Dropping out of the work force for a year to get your MBA? Good or Bad decision?

N2IT

Thoughts about dropping out of the work force to get your MBA.

Instead of dragging it out for 2-4 years, banging it out in 1 year.

Challenges

Explaining to your potential future employer why you didn't work for 1 year
Lack of or less income
Losing real world skills while gaining conceptual skills
Stress of having to land a job after degree completion
Chance of not graduating


Those are some that I came up with.

What's your thoughts on this? I know employment gaps are no longer looked at as a horrible thing. They still aren't desireable, but not resume killers like they used to be.


Please chime in I really want to hear what you have to say.

Thanks a lot I appreciate it.


Sorry this should of been in the education forum.

My apologizes

Devilry

I think it would hurt.

University of Florida offers a 1 year only online MBA for I think $12k last time I looked.

Good name, good price, online.


#############EDIT############

I just noticed those cheap rates are now only for in-state tuition, out of state is 30-55k. WOW!
That has changed a lot in the past 18 months since I last looked.

computer g33k

How about working an part time job while getting your masters degree?

Turgon

N2IT wrote: »

Thoughts about dropping out of the work force to get your MBA.

Instead of dragging it out for 2-4 years, banging it out in 1 year.

Challenges

Explaining to your potential future employer why you didn't work for 1 year
Lack of or less income
Losing real world skills while gaining conceptual skills
Stress of having to land a job after degree completion
Chance of not graduating


Those are some that I came up with.

What's your thoughts on this? I know employment gaps are no longer looked at as a horrible thing. They still aren't desireable, but not resume killers like they used to be.


Please chime in I really want to hear what you have to say.

Thanks a lot I appreciate it.


Sorry this should of been in the education forum.

My apologizes

If the company you work for will sponsor you do it. Otherwise unless you are a young fast tracked Harvard graduate with your career mapped out for you by a big firm or you have years of senior management experience pass. Keep working fulltime rising the ranks and do it parttime. It's an expensive departure otherwise. There are many, many people with MBAs and bills stuck in junior management roles. I think you have asked this before. Get 5 years management experience, 3 of them senior with budget then do the MBA. You want to be working the MBA alongside credible students with strategic experience not just ambition. It opens doors after the course that way..

erpadmin

Turgon wrote: »

If the company you work for will sponsor you do it. Otherwise unless you are a young fast tracked Harvard graduate with your career mapped out for you by a big firm or you have years of senior management experience pass. Keep working fulltime rising the ranks and do it parttime. It's an expensive departure otherwise. There are many, many people with MBAs and bills stuck in junior management roles. I think you have asked this before. Get 5 years management experience, 3 of them senior with budget then do the MBA. You want to be working the MBA alongside credible students with strategic experience not just ambition. It opens doors after the course that way..

I'm going to have to agree with this. There are way too many MBA programs that allow one to finish within 2-3 years....my cutoff is three years and that's with doing summers. There is no benefit to stop working just to do a degree fulltime, unless you are going to Wharton, Harvard, Stern, or any other prestigious business school on a company's dime.

Suck it up and keep working, man.

KenC

A GOOD MBA is never a waste of your time or money - do your research about the quality and reputation of where you are thinking of studying it.

I don't think any employer would see that as not working for a year, again do your research on the specific MBA you are pursuing.
The rest of your questions are not really MBA specific, they could apply to any course, and a lot of them are down purely to the individual in question, so you are the one who can best answer them for yourself.

If you were to do it on a non full-time basis, what about discussing your options with your employer?

veritas_libertas

I can understand wanting to do it quickly but, with Penn State and many others offering distance education, or evenings it seems foolish (or at least risky) to me. If you have a good job (or even a lousy one) why be out of work or have your employment history show a gap?

N2IT

Turgon wrote: »

If the company you work for will sponsor you do it. Otherwise unless you are a young fast tracked Harvard graduate with your career mapped out for you by a big firm or you have years of senior management experience pass. Keep working fulltime rising the ranks and do it parttime. It's an expensive departure otherwise. There are many, many people with MBAs and bills stuck in junior management roles. I think you have asked this before. Get 5 years management experience, 3 of them senior with budget then do the MBA. You want to be working the MBA alongside credible students with strategic experience not just ambition. It opens doors after the course that way..

Turgon this isn't about me. This isn't I have a friend who likes a girl line. This is a topic I have always been interested in. The discussion was brought up at work and I wanted to take that idea to this forum and get throughts and opinions.

