Posted by - hsigma - on 3 January 2013 - 11:46pm

• Posted by - hsigma - on 11 January 2013 - 12:01am

  Thank you very much for your detailed reply Thomas.
  I will see what I can do, and let's hope for the best..!

  Kind regards,
  Haris

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• Posted by - Thomas Graf - on 4 January 2013 - 12:37am

  Dear Haris,

  I am currently sitting at my desk working on my dissertation and increasingly getting tired (after midnight). However, your question makes me awake because it includes an very interesting thought that I never had before. So first of all, thank you for your question! But let's do it one by one.

  In general, the MBA indeed would be the right program. It's the right education because you acquire managerial knowledge AND on top of this you interact with and learn from other professionals - meaning that you can create a lot of value out of these studies. The degree is globally recognized. The program is made for professional so that admission should be no problem. And finally, firms offer advanced positions to MBA graduates - as opposed to entry positions.

  Now, I understand the financial resources issue - so let me give you some ideas to think about:

  • The business school may cooperate with local banks that offer interest low loan programs.
  • The school's financial aid office may offer scholarships.
  • If you get accepted at a renowned school you may (!) have a strong salary increase; there is no guarantee, however, so that you need to investigate a lot in advance (e.g. by asking your favorite employer or headhunters about their opinion)
  • You may want to consider a part-time MBA. This allows you to keep on working which means that you earn money, can (depending on your country) tax-deduct your tuition fees or travel costs, and stay in a hopefully save position. I recommend you to read our MBA Compass article about different MBA degrees and teaching methods.

  A Master in Management (MIM) in contrast is for young people that want to START their career after graduation.

  Now the thought that actually made me awake is: Provided that a school would accept you for a MIM - which career impact would you have?

  In general, I am not sure of a school would accept you. It seems to me very likely that they would refuse this because as an outlier (age, experience, maturity, career goals after graduation) you may "disturb" the class. For instance, it may be the case that you would know much more than the others and create tension by this.

  On the other hand, who knows? Maybe they take it easy and say: The young guys can learn from you. You need to find this out. My recommendation is: Screen the websites for the students' demographics and choose schools where the MIM students have at least some professional experience.

  Now what would happen if a school accepts you? In my opinion, you would have some disadvantages in comparison with an MBA.

  • You would not profit from the professional experience of your fellow students because they don't have it... When I did my EMBA, I had the impression that 50% of my personal learning came from my fellow students.
  • You can not use the campus recruitment because the schools will come to recruit graduates. On the other hand: Within a fulltime MBA you may miss this too given that firms come to campus to recruit 28, 29, 31, 32 old MBA graduates.
  • The knowledge in the classroom is more theoretical than within an MBA. You may learn stuff such as statistics that you are not actually interested in. An idea to mitigate this problem would be that you choose a Master of Arts in Management (and not a Msc) that explicitly targets people without an academic background in business; this likely provides less science oriented capabilities.

  Having said that, still I think you would learn a lot - about management but also beyond: about seeing social processes, the economy, or even the world as a whole. It may also motivate you to go into new directions such as entrepreneurship. And employers where you apply later on may find it a bit unusual - but at the end of the day they may appreciate your increased competence.

  So, from that perspective I would say: You are definitely better qualified with an MIM than without.

  However, while I writing this little essay I increasingly get the impression that a part-time program - whether MBA or MIM - would be the best for you. "Part-time" can mean a modular program where you meet with professors and your class periodically and work at home after work in the meantime; it can mean a weekend or evening track where you go to classroom at specific days per week; it can be an online program where 90 percent of the program is studied via an online interface. Or it can be a mixture of face-to-face and online learning (blended programs).

  Hence, my recommendation for the next days is: Push this thought a bit further and do some research on part-time MIM and MBA programs. What do they cost? Which schools are leadingin the rankings? Which schools are based close to your city - or offer classes there even if the main campus is far away?

  Best wishes
  Thomas

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