Hello,

Background: Master degree from Swedish University, work in Automotive industry in Sweden for 8 years as powertrain engineer, including one year product owner. And will be expatriate to China as project leader.

I finally received an offer from Manchester Global MBA program. And I have just applied for illinois iMBA program today and dont know when I can receive the result.

Post MBA program, I seek to join a project management team in an international automotive company such as Volvo Group, Volvo Cars Group. My future career goal is to advance to a senior-level management position dealing with international strategic management or project portfolio management for a multinational automotive corporation. In an ultimate stage, I aim to become senior vice president in Asian Joint Venture of the automotive corporation.

Now today I had a dialogue with two of my close friends/colleagues regarding MBA in general.

One clearly stated that it is not worth doing MBA in Sweden and people will not learn more than one learn from the job.
The other thinks MBA in general is prestigious which can be valued in the countries such as UK, France, Switzerland and most of Asian countries.

I basically have two questions:
1. Is MBA really worth? and what kind of knowledge or skill does people learn from studying MBA?
2. Which MBA should I take it?

Any comment is welcome!

It would take you hundreds of lives to learn on the job what you learn in a world class MBA. There is no world class MBA in Sweden, so a Swede will struggle to understand. But ask them about the country's leading business school, the SSE. Does attending that make a difference? Even asking the question is ridiculous. The Swedish elite attend that school, the way the Norwegian elite goes to NHH and BI, and the Finnish elite goes to Aalto and Hanken, and the way the Danish elite goes to CBS. If it doesn't make a difference why do these schools even exist?

I don't think there are many options in Sweden, but I think Gavle is offering MBA for free.
Free has very very good return on investment, as you invest... zero.

However it is still better to go to a world class MBA, the benefit in outcomes will still be greater. I just don't know where the line is when the Free from Gavle becomes worse

[Edited by George Patsoulis on Apr 12, 2019]

It would take you hundreds of lives to learn on the job what you learn in a world class MBA. There is no world class MBA in Sweden, so a Swede will struggle to understand. But ask them about the country's leading business school, the SSE. Does attending that make a difference? Even asking the question is ridiculous. The Swedish elite attend that school, the way the Norwegian elite goes to NHH and BI, and the Finnish elite goes to Aalto and Hanken, and the way the Danish elite goes to CBS. If it doesn't make a difference why do these schools even exist?

[Edited by Bincheng Jiang on Apr 12, 2019]

I don't think there are many options in Sweden, but I think Gavle is offering MBA for free.
Free has very very good return on investment, as you invest... zero.

However it is still better to go to a world class MBA, the benefit in outcomes will still be greater. I just don't know where the line is when the Free from Gavle becomes worse

Here is what I think.
1) Is the MBA worth it? well this is a loaded question and cannot be answered in an abstract. One has to evaluate where one is. As in purchasing power, career stage, function, industry, company, economy, country/region. Then one has to evaluate where does one want to be.
And can MBA from xxx bridge that gap?

I worked for 6 years in India as Telecom Engineer. My salary was pretty less by global standards. Less than $10,000 by today's exchange rate in 2013. Most optimistic scenario it would have doubled to $20,000 in 2019.
I did my MBA from College of William & Mary in USA. A relatively risky choice given very little scholarship it required large investment. However when I graduated my salary was entry level 6 figure. So that's a 10X multiple. although it has to be adjusted for PPP but still I can undoubtedly say that post MBA my purchasing power increased many folds. I am able to break even in 3.5 years (ROI). From a commercial point of view. Was my MBA worth it? Then answer is yes. But it may have to do more with pay scale in two different economies and the exchange rate between them.

I felt that MBA taught me too many subjects - Finance, Accounting, Operations, Strategy, Marketing , Supply chain so that I can view a situation from multiple lens. Now that may or may not be helpful for my career. I am still in Telecom. I couldn't change my industry. Companies in US won't hire me for generic roles - like no one will consider me a strong candidate and pay me $100,000 if I want to do Brand Management. Experience triumphs education. I am working as a Consultant in Telecoms now and have moved to Canada.
For US citizens. that wasn't the case an English literature major with couple of years of experience working in Starbucks could become a Project Manager for construction company or a Change Management consultant in Big 4.
That's the power of MBA from a good school, which is appreciated by the job market in US for US Citizens. And some spillover to Internationals.

in many parts of the EU, the MBA degree is not valued as such by recruiters. Good to have, but not necessary. People working in startups or big IT companies in Estonia don't run after top 5 B school MBAs.

You'll get a ton of exposure to different aspects of business during your MBA. Whether you get to use 10% or 70% of it to your current job needs will be determined by needs of your company.

Even though I got roughly 10X on my purchasing power. ROI of 3.5, able to achieve geographic mobility. In my current role I am still not using even 5% of what I learned during my MBA. So is it really worth it? I leave that for you to decide - given your situation - not in abstract. Standing right now, you cannot predict your future. Joining the dots is easy looking back in time. Looking back I feel that I could have done another degree - maybe a 1 year specialized course and saved on my investment and attained even faster ROI. Or something like a Rotterdam MBA or even SPJain PGPM (which I turned down facepalm along with Copenhagen Business school and ESSEC).

2) Which MBA should I take it? Do some research, come up with a list. Go for a program that provides you maximum exposure - culture and subject wise and requires minimum financial investment. It is true that some markets value MBA more than others. US/UK/SE Asia / Middle Eastern countries value MBA more than Eastern European or Scandinavian countries. I would say you should look into Copenhagen Business School or the likes and go for a exchange program in China.

That's great advice!

Here is what I think.
1) Is the MBA worth it? well this is a loaded question and cannot be answered in an abstract. One has to evaluate where one is. As in purchasing power, career stage, function, industry, company, economy, country/region. Then one has to evaluate where does one want to be.
And can MBA from xxx bridge that gap?

In my current role I am still not using even 5% of what I learned during my MBA. So is it really worth it? I leave that for you to decide - given your situation - not in abstract. Standing right now, you cannot predict your future. Joining the dots is easy looking back in time. Looking back I feel that I could have done another degree - maybe a 1 year specialized course and saved on my investment and attained even faster ROI. Or something like a Rotterdam MBA or even SPJain PGPM (which I turned down facepalm along with Copenhagen Business school and ESSEC).

2) Which MBA should I take it? Do some research, come up with a list. Go for a program that provides you maximum exposure - culture and subject wise and requires minimum financial investment. It is true that some markets value MBA more than others. US/UK/SE Asia / Middle Eastern countries value MBA more than Eastern European or Scandinavian countries. I would say you should look into Copenhagen Business School or the likes and go for a exchange program in China.

And 5% of what you learned during your MBA is used in your current role. It probably leads to that you would like to have done shorter specialized program.

And later in your career you might be in a role where you use a lot more!

And later in your career you might be in a role where you use a lot more!

It would take you hundreds of lives to learn on the job what you learn in a world class MBA. There is no world class MBA in Sweden, so a Swede will struggle to understand. But ask them about the country's leading business school, the SSE. Does attending that make a difference? Even asking the question is ridiculous. The Swedish elite attend that school, the way the Norwegian elite goes to NHH and BI, and the Finnish elite goes to Aalto and Hanken, and the way the Danish elite goes to CBS. If it doesn't make a difference why do these schools even exist?

Maybe true for many schools of social sciences... But a glance at BI's alumni suggests that something happens there that gives students different outcomes from, say, studying in Tromso.

Yes, I would agree with that. But doesn't give an edge compared to studying at NTNU, UiO, UiB or UiS, which are all public schools and don't cost 40k eur.