Forum: General Forum (4 Comments)
MiM vs Marketing (but I am not a graduate anymore!)
Posted by - jo_k - on 8 July 2012 - 8:49am
Hi, congrats on your site and thank you for being so helpful.
I would like to share my dilemma and listen a piece of advice.
I am 29 years old and have 10 years of experience in sales (B2C 6 years and B2B 4, both are small companies of under 10 employees, in the first case I supervised five salesmen (the 4 out of 6 years), whereas in the latter case one salesperson).
I have been accepted by two universities, Vrije Universiteit Brussels (Master in Management) and Athens Univeristy of Economics and Business (Master in Marketing for executives).
I guess studying the Mrkt master would be more coherent with my past experience and since it is for executives, I will be among students like me and benefit from their experience.
However, I would gain international experience in Brussels (I am Greek) and I consider following a consulting career path a good choice. But then again, aren't I too old for a MiM?
I would have gone for an MBA, but
-I do not have a bachelor degree in business or business related fields, hence I could not opt for the best one, and
-I do not have experience of work in a multinational firm, thus I would not benefit greatly from an MBA.I hope I have provided you with every detail you need to answer to my question.
Posted by - jo_k - on 8 July 2012 - 1:20pm
Dear Thomas
Thank you for your immediate response!
Kind regards
Posted by - Thomas Graf - on 8 July 2012 - 10:35am
Hi Jo_K,
your question can be separated into three sub-questions.
1. Do you want a General Management education or do you prefer a Focussed (or Specialized) education?
2. Given the general management track, is an MBA or an MIM better suited for you?
3. Which type of course (Executive / Non-Executive etc.)As for the first question, it really depends on what you want to do in the future (less on what you have done in the past). If you want to become a Marketing expert and deepen your knowledge here I would go for a Master in Marketing. If Marketing is not your future area or if you simply want to keep it more open I would go for a general management course. I would also take into account your interests. What inspires you more - marketing in depth knowledge or an overview on general management subjects and case studies?
As for the second question, clearly an MBA is the right program for you. An MIM - apart from exceptions - is for graduates or recent graduates. An MBA is for professionals like you. By the way, you don't need to have a first degree in business or economics for an MBA. To the contrary, an MBA is open for EVERY academic background. Usually you have around 25% people with an academic background in business or economics and the rest in non-business areas. Actually, that diversity is part of the fun with an MBA... Also, you don't need to have experience in a multinational firm for an MBA. Of course there may be exceptions - but in the vast majority you can do an MBA with all kinds of backgrounds (including entrepreneurs or small family firm managers).
As for the last question, yes an Executive course would be the optimal. Executive MBAs also have the advantage that you can keep on working and study at the same time. So you earn money to pay the tuition fees, you may even be able to tax-deduct the study costs from your salary, and you don't have opportunity costs. If for whatever reasons you don't find an appropriate Executive course there may also be Part-Time courses (who have the advantage over fulltime courses that the students usually are older and that you save costs because you keep on working). If you still want to go for an fulltime program you should find most programs with people around 28, 29, 30, or 31 (at least on average) of age - they may not have 10 years of professional experience and no executive experience but they are more or less your age.
Taking everything together, my gut feeling is that an Executive MBA would be suited for you - and if not you can still go for a Part-Time or Full-Tme MBA (depending on your resources).
As for your eligibility, you are fine because you have a first academic degree (area is irrelevant) and professional experience and even executive experience. The only important thing that you need to take care of is a good GMAT score (minimum 600, ideally 650 or more).
Now, I hope that I could provide you some new thoughts to think about.
Best wishes
ThomasPosted by - jo_k - on 8 July 2012 - 9:00am
I failed to mention that the cost is almost the same, as the tuition in Athens is 8.000 euro, whereas the Brussels master costs 578 euro-but the living expenses would be around 8.000 euro.
