by Dustin Levy » Tue Dec 29, 2015 10:31 am
In my case, I got an MBA, which my first employer paid for, after about 18 months of industry experience. As a general rule, I think you should take advantage of every financial benefit your employer will offer you. Just as any financial planner will tell you to maximize the employer contribution to your retirement account, you’re leaving money on the table if you don’t at least consider having your employer fund your business degree.
As D.X. indicated, you will owe them a period of employment after you get the degree, in my case 12 months. That’s a very fair exchange in my view. I would hesitate to commit more than 2 years.
Some additional advice I got from some business executives – either get your MBA from a top-tier school (Ivy League, Sloan, Stanford, etc.) or get it from wherever is the most convenient for you. In the case where you’ve already got a Ph.D., you’re academic record is already strong, so it’s fair to take the easy route. In my case, I entered a blended program where about 2/3 of the courses were online. Many reputable colleges and universities, though not in the top-tier, will offer these types of convenient programs and they will be easy compared to what you went through to get your Ph.D.
The greatest benefit I saw from an MBA was being able to understand and communicate business language. Compared to my peers, I became better equipped to translate technical information to business leaders, which helped get me and my teams the resources they needed to complete their work. My MBA didn’t get me a promotion, but my ability to better influence my leaders made me and my teams better, which ultimately led to promotions for myself and others around me.