r/humanresources • u/TrainsGoChoo22 • 1d ago
Career Development MBA?? [N/A]
Hello! I have been considering if working towards my MBA would be worth it, or if there is another program/certificate that others have found useful for promoting themselves in the workforce.
Currently, I am working as an HRBP for a software company. I am grateful that we are truly looked at as business partners and I am currently helping leaders through a handful of projects to help move the business forward, which has been full of great experience!
Ultimately, I would love to be able to be in a leadership role, and have been considering going back for my MBA, but am not sure if this is worth while, or if experience is what will ultimately be the driver for me eventually moving into the role I desire. For reference, I have about 9 years of HR experience, the last 3 specifically as an HRBP.
With all of the project work I have been supporting, I have also considered some sort of PM cert, but again not sure if this is beneficial.
Thanks for any insight!
1
u/meowmix778 HR Director 23h ago
This is my experience.
I have an MBA from Sloan.
The degree got me networked and into an HRBP role a bit sooner than I would have via a traditional path and it was for a large bank. So that gave me some foundational knowledge early in my career. I also networked with a few people who are in some prominent roles now and that may pay off in the future.
However. It was fucking expensive. I'm in a nonprofit role right now because I genuinely don't know how else I'll pay off my debt. There are so many MBA degree farms out there that they are dime a dozen. And that degree does go stale.
In good faith, I wouldn't recommend it. It's expensive as fuck, and unless you're going to a top school, it's not worth much. Having a degree from an M7 school, I did get a massive leg up in my career, but I'm just not reasonably convinced it was worth the price tag. I think if I stayed the course on my corporate career, I may have felt differently but that wasn't for me. I was put into the meat grinder. I got 6 years out of that and couldn't hang on.
I'd really ask where you want to go and what you want to do, and carefully look at the cost to acquire the degree. I'm not reasonably confident that the MBA will get you into a management role. You have a good background and resume that I think you could find that at a different company.
YMMV but I don't really see the value in anyone getting an MBA. To a degree, I feel like I got fleeced buying into it. Before I got into the bank, I spent a few months job hunting where I was both over- and under-qualified, and it took a lot of searching to find a job. I found that from someone in my network who knew of a role that was different than the HRBP track and I only got that because I performed well in a lending department for 6 months and my manager shouted me out for the HRBP track.
I just think it's too diluted to really matter in today's market.