if planning to take mba and hoping for the little increment, why not continue to phd level and become a lecturer in a reputable uni confirm can earn 5 digit salary....better than work in corporate sector.

Like many have said, MBA from where?

Work experience? Exposure? Which industry are you from?
Which department is your company going to throw you to?

i totally agreed with you. MBA will benefit you in long term and most of the headhunt company prefer MBA. MBA also makes u meet the requirement for DBA. the demand for MBA holder is increasing as degree holder are too much nowadays.. go for MBA in order to differentiate yourself from the others and learn from the course

Ppl tends to think short term because they don't even have the experience journey of MBA course and simply give judgement base on observation and assumption. I realised ppl tend to claim MBA is not applicable in working world is themselves can't even opt for one and yet claimed MBA is irrelevant.

MBA is just a cert similar to ur degree, diploma or perhps SPM. It act as a stepping stone for ur career growth in future.

Like many others have mentioned, MBA won't help you much in the short term. If you are an engineer before MBA, you will still be an engineer after MBA without pay raise whatsoever. However, MBA can come into play when your company needs to fill in a managerial position. MBA will be a big selling point.

I beg to differ. The real reason should be because UPM itself is not even qualified to provide a decent MBA course. Those prestigious business school around the world come with extremely expensive school fees for a lot of reasons (exclusivity aside). The course structure, exposure are definitely a few of the main selling points here. Some even include a internship placement in world renowned companies, Fortune 500, top IB's and so on.

As for the issue regarding quality control of MBA students, that's another funny thing about MBA programs in Malaysia. I've once compared the minimum requirement of MBA program in certain decent business school(both local and oversea), and I found out that in Malaysia: Basically ANYONE that has a degree can just enroll into most of the MBA program, with or WITHOUT relevant working experience. Heck, I don't even see any MBA program in malaysia that requires minimum GMAT score of 600/800 to be at least qualified for MBA course enrollment. Havard, INSEAD, Wharton, LSE, some of them even go to the extend of requiring GMAT score at least 760/800 to be able to be qualified. My point here is GMAT is not actually THAT difficult, but it serves at the most basic filter and provide some basics and fundamental of management.

As the title of MBA itself suggests, does it make sense to you for a fresh graduate to enroll into a MBA program right after graduation? I've had one colleague last time working as a mere drafter. She took part-time MBA in some local university and all she did was probably online lecture, some coursework based assignment, and occasionally attend some lectures during weekends. She didn't even know what is a GMAT and when she said "GMAT or not doesn't matter lah, as long as I finish every coursework, pass the paper test, get the cert, then I can get MBA already". I was speechless. I guess the MBA is just like another MSc/master program that solely intended for salary increment and slightly positive career advancement.

Maybe these are the reasons why MBA is 'cheap' and not well recognized by the employers in Malaysia.

p/s: Anyway, I heard that Boston Consulting Group in Malaysia only hires MBA graduates from Harvard and INSEAD, and the starting pay is about 10k for fresh. Not sure how that works out for them.

This post has been edited by yeahs4.1: Sep 25 2011, 10:17 AM

if i graduated from harvard or insead with a mba... i surely wouldnt take up the job for rm10k

I think many, if not most, Harvard MBA holders were already earning more than 10K a month before they started their MBAs.

that's true... sorry, but i was referring to his comments that refers to freshies, misunderstanding

Does Harvard take MBA candidates who have no working experience?

That's why I said :

---

Added on September 25, 2011, 11:09 amMaybe they do if you donate 1 block of teaching building in Harvard, or if you're a prince from UAE that owns several oil wells.

This post has been edited by yeahs4.1: Sep 25 2011, 11:09 AM

I was working on an investment framework with BCG and from our casual acquaintance, hardly anyone graduated from Harvard. Mostly mbas from insead and Chicago booth.

Well I have no intention to rank the business
Schools into different buckets. Merely, good business schools take good students to ensure their grads live up to the prestige of the school. It's a marketing strategy of goodwill in accounting terms. On a smaller scale, is how tuition industry evolves. Good teacher takes good students and ensures their repo is maintained if not lifted.

yeaps, they do... i believe

emphasizing it only

probably because they are from the foreign campuses?

I doubt so, I believe all the prestigious ones would expect some work experience, unlike those that are unheard of. taken from HBS website:

"The HBS MBA Program is designed for students who have full-time work experience before matriculation. College seniors are encouraged to apply in the expectation that they will be offered "deferred admission", i.e. an offer of admission to a future class conditional upon acquiring full-time work experience, as a positive outcome. It is important for candidates to assess their own readiness when deciding to apply: there is no universal "right" time."

HBS and Stanford GSB actually prefers young bloods than others. Throughout my experience in "stalking" these schools, I have seen many without working experience that have entered these schools. They're GMAT's are superb, combined with a track record of leadership roles as well as community involvement, not to mention letter of recommendation from influential political figures.

Some even worked at the Whitehouse straight after graduation. There was one who obtained his MBA at HBS during his 1st year degree at Harvard. Age does not matter much in US IMO, that is why their program is 2 years instead of the Europe's 1 year.

In conclusion, if u got money, just go for MBA, dun hesitate already, do what u think u need to do now, not to regret after that. Qualification is always a good thing...do remember that

I talked with an older gentleman who is holding an MBA and has a fairly high position in the corporate world.

His perception on the matter is that for Malaysia, an MBA only matters when you reach a certain level in the corporate world, normally attained after 30 years of age. Before that it would not make much difference. The advantage it confers is that at a higher level, it makes moving up easier as the added prestige is there.

So for fresh grads, it wouldn't have any point at all.

But for my opinion it is better u take MBA when u are young, as u are more motivated to study. When u get old, u wont got such a motivation to study any more

MBA are very useful if one is looking to further expand ones business knowledge and network... not all organizations would value MBAs equally and not all MBAs are equal as well.

I guess MBAs would be handy at a later stage in life when one is looking to improve oneself better. For instance, one is in mid management level in an MNC and looking for an opportunity to break into the senior management level. Management consulting firms have high regards for MBAs they are probably the most appreciative of the value of ones MBA.

In Malaysia itself we have a couple of global consulting firms. and NO they do not only accept MBAs. They do accept non-MBAs. Usually if one joins with MBA they usually join as a Consultant rather than Business Analyst level. Starting pay for Business Analyst on average is +- RM10k.

The main problem isn't for the ones already working, the main problem comes from the freshies that jumps straight into MBA without working for experience beforehand.

Worst, when they come out from their MBA, they expect their salary to be as high as those with working experience and degree minus the MBA. Some companies do give good offers but it's rare sight. I've got few guys telling me that some of them wants to get a high starting pay and stuff without 0% of experience.

Like what PiggyAikz said, it's for a later stage. MBA isn't a early phase requirement but is more to a going up the ladder phase of requirement.