I may or may not have a ready answer depending on what question you’re asking and how much explaining I want to do. Perhaps the simplest and most accurate answer you could come up is that to think like a Doctoral Student, or better still a Project Director. Well, you might ask, “What does it mean to think like a doctoral student, and how exactly do you know whether or not you’re thinking like one?” However, as a doctoral student, you’ll spend a lot of time reading and thinking about what you read.

Your boss is probably half-right. Some people do think MBA is all about getting a higher salary afterwards. But I believe you have had learned some negotiation skills in your course. OK. What’s done cannot be undone. So... you could pretend to work with your boss without MBA Degree (i.e. from working under constant supervision, no teamwork, to making risky decisions). When it comes to annual appraisal and your boss starts to question your performance, then you could negotiate with your boss, “That’s because you told me that my job function doesn’t require me to think like a MBA holder.”

Hao Yuan,

The example was supposed to show how you can counter your boss quick-wittedly with light humor by using his criteria to against himself. This subtlety approach is a complementary interaction as in T’ai Chi & Aikido. If you are a true person of high caliber, then your boss will eventually notice your high outputs and good performance. If your boss doesn’t want to retain you, then you can easily move on to other company that offers you a MBA-competitive package, as long as you maintain an active networks with your Customers, Contractors, and Suppliers.

First, you must demonstrate that you are the right caliber of staff!

You want to make career U-turn in your late 40's?