Regarding your observations of others who have earned an MBA while working full-time, it varies by industry and by the individual’s reason for pursuing the MBA degree as well as by the level of MBA program attended.
A recent example from 2 years ago: Family friend earned a part-time MBA on a scholarship and asked for, and received over a 40% pay increase (increase of $50,000 base salary to about $160,000 upon completion of the degree program. (Special MBA program for those in the arts.)
Many others use MBAs to enable them to switch employers and/or industry.
Will depend on the school. He’s out two years - so he wouldn’t do an EMBA now - but even later, I don’t think it will matter. But a part-time MBA. I don’t know if his company promotes, etc - just what I’ve seen in my industry - he’s an engineer. I’m in sales and have had a lot of marketing roles.
The execs I know get sent to executive level training at colleges - but those I know who’ve done an EMBA (MIchigan, Vandy, UNC) were individual contributors - not even managers. So I don’t put a lot of credence in the word Executive personally.
He would not qualify for any Executive MBA program with which I am familiar. Elite EMBA programs typically want at least 8 years of post undergraduate degree work experience with 5 years of management experience.
I don’t understand. EMBA programs serve a different market (managers, directors, VPs, and other executives) than do MBA (fairly recent college grads with 2 to 5 years post-undergraduate degree work experience) programs.
This isn’t always true in consulting…definitely variable by firm. For example, some employees who have worked 4-5 years or so are already at the level that incoming MBAs start at (some consultants with 4-5 years experience may even be above the level MBAs come in at)…so, these employees aren’t likely to get a promotion or pay increase when they return with an MBA (maybe they can qualify for a one time bonus, but all the incoming MBAs also likely received signing bonuses.) Everyone’s situation is unique in terms of where their career is, how it’s going, and what the future goals are.
For sure. But, if their employer is paying anything towards the cost of the degree, many of the elite MBA programs won’t allow the student to take advantage of recruiting/interviewing thru the school.
Does it depend upon whether the tuition is billed to, & paid by, the employer versus employer reimbursement ?
I am unfamiliar with this and suspect that it would involve the student returning to work for the sponsoring employer during the summer between the first and second year of the full-time MBA program.
Not that I can remember. I paid and my employer reimbursed me and I could not go thru recruiting at school. And that makes sense…these programs are cash cows and the schools don’t want to make employers who are footing the bill (whether all or part of it) angry.
I can give an example of one individual who had a difficult choice between attending a regular full-time MBA program versus participating in an EMBA program while continuing to work full-time.
Attending the full-time MBA program at Georgetown, NYU, or Northwestern would have permitted this attorney (M&A industry) to earn an MBA while completing a specialization / concentration in the tax program at the MBA school’s law program. Most likely would have led to a highly compensated position in Biglaw in a specialty practice which is far less strenuous that a typical Biglaw position in Corporate or Litigation.
Cost of attending the regular full-time MBA program would have been between $500,000 and $600,000 when lost income is added toCOAof the MBA program. Break-even would be expected to be about 3 years after completion of the MBA program.
Other option was to attend an EMBA program for under $200,000, but the class included multiple high level partners/principles who could have catapulted the individual’s career in the same industry leading to a break even point of just one year. Elite EMBA programs often include several high level decision makers.
Decided to forego both options due to very heavy, unpredictable work demands as M&A was booming at that time.
MBA programs care about their students. But they care more about the employers who recruit their students, and in much smaller numbers, send their students for a sponsored MBA.
A few years ago there was a brouhaha when a large employer of elite MBA’s violated a university’s policy against “exploding offers” (i.e. making a student a job offer and giving them 24 hours to accept, at which point the offer evaporates). The students at this program thought Career Services would go ballistic. That’s not what happened. The head of MBA career services called the head of campus recruiting at this company, reminded him of the policy, the person apologized on behalf of the company and then it was business as usual.
Nobody is going ballistic on the company which employs a significant chunk of your students every year. That would be very dumb. No exploding offers- gotcha. That’s the policy, we slipped up, we won’t do it again. Have a great afternoon and always nice to talk to you.
