Graduate level education is becoming more and more popular. The job market is increasingly competitive. Many students view getting a masters level degree as an excellent way of showing potential employers that they have a great work ethic and a high level of knowledge.
In 2018 American Universities awarded over 800,000 graduate degrees, and 15% of the workforce now has a graduate degree. On average, holders of graduate degrees tend to earn more than those who don’t have a graduate degree, making them a popular choice. Of the 800,000 graduate degrees awarded annually, around 100,000 are MBA’s. Particularly with the increasing availability of online MBA programs, it’s never been easier to take the next step towards your dream job. However, even when you are studying online, an MBA is a considerable commitment in terms of time and cost.
If your MBA provides a good ROI (Return On Investment) in terms of the increase in your salary and quality of life you will get by achieving it, then this time and money is well spent; however, it’s important to ascertain whether an MBA is the right thing to help you reach your goals before committing to studying.
What is an MBA?
An MBA (Masters of Business Administration) is a prestigious masters-level qualification that provides an overview of key practices in business. It’s highly valued by employers because it shows that you are knowledgeable in an array of business theories and methods, making you a flexible and useful employee.
Although it is a masters level qualification, it’s more commonly undertaken by students who have a few years of experience in the business world and want to use their MBA to build on the skills that they already have in order to help them reach their goals. It may be that you want to achieve a higher salary or a more specialized position.
Online MBA programs will generally allow you to choose a specialization that is in line with the type of career that you want to pursue, as well as giving you a good grounding in skills that are useful in all business areas. The specializations that you may be able to choose from are things like:
- Data Analytics. This specialization will give a grounding that will enable you to work either as a practitioner, like a data scientist or at management level. You will learn to collect huge quantities of data (also called data mining) using software tools, and then apply analytical techniques to the data that you have gathered in order to gain insights about your business and to help you to form models and strategies going forwards. You will also learn to understand the ethical problems posed by data collection and how to apply data collection strategies that will keep your customer data safe.
- Management. A management specialization will teach you about the role a manager plays in an organization, as well as practical ways to encourage your staff and motivate them. You will learn models which have been developed using behavioral science in order to manage the performance of your employees, as well as how to effectively structure an organization and how to apply management techniques in the digital age.
- Marketing. Online MBA programs with a marketing specialism will teach you how to research and execute an effective marketing campaign while remaining within your budget. You will learn how to analyze the effectiveness of your campaigns and how to use what you learn to inform your future strategies. There will also be a focus on digital marketing, especially the use of social media.
No matter what your specialism, you can expect your MBA course to cover finances, strategy, and, increasingly, sustainability. Consumers are becoming more aware of the impact that their decisions have on the world around them, and they are choosing more and more to use companies who share their concern for the environment. Therefore it is essential that businesses make sustainability and environmental concerns a core part of their business model. Online MBA programs will teach you how to analyze potential environmental impact, how to mitigate negative impacts, and how to do this while remaining cost effective and profitable.
How Much Does an MBA Cost?
The cost of an MBA will vary depending on the institution, but you can generally expect the tuition for a full-time MBA to exceed $60,000 per year. You will also need to factor in things like childcare, and the fact that you may not be able to work as many hours if you are studying.
There are ways to get some of your tuition costs covered, or at the very least loans that you can take to help you to pay your costs in the short term.
- If you can get them, scholarships and grants are the best way to pay for online MBA programs because you don’t need to pay them back. The schools themselves award some grants and scholarships, and some businesses and business associations may also offer them. Grants and scholarships for MBA’s will generally be based on your academic merit.
- You may also be able to get employer aid to help you to pay your costs. If you have an employer, contact your HR department to see if there is anything they can do to help.
- If you are taking out a loan, it’s a good idea to take out a federal rather than a private loan. This is because the repayment of federal loans are based on your level of income, whereas you will have to pay back a private loan no matter what you are earning. If you have a guaranteed source of income when you graduate, the private loans may offer a better rate of interest, so it’s worth investigating, however.
What is Your Earning Potential if You Get an MBA?
