Hi everyone

New on here, and am thinking about doing an MBA in 2021. I have 6 years experience in strategic operations for global advertising/media company specialising in healthcare clients and want to do the course to help climb up in my current role. I am based in London and will not leave my job so wondered what the best options were? Must I apply for one of the T10 schools? Are alternatives to LBS/Cass/Imperial worth it?

Thanks in advance!

Any MBA will help you move up in your career. The better the MBA, the further you will go and the faster. Inferior alternatives to the LBS EMBA do not make sense in terms in terms of lifetime value or present value. Given that your work experience is perhaps not enough for the alternatives in the capital aimed at more senior executives (Trium, ESCP Europe, Chicago, LBS GEMBA), the LBS EMBA is probably the best investment.

Thanks Duncan. I’m quite keen on the Cass EMBA but will look at LBS too. Whilst I have you, can you recommend any pre-MBA material that will help my application?

The Cass EMBA is stronger than its MBA. But it's much more a City cohort than LBS.

You can start researching backwards if you know what your career goals are. If you look at your network - in your firm and in others where you might transition to - see where employees did their MBAs. This might give you a good sense of what degrees are valued and which degrees have less pull.

Thank you.