Does anyone have an MBA? Was it worth it?

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manbearpig

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I want to hear from people who have technical degrees (Bsc, BEng) who did an MBA after working in their fields for a few years.

Was it worth doing, or was it a waste of time?

Things to consider include: post-graduation pay bump, new contacts, promotion to a new position, offers from other companies, loss of income for a year, loss of experience gained for a year.
 
I had the choice between an engineering masters and an MBA and I took the M.Eng as it seems better all round. I did my masters by coursework at the school if Industrial Eng at Wits as they have all the management subjects in the eng world and it was well worth it. 3 of the courses are MBA credits (the 3 financial courses) done by the MBA lecturer. I had an option to do 2 of my 10 courses outside of the school and when I asked to do another MBA course. I was told no as most MBA courses are only accredited at Honours level in the engineering world, and as such don't count for a masters. Its only the 3 financial courses that where specifically rated at the higher difficulty and tbh those where easy. The problem with MBA is that everyone does it from engineers to fine arts grads so you can't assume any ability in stuff like maths. Hence the MBA courses are all pretty dummed down when compared to engineering masters courses. Even the MBA lecturer who did the 3 financial courses with us said we are his best class as he can actually include the proper math and stuff in our lecture where for the bus school lectures he has to leave it out as there are people there with no clue who they still pass.

Anyways, for that reason I would strongly recommend something like an GDE or M.Eng rather than an MBA. MBA's unless you get them from overseas are not worth as much as you think they are. WITS does the M.Eng via night courses and block release (a week of lectures then the exam and project handing later). I managed to do it while working without too much difficulty by just doing 2 credits per 6m term instead of the recommended 3 and by having one block release and one evening lecture course per term. That way I would use 10 days of my annual leave each year for lectures and only be out one night a week. At this link is some info and a list of available courses: http://www.wits.ac.za/academic/ebe/...urses/5149/postgraduate_courses_overview.html

Personally I did a masters to fill in the gaps that engineering has as you do almost no management courses in undergrad engineering. Hence I took a lot of subjects that filled in gaps as well as some specific to the field I was in such as:
Elements of commercial and industrial law
Human resources
Financial management
Cost accounting
Accounting and financial statements
Principles of management
Systems Engineering
Management of Technology
Software Engineering (via elec school)
Software project Management (via elec school)

The only subject that I think my qualification lacked as compared to an MBA was a course on strategy.
 
Did you do a engineering related masters or did you do more of a management engineering one?

Did you not have to do a thesis?
 
Well, I did a management related masters as I already have a degree in Elec Eng and I work in the finance industry. Getting an engineering "technical" masters seemed pointless. I'd much rather fill in the gaps in my education and learn about business stuff like law, finance, etc. Hence me doing the Industrial masters with a major focus on management courses. As to the project there there are 3 options for an engineering masters.
First: Full dissertation. Big project that should take roughly 1200 hours but often takes a lot more and can go no-where with the wrong supervisor.
second: 50/50. Most common option taken where you do 6 courses for 6 credits and then a 600 or so hour project for the remaining 6 credits
Third: Coursework masters where you do 10 courses for 10 credits and a 200 hour project for the remaining two credits. I did this. You can also do a GDE (graduate diploma in engineering) which is pretty much half of option 3. You just do 6 courses and then if you feel like it and your marks where above 60% they may let you convert that into option 3 by doing the other 4 courses and the small project.

Only difference between 1, 2, and 3 is option 3 gives you an M.Eng while the first two give you a MSc.Eng. In my experience no one in the world of finance seems to know what the difference is between those two though. Personally the M.Eng fitted in exactly with what I needed and resulted in me getting very good knowledge on general business stuff and a nice salary hike to boot. On the other hand my mates who did full dissertation masters never use what they learn and basically just have a piece of paper that proves you can research something obscure. I figure for the industry I work in they are already convinced I can do projects hence no need for the full dissertation or 50/50 option. What I wanted was a formalized system that would fill in the gaps for when I get to management level. The courses are designed taht way.

For instance the law course does not make you a lawyer, but it does teach you the basic principles and lingo and equips you to have meaningful discussions around contracts etc. You will also then know which expert to consult and what to ask them for. Same with the human resources course, its basically a summary of industrial psych 1st and 2nd year. It does not make you an HR manager but it does teach you the basics of HR allowing you to understand and discuss things like hiring, firing, salary bands, etc much more.
 
My mom did an MBA, I'd say she found it worthwhile - she ended up as a CEO
 
Don't get me wrong. An MBA is worth something, but at the same time it has become diluted as there are so many MBA grads out there not all of them can become CEO's. Also MBA's differ in quality depending on institution. In SA our MBA's from Gibbs, Wits business etc are OK but nothing compared to an Oxford or Harvard MBA. If I was aiming at MBA I would wait for the company to offer to send me on an international one and do that. Otherwise for engineers specifically I think the engineering management degree carries more value as its more technically difficult while covering a lot of the same ground as the MBA.
 
Cius said:
Don't get me wrong. An MBA is worth something, but at the same time it has become diluted as there are so many MBA grads out there not all of them can become CEO's. Also MBA's differ in quality depending on institution. In SA our MBA's from Gibbs, Wits business etc are OK but nothing compared to an Oxford or Harvard MBA. If I was aiming at MBA I would wait for the company to offer to send me on an international one and do that. Otherwise for engineers specifically I think the engineering management degree carries more value as its more technically difficult while covering a lot of the same ground as the MBA.
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That's interesting. I was always under the impression that our MBA's were the one course that were on par with the big universities. I know we were the first or second country after the US to start doing MBAs. Maybe it's just UCT that is on par, and not the other universities.
 
I have heard UCT's is good but I am sure you can google MBA ratings and find out. I recall a few years ago seeing a ratings scale of a few of the MBA programs and UCT was best in SA followed by GIBS I think. They where still behind even average colleges like Boston Business school and Pennsylvania I think.
 
I am still at varsity at honours level so dont know much about mba vs a more technical route( i have gone technical route with finance followed by CTA next year and writing CFA level 1 this year). But surely in the SA job market you are competing 95% of the time against other South Africans. So isn't comparing MBA's to American ones not such a fruitful exercise? Rather better to compare Gibbs vs UCT?
 
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