Why an MBA: Career changer vs Career Enhancer

In October 2007, my discontent with my work led me to look at where I was and where I wanted to be careerwise. After three years of being out of school, I had held various positions in different industries. This made me realize two things. First, I was ready to settle on a career I would like to devote the rest of my working life to. Second, and most importantly I knew what job function I wanted to perform.

My different experiences helped me recognize my strengths and interests; creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking. Once I knew that, I was left with figuring out what career best incorporated these aspects. After weeks of researching different fields, I decided that working in Marketing or Consulting would be the ideal fit for me. I began looking at applying to different marketing and consulting positions but soon realized that my lack of an education in marketing and no prior experience made it near impossible to even garner an interview. So after some more research and self evaluation I decided to consider obtaining an MBA. People that decide to get an MBA are grouped into two different corners. Career changers and career enhancers. A career changer like myself is someone that wants to begin a new career and looks at an MBA education and the accompanying career services and networking opportunities as the best way to enter their new field of interest. A common example is people who want to become involved in investment banking but were not finance/business majors and have no banking experience.

A career enhancer is someone that is working within their desired industry (maybe even with the company they'd like to stay with) but feels that an MBA can accelerate and facilitate career advancement. For example you could be an engineer at Apple and would like to take on added responsibility. In order to become a project manager, an MBA might let your company know that you want to be considered for management and will now have a business education that can compliment your engineering strengths. Either reason for pursuing an MBA requires due diligence.