Graduate Certificates

mantori.suzuki
Sun, 30 Jan 2011 19:46:27 +0000

A local college offers a graduate certificate program in management. It consists of four graduate-level courses, a sort of “MBA lite”. I’m seriously considering it because it offers a credential without requiring the multiyear commitment of an MBA.

My wife says it would do my career more harm than good because it would prompt people to ask why I didn’t just get an MBA. She thinks it could make me appear lazy. I say that a small credential is better than no credential, and although it may not help much, it definitely wouldn’t hurt. (I work in an industry and at a level in which a technical master’s degree, which I already have, is the credential of choice. The business education would just be to increase my preparation to move to the next level of management.)

Who’s more right, me or my wife? Or is there a third perspective? Thanks for any info you can provide.