What are your purposes for MBA?
Is it to change careers? Then yes, an MBA opens doors to multiple industries for you.
Is it to increase your network? Then yes, you will meet friends for life. Alumni — if you are well respected by your school and your batch — will be there to help you.
Is it to gain a wonderful experience? Then yes, you will enjoy/suffer a really intense learning/life experience. I’ve had so many ups and downs in MBA that I couldn’t count.
If it’s to learn some added knowledge, then yes, going to school enables you to always keep on learning something you’ve never learnt before. Not all classes are great and some professors do suck, but overall you will have some takeaways.
However, if you are there to…
Get a boyfriend/girlfriend, be careful. There were quite a few people sleeping around and making out in LKF, but some got burned really fast. The MBA encourages an environment of hooking up quickly with your classmates who seem to be super impressive at first sight. However, maintaining a lasting relationship especially after you move away for exchange and your own careers can truly be taxing.
Go for the same industry, think again why you’re doing an MBA. It’s not for everyone. Coming from the finance industry and wanting to continue in finance, an MBA was unnecessary for me. If you want to transfer elsewhere in finance, you don’t need an MBA to do that. You’re just going to waste 16-24 months studying something in the hopes of being transferred to another role,when you could’ve done it WITHOUT an MBA.
To have easy access to all alumni, then not really. You increase your network sure but nobody would give you a job merely because you asked for it. They recommend you because you deserve it. You do great in school and your reputation precedes you. I myself will never recommend someone just because they’re from the same school. I know my school had some sucky people too. Why put my head on the line for someone I don’t know.
To get a secret sauce of the world, eeeh. I learnt a lot on MBA but on hindsight, I didn’t need to quit my job to get this knowledge. I could’ve done it part time and I would’ve gained the same knowledge. Sure, going to an MBA fulltime helped me focus more on my studies, but I don’t know if from a learning perspective, the professors taught less to parttimes. Not at all.
Hope this helps!
