THE RIGHT TIME Roderick Lewis shares some insight on when is the best time to pursue a higher education degree along with reasons why employers are seeking out MBA graduates
Is this the right time to pursue a higher education degree? This question often causes paralyzing indecision for would-be prospective students. My short answer to this question is always – YES! It is always the right time to invest in one’s professional training and development. The state of the economy – local and global – should never dictate one’s decision to pursue higher education. Rather, the drive for continuous improvement and learning should underlie those reasons. Leading companies continue to invest in R&D and training during slow growth periods in order to build the competencies, capabilities, and competitive advantages needed to out-innovate and outperform their peers. Remember, Apple launched the iconic iPod during the 2001 economic downturn! GMAC (the organization that administers the Graduate Management Admissions Test) recently published the results of a survey done on 665 graduate management programs at 327 business schools in 39 countries. According to their numbers, half of the schools showed an increase in applications and about 40% showed a decrease for the incoming 2010-2011 class,
as compared with last year. But even more important in the survey was a statement that I found to be very salient – “As more senior managers seek new knowledge and skills, the biggest volume increases among all MBA programs came from executive MBA programs.” Think about it, if the top managers recognize the value in getting higher education degrees during market downturns then prospective students seeking to advance their careers should too. After all, won’t those senior managers, with their newly-minted MBAs, want to hire other employees with advanced management and technical education to tackle the myriad complex challenges faced by companies? Employers will continue to demand employees who bring advanced management and technical knowledge to their workplace. The pace of technological change is rapidly increasing and the management tools needed to harness these new technologies to solve complex issues are constantly evolving. There has never been a better time in history for scientists, engineers, and managers to collaborate with each other to deliver tomorrow’s innovation. Ironically, the very employees who continue to delay investing in themselves through higher education and training sometimes find themselves in limited career paths or reduced roles. As companies continue to fight for market share they will undoubtedly need key employees who can navigate the ship through both the calm and stormy seas.
I recently conducted a job search on LinkedIn to see how many postings there were for jobs requiring MBAs and the number was an astounding 3000! And these jobs were distributed across various countries, industries, job functions, and companies. Google Inc. itself is seeking to hire close to 250 MBAs! The breakdown I found on LinkedIn for other advanced degrees was: PhD (705) and Masters (1205). And those are just the visible job postings requiring advanced degrees which make up a tiny fraction of the 80-85% jobs that are available but never posted. What does this mean for those prospective students who are hesitant to pursue an advanced degree? It means that although growth is currently stagnant in mature markets, there is still demand for innovative and talented employees. Pursuing advanced education now will allow one the flexibility and ability to capitalize on opportunities in both mature and emerging markets. It’s always the right time and the right choice to invest in your professional development and growth.
Roderick Lewis is the Director of The Career Management Center at The Lisbon MBA. Please contact him at roderick.lewis@thelisbonmba.com if you have any further questions.