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Ask HN: Are EMBA programs worth it?

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Re: Ask HN: Are EMBA programs worth it?

#21

Post by 300bps »

talltofu wrote: post #7

This summer I started the Wharton EMBA program. Here are the few things that struck me 1. The program is truly demanding. I do believe the program weeds out candidates who might not able to handle the demands of the program. But I see a lot of my fellow classmates struggling to balance work, life, and school. This is the #1 consideration if you'd like to pursue EMBA from a top school. Make sure you have the buy-in fr…

Everyone in the class is extremely smart and motivated. So much so that coming back to work will means having to deal with not-so-intelligent colleagues

I couldn't help but think of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the... when I read this.

Re: Ask HN: Are EMBA programs worth it?

#22

Post by talltofu »

300bps wrote: post #21
talltofu wrote: post #7

This summer I started the Wharton EMBA program. Here are the few things that struck me 1. The program is truly demanding. I do believe the program weeds out candidates who might not able to handle the demands of the program. But I see a lot of my fellow classmates struggling to balance work, life, and school. This is the #1 consideration if you'd like to pursue EMBA from a top school. Make sure you have the buy-in fr…

Everyone in the class is extremely smart and motivated. So much so that coming back to work will means having to deal with not-so-intelligent colleagues I couldn't help but think of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the... when I read this.

Haha! I actually happen to know quite a few guys from Enron and they are actually quite smart. I guess evil + smartness is not a good combination

Re: Ask HN: Are EMBA programs worth it?

#23

Post by sadface »

foobarqux wrote: post #16
wengzilla wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some EMBA programs aren't trivial to get into... Especially ones like the Wharton EMBA or the Harvard EMBA. Prestige aside, I think the value of the MBA (or the EMBA) still lies in the potential to network with other individuals who work in similar spaces as you do. This is probably one of the best / only reasons to do it.

Can you give some examples of people who have EMBAs and are widely considered successful? Were they successful before the EMBA?

Satya Nadella comes to mind. He got an EMBA from Chicago Booth, class of 1997.

Re: Ask HN: Are EMBA programs worth it?

#24

Post by hyperliner »

foobarqux wrote: post #16
wengzilla wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some EMBA programs aren't trivial to get into... Especially ones like the Wharton EMBA or the Harvard EMBA. Prestige aside, I think the value of the MBA (or the EMBA) still lies in the potential to network with other individuals who work in similar spaces as you do. This is probably one of the best / only reasons to do it.

Can you give some examples of people who have EMBAs and are widely considered successful? Were they successful before the EMBA?

I don't think it matters to be considered widely successful, only to better your career, life and your family's.

Just go to any program's website and you will see they are regular people. They will have a list of alumni and their titles. That could give you an idea. These are Directors, VPs and CEOs. Are they "widely" considering successful? Well, they are not as known as say the Pope or the President.

But, here is a list (notice it applies to MBA)

http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20101130/25-highes...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mattsymonds/2012/01/16/the-m-b-a...

"An impressive 40 of the 100 best paid CEOs in corporate America last year have an M.B.A., according to the Forbes list of America’s Highest Paid Chief Executives."

Re: Ask HN: Are EMBA programs worth it?

#25

Post by sadface »

corncup wrote: post #19

There are a lot of reasons to get an MBA - to the extent the intelligence of your fellow students matters, I thought I'd chime in with my observations. I've had the opportunity to interact with quite a few students from HBS, Wharton, Sloan, Stanford, and other reputable schools. My impression is that among the top 3 - HBS, Wharton, Stanford, 1/3rd of the students are would I would consider to be pretty intelligent. A…

I have a feeling that your sensitivity for "pretty intelligent" might tuned a bit tight. Sure there are a few "massive donation" students but otherwise HSW students in particular are pretty much exclusively 99th percentile types, both "objectively" (GMAT/GRE, Undergrad Institution + GPA) and from career progression standpoints. It's surprising that you would find so many of them to be merely OK or worse, so I'm kind of curious what you're looking for when you judge people's intelligence, if you wouldn't mind sharing.

Re: Ask HN: Are EMBA programs worth it?

#26

Post by univalent »

foobarqux wrote: post #18
univalent wrote: post #15

I started the Berkeley EWMBA (halfway through) and am bitterly regretting it (though work is fully comp-ing tuition for me). I'm going to stick it for another year and complete it. 1. It is a lot more work that you can imagine 2. You will have to learn a great deal of stuff that you know you will never use again. The benefits you get out of it are the networking and some basic business knowledge which you could get f…

The coursework isn't valuable, the imprimatur is. What is your opinion of the opportunities the degree will create?

For a startup? If you are poor at networking and going to events and such I think you will get value out of it in growing your network. Other opportunities: Depends. I think its a great idea for people who are mid level accountants, finance folk in big firms like Cisco or Google (classmates of mine) who need this to get anywhere. For engineering, not too sure.

Re: Ask HN: Are EMBA programs worth it?

#27

Post by rosenjon »

talltofu wrote: post #9
rosenjon wrote: post #6

I'll take a stab at this one. EMBA programs tend to be tailored to people who already have a relatively significant position within an organization. My understanding is that a large majority of people attending these programs have them payed for by their employers. The idea is to provide additional training to people who will have future, higher level roles within the organization. I think that there are probably dif…

a large majority of people attending these programs have them payed for by their employers - Not true. This is number is < 35%

That was just my understanding, having spoken to people in the program where I went to school. It seemed like most of them were being sponsored by a company. It would be interesting to know whether this number changes based on the quality of the program. I think many companies will only sponsor a candidate who gets accepted into a top program. Across all EMBA programs, the 35% figure seems right, based on Google.

Re: Ask HN: Are EMBA programs worth it?

#28

Post by digita88 »

EMBA programs differ with each school so it's a good idea to sign up to their open days so that you can sit in on the classrooms. With one of the schools that I researched, the cohort were very finance heavy so that school is a good choice if you work in finance.

Re: Ask HN: Are EMBA programs worth it?

#29

Post by clairity »

i loved my part-time MBA program. with a primarily technical background, i had two key disadvantages that the program was meant to address:

1) weak business network 2) no prior business training

it accomplished these things well. could i have done it alone? possibly, but the program provides focus & structure, which are hard to come by otherwise. it also gave me closure on one chapter of my life so i could move on to the next. no single class is earth shattering, but taken together give me much more confidence when, for example, i walk into a negotiation with a VC, since i now know how to calculate the NPV of the deal terms.

my advice is to take classes around two poles: (1) managing people (teams, negotiations, incentives, etc.) and (2) quantitative measurement (stats, marketing analytics, entrepreneurial finance, etc.). strategy, branding and domain-specific (e.g., media management) classes in particular didn't seem to impart much actionable knowledge.

and network like crazy (but with purpose).

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