Harbus

Paul's insights are reflective of the experiences of many of us with professional educations, and significant experience. Many of us have faced multiple "career" changes and "circumstances" have forced us to return to school to acquire new skills as previous careers disappeared beneath our feet.

Today's college graduates need an education that is rarely provided at our leading and other institutions that increasingly seem to be more interested in "money" than education.

Students today should be provided with a "world class" education with a capital "E" if they are to be prepared to compete in the "global" economy. If we were honest we would acknowledge that this is not the case today.

They need an eduction that prepares them to not only change jobs but careers, not because they want to but because events will force them to make such changes.

They need to do some number crunching to assess the benefits and costs of education as they relate to their "realistic" job prospects over the short and long term. The "privileged" live in a world the rest of us do not live in. The rest of need a different education to prepare us for the "realities" we face.

Students need to recognize that we live in an era in which individuals and knowledge are considered "expenses" and "expendable." A mechanistic top-down model of management prevails in America.

Rare is the experience of students to hear the "truth" about the "world" they are preparing to enter. It is a "secret" it seems.

Paul's experiences are mirrored by millions of others, myself included. Our corporate state is pathological and in many ways clinically sociopathic. Examples abound from Enron and the complicity of prominent institutions, government and academics and the net can be cast far and wide across the breath of this country. This is not "new" to our country, for the "history" is filled with the "stories" of the "carpetbaggers" that have swindled their way to "power."

It is no accident that corporations are outsourcing high tech jobs and research, while laying off our own people. I work in a major multinational and observe daily the coming and going of "contractors" from abroad, while increasing numbers of Americans are "disappearing."

Are our bright young people told about this "reality" and the impacts this "reality" will have on them, their families and careers?

Are they told that in many instances professionals with 20 years experience often find themselves discarded for "younger" people and are forced out to "save money?"

Are they told about the divorce rate among managers, or the health consequences of working inordinant hours, let alone the impact of downsizing, outsizing, and offshoring on careers, family etc?

Are they told about the consequences of confusing the unimportant with the important on mind, body, and spirit?

Are they told about the consequences of violating fundamental ethical, moral, and legal values and principles?

An old friend of mine who was graduate of a major university found himself compelled to start a newsletter for alumns to try to "awaken" them to the consequences of a career out of balance. His awakening came in the course of learning that his wife was dying of terminal cancer and with only a year to live.

He was a prominant executive with a major multi-national corporation and had given "all" to the company. He had little or no time for his family, his children had grown and moved away, and he had limited contact with them because he was to "busy" attending to business. He was a company "man" and served with all his energy the corporation.

Need we continue to be as hamsters on a treadmill, or can we create alternative futures based on higher principles than is served up to us by the educational and corporate establishment?

Our lives are far to precious to squander, let us consider carefuly Paul's words and experiences lest we find ourselves traversing in his foot steps and perpetuating that which should never be. We are capable of so much more than is being realized. Let us strive to unleash the full potential of each and every human being regardless of the "color" of their blood.

As a prospective student, I applaud the Harbus paper for publishing this article. It is realistic and helpful in examining the value proposition of a $160k MBA investment.

I have seen ppl with HBS/GSB/etc. degrees not find jobs in the 2001-2003 downturn and I see my parent's generation constantly job-hopping until they inevitably must 'do their own thing' whether they truly want to or not.

That said, wouldn't the flexibility and network of a top MBA program help one throughout his career? True, the pedigreed wealthy might not be helpful but what about the rest of the alumni network?? I'd love to hear the school's response, canned or not.

Paul obviously had some serious misconceptions about the nature of an MBA. No degree, no matter where you attend, is the end game. It is simply a step in the ladder. An internal locus of control is far more important than a degree. The degree only has value if it changes who you are, how hard you are willing to work, and how quickly you learn. I agree with him, though, that the Harvard MBA is probably not worth the premium price.

"A glass half empty" an MBA would say.
There is another side to it - "half full". Say, I would pay this money, 160k, that is a more than my annual income,
1) to meet the people from the powerful families and the brilliant guys- the future CEOs, to be inspired by them
2) to get a high-quality education and be taught by famous professors
3) to have an MBA experience, which is also fun apart from studies
4) to adorn my CV for my whole life (if I would be Ivy League undergrad with a top-notch career instead of Chucuyumba undergrad, I probably would think longer before doing HBS MBA jeje)
5) to have a possibility, a chance that otherwise a person from nowhere does not have, to enter on an MBA position in a prestigious company (and I don't know how it was in 1977, but now everybody knows what is MBA position, basically the prestigious employers have these positions very structured and well-paid)
6) if 5) does not happen, to go to the developing countries (exciting!) and be there a boss in a corner office (even if it is a small office, and consists only of a corner), with a career growth perspectives exceeding those of the country you are in

I have an BS and MS degree in engineering from two top 5 engineering universities. I seriously considered pursuing an MBA, in fact I applied and was admitted with partial scholarships to two top 5 programs and with a full scholarship top 20 program. Ultimately, after a considerable amount of soul searching and research I decided not to pursue the MBA because the value proposition didn't make sense for me and my family (this was assuming I would be able to get a 200K finance job after graduation - which probably isnt a good assumption for 2010 grads).

What I found troubling was how many of my fellow prospective applicants were so sure that pursuing an MBA was the right thing to do no matter how much debt they would need to acquire to achieve it.

When working at any plant or factory, you will receive such crass behavior from others. Take it from someone who worked in various factories throughout college.

Of course your MBA was useless. If you planned to go into a career that required "hands-on" skills you should have gotten an engineering degree. This article is out of touch with the reality that most Harvard MBAs face. While some applaud Harbus for publishing it, I sense a big snicker across the face of the editors as they decided to publish it. 99% of Harvard MBAs would not "settle" for these types of jobs post-MBA. No matter what the economy were like, they would pound the pavement until they found something they desired. For every story like this, there are hundreds of others who were extended interviews for top jobs because of the brand on their resume. IT is not a traditional industry for MBAs. While the skills acquired in an MBA are transferable anywhere, it sounds like you are just bitter that you made poor choices and you are looking for someone to blame.

Contrary to what Greg from Silicon Valley has said, in the 1979 timeframe, when my class graduated from HBS, many MBAs seeking careers found that they could have any function they wanted as long as it was systems (later called IT). Those familiar with the job market at the time can verify this.

This is the real untold story! same stories, I also heard from some other top5 mba grads. MBA depends heavily on the market. These years, the IB and the financial bubble pushed the value of MBA up. But how about 2 years later?