In recent years, many have argued that pursuing a postgraduate degree is not the best of life investments.
In fact, an article published in Forbes a year ago said: “An MBA with a decades-old model was designed for a different era, when technology didn’t shift entire industries at breakneck speed”.
Add to this, the opinions of industry giants such as Elon Musk, Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Cuban, who all state that pursuing an MBA is a waste of time and money, and you have a fresh, recurring pool of unsustainable businesses popping up and closing down across all trades and services.
What these bigwigs don’t tell you is that they all hire top MBA graduates, from top business schools worldwide, to make up their top management.
According to Universum, a globally-recognised Employer Branding specialist, it seems that tech companies can’t get enough of MBA graduates (MBAs).
The affair began as far back as five years ago, with an average increase of 4.71% in MBA hires among these top tech firms.
In the lead was Amazon, who hired 35 MBAs from INSEAD, 34 from Michigan-Ross, 23 from both MIT Sloan and Northwestern Kellogg, 19 from Chicago Booth, and 15 from Duke Fuqua.
Between Amazon, Google and Microsoft, 850 MBAs were hired from these last five business schools (B-schools) and Columbia.
If Covid-19 has taught us anything, with thousands of Malaysian SMEs having ceased operations this past year alone, it is to dive in beyond the superficialities of wheeling and dealing alongside the desire for immediate gratification, given the disruptive era we live and work in now.
MNCs and GLCs in Malaysia inherently employ top, overseas postgraduates, even at mid-management levels.
Many of these huge companies also invest greatly in enhancing their ace employees’ potential by sending them overseas to pursue an MBA and/or Masters through their succession plan programmes.
But what is the point and value of having a proper MBA from a proper business school in this disruptive, digital era?
Benefit Prep (M) Sdn Bhd executive director, Benjamin Eqbal says: “People often have a misconception that a tech-driven individual who is genius at developing codes and platforms is bound to be successful.
“They tend to forget a crucial element in keeping that newly created system relevant; and that has a lot to do with business and finance”.
Ben, who is a Cambridge-trained educator specialising in test preparation courses for undergraduates and postgraduates since 1991, says both local and international tech companies hire MBAs with tech-based first degrees because they’re able to effectively use their trained knowledge and skills in business and finance as an additional, substantial advantage to the organisations.
“Look at it this way – thousands upon thousands of qualified undergraduates possess coding skills; but how many of them are able to code with product management and marketing in mind?
“MBAs with tech backgrounds are most desirable for this very reason. They may work with engineers who conceive the product, but have a firm understanding of product development processes supported by their trained business sense,” adds Ben.
He highlighted that many B-schools worldwide have included tech-driven courses in their MBA models.
“Berkeley Haas teaches ‘Introduction to Code for MBAs’ to help students analyse challenging issues, learn how to communicate with their tech colleagues clearly, and even build web applications”.
Moreover, the real value of having an MBA or Masters overseas is not just in the paper qualification.
“You would be part of a ready-made international alumni network. What would take you years in building these quality relationships and contacts, you would have done in the two years of your programme, as top-ranking B-schools also offer introductions to industry captains in various ways.”
If you’re reading this and are an MBA aspirant, you would be wondering if now is a good time to apply for an MBA, given the uncertainty on safety and travel plans during the pandemic, not to mention the looming economic crisis.
Ben says it’s not an easy decision, but believes it to be a strategic career choice in the long term for various reasons:
- Less competition – many would have stalled their plans to do an MBA at this point, meaning that your odds of gaining a place in a top B-school of your choice, is higher. Upon graduating, this ultimately raises your employability almost immediately.
- No better time than now – this lull in applications won’t last. Take advantage of it now because so many have lost their jobs and may be deciding to switch industries, so taking time out of the workforce to further their career prospects with a postgraduate degree seems less risky.
- Recalibrate your career tactically – a Bloomberg analysis showed over 97% of 2010 to 2012 postgraduates from 126 B-schools worldwide entered a post-recession job market, and successfully gained quality employment upon graduating. In fact, many jumped a few rungs in terms of salary scale.
- Entrance exams from home – schools have made the application process as smooth as possible for candidates and you can now take these entrance exams such as IELTS, TOEFL, GMAT, GRE and more from the comfort of your home.
Benefit Prep has also stepped up their online test prep and admissions consulting courses in line with this.
If you have any questions on this topic, drop Ben a note at [email protected]