Same with the policies on sponsored MBA’s. No university is dumb enough to violate a company’s policy on interviewing. Does it happen? Of course. Student’s are free to apply online, reach out to an acquaintance or friend at a company they are interested in, etc. But going through career services at their university if their sponsoring company won’t allow recruiting for the duration of the program? Nah. Nobody will be complicit in that. Student can do it on their own.
If you look at them, they say experienced. I just looked at a few.
as noted, those I know who have gone to top schools were nothing of the sort in regards to being execs. They were tenured but low management / individual contributors. And they paid with nominal reimbursement but my industry is not elite.
They are six figure money makers for the schools. I don’t see execs but those are people from my companies. I don’t know about their classmates. And you seem to think they are bringing in only elite so maybe some are.
Execs from places I’ve worked have gone to focuses exec programs such as this…
I think the Exec MBA is just another way for someone to go where the timing works better. At least in what I’ve seen and I’ve not been in one (I went full time), I think the word executive is vastly overstated.
My old company used to get programs from Vandy customized for execs and even done at retreats.
Many schools run cash-cow executive training programs. They are unrelated to a formal EMBA 20 month program.
Also, there are at least 72 EMBA programs in various locations some of which serve a local/regional market versus a national/sometimes international market served by the most elite EMBA programs.
The word “executive” in EMBA is an indication of qualifications necessary to be accepted to the most prestigious programs; Vanderbilt’s EMBA would not be considered to be among the most elite programs. (Each EMBA programs is free to define the word/status of “executive with respect to its admission policy.)
Elite law schools have various controls on offers (although exploding offers are not common in Big Law). Some schools enforce a “three at a time” limit- i.e. a student can sit on three offers simultaneously during recruiting season, but if another offer comes in, the student needs to turn one down. No sitting on a pile. Law schools have various policies in place to try and both control as well as participate in the federal judiciary hiring process, which is different from Big Law both in timing as well as protocols.
But a law school which is a robust source of talent for the federal clerkships (and for the big firms) has more leverage over both the talent and the pipeline than a lower ranked school which has to worry about placement numbers- and making sure there are enough jobs to go around.
Executive Education is its own model. By and large it’s an outsourced function of a company or industry’s own training/learning and development efforts. Sending employees to Wharton for a three day “Negotiating Strategies” seminar is NOT the same as an Executive MBA– anywhere. Most notably because the university does not gate-keep on who gets in. Company thinks it’s worth paying for employee X? Congrats, you’re in.
People who do background checks for a living can tell you the stories of the people who spent two days at HBS studying “Currency arbitrage strategies” whose resumes mysteriously list them as Harvard graduates. grrrrr….
If interested, look at the EMBA admissions requirements for U Penn-Wharton’s EMBA, Northwestern-Kellogg’s EMBA, UCal-Berkeley Haas’ EMBA program,and U Chicago-Booth’s EMBA program. Compare to the minimal requirements for other programs including Vanderbilt-Owen.
I have examined the positions of EMBA participants in non-elite EMBA programs such as Georgetown & U Virginia. Due to their location, each program frequently attracts & enrolls high level decision makers, but not to the degree that the truly elite programs do.
When you look at Booth’s profile, it mentions years of experience but I don’t see anything about being in high powered roles. People may be but I don’t see anything about you must be a Senior Leader or any leader and even 15 years average experience doesn’t mean someone with two years can’t get in etc.
I don’t know admission stats (acceptance rates, etc) but they seem to leave a lot of leeway.
Thise I know who have gone to Michigan, UNC and Vandy are great people, bright, hard working etc - but just not what I think when I hear Exec - is all I’m saying.
I’m guessing many of these top programs are not much different. But don’t know.
This person is featured on the Chicago EMBA website. 2021 grad. Here’s her LinkedIn. She’s great. But when I think Exec, I’m not thinking this - is all I’m saying. So I’m taking the word Exec MBA with a grain of salt on the Exec. But no doubt they get great people !!!
I’m not sure about that. He’s two years into working for his company and recently got his first promotion. If he starts the MBA after 3.5 years of work, I’m assuming his salary will be higher upon returning for those two years after completing the MBA. However, I’m not sure if that translates to an actual promotion. Either way, there would be increased responsibility and the other benefits of completing the program.
