Kawari

Operations Manager

MBA worth the cost?

I have been in sales since I got out of college and in corporate sales for the past 5 years. My company has always done things differently so after 33 years they finally introduced quotas and KPIs. I feel like my experience is worthless because my company didn’t run to standard in America. I’m interested in leaving but I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep up without more formal education.

I write all this to ask, is an MBA worth the time and investment? I’m about to pay off my student loans so I’m afraid of going back into debt but if I can pull 2-3x what I’m making now then it’s a good investment. So should I look into school again or go to the university of YouTube?

🧠 Advice

21 comment

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

That's totally up to you. If you feel it's worth something, then go for it. ❤🦊

SaaSam

Politicker

Account Executive

it's been my position for over a year now that the only degrees worth more than the paper they are printed on are doctorates and not even all of those make the list.

Kawari

Contributor

Operations Manager

That’s why I’m so hesitant. It’s not just money, it’s time and sanity

SaaSam

Politicker

Account Executive

The only things you can't be without a degree are essentially Doctor or Lawyer. Everything else is all fluff and you're likely going to find more value in courses outside of school and what you can learn by simply just getting your hands dirty. Of all of the successful people I know personally that aren't doctors or lawyers, only one went to school.

Fenderbaum

Politicker

Retired Choirboy🪕

My sanity has always been more important than extra money.

cashmachine

Politicker

AE (Account Executive)

this guy gets it. college is a fucking waste, ESPECIALLY for business (biz = sales). you can’t teach that shit from a textbook, it changes every single day. you’ll learn so much more just showing up every day & putting in the reps.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I debated this for years. In some places (like the military and government jobs), you just need to check the box that you have an advanced degree (literally). Other places don't care about your MBA unless its from a specific school or category of schools (Ivy League, Top 50, etc.)

The ROI also gets fuzzy. Lets say you are making $100k/yr now (to make the math easy). The MBA boosts your pay 25% - thats $125k/yr. You lose $200k in a full time program + another $100k in school and living expenses. $300k is a tough ROI to deal with.

Now if you can make 2x/3x more - $200k or $300k/yr (or a lot more), sure that's a good investment in your time.

Also if you're happy as a IC sales person, an MBA won't help you. Even in most management positions, it won't help you (it may even hurt you). You need it for other functional areas of a company.

I took a serious look at a couple top 50 schools (which are the only ones worth the time/effort) and finally decided it wasn't worth the sacrifice for me personally.

DevSomeBiz

Valued Contributor

Senior B2B Sales Guy.

All depends on your goals. An MBA is great if you want to get into management, but doesn't do much for an individual contributor. It carries more water in a large corporate setting. A lot also depends on where you are in the world. US companies might care, LATAM companies probably won't, Indian companies will definitely care.

Kawari

Contributor

Operations Manager

I’m in the suburbs of NYC and I’m really stuck with what I want to do next. All I know is I want to get paid my worth.

DevSomeBiz

Valued Contributor

Senior B2B Sales Guy.

Then get a job with a good commission structure and get to work. You get paid when you sell. If you don't sell, you aren't worth paying. If you want to get paid for your education, then go be a teacher.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Are you wanting to be an IC with a good comp plan and solid OTE? If so, you won't need the MBA, you'll just need better compensation. Assuming you have a college degree, you need to get paid on that already.
What are you interested in doing next?

Kawari

Contributor

Operations Manager

I like sales support and what I do now I support the AE team and I’m an added value that is used to close business. So I support on the backend and maybe 20% of the time I’m on sales calls helping to negotiate and sway the customer. I like that level of customer interaction and the solid pay. My AEs have no life outside work and I can’t live to sell.
I am learning that my company is missing a lot of layers of support that are in other companies (prepping for IPO in a few years so we have consultants and outside hires fixing us up) So I’m learning about all the typical options I wasn’t aware of. I feel like I know nothing because we have been so insular until now.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Sounds like an overlay role that can be fairly common in some companies. Others call them specialists - the AEs carry a full bag, but need some support on specific solutions where the specialist can go deeper. OR you are support on things like managing the contracting, NDAs, scheduling and some demos. Sometimes that is called Sales Coordinator in smaller tech companies.

Your role is valuable in your company; they'd miss you terribly when you go - but you have translatable skills. If you are closing and/or comfortable being in front of a customer, you might look at CSM or AM roles that are supportive of a customer and problem solving that way. Travel tends to be much less and the hours aren't as crazy as most AEs.

Kawari

Contributor

Operations Manager

Thank you! I’ve brought up my concerns to my manager and she is trying to remedy my compensation but those above her aren’t listening to her. I will look for those positions now that I know the names thank you so much!

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

I haven’t really seen much come of it unless you are looking for higher management roles.

ADK

Opinionated

VC Associate

I think purely for a sales job, you probably don't need an MBA but if you want to get into a corporate setting and Strategy/Business Planning type of roles then it'd be a plus indeed. One more thing that you need to consider about having an MBA and for me the most important reason why - is to build a network! I would look for programs that have a very solid MBA alumni network and people actually do something to use that network

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Are you looking to get out of sales? You might need one for a drastic career shift but won’t know with out the details

SalesMama

Executive

Senior Account Executive

As with many others here, I would ask… why do you want it?? If it’s just for comp, I would suggest you start interviewing, tell employers you’re looking for the OTE you want, and keep at it until you find the right fit. If you want a diff path (I.e. product) then go to school

mastersfan

Opinionated

Account Executive

I'm applying for grad school. Can't seem to get the attention of any org despite a 17 year track record of success and leadership

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

If you don't plan on becoming a VP at a (larger) company then it's probably not worth it.

As an IC, it's what you contribute. E

ChumpChange

Politicker

Channel Manager

For what it's worth, I've worked at a big corp and a start-up and I haven't needed an MBA for any of my career success. I typically see an MBA only being attractive during the hiring process at a new company. Not so much as an internal hire.

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Kawari

MBA worth the cost?

21 comment

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