MBA questions and my progress

I hope you are having a good holiday break. As promised in last month's post, I'm writing this post on why one may want to pursue a mid-career MBA and steps to hopefully make it easy.

Why? -?

• You want to learn/enhance or just refresh how managers run large business units, from sales and marketing to finance, strategy to deliver results, etc.?
• You want to be better, learned professional manager.
• You want to run large teams or take on general management roles and responsibilities.?
• You want to build a more robust and supportive network for the next career phase.?
• You are curious to learn about other industries' problems and how they solve them.
• Or you just want to do it for the education and knowledge side of it

ROI-

MBA is expensive! Most quality schools will charge tuition over $120K. Add supplies, travel, etc., and you are talking big money.

While it's hard to quantify the ROI initially, the data suggests most EMBA students from good schools see a decent salary increment within six months to 3 years post-MBA (average EMBA graduate salary by top business schools). I can write a post in 2026 if I see financial gains :-). The ROI on personal growth and knowledge is inevitable, which in many cases will translate into $s

Balancing -?

If you choose to do an MBA while working, based on my experience thus far, it's hard and will take a lot of your time, resulting in significantly less family time and almost no social time with friends. You can plan well on setting expectations, most notably with yourself. Most of us know by now that we can't do everything so minimizing the Wishlist of things you want to do during the two years of an MBA will serve you better. I recommend doing the pre-work most universities provide to prepare for classroom rigor.

Finally, how to get started,

Choose School

Once you decide you want to pursue your MBA, many things need to be clarified. Choosing a school helps reduce confusion but creates another one, how to select a school. I chose SMU from my list (Michigan, Virginia, Berkley, UT, and SMU) because?

• I visited live classes and attended university events and was very impressed.?
• I live in Dallas, and SMU has a strong network in the DFW metroplex. It also allows me to take part in university events when I can. Class travel to another city can significantly increase the cost and stress.?
• LinkedIn helped immensely to connect to Alumni of other schools and learn about the program.?
• Our then CIO ( Renee Galitis ) was very kind to review the program. Her positive feedback made the choice very easy.

Take the test, look for financing options, prepare essays, recommendations & apply.

Once you have a list of schools down, do the following:

• If your school needs EA, do that first. Most schools have EA/GMAT waivers these days.
• See scholarship options.
• Prepare your essays. Essays will need data, so start early.
• Do a class visit if you can.
• Find your recommenders and talk to them about your reasons for doing an MBA. Be sure your recommenders know your work. The better they know about your work, the better recommendation they can write. Your recommenders are your ambassadors.
• If your score is within the school's acceptance range and you spent time on your Essays, your chances of getting an interview invitation from most of the schools you applied to will be very high.??

Doing an MBA while working full-time is extremely hard. Applying to schools may seem like much work, but "Nothing worthwhile is ever easy."?

As you progress, you will see many people help you achieve your goal. Your family, friends, study group, team, co-workers, and leaders at work will help you succeed and achieve your learning goal. The experience you will gain is hugely rewarding, and you will have a lifetime network of people helping you succeed.

If you plan to pursue an MBA and I can help you, please don't hesitate to reach out. Enjoy your Holiday break and Happy New Year 2023!

My Progress - I completed my first fall semester and was glad to be done. In four months between Aug and December, I spent 30 hours writing exams. Testing is the hardest part, but I did well. The one-week break before starting the prep work for the spring semester seemed like a short weekend, but I utilized it well.

• Gaurik had lot of fun in his first bowling experience

• Wore my first ugly shirt at work :-)

I will keep you posted on how the spring semester goes, I'm ready to dive into Business Finance, Marketing and Business Models with my books, the study material, FactSet account and my TI calculator.

Side note, yes Calculators are still used. If you are surprised, you are not alone.