Why you probably don't need an MBA
A few years ago, I dropped out of a decent but not top level MBA program after a quarter.<p>Putting together my own + my classmates + my college friends at top 5 programs, my takeaway is that the 3 <i>main</i> reasons to enroll in one are (1) to switch industries (or roles within an industry), (2) to take time off without leaving a hole in your resume (matters a lot in nontechnical fields), and (3) gain a particular network that you lack (ex: Wharton for finance, Stanford for SV, etc.). These reasons may sound trivial but for the right kind of person, the program can be a decent~good trade for their time and money opportunity cost.<p>The &quot;move up the corporate chain&quot; thing used to be more true (ex: you <i>need</i> to have a MBA to move up past a certain rung in the org chart) but is increasingly less so today. These days, if you&#x27;re good, you&#x27;re good. A noteworthy might be the &quot;in-between&quot; phase after the 2 year consulting or finance analyst program, but a large fraction of this cohort fits into (1) above.<p>The &quot;learning&quot; is nonzero but seems underwhelming and not anywhere near worth the funds you need to put up. Frankly if you know what you want to be doing in the future, imo you&#x27;ll learn more by actually spending those 2 years actually working and doing those things (which was my main reason for dropping out). It may make more sense if you&#x27;re a pretty bright person who doesn&#x27;t really know what you want to do in the future but you do know that it isn&#x27;t what you&#x27;re doing <i>now</i> (ex: my journalist friends who saw the industry as a dead end).<p>edit: Also it&#x27;s unwise to bucket all programs as &quot;MBAs&quot; since each one can be surprisingly different in what they offer in terms of concrete benefits.<p>edit2: For young professionals without a strong signaling institution thus far in their academic and professional careers, an MBA may be one of the more feasible options to get a mulligan in this regard. Say what you will about paying up for a signal, but it can pay off depending on the role and industry you&#x27;re going for.