A: I have discussed the subject of college degrees briefly in the past. This column will focus on MBAs and their impact on a job search.
I want to start with a couple stories. A number of years back, I had a Fortune 50 client that I did a good amount of work for. They were very big on MBAs, especially at the more senior levels. One time I was doing a search for a director of product marketing. (This was a senior director type position with a lot of responsibility, including a large revenue stream for their set of products.) I identified an exceptional candidate who came recommended from a number of sources. He interviewed with two divisional presidents and a number of VPs. They all loved this gentleman, both for his experience and his abilities. The only issue was that he did not have an MBA. He also did not have an undergraduate degree. In the end, though, they hired him anyway. At the same company, another senior hiring authority in sales asked me to find a sales director with an MBA. In sales, most would think an MBA isn’t really that critical; you would just want someone with a proven track record. But there was no bending.
The bottom line is that it’s all a bit of a crapshoot.
Briefly, let me review the creation of a job description. Most good job descriptions will have a list of desired experience and skills. Many times this list would require two to three people to fill it. Generally, though, the list can be boiled down to three to five must-haves. In other words, don’t bother applying if you don’t have these certain credentials. A good recruiter will be searching off this shortened list.
Now let’s review the MBA scenario from three perspectives.
Recruiter: As I mentioned, a good recruiter will have reduced the aforementioned list to three to five must-haves. A recruiter typically is not going to make exceptions to this list. First of all, they know their client well enough to understand what will and won’t be acceptable. So they have already tweaked the list to incorporate that. Secondly, the company might make an exception if they were hiring directly, but they are paying the recruiter thousands to find a pretty close match to what they want. That, after all, is the recruiter’s job. So if a recruiter has an MBA as one of the requirement, then that is what they want.
Hiring Manager: This is the person with the most pain, hopefully. Typically, they are already “bleeding” and need to fill the position. Someone has left after just two weeks notice, so they have not had a chance to prepare. Most of the time, if they see a great candidate that fits everything else, they are not going to be burdened by the MBA requirement. After all, it’s typically their own self-created requirement anyway (see my example above). Now, there will be a few hiring managers to whom the MBA is more important than anything else, by far. These people are, in my opinion, being very myopic.
So where does this leave you? It just confirms what you have already heard from the knowledgeable sources. You need to get in front of the hiring manager. That is your best bet, and the hiring manager, again, is the one with the pain.
Of course, this is obviously not all black and white and can be impacted by different things such as the following:
- Labor supply. The greater the supply, the tighter the requirements can be.
- Pay. An MBA will typically get a few more $$. If the pay is on the lower end of the range, it is going to be harder for them to get an MBA.
- MBA school. There are 10-20 top MBA programs, such as Wharton, U of M, U of Chicago, Kellogg, etc., that sometimes make hiring authorities go gaga. Nothing else matters except that the candidate has that credential. All other MBAs are pretty much equal in value.
- Two or more equally outstanding candidates. Many times an MBA can be a tiebreaker.
- The myopic view of a hiring authority. Covered above.
- Size of company. The smaller they are, typically, the less interested they are in MBAs.
I want to close by saying that I have no desire to demean or discount MBAs or other graduate degrees. I think it is great that people have pursued them and have them. But there are many that don’t, and I just do not want that to be a discouragement to them.
Here’s Wishing You Terrific Hunting,
Bill
About the Author
Bill Gaffney has 17 years of experience as an executive recruiter and career coach. Bill can be reached at 937-567-5267 or wmgaffney@prodigy.net. He doesn’t have an MBA but seems to do alright. For questions to be considered for this column, please email askamaxa@yahoo.com.
