Back to Earth

Had you asked me what my opinion on an MBA was eight weeks ago, I would have espoused the virtues and necessity of getting the MBA. I'd call this my honeymoon period with graduate school.

Eight weeks later, two more classes completed and I'm singing a different tune. All the articles I read denigrating the value of the MBA make more sense. The successful entrepreneurs like Guy Kawasaki that fight against MBA education sound less like popular self-deprecators and more like sage advisers.

This has been quite the pendulum swing. And I haven't quite made sense of it.

This past week I had a reading assignment for my Organizational Behavior. At the same time, I finished one of the best books I've read the past year: How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman. Both reading pieces used statements from Adam Smith to make points: Specialization is good because it moves society/business forward. I agree. However, business school forgets the warning Adam Smith and Alex Ferguson gave: the pitfall of specialization is a society that allows people to focus purely on their specialty and does not encourage a liberal arts education that enables citizens to think "outside the box."

This needs to be restated: if we allow people to specialize without explaining the source of ideas and how ideas fit together, we develop myopic people and a myopic society. This rings true for me in the broader scheme - i.e. United States, the World, etc. - and more specifically in my microcosm of life - i.e. School, Workplace, etc.

My biggest disappoint with this module has been this issue. Last night our course had a guest speaker that disparaged some of the natural sciences, arguing them as irrelevant to business. I wrote on my paper, "Everything that is left on this presentation is now suspect." And I've realized, that the professors I've had this module teach from this perspective: their specialty is paramount.

What a let down. Coming into the program, I was excited about the tools I was going to walk away with. Through the first module, the material presentation impressed me. My feet are now firmly back on earth: the burden for insuring that I have a firm grasp of multiple mental models rests squarely on my shoulders.

I'm sticking with the MBA program. I'll finish it. Some of the other benefits I listed for pursuing the degree are still valid. However, my view about the content has been skewed. I have professors who are true authorities and worthy of emulation. Others leave little to be desired. This empowers me to continue reading books on physics, social behavior, microbiology, etc. I'm the better for it.

Career Management Post-MBA

I had dinner last week with the Dartmouth's former Admissions Dean and Director for Career Management. Of course, my graduate work was a topic of discussion. My post-MBA plans followed.

The conversation had some salient points for MBA candidates:

• If you are going after your MBA to switch careers and/or industries, your education pedigree can play a major role depending on your target;
• Despite an MBA award, you may have to start at or near the bottom of the ladder if you do switch to a competitive industry.

Take investment banking for example. The big firms (i.e. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Bros., etc.) have a storied history of hiring from the premier B-schools like Harvard, Wharton, Dartmouth and Chicago, among others. The traditional path for an ambitious investment banker is to undergrad in Finance followed by three or four years as an analyst/trader/salesman at an institution and then tack on the prestigious school MBA. The big firms harvest their talent from this feeder path.

An MBA candidate who does not have this pedigree has a number of questions to answer:

• How did an SMU MBA in Finance prepare you like Dartmouth's?
• What gave you the chops to make it in the competitive banking world?
• Why should I take a chance on you?

And on and on. The message I had from my dinner conversation was honest and crucial to future plans: The MBA is not enough. A more comprehensive plan is needed. As I begin my concentration work this Fall, I will touch on the career management strategies I discussed.

To wait or not to wait...

I had originally planned on starting my coursework with the 61st class at SMU in Fall, 2007. That was until I was deftly persuaded to begin early this January. Now that I am a few months into the program, some downsides to starting early are beginning to rear their ugly heads.

Premises:

• My program completion date is December 2008 after the first semester school year 2008-2009 conclusion;
• A handful of advanced courses are two semesters long, beginning the first semester of each school year; and
• I will not complete my core course work until the conclusion of Fall 2007, Module A.

These premises present some difficult realities due to my program of study and the courses I want to add to my curriculum.

Issues:

• One of the courses is a practicum for investments: the enrolled students actively participate in managing an SMU investment fund, acting as analysts and fund principles. The course is only offered in Fall and Spring across both semesters.
• Another course is on mergers and acquisitions and faces the same issue.

So the courses I feel are in line with what I want to accomplish during my graduate career are virtually taken off my slate of possibilities. This Fall I will be unable to begin either of the above courses because I will be working on concentration entry requirements.

So why bring attention to this? For those of you working on your MBA, whether to begin traditionally in the Fall or matriculate to the Spring should be given more thought than simple schedule convenience. If you cannot take some of the classes you are certain will equip you with tools you need post-graduation, you will need to make alternative plans. For example:

• Extend your B-school graduation date by one semester so you can take those important courses;
• Jump into some intense self-directed study on the courses you are really interested in and approach the professors as mentors;
• Convince faculty to shift the course to Summer/Fall or create another section in the Summer/Fall; or
• Start a club on the topic and invite industry leaders to give lectures and hold round tables.

This list is not exhaustive. I'm going with the second option right now. Finance is my concentration and I am deficient when it comes to investment knowledge so I'm taking the following steps:

• Picked up three books by Benjamin Graham: The Intelligent Investor, Security Analysis and The Interpretation of Financial Statements;
• I've downloaded and compiled all the available Chairman Letters from Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway; and
• I'm going over a few of the course notes on MIT's Open Courseware.

This summer I will also reach out to our resident professor for investments and attempt to set up a bi-weekly meeting to discuss what I have read and how it can be applied.

The Bottom Line: Just because you're paying an exorbitant amount of money to get the MBA, you cannot stop self educating yourself or reaching deeper into the subject matter. While it may be difficult to balance everything that has claim to your life, I encourage you to pay attention to what areas you need to stretch yourself due to the restrictions a traditional program will place on you.