Companies are full of young people who have undergraduate degrees, professionals like you, who want to advance and grow inside a company or perhaps outside of one. What can help you boost your career and salary? Without a doubt, an MBA can be your best ally for advancement. In fact, seven out of 10 recent MBA graduates say they could not have landed their current positions without their MBA degrees.
Why study for an MBA: Fundamental reasons
In a moment, we’ll discuss the reasons we think are most important, but the list of benefits is endless:
- An MBA makes your CV stand out.
- An MBA gives you job security.
- An MBA is an investment that will increase your salary.
- An MBA will expand your network of contacts.
It helps you stand out
If you are thinking about furthering your university career, getting an MBA is the best option. It’s a personal and professional capacity-building program that will develop your leadership abilities, give you knowledge and favorably position you for managing teams.
It’s also a plus in your CV. Let’s look at the data.
According to the GMAC report “The Value of a Graduate Management Education Alumni Perspectives Survey,” seven in 10 recent full-time MBA grads say they could not have landed their current jobs without their MBAs, and two in three Executive MBA alumni say that they received more promotions than their peers without an MBA degree. What’s more, nearly all the business school surveyed in the report agreed that their graduate management education was personally (94%), professionally (89%), and financially (73%) rewarding.
That’s why complementing your university degree with an MBA can be the trigger for a meteoric rise in your company or for finding a better paying job in another organization.
A word of caution: enrolling in just any MBA program, only for the diploma, will not be worthwhile. You need to be careful in selecting the right program, especially since online programs with an MBA label have proliferated in recent years but don’t have the quality required to jumpstart your career.
An excellent or good quality MBA is one that is accredited by international entities (AACSB, EQUIS or AMBA) and also well positioned in various business school rankings. Here we explain to you how these rankings work.
It gives you job security
As we said, an MBA is a plus in the business world and even more so when you are looking for a job. Industry research indicates that companies prefer to hire university graduates with an MBA for executive positions.
IESE Business School’s 2023 MBA Employment Report confirms the power conferred by an MBA when job searching or seeking to drive forward your professional career. In fact, 94% of IESE MBA students accepted jobs within three months after graduation.
It is an investment
And investing in an MBA is worth it. Not only because an MBA on your CV will help you land a better job, but because the remuneration that you will receive in the future will exceed your initial investment.
Positive ROI, return on investment, usually begins in three or four years, and professionals improve their salaries by up to 139% during this period of time, according to a report published by the Financial Times 2024 rankings.
Positive ROI, return on investment, usually begins in three or four years, and professionals improve their salaries by up to 125%.
It will expand your network of contacts.
Undoubtedly, an MBA program brings together many young professionals with the same concerns and business and management knowledge, who will hold high-level positions in leading companies within a few years. It’s where you can create a network of high-quality professional relationships that will allow you to identify future business opportunities, find the best talent or even a more interesting position.
The personal links you establish during the two years of the MBA are often so strong that they may lead to the launch of a successful enterprise with classmates.
An example is the case of Holaluz, a start-up firm in the energy sector that emerged from IESE’s classrooms. Ferran, Oriol and Carlota, the three founders of Holaluz, met as classmates in IESE’s Executive MBA program in 2009.
How can I valuate an MBA during this time of pandemic?
The pandemic and the subsequent confinement period have sparked an explosion of online programs. The inability to travel and move from one place to another has led many business schools and universities to launch an infinite number of online MBA programs.
But an MBA is carried out just once in a lifetime. Making the right choice involves understanding the fundamental values that each program offers. You should choose a school that gives you a unique learning experience and this cannot be provided solely through a computer screen.
An MBA is a fascinating journey that will open up new perspectives; allow you to get to know people from all over the world; learn from internationally known professors; discuss hundreds of real business cases; and make many friends. All this leads to a personal and professional transformation that provide innumerable opportunities. One of these programs is the MBA offered by IESE Business School, an international school that leads its program in Barcelona and is rated one of the best in the world, according to the most prestigious rankings.
The pandemic has led IESE’s MBA to take a jump forward, strengthening its commitment to the hybrid methodology. With this approach, students who cannot attend on-campus classes can follow online seamlessly. The school is equipped with cameras, screens, special screens, speakers and microphones so that professors as well as students can interact with those at home in real time.
Find out everything you should know about the MBA program.
