Would you get an MBA?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Given my daughter has a bachelor of arts and wants to pursue a career in investor relations which typically requires a business degree and financial background, could this give her a leg up down the road(she would definitely work at least 4 years before applying for MBA)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Given my daughter has a bachelor of arts and wants to pursue a career in investor relations which typically requires a business degree and financial background, could this give her a leg up down the road(she would definitely work at least 4 years before applying for MBA)

Find multiple people on LinkedIn who have the job she wants. Look at their pedigree and education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a headline that 24% of the 2024 Harvard MBA class still doesn’t have a job.

Thats the worst of any of the top 10, though MIT is at 22% and 2nd worst.

Apparently, the folks trying to change industries are having the hardest time vs the ones that worked in banking and now want to work in PE (as an example).

Maybe they are just being picky...

Prestige consulting hiring is quite slow right now. Companies are not supporting visas for int'l MBA students. Tech is in an employment retrenchment phase. So a lot of the big dollar employers aren't hiring right now. It was like this in 2001.

[Anonymous]

Lots of the bachelor of arts graduates who go straight into Investor Relations or fund marketing all come from the boarding school to Ivy or NESCAC school to financial firm pipeline, either by family or friend connections or on-campus recruiting for these roles, however the former seems more likely given its a relationship-driven role rather than IB where you actually have to prove your analytical and financial skills

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Given my daughter has a bachelor of arts and wants to pursue a career in investor relations which typically requires a business degree and financial background, could this give her a leg up down the road(she would definitely work at least 4 years before applying for MBA)

Female MBA here. From a Top 20 school.

Bluntly stated, I don't think an MBA degree will help a lot for the specific path you envision.

The Corporate Comms people I've seen at high levels (F500 VP) are coming from Product Communications, P.R., Crisis Communications, etc. I'm not aware that entry-level Investor Relations requires finance training. A lot of it involves corporate messaging, sales reporting, and event planning.

People who go into Communications usually shy away from quantitative classes in college. And MBA degrees don't contain a heavy math focus unless you do a Finance-heavy elective curriculum. When you take Finance classes beyond the core, your classmates tend to be men headed for Wall Street, M&A, Private Equity, etc. Some who already have Finance backgrounds and a bunch of engineers who did advanced math in undergrad. At a high-ranked school, you're at a competitive deficit from Day 1 if you haven't done much math since high school.

If your DD wants to do investor relations in the Finance sector, maybe this is a path. But it doesn't match what I've observed.

Humanities and social science majors get MBAs to get better jobs at higher pay. Marketing is a much more typical destination than Comms (especially Brand Management). And strategy consulting. Also work involving high net worth individuals.

Is there any chance she can take a 5th year and get a dual degree or somehow get the finance content now? Anything in the NYC area she could do while working? I'd start now on something non-MBA that gets her prepared to start down the right road.

Then see what the job market is like for MBAs in 4 years. Decide then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you had to go back in time or ancedotes from people you know

For context, my DD is graduating this year with a corporate communications Bachelor of Arts degree. If she wants to pivot into leadership roles in corporate or be in investor relations, would this be a good idea to do after around 5 years of post-grad work experience.

She is interested in investor relations as well but is lacking the financial and analytical background required for these roles (many want bachelors in finance or accounting and 2-3 years of work experience in IB/consulting/private equity etc

An advanced degree never hurts.

It does if you pay $150k for it and don’t see a commensurate career benefit. These degrees are just money grabs from greedy universities.

Lot of companies won’t pay for an MBA any more, or only pay a small amount.

Bang for the buck is rarely there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you had to go back in time or ancedotes from people you know

For context, my DD is graduating this year with a corporate communications Bachelor of Arts degree. If she wants to pivot into leadership roles in corporate or be in investor relations, would this be a good idea to do after around 5 years of post-grad work experience.

She is interested in investor relations as well but is lacking the financial and analytical background required for these roles (many want bachelors in finance or accounting and 2-3 years of work experience in IB/consulting/private equity etc

An advanced degree never hurts.

It does if you pay $150k for it and don’t see a commensurate career benefit. These degrees are just money grabs from greedy universities.

Lot of companies won’t pay for an MBA any more, or only pay a small amount.

Bang for the buck is rarely there.

Do you have an advanced degree? An MBA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you had to go back in time or ancedotes from people you know

For context, my DD is graduating this year with a corporate communications Bachelor of Arts degree. If she wants to pivot into leadership roles in corporate or be in investor relations, would this be a good idea to do after around 5 years of post-grad work experience.

She is interested in investor relations as well but is lacking the financial and analytical background required for these roles (many want bachelors in finance or accounting and 2-3 years of work experience in IB/consulting/private equity etc

An MBA can be a valuable degree, however specifics matter.

Another poster made a great suggestion: Check out the Linkden profiles of those who hold the position to which she aspires.

OP: Your daughter will learn a great deal about her career aspirations after working for a few years (2 to 5 years) after earning her undergraduate degree. Currently, the average age of students enrolled in the most elite MBA programs is age 27 to 28. Tough for those over age 32 and for those with less than 2 years of post undergraduate work experience to gain admission to the most elite MBA programs (M-7 or Top 10), but there are exceptions. I expect the exceptions to grow substantially over the course of the next few years.

