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MBA is functionally a useless degree. (My opinion is based on interactions with MBAs over 25 years). Look at the companies that you admire and that show the ability to innovate... chances are they are run by people with technical backgrounds. Example: AMD is run by Lisa Su, whose background is in EE. HP was run by MBA holder, Carly Fiorina.
It never made sense to me that one could specialize in business. Every business is radically different from one another, even from competitors. Seems like it would be better to combine a few basic business courses with an advanced degree in a technical subject. Going deep into “business” seems to divorce a person from the reality of any particular company. It gets to the point where they’re in danger of disrupting a…
I’ve seen similar situations where managers were told to teach an EE, SE, or even business classes at a local college at night.
I'm surprised education is even mentioned. Every MBA I know has always stated the real value of the degree was for the network is provided[1]. A general management degree would naturally be useless in a world that increasingly values specialization. From this perspective, MBA programs are just expensive signaling, or even a luxury good. As usual for elite education, these who meet the strict and competitive entry req…
The MBA has lost its once held stature in most industries. It’s almost become an acronym for dumb business decisions in many circles: “This must be something the MBAs came up with.” If schools want to stay relevant they need to create programs that produce leadership candidates for today’s modern business environment. For too long it’s just been a cash cow for schools and people went because it was the thing to do. W…
We’ll post the link when I find it.
Edit: just use google scholar, there are a load of studies. Scanning through the titles quickly shows that a many people are wondering what is the value of the MBA. It does make the schools a lot of money.
I'm surprised education is even mentioned. Every MBA I know has always stated the real value of the degree was for the network is provided[1]. A general management degree would naturally be useless in a world that increasingly values specialization. From this perspective, MBA programs are just expensive signaling, or even a luxury good. As usual for elite education, these who meet the strict and competitive entry req…
There are people getting MBAs that started from literally zero business knowledge. Let's say a Computer Science major, who has now worked in the industry writing code for 10 years, wants to move into management. Where would that person get any business knowledge if not for that course work?
How will that person relate to the aspects of the business that management needs to be aware of without the kind of basic accounting, finance, and legal coursework that is part of a typical MBA program?
Sure, someone who is already on the business side with a lot of experience in that area may not get any value out of an MBA.
MBA is functionally a useless degree. (My opinion is based on interactions with MBAs over 25 years). Look at the companies that you admire and that show the ability to innovate... chances are they are run by people with technical backgrounds. Example: AMD is run by Lisa Su, whose background is in EE. HP was run by MBA holder, Carly Fiorina.
I agree. And I have an MBA. I work as a Software Engineer.
If you were in a role that required some basic knowledge of the business, and you didn't previously have that knowledge, I'm sure it would come in handy (i.e. basic accounting, finance, and legal concepts).
MBA is functionally a useless degree. (My opinion is based on interactions with MBAs over 25 years). Look at the companies that you admire and that show the ability to innovate... chances are they are run by people with technical backgrounds. Example: AMD is run by Lisa Su, whose background is in EE. HP was run by MBA holder, Carly Fiorina.
You're judging them on their compatibility with your personality, not on the actual knowledge that an MBA or other sort of business degree provides. It's really easy for engineers to completely dismiss the kind of knowledge (including emotional knowledge) that people in sales, business, and marketing possess. They aren't just some dummies who don't know how to code.
It also shouldn't be surprising that pure engineering companies like AMD are run by engineers, and while HP is an engineering company in some form, it's also more of a business services company. They do things like contract out desktop support services to large corporations or the government - that is much less about engineering and technical ability and more about providing continuing services, providing a business relationship.
It's actually not a lot different than hiring a custodial firm. Why wouldn't someone with a business background run HP? HP's commodity hardware business doesn't actually make a whole lot of money from what I remember.
When you hear people claim that an “MBA is useless”, it’s typically spoken by people who took business as an undergraduate degree. And hence - yes, it is useless if you already have a degree in business ... and that was not the original intended audience to be attaining such a degree.