Is Now The Right Time To Apply To The Top Ranked MBA Programs

bloomfield88
Fri, 27 Sep 2019 22:54:03 +0000

I saw the value of an MBA for a specific career pivot. The pivot would never, ever have been possible if I didn’t go for a top tier MBA. Therefore, cost benefit was very, very easy. No way, was I going to remain on my existing career path.

Economic Peak = unemployment low = pay high = MBA application demand down = Time to apply

Recession = unemployment high = pay low = MBA application demand up = Time to graduate and ride the next bull market up

I applied to M-7s during an economic peak and it worked out very well for me.

Applications are down when work is plentiful.
Applications will go up dramatically when, not if, the next recession hits.

If one graduates now pay will be high, but FIFO still applies in corporate America. A higher than normal percentage of recently minted MBA grads will be fired when the next recession hits bottom.

I graduated with my MBA during the depths of a recession. It was very difficult to pull off my pivot despite the fact I was graduating from the #1 MBA program in the country. Since jobs were few, companies were playing it very safe and only wanted to hire MBAs with experience in the industry. Companies in my old industry wanted to hire me, but I refused. I was changing come heck or high water. Fortunately, like me, some MBAs with work experience in my new industry were insisting on a pivot themselves, (a few to my old industry!), so I did land a couple of late offers.

MBA pay in my new industry had halved from the economic peak, gulp! However, what I didn’t know until I arrived at work was how the decks above me were cleared of recent grads.

The economy took off and in no time, I was making multiples of what I made pre-MBA, saving a ton, and paid off all my loans within 2 years of graduation.

If one thinks we are approaching an economic peak sometime in 2020, then it is a good time to bank another year of good pay while applying to M-7s and ride out the recession in the friendly confines of an M-7 campus while your ex-comrades are receiving diminishing paychecks and looking over their shoulder for a pink slip every day. No question it can be difficult to secure a new job at the bottom of a recession, but once in, it is a great spot to be.