The MBA landscape may undergo dramatic change over the next few years due to a variety of factors including, but not limited to, higher student demand for one year accelerated MBAs in light of the outrageous total cost-of-attendance for the traditional 2 year, full-time MBA programs as well as the possible further reduction of international MBA students attending well-known US MBA programs (already down to about 40% for many well-known programs). As an example: Georgetown's MBA program is now composed of about 49% international students which is a 10% reduction. Indiana-Kelley MBA program is now down to just 46% international students--both a whopping 12%. Duke is down 6% to just 41% international students in its full-time MBA program (same numbers for UCLA).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did get an MBA.

If I had to go back in time, I would have only gotten it, if from an elite B-school.

Having an MBA from an average state school isn't really that helpful. I can't say that I regret it, my work at the time paid for it, but, hindsight is 20-20, and if I'd go back in time, I'd target the elite schools, if I were to still pursue an MBA.

This is the answer.

Agree. No point in getting one at night from george mason or similar.

[Anonymous]

When one applies to and when one attends an MBA program is often dictated by the economy. In bad economic times, applications to full-time MBA programs tend to rise since many are unemployed or grossly underemployed.

The typical cost of attendance for a Top 10 MBA program is about $250,000 total for a full-time, 2 year elite MBA program. Adding in the cost of 2 years of lost wages and benefits raises the real cost of attending a Top 10 full-time 2 year MBA program to about $500,000.

Alternatives include one year accelerated MBA programs, part-time programs, and Specialty master's degree programs which typically run 9 months, 10 months, or 12 months with no post-undergraduate work experience expected.

Choice of type of program also depends upon why one is seeking a master's degree in business or in a business related subject area.

[Anonymous]

Given she has a communications degree, I think an MBA could be a good idea in the long run

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you had to go back in time or ancedotes from people you know

For context, my DD is graduating this year with a corporate communications Bachelor of Arts degree. If she wants to pivot into leadership roles in corporate or be in investor relations, would this be a good idea to do after around 5 years of post-grad work experience.

She is interested in investor relations as well but is lacking the financial and analytical background required for these roles (many want bachelors in finance or accounting and 2-3 years of work experience in IB/consulting/private equity etc

An advanced degree never hurts.

It does if you pay $150k for it and don’t see a commensurate career benefit. These degrees are just money grabs from greedy universities.

Lot of companies won’t pay for an MBA any more, or only pay a small amount.

Bang for the buck is rarely there.

DCUM is filled with people that have a knee jerk that grad school is always good…yet financially it’s actually a bad move for most.

Even a large %age of T14 law grads don’t make it into BigLaw and financially it was a mistake (for the many kids that take out big loans).

Nearly everyone that actually pays for a PhD will never make that investment pay off. It’s nearly always a bad financial move.

There is a reason certain programs are free and many are not.

[Anonymous]

You are talking about something 5 years from now. Your daughter should focus on establishing herself in a career out of college and see where that takes her. People change jobs a lot in the first few years out of college and an MBA may or may not be the best step when she has a few years of experience and a better idea of the roles she prefers.

When she is considering a grad degree, it’s possible her company would pay or that a masters in another area would be better. It’s all too hypothetical at this point when just finishing up bachelors. But if an MBA is logical at that time in her career, yes it is better to go to the very best mba possible because it does make a difference in hiring and recruiting if you are at a top program.

I just think it’s too early to worry about it now when you have no clue what her work journey will be.

[Anonymous]

So I have an MBA from Harvard and I have no question that it helped my career but that was 20+ years ago. I’m not sure the same is true today. I have literally never hired an MBA, and I’m not sure that the general management qualifications still work.

That being said, I work in a somewhat technical field, and for someone wanting to get into investor relations it might make more sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are talking about something 5 years from now. Your daughter should focus on establishing herself in a career out of college and see where that takes her. People change jobs a lot in the first few years out of college and an MBA may or may not be the best step when she has a few years of experience and a better idea of the roles she prefers.

When she is considering a grad degree, it’s possible her company would pay or that a masters in another area would be better. It’s all too hypothetical at this point when just finishing up bachelors. But if an MBA is logical at that time in her career, yes it is better to go to the very best mba possible because it does make a difference in hiring and recruiting if you are at a top program.

I just think it’s too early to worry about it now when you have no clue what her work journey will be.

Neither we nor OP know when--if ever--OP's daughter will pursue an MBA degree, therefore, it may be wise to learn about MBA programs & MBA careers now.

Many see value in obtaining an MBA degree too late due to life circumstances and/or due to loss of 2 years of earnings high enough so that the cost of an MBA degree cannot be justified from a financial standpoint.

Earning an MBA degree early--for example, with just 2 years of post undergraduate work experience--may be prudent before life gets in the way. Family responsibilities, whether children or elderly parents or personal illness, etc., might make entry into an MBA program unworkable.