The email that I’m responding to in this message is from a young lady that I met at a conference back in February. She’s currently in a Public Health grad program and is very interested in making the move toward consulting after she finishes up. In the following excerpt from her email, she mentions the possibility of pursuing an MBA at some point too and asks for my advice about it all.
—————–
JW wrote:
“I did have another question for you(as you can see I’m picking the
brain of someone who’s already made it lol). I have been thinking about
obtaining an MBA. I know that I want to stay in healthcare right now
but down the line I am not sure and feel that the MBA would allow me
more fluidity with my career. I’ve been getting different advice but
from someone who has their MBA and working at Mckinsey do you have any
suggestions. I know that I want it eventually but I’m not sure if
getting it right after my [current grad degree] is the best idea rather than working at a consulting company and going back after a couple years.”
—————–
My response:
About your MBA question, my response will be different depending on what your next career step would be after you finish up at grad school. If I’m remembering correctly, you graduate this coming Spring, so, if you’d want to apply to Bschool, you’d have to get ready to do so now. Doing that in addition to preparing for consulting interviews will be a BEAST and likely would reduce your effectiveness on both fronts. You’d have to worry about studying for and taking the GMAT, deciding which schools to target, and writing essays while simultaneously practicing cases, going to company info sessions, and doing interviews…that would probably be too much for anyone to handle. So, I’d recommend holding off on applying to Bschool until sometime later if you’d still like to make a run at a consulting gig.
Next you have to decide whether you need an MBA at all. Getting more education is always a good thing, but a big part of the “MBA or not” decision comes down to whether the payoff you’d get from it is worth the investment of time, money, and two years away from your career is worth it. That decision depends on the type of job you take after your graduation. If you are able to get a job at a consulting firm and can get in at the Associate (i.e. traditional entry point after grad school — job title may have a different name depending on the firm) level, I’d argue that you wouldn’t need an MBA because you’ll learn so much on-the-job that your business game will be dangerously tight and getting the “stamp of validation” by virtue of working at this sort of firm should serve you as well as the “MBA stamp” would in the future (at least that’s the word on the street). Now, if you get in at the Business Analyst (i.e. traditional entry point after undergrad) level, then you might want to think about other factors, including how long it will take you to get to the Associate level, whether the trade-off of taking on student loans to get an MBA versus staying on your track is worth it, and how long you see yourself sticking with the consulting firm you start off with.
If you end up getting a job in the healthcare space, you still might not need an MBA if you can get exposure to business in the role and plan on staying in that industry long-term. Also, you could move into consulting and work on healthcare-focused work after that if you choose to do so. The problem would come if you go the healthcare route without the MBA and then want to transition to some other industry (other than consulting) later on. The heathcare experience may not serve you as well if you want to move over to, say, IT or consumer products…in this case, having the MBA would be a great asset to you.
I guess I’m said all of that to put the ball in your court when it comes to whether you need an MBA or not. It is really dependent upon your long-term career goals and the first few steps you make in your career after graduation in the Spring. I hope this helps.
-M
—————–
JW wrote:
“I did have another question for you(as you can see I’m picking the
brain of someone who’s already made it lol). I have been thinking about
obtaining an MBA. I know that I want to stay in healthcare right now
but down the line I am not sure and feel that the MBA would allow me
more fluidity with my career. I’ve been getting different advice but
from someone who has their MBA and working at Mckinsey do you have any
suggestions. I know that I want it eventually but I’m not sure if
getting it right after my [current grad degree] is the best idea rather than working at a consulting company and going back after a couple years.”
—————–
My response:
About your MBA question, my response will be different depending on what your next career step would be after you finish up at grad school. If I’m remembering correctly, you graduate this coming Spring, so, if you’d want to apply to Bschool, you’d have to get ready to do so now. Doing that in addition to preparing for consulting interviews will be a BEAST and likely would reduce your effectiveness on both fronts. You’d have to worry about studying for and taking the GMAT, deciding which schools to target, and writing essays while simultaneously practicing cases, going to company info sessions, and doing interviews…that would probably be too much for anyone to handle. So, I’d recommend holding off on applying to Bschool until sometime later if you’d still like to make a run at a consulting gig.
Next you have to decide whether you need an MBA at all. Getting more education is always a good thing, but a big part of the “MBA or not” decision comes down to whether the payoff you’d get from it is worth the investment of time, money, and two years away from your career is worth it. That decision depends on the type of job you take after your graduation. If you are able to get a job at a consulting firm and can get in at the Associate (i.e. traditional entry point after grad school — job title may have a different name depending on the firm) level, I’d argue that you wouldn’t need an MBA because you’ll learn so much on-the-job that your business game will be dangerously tight and getting the “stamp of validation” by virtue of working at this sort of firm should serve you as well as the “MBA stamp” would in the future (at least that’s the word on the street). Now, if you get in at the Business Analyst (i.e. traditional entry point after undergrad) level, then you might want to think about other factors, including how long it will take you to get to the Associate level, whether the trade-off of taking on student loans to get an MBA versus staying on your track is worth it, and how long you see yourself sticking with the consulting firm you start off with.
If you end up getting a job in the healthcare space, you still might not need an MBA if you can get exposure to business in the role and plan on staying in that industry long-term. Also, you could move into consulting and work on healthcare-focused work after that if you choose to do so. The problem would come if you go the healthcare route without the MBA and then want to transition to some other industry (other than consulting) later on. The heathcare experience may not serve you as well if you want to move over to, say, IT or consumer products…in this case, having the MBA would be a great asset to you.
I guess I’m said all of that to put the ball in your court when it comes to whether you need an MBA or not. It is really dependent upon your long-term career goals and the first few steps you make in your career after graduation in the Spring. I hope this helps.
-M
