Articles

Using Your Online MBA Degree After Graduating

2011-01-03

An online MBA degree gives individuals an advantage when prospective employers review their resume. However, many students enter MBA programs without thinking what will come next. Savvy students pursuing an online MBA degree will begin planning their next career before graduating.

New graduate students know that an MBA is a prerequisite for a key to an executive office. They also recognize that the market pays a premium for executive skills. In general, most MBA students are accountants who know how to analyze numerical information. This individual, however, should also understand economics, marketing and organizational behavior.

Many MBA candidates already work in a field they love for a company that loves them. Their graduate degree allows them to take the next step in their careers. An MBA proves to their employers that they are qualified to fill a management role in the company. These MBA students already know where they want to go.

It is this group that explains the growth in the degree's popularity since the Kennedy Administration. During that time, Robert McNamara became the most famous MBA in the world and the nation's business schools awarded 5,000 of the degrees. In 2010 a multitude of institutions will graduate approximately 150,000 new MBA degree holders. Some of these individuals will be hoping to find a job instead of a promotion. Unfortunately, in a bad economy even an MBA cannot guarantee lucrative job offers.

According to a survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council, the median salary for MBA's who graduated in 2010 grew 5.1 percent from the previous year. This year, recent MBA graduates can expect to earn $78,819. This is less than the $80,096 MBA graduates earned in 2008, but better than the median 2009 salary of $75,000 median salary. The same survey also found that last year the number of graduates that found new jobs increased 4%.

The best predictor of how successful a new MBA graduate will be in looking for new jobs is their specialization. In December 2010, an executive recruiter and career counselor named Bruce A. Hurwitz told US News & World Report that new graduates "opted for a specific track" during graduate school did better in today's tough job market than graduates with a general MBA. "Specialization is becoming more important," Hurwitz said.

New MBA graduates able to show special expertise in human resources, finance or technology tend to do better when searching for a job than those graduates unable to do so. This demonstrates the importance of considering your future career path prior to graduating from an MBA program.