Make your part-time MBA work for you
|
Have you currently
graduated from a part-time MBA program? Do you find it difficult to capitalize
on your MBA? Well…...you are not alone. Recently, one of my colleague, who has
finished her part-time MBA, asked me similar questions. Though she has finished
her part-time MBA, she was not recognizing any benefits from it. While I don’t
have magical solution to make your MBA work, I have few suggestions which can
help you.
Communicate with your manager:
If you are like me, and if
you are also working on your MBA while working full-time, then you should
communicate your intentions to your manager before you even think of starting
the program.
Some of you might be
hesitant to share this knowledge with your manager, since you might be afraid
to see the reaction from your manager. While some managers will see this
communication as an effort from your side to change your existing job, 90% of
the manager see this as a potential growth opportunity for their employees.
What can happen here?
Either your manager will be impressed by your initiative of pursuing further
education to help towards your job, or he will just neglect your entire
conversation. Well……you don’t have anything to loose here. But if you don’t
have this conversation with your Boss, then you have everything to lose.
I remembered, when I had
this conversation with my boss…..he was not only impressed by my decision to
improve my knowledge, but he also took the initiative to find out more
information regarding the tuition reimbursement program in my company. As a
result, I ended up paying only 30% of my total tuition cost for the entire
program.
Implement your learning at
work:
Most of the people who
pursue their part-time MBA want to get a head in their existing job, so that
they can get promoted to the next level. Though the idea behind this thought
process is very nice, they lose their focus in middle of the program.
I have seen numerous MBA
students, who get busy in their day-to-day coursework that they forget to
implement their learning at their workplace. Thus, at the end of their MBA
program, they have this knowledge which they can’t apply to their existing job,
and hence think of changing their job instead of growing within the same
company.
By implementing your
learning at your current workplace, you will not only practice your knowledge
and get better at it, you will also increase your visibility within your peers.
Imagine, if you are working in Software Company as a software developer and
going for your MBA in finance. Though these two subjects are completely
different, you can still use your finance knowledge to assess the business
impact of your new project. Wouldn’t you look more prepared when you are presenting
your next development idea to your VP, and providing him with all the stats on
how this project will help the organization to succeed?
Thus, you should always try
to find opportunities where you can practice your MBA learning at your work
place.
I hope these examples were
helpful to uncover the full potential of your part-time MBA program. In the
meanwhile, if you have any other ideas through which you can make your
part-time MBA work for you, then please feel free to share those here.
Thanks. – Bhavin Gandhi.
Bhavin Gandhi | August 8, 2012 at 8:44 AM | Tags: 21st century, Action Plan, Full-time MBA, Leaders of Tomorrow, Leadership, Manager Training, Market yourself, New hire, Online MBA, Part-time MBA,Performance Improvement, Performance Management, Self improve, Self improvement, Self leadership,Self learning, Self-initiative, Sell yourself | Categories: 21st Century, Leadership, Management | URL:http://wp.me/p103Cm-87
I have seen many companies investing their millions of dollars in hiring experienced professionals for their company. Though I understand the need for hiring experienced professionals, I think that companies should invest more dollars in hiring fresh graduates. For example: if you already have few senior engineers in your team, you should not look for more senior engineers. You should instead think of hiring fresh talents. Following are few reasons, why I would hire fresh graduates over experienced professionals.