Increased earning potential is one of the main reasons that people decide to get an MBA. The National Association of Colleges and Employers predict that the average starting salary for MBA graduates in 2020 will be $79,043, which is $20,000 higher than the average starting salary for people who have a bachelor’s degree in business. If this were true for you, then the additional earnings across your lifetime would certainly make the tuition fees worth it.
However, this figure is just an average. The difference an MBA will make to your own career considers a little more thought. MBA’s are often a way to fast track graduates into management level positions, which often come with a higher salary tag.
The industry that you choose to enter will also impact the salary you can expect to earn. For example, the average salary of MBA graduates who enter the consulting field is $140,187, whereas the average salary of MBA graduates who decide to work in government is $74,825.
It’s also worth noting that you may have to be patient; it’s unlikely that you will find yourself in a high salary position immediately after graduating. Surveys have shown that the average employment rate for MBA graduates three months after graduation was 85.2%, however, the rates of employment varied between schools. The lowest rate was 48%, whereas the highest was 100%.
The message to take from these statistics is that online MBA programs can help you to achieve a great job and a great salary, but it isn’t guaranteed and is entirely dependent on where you study and what industry you would like to work in. When deciding whether or not an MBA is the right choice for you, it’s important to spend some time thinking about your career goals as then you will be able to make an informed decision about whether an MBA can help you to reach them.
Define Your Career Goals
When you are thinking about your career goals, it’s important to take a holistic approach. Think not only about the salary you would like to earn, but consider what type of work is going to keep you happy and motivated every day.
80,000 hours are a charity who are dedicated to helping people to find more meaningful and fulfilling careers. They read and reviewed multiple studies on job satisfaction and found that there are three key things that will make a job your ‘dream job’:
- Work you’re good at
- Work that helps others
- Supportive conditions – engaging work that keeps you motivated and in a state of ‘flow’, supportive colleagues, lack of negatives like poor salary or adverse working conditions, work that fits your personal life.
It’s important that you shape your career goals around work that you are actually good at, otherwise you are making life unnecessarily difficult for yourself and you are likely to become frustrated. It’s also important that you feel as though you are making a difference to a cause that means something to you with your work, otherwise a time will come when you wonder why you are doing what you are doing.
Regarding salary, 80,000 hours found that it is important to have a salary that allows you to live a comfortable life. However, anything over that didn’t actually add any happiness to the survey participants’ lives.
Think about how you want your life to look. For example, is having a family important to you? If so, you might want to consider a career that won’t require you to work long or unsociable hours. Would you prefer to be able to work some of the time from home?
What sorts of tasks do you find engaging and interesting, and what sort of tasks do you hate? It’s a good idea to try and choose a career path that allows you to do more of the things you love and less of the things you don’t! Finally, is there a cause that’s important to you? If so, try to think about how you can use your career in service of that cause.
This is a process that will probably take you a few weeks of thinking and rethinking. Once you have an idea of where you are trying to get to, you can think about whether online MBA programs are the way to get there.
Can an MBA Help You to Reach Them?
Once you have your career goal in mind, you can consider it alongside the question of whether online MBA programs are the right choice for you.
First, ROI (return on investment). What is the expected salary of your dream job? If your dream job isn’t highly paid and you will struggle to pay back your student loans, then an MBA may not be the right choice for you. You may be better placed thinking of alternative ways to get the experience and skills that you need to land your dream job, such as volunteering or making connections within the industry that you would like to work in.
It’s important that your career goals are well defined, and you understand why you are considering online MBA programs above other methods of reaching them.
One of the benefits of MBA programs is that they offer mentorship, which can be absolutely invaluable in trying to reach your goals if you are paired with a mentor who challenges you in the right way and can help you to feel supported as you make your way in the business world. They also offer a sense of community, you and your peers are all trying to make it in the business world and having those contacts can be great for future business connections, and for support. However, it is possible to get mentorship simply by reaching out to people if you do it in the right way.
When you are researching online MBA programs, speak to the individual schools about their mentorship in the industry you are hoping to enter, and about their employment of graduates in that field. This will help you to decide whether they are the school for you.
Is an MBA Worth it?
Ultimately whether an MBA is worth it depends entirely on your individual goals. For some people, an MBA can fast track them into the job of their dreams; for others, alternative approaches might be more appropriate.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.