I met somebody the other night who was an admissions manager for a well known CSR / sustainability oriented MBA program.

A don't have an MBA (yet). I've been working in nonprofits and NGOs for my whole career though, and the admissions manager was trying to convince me that an MBA would be a perfect complement to my work experience and get me to new career levels.

This was intriguing to me because I have never considered the possibility of doing an MBA. I've been doing a ton of research and am now seriously considering this possibility.

But I'm still a bit skeptical that it would be worth it. The aforementioned program manager said that her MBA would be close to $80,000 (Canadian). That's over a year's worth of salary for me! Of course there are programs that cost less, but it turns out not that much less for a quality program.

In any case I would appreciate any advice. The idea is intriguing to me in terms of opening new doors, but those would be some expensive doors to open!

Use LinkedIn to take a look at the people in these roles and their backgrounds. My guess is that those in more senior roles or corporate settings will have general management focussed MBAs from schools like the University of Toronto or York University, and those more on the NGO and speciality consulting side will be from less selective and less costly schools like Concordia or Ryerson.

I don't think you necessarily need a "CSR" themed program to do well in the field. Just get into the best MBA program you can and then if you feel you need it, take sustainability / nonprofit / CSR elective classes.

Although there is an argument to be made that there's more networking potential with like-minded individuals in a specialized program. If you need that element of it, then that's something to look into.

A broader, more general MBA might also open more doors in the future, and give you more flexibility after graduation.

I understand, thanks. I'm going to look more closely at all the options and I'll come back if I have any other questions.