A masters in business administration, or an MBA, is a popular course for those who want to succeed – and for good reason. It can give you all the tools you need to head out and do well in life, but if you need some evidence or reason to get started with an MBA, we’re here to help! Here are our 7 best reasons why an MBA is your next step.
It Gives You Countless (And Better) Career Opportunities
Graduating with an MBA isn’t a small feat – it’s a huge acknowledgement of your skills, and employers will see that. It’s not by chance that those with an MBA often get snapped up first by top businesses – it makes you very employable, and that opens up a lot of career opportunities. Some examples of common careers that those who graduate with an MBA go into include consultancy, finance managers, marketing managers, entrepreneurs (with the knowledge of an MBA, starting up your own business is made a lot easier and gives you a huge chance of being successful), and eventually, CEOs.
Having such a wide knowledge of business not only gives you plenty of employability and appeal to potential employers but also provides you with the knowledge to work your way up the ladder or even start out a business on your own. If you’re interested in more directions an MBA can take you, read this article by Aston University Online outlining the directions you can head in once you’ve graduated.
You Gain Many Essential Skills
One of the biggest things people want when they do a course is to come out of it knowing they’ve gained important life skills. With an MBA, you don’t just gain some, you gain a whole load – the advantage of an MBA is that it has lots of applications to the real world, and so you learn skills that are not just useful, but applicable to the life you want to live.
For example, the most obvious would be learning about the business world, and how to navigate it. But it’s not just business-related – you learn how to communicate effectively with others, you learn how to lead but also how to listen, and you learn how to make quick decisions. It’s also a great confidence booster and can not only teach you how to be confident but can give you the knowledge you need to be confident in everything you do you do. An MBA can also give you assertiveness and initiative, problem-solving skills and an ability to negotiate difficult situations, quantitative and qualitative skills… the list goes on! If you want a more detailed list of the skills an MBA can give you, click here.
You Could Earn a Lot of Money
There’s no denying that business is one of the most profitable sectors in the job market, and although we tend to choose jobs that we love and get satisfaction from, that doesn’t mean that a generous price tag alongside is a bad thing. And when we say generous, we mean generous – many MBA graduates start off with a salary of £52,000, and can quickly work their way up. When compared to most other university degrees, you’ll find it’s a huge step up, and really puts you at an advantage, not only within your age range, but it also gives you access to more opportunities and more flexibility in where you live and what you want to do.
You Develop Lots of Connections
Business isn’t just about what you learn, it’s about who you meet, and an MBA gives you a great way to connect with people already stuck into business – businessmen, entrepreneurs, and recruiters are just some of the kind of people you’ll be able to talk to. Creating connections with people within the business is important for so many reasons.
For example, these people are often people who’ve worked first hand in business through the rough and the rich. The experiences of people who’ve been through all the challenges and pitfalls that you’re likely to go through yourself are a valuable resource in learning how to work within a business or even run your own.
It’s also a great way to find future opportunities, whether that be a career opportunity, an investment opportunity, or a marketing opportunity – opportunities like these are often mutually beneficial, and being in touch with people within business means you can grab as many of those opportunities as possible and really let your business or career fly.
The other point we’d like to draw on is that these people may also be a great source of references. These days, if you don’t have a good reference, you won’t have a job, so it’s important to find credible people who can attest to you being a reliable and trustworthy person. Prove you’re serious and passionate about what you do to these people, and you’ll have plenty of excellent references to take you anywhere.
It Can Fit Around Your Life
Often, people are put off doing degrees and courses because they take up so much time, and just don’t fit into their lives. But with an MBA, you can usually study it part-time, and this offers you flexibility (particularly if you do an online course) which means wherever you’re up to in life, you can study it alongside everything else. If you have a family, you can put them first and study your MBA in your free time. If you have a job on the go, it’s easy to keep a course running alongside. The benefit here isn’t just that it’s flexible to fit around your schedule, but also that you can work at your own pace, without rushing through content and losing track of what’s going on (it’s easy to do!). This way, you can take your time, really get to know the course, and come out of it with skills, knowledge, and ready to do business.
It Looks Really Good
As mentioned before, an MBA is a really good way to make yourself employable. But alongside it being a great way to bring yourself career opportunities, it’s also a great way to prove yourself as reliable. An MBA is a widely acknowledged course, and having a qualification like that to back you up, whether that’s a job application or credentials for your business, is a great sign to anyone interested that you know what you’re talking about, and you are a reliable and trustworthy person to work with. Not only does it show that you’re a good bet if someone is looking for someone to work with or work for them, but it also proves you’re an expert in what you do and can work not only well, but independently, too. With businesses wanting to spend less time and money training employees from the bottom up, having an MBA means they don’t have to worry about teaching you the basics from scratch, and will trust you to not only do your job but make important decisions for the company and help it move forward.
An MBA is also a qualification that is recognised widely not only nationally, but globally. This means that if you’re thinking about working abroad or perhaps working for a company that carries out a lot of corporate travel, you have the flexibility to opt for those if you want to.
You Develop Yourself, Not Just Your Skills
There’s something deeper about studying on a course, and that’s the journey of personal development and growth. People don’t want to just learn how to do things; they want to come out knowing they can do it and that’s it’s part of who they are.
However, it’s also worth remembering that a degree is never easy. You’ll be faced with challenges, difficult times, and plenty of work, and these are the kind of things that really test your character and decide who you really are. Are you going to give up in the face of a challenge, or are you going to strive to face it head on, and work your way through it? Building resilience is a great way to build character and can strengthen you not only for challenges in the business world but for challenges you’re likely to face in life, too.
It also gives you a sense of direction. Many people report feeling lost or confused about their future, but once you take a degree, you’ve not only got a clear direction you want to work in and a goal in mind for you to reach, but you’ve also got the initiative to make it happen and find your place in life. It’s a great opportunity to really test the waters of who you are, as well as build up important traits within yourself, too.
An MBA is one of the most rewarding steps you can take to becoming who you want to be, and with some time and effort, you’ll find it taking you to wherever you want to go.
