take you two years to earn, plus your undergraduate degree, plus the time you typically need to spend preparing for admission—anywhere from a year to five years in the workforce depending on the program. It’s going to cost you, even at the most affordable California MBA schools, somewhere in the vicinity of $40,000 on average.
If you’re looking for meaning in life, a yoga guru on the Malibu Beach will be a better resource than an MBA program.
So if you are just looking for something to do with your life and heard about MBA programs, hit the back button and have a chat with a guidance counselor or life coach. An MBA isn’t your all-purpose ticket to a career you will love in a job that makes bank.
Before you can answer the question of whether not it’s worth it to get an MBA, you need to have a pretty good idea where you want to go in the first place. The real question to ask yourself is, “How can an MBA help me accomplish my career goals?”
In Terms of Options and Opportunities, an MBA is Definitely Worth It
Let’s face it, there are basically an unlimited number of jobs available for graduates with an MBA degree. There aren’t industries that somehow don’t need the kind of elite business skills and connections you will bring with you.
All the possible ways you can make an MBA count toward your dreams and in your career are too numerous to describe. Creativity and adaptability are key West Coast qualities. The general business skills that come with an MBA education can be put to use cultivating hot new AI startups or taking a generational family-owned vineyard onto the global market.
The inspiration or confirmation you’re looking for can also come from looking at those who have gone before you: Californians who have earned an MBA and built their dreams on it, following both tried-and-tested and less-likely paths.
Marc Badain turned his aspirations into reality when he was promoted to president of the Oakland Raiders in 2015 after earning his MBA in nearby Berkeley.
On the Basis of Salary Alone, an MBA is Most Certainly Worth it
Of course, much of what makes your MBA worthwhile is the compensation package you can land with those three letters on your resume. Quantifying exactly what that number looks like will vary a lot from industry to industry, job to job, school to school, and candidate to candidate.
Comparing first-year starting salary offers among graduates from any given business school to the amount they invested in tuition gives you a snapshot of early ROI on an MBA. This can be a good indication of what the long-term returns will be, though it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Our guide on MBA ROI based on first-year starting salaries shows that many graduates cover the cost of their entire MBA with their signing bonus alone. Many others are well into the black with their starting salary.
A key reason to pursue an MBA for anyone is the salary bump that comes with it. It’s something you can bank on. Assuming you are on a typical career path, you can expect at least some increase in your base compensation when you return to work. But many people are also looking to MBA programs as a way to shift between roles or industries—and that’s where the real boosters kick in.
When you start making good money, it doesn’t take long to realize that life is also about less quantifiable things. So to figure out what an MBA can do for you will also involve thinking about your work environment and your work-life balance over the long haul.
An MBA Degree Is Worthwhile if You Enjoy Intellectual and Social Challenges
MBA jobs are pretty much all office jobs. But they don’t all come with the kind of daily grind and repetition that your average drone goes through.
Companies understand that MBA graduates are valuable precisely for their ability to adapt and engage with tough concepts and make hard decisions. So with the kind of job you get with an MBA, you are most likely to find something new and interesting on the desk when you show up each morning.
The actual work that is performed involves a lot of thought and research. This is knowledge work, and you’ll find your own ways to work through various issues.
Gathering information is almost always a significant part of that. Whether you are consulting company experts and technicians in various fields or striking out to develop new sources of data and information, you need details to make the right decisions.
Communication is also a constant part of almost every career path open to MBAs. You’ll use your skills to interview people and obtain the data you need, eliciting information that other executives haven’t yet discovered. But it’s also important in conveying your ideas and instructions. Clarity and decisiveness are needed. When there is a battle of ideas within the organization, you’ll win it with persuasion and an ability to lay out the facts to unassailably support your position.