Online MBA Programs

One of the most attractive features of an MBA is the prospect of a high-paying and secure career that involves a fraction of the schooling required of doctors, lawyers, and other professionals.  Although the statistics for traditional MBA graduates are difficult to distinguish from online MBA graduates, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC)’s report that 55 percent of part-time MBA students were offered a job in 2011 upon graduation, is telling.  Summaries of a handful of the most high-profile careers for MBA graduates can be found in an article by Patrick Butler, but here are some of them:

• Executives, including Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs), nearly always have MBAs, although these jobs tend to be reserved for graduates from prestigious business schools.  They are the highest-ranking managers of a company, responsible for the broadest and most sweeping strategies.  Depending on the size of the company, they can also be the highest paid workers in the world.
• Portfolio Managers are responsible for compiling data from analysts, such as stock market projections, to make major investment decisions for a company.
• Human Resource Managers may not be responsible for directly hiring new employees, but are in charge of acquiring and maintaining the best overall workforce for a company and ensuring that the investment in employee labor is returned.
• Marketing Managers seek out new markets, maintain current ones, and match the output of a company’s products or services to meet demand, all of which requires an understanding of consumers from many different parts of the world in order to guide a company’s global strategy.

While MBAs remove barriers and allow employees to pursue careers like those mentioned above, they do not guarantee financial success.  Income depends largely on the size and welfare of the company, the type of job, and the notoriety of the MBA program from which one graduates.  According to Payscale.com, the salary range for MBA graduates varies dramatically.  Chief financial officers (CFOs) can make as much as $226,000 (or as little as $60,000) as of 2011, while financial analysts, occupying the lower end of the scale, make between $24,000 and $92,000.  The average starting salary for MBA graduates, according to the GMAC, is just over $90,000 in both Europe and the United States.  The GMAC goes on to state that the types of positions for graduates of business schools with the fastest growing salaries in 2011 are:

• Products and Services at 59%
• Non-profit and Government at 45%
• Technology at 35%
• Manufacturing at 34%

This does not mean that an applicant with an MBA is guaranteed a position in one of these industries, however.  Bloomberg Businessweek’s Careers Q&A section, a part of MBA Insider, provides career advice for MBA graduates from administrators of some of the top business programs.  Of the schools that offer online MBAs:

• Sheryle Dirks of Duke recommends that graduates seek employment in the finance and consulting sectors, especially in New York, Atlanta, and Silicon Valley.
• Guillaume Delacour of IE Business School in Spain suggests that applicants not apply for different positions within the same company, or else risk turning different departments against each other as they try to acquire the same employee.
• Clare Hudson of Manchester Business School in the U.K. advises applicants to research the companies they are applying for thoroughly and tailor their resumes and CVs accordingly.

Finally, George Lorenzo’s Guide to Online MBAs provides some career tips that are specific to graduates of the online option.  In particular, he encourages applicants to emphasize the work they performed during graduate school and find a way to demonstrate the seriousness of their programs’ curricula to employers who are skeptical about the credibility of online degrees.  Students should also show how the lessons gained from their online program are/were directly applicably to their business careers.  Lorenzo echoes Margaret Dikel, an online career consultant, in stressing the importance of networking too.  Message boards and online organizations can overcome the isolation that is possible when earning an online MBA and attract the attention of recruiters.

The chapter explains that an MBA graduate’s reputation in the eyes of employers is less dependent on whether he/she earned the degree online or in a brick-and-mortar college, and more dependent on the reputation of the institution.  Recruiters, for example, who use resume databases can prevent applicants from even appearing on their list of potential candidates if they hail from one of the few select institutions that are disreputable.  The sections on “Accreditation Resources” and “Picking Your MBA Program” can explain more about choosing an online school that carries weight.