Don't assume this track is for me, it's not. And I have brought up threads about MBA programs, but without the element of dropping out of work. What I want to do is keep working and making $ and gaining experience. With the hopes of getting into a profession that I can leverage into a senior leadership role eventually.

N2IT

erpadmin wrote: »

Suck it up and keep working, man.

Aren't we a tough crowd

Turgon

Either way that's the advice I give to the MBA curious! An MBA can help, but in context or where you are, what you have done and where you are going managerially. Get that right and the qualification can work!

N2IT

Turgon wrote: »

Either way that's the advice I give to the MBA curious! An MBA can help, but in context or where you are, what you have done and where you are going managerially. Get that right and the qualification can work!

Turgon I do have a questions, sort of related to this post.

What would be the best way for someone to obtain skills they need for a management position.

Experience is number 1 no question about it. But then you have the core competencies like finance, budgeting, planning, forecasting, statistics/parameters, etc.

How would you go about obtain those pieces of knowledge?

Picking up books and reading and self learning
Taking these hybrid certificates offered at the Universities
Learning on the fly and just letting experience guide you
Pick up topics on the internet
MBA
Certain classes at a community college


Just curious on your thoughts on this. Regardless of your role, you have to have the core foundation or you will cap out and never go past that glass ceiling.

petedude

N2IT wrote: »

Thoughts about dropping out of the work force to get your MBA.

It might have been an OK decision, say, 5 years ago.

Times have changed, and we are faced with a "new normal". The economy is stuck in neutral, it's an employer's market and the preference is for new employees who are currently working. Unless you feel like volunteering or doing part time work while studying it's a bad, bad idea.

The only way I can see this being a worthy project is if you have LOTS of money SAVED, and can go into one of those 1.5-year accelerated MBAs. You MIGHT come out OK if you can withstand the strain of being out of work for another 1.5 years after finishing the MBA, if not longer. Don't count on spouses, children, or pets being able to withstand the strain though.

NetworkingStudent

petedude wrote: »

It might have been an OK decision, say, 5 years ago.

Times have changed, and we are faced with a "new normal". The economy is stuck in neutral, it's an employer's market and the preference is for new employees who are currently working. Unless you feel like volunteering or doing part time work while studying it's a bad, bad idea.

The only way I can see this being a worthy project is if you have LOTS of money SAVED, and can go into one of those 1.5-year accelerated MBAs. You MIGHT come out OK if you can withstand the strain of being out of work for another 1.5 years after finishing the MBA, if not longer. Don't count on spouses, children, or pets being able to withstand the strain though.

+1 to the power of 10 milion..what petedude said..
I just graduated with my associates degree in IT and it’s hard to find any sort of entry IT job. I’m competing against candidates that have years and years of experience, that are willing to take an entry level position just to have a job. Being unemployed puts your resume into the no pile a lot faster, than it would if you had a job.
Do school part time and work full time.

I got a call last week for a job from a recruiter and she said the following: “If you still interested and are currently work, please give us a call back.” Almost all candidates that have a job get precedence over candidates that don’t have one, or are looking for a job. There is a way to go to school part time and work full time, it just takes more planning.

Unemployed? 5 Reasons Companies Won’t Hire You | BNET

• Stereotypes are alive and well. We’ve all seen the stories about people being fired for sleeping on the job, stealing, being rude to customers or siphoning off thousands of dollars into private accounts. Somehow our psyches seem to think that those are the only reason people lose jobs. Even people who have been laid off in the past somehow thinks that they were the exceptions, not the rule. Unemployed=big problem, so you’re not taken into consideration. It doesn’t matter that the higher unemployment is, the more likely you are to have good people unemployed, this stereotype persists.

• Companies are inundated with applicants. The New York Times reports that even fast food chain Pollo Tropical requires people to be employed before considering them. Normally, fast food outlets are the first place you’d think would be hiring the unemployed. But, the rising unemployment rate means that more and more people are trying to get any job. Companies don’t like to hire people who want any job. They want to hire people who want this job. One way of cutting through the applicants is to eliminate the any job candidates, and these are most likely to be the unemployed.

Devilry

N2IT wrote: »

Turgon this isn't about me. This isn't I have a friend who likes a girl line. This is a topic I have always been interested in. The discussion was brought up at work and I wanted to take that idea to this forum and get throughts and opinions.

Don't assume this track is for me, it's not. And I have brought up threads about MBA programs, but without the element of dropping out of work. What I want to do is keep working and making $ and gaining experience. With the hopes of getting into a profession that I can leverage into a senior leadership role eventually.

That makes more sense, didnt sound like you