Reply to: Mba

[Tensai]

anyone got one?

Yes

is it worth having?

Hmmmm.... a little. It will get you interviews you might not otherwise be offered. But I personally think you could get enough general knowledge about business on a (say) 4-week compressed course. That would be enough to get you through those tricky conversations with "the business."

Just my 2p.

[scooby]

I must say, I agree with you there !!

was prince, six sigma, itil, iso9001 and other terminology you mentioned around in the mid 90s?

[Cyberman]

I would like to do one but the cost and time has put me off.

However, Working with a chap who is going to be the administrator of a compliance system to control documents, Corrective action planning, Change Control, Incident and Near Miss reporting for Health and Safety amongst other things. This guy has been a Cobol developer for a s/w house for 14ys working on SOP s/w and took 2 yrs out to do a Business MBA in the mid 90's.

He was made redundant before Xmas and this was the first job he went for.


However he has never heard of:

• Document Management Systems or the process for authorising documents in a formal environment.
• Change control procedures
• Prince or any other project management methodologies
• Itil
• Six Sigma or Lean
• Corrective Action and Preventative Action Planning
• Did not know why I was identifying documents as Polices, Procedures, forms etc (surely they are all the same he questioned?)
• Did not know what ISO9001 was for

Ok, you may not need to know all this stuff but I thought it would be covered a Business MBA?

All I can say if he passed – then I should be able to do so to.

I must say, I agree with you there !!

[scooby]

Only thing I would say is cost-benefit analysis. Unless you do it as you did part-time when working or you are sure that get a very high paid job afterwards (meaning the company has paid it for you) or else you'll never cover your investment, unless you are less than 30 and you got many more chances of going up the career ladder.

I plan to do part time, am 31, on fair crap rate and if I get £50 a day more due to this, it pays itself!!

Plus my academic record is tulip!

[PM-Junkie]

Only thing I would say is cost-benefit analysis. Unless you do it as you did part-time when working or you are sure that get a very high paid job afterwards (meaning the company has paid it for you) or else you'll never cover your investment, unless you are less than 30 and you got many more chances of going up the career ladder.

Very true - but there are also intangible benefits to doing these things too, which you may not pick up on until you've completed it. Hence me sticking my oar in

[Francko]

Other people have other reasons for doing an MBA, but that was mine.

Only thing I would say is cost-benefit analysis. Unless you do it as you did part-time when working or you are sure that get a very high paid job afterwards (meaning the company has paid it for you) or else you'll never cover your investment, unless you are less than 30 and you got many more chances of going up the career ladder.

[Francko]

Having a PhD hasn't stopped you giving stupid answers to perfectly straightforward questions then? If you have nothing to contribute, why bother answering?

Or is it just a boast?

I thought that that was exactly the skill you acquire with any PhD. Never give a meaningful answer to any question, no matter how simple the question is.

[scooby]

Perhaps GSCE spelling and grammar might improve your prospects?

I could bite, but can be fussed!

[TykeMerc]

I already have a Masters, but have been considering an MBA myself, there's a lot I could learn from the courses.

At my last gig a guy at a neighbouring desk had an MBA and he knew his stuff, I admit he put the idea into my head back then.

[PM-Junkie]

I've a PhD. Why would I want a masters?

Having a PhD hasn't stopped you giving stupid answers to perfectly straightforward questions then? If you have nothing to contribute, why bother answering?

Or is it just a boast?

[NotAllThere]

anyone got one? is it worth having?

I've a PhD. Why would I want a masters?

[Platypus]

I'm PM too. has it helped you're career (altho being a contractor, we dont have careers!) or rate?

Perhaps GSCE spelling and grammar might improve your prospects?

[PM-Junkie]

hmmm, will keep that in mind as i've been looking at doing an mba at cranfield, they have an exec mba that you can do over 2 years part time.

HMRC won't disallow the expence as a legitimate business cost provided you can demonstrate that it's it not a "refresher course" or one that is "honing your skills" (quotes from HMRC).

Precedent was set in the case against Dass where the key quote from HMRC was "we find it difficult to imagine circumstances likely to occur in practice where the benefit which the employer obtains can be viewed as an identifiable capital asset. Such factors as the pace of technological and commercial change and an employee's right to resign and seek work elsewhere militate against such a view." . They were, in effect, saying he was turned down because he was self employed - if he had been trading as a limited company they wouldn't have done so.

So in my case I didn't claim for the modules of the course I already knew about (stats and project management would have left me on very thin ice), but claimed for the rest with no problems at all.

[norrahe]

You can claim the elements of it that are an integral part of what the company does. One of the joys of doing a segmented MBA

hmmm, will keep that in mind as i've been looking at doing an mba at cranfield, they have an exec mba that you can do over 2 years part time.

[PM-Junkie]

according to good old hmrc, you can't claim for an mba as a business cost

You can claim the elements of it that are an integral part of what the company does. One of the joys of doing a segmented MBA