Welcome to issue #5 of Convex Thoughts.
When friends first hear that I got an MBA at Stanford, many tell me they have considered applying. While my personal experience was immensely valuable and enjoyable, I recognize that attending business school has significant material and opportunity costs. If you are trying to decide whether or not to get an MBA, consider your network, soft skills, career path, gold stars, and desire for fun. How important are those factors to you, and what levels are they at today?
Network
During an MBA program, you rapidly connect with a broad alumni network. My classmates were high-achieving individuals in a variety of industries, including investment banking, consulting, technology, consumer packaged goods, private equity, hedge funds, military, non-profit, and more. Many had international passports or worked in other countries before school. In addition to your direct peers, you also have access to alumni that have been out of school for decades. This network is likely broader than what you could get working for two years.
Networks are most valuable when they are also tight, and students and alumni of MBA programs help each other. I have always connected with the people I have reached out to through my network. I see weekly requests from my classmates asking questions about job searching, fundraising, and hiring.
I have seen the power of my GSB network in the 4 years since I graduated. When job seeking, I connected with more than a dozen alumni and professors. Young alumni taught me about product management and gave me tactical tips about how to nail my interviews. It was valuable getting career advice from my professors, among them former GPs at Benchmark and Index and the former CEO of OpenTable (not to mention, learning from them in class!). I also was referred to my role at Tanium by one of my classmates.
Soft skills
I was surprised by how much my soft skills (e.g. communication, interpersonal, teamwork, leadership) improved during my MBA experience.
I chalk much of that up to having opportunities to practice. MBA programs excel at experiential learning. In classes like Managing Growing Enterprises, we role-played difficult situations. I was able to try out different styles, get feedback from peers, and watch how others acted. These situations were also low stakes, unlike what you might experience in the real world.
MBA programs also give you time to focus on soft skills. During Interpersonal Dynamics, or “Touchy Feely” as it is affectionately referred to by students, I spent 5 hours a week in class, and even more time outside of class, thinking about how I came across to others. This was significantly greater than the energy I spent on soft skills while working or in college.
If you are interested in learning the basics (e.g. finance, marketing, operations, organizational behavior, etc.), I think it is possible to get a great education online without needing a full-time MBA. If you are interested in improving your soft skills, however, I found my MBA classes to be special.
Career paths
Another benefit of an MBA is the ability to change your career path. An MBA is a general degree, and the learnings can be applied to many industries. For the technology industry specifically, I saw some classmates transitioning into it without previous experience.
The best transition path, however, depends on your current job and future aspirations. It is generally easy to change one aspect of your job at a time. For example, you could change industry (e.g. retail to technology), but keep your job function (e.g. operations) and company size (e.g. large, public company) the same. If your current role is adjacent to what you want to do, you can likely transition without an MBA.
If you are changing multiple dimensions at once, an MBA can help, but it is not a silver bullet. It is harder to tell a coherent story and have strong transferrable skills when making a larger career change. If this is the case for you, lean into clubs, internships, and side projects to improve your story.
Gold stars
An MBA can be a credential that signals certain intelligence and skills in the marketplace. The credential is more helpful if you can get into a great program, but it diminishes as you move down the rankings, particularly past the top 15 or so schools.
Your need for a gold star strongly depends on your background. If you have gold stars on your resume already from your undergraduate institution or work experience, an MBA may be less valuable to you. I’ve noticed that some people (including myself for a long time) chase gold star after gold star, but this is not always optimal.
You should also be aware of the reputation MBAs have in the technology industry. There is some bias against MBAs, particularly in the startup world, where people judge MBAs as entitled and less capable of building products. On the other hand, large technology companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are some of the top hirers of MBAs. I’ve personally not encountered too much negativity towards my MBA, but I am mindful of how I talk about it with colleagues.
Fun
Getting an MBA was one of the most fun periods of my life. Students at MBA programs are excited to meet others and have a good time. Some treat it as a two year vacation from intense careers. Others came to school looking to find a partner.
At the GSB, I made a handful of close, lifelong friends. I traveled to countries including Argentina, Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Austria, Germany, and The Netherlands. Memorable dinners, parties, and events happened weekly. I loved being surrounded by a smart and diverse mix of people.
Graduate school was incredibly intellectually stimulating. I am lucky to have been able to learn from the foremost experts in business and entrepreneurship. The connection to industry was particularly strong at Stanford. Many top leaders from Silicon Valley taught at or visited, and I found elective classes and guest lectures both fascinating and worthwhile.
Summary
I know that figuring out graduate school can be confusing and stressful, but keep in mind there is no right answer. Hopefully weighing the importance of and current levels of your network, soft skills, career path, gold stars, and desire for fun can help you gain some clarity.
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Great read! I had 2 questions from reading the article:
1. Something I've personally experienced with soft skills is "use it or lose it" where I feel like I'd improve in something but then feel that quickly drop off unless I continue practicing it. Negotiations is 1 such example - I took a class in school and learned what I had considered to be some pretty valuable things, but now I can't really recall most of it. Curious to here if you've experienced a similar drop-off with the soft skills you talked about above, and/or how do you manage to stay sharp or combat this atrophy (taking good notes, practicing constantly (?) etc.)
2. (This might be a whole article by itself, but) are there any instances where it might be better not to pursue an MBA then? The reasons that you described all seemed like compelling reasons for why an MBA would be a good idea.