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Will an MBA get me what I want (for a career changer?)

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Will an MBA get me what I want (for a career changer?)

by semidevil » Thu Mar 21, 2013 9:37 pm
I'm 30 years old and I have been working in the insurance industry for about 8 years now. I have a B.A in math. My GPA back in 2005 was about a 2.6 My current role is more on the customer service, claims side. My highest position is as a supervisor, managing about 6 to 8 people.

I'm currently taking the year off abroad right now seeking new opportunities and I have a lot of times on my hand right now thinking how I want to pursue my development for the rest of my life, once I go back to the U.S

I have always wondered about getting out of the industry, and imagining myself taking on a higher paying, higher level, more relevant position. More importantly, I want to have a technical 'skill.' Now that I am abroad, I realize that my skills aren't as nearly as marketable. Sure, I have a B.A in math, but I dont use my mathematics skills. I have 8 years of business experience, and am in a leadership role, and have had my hands on in projects, people development, but these are soft skills that's not as highly regarded where I am and not as easily transferable to another company for a higher level role. My exposure hasn't been great enough, so my only choice to be mobile is move up internally, or have a strong network connection to give me a chance.

So now it comes to my options: I did try the GMAT once a 3 or 4 years ago, and scored a miserable 450. I believe that if I do it again, there will be new focus and I might score better. I dont quite know what industry I want to be in yet, but I want to step away from the front lines and do more of the backend, strategy, management, projects etc etc. I see myself better looking at data and spreadsheets, than people. I have done it and I know it is not my top strength.

Also, I want to specialize in an area. Maybe having an MBA will get me in the door easily, but I also want to specialize in something, rather than just being a generalist. I want to look towards the quant, statistics, or numbers side as that is my personal interest.

I did think about the actuarial profession, and I'm still considering it, but the exams are a bit grueling and can last 4 to 7 years so I'm weighing that in as a factor too. Also, as I understand, on the actuarial profession, i'm competing for entry level jobs with recent grads who have internships, and I'm truly starting from the bottom, as where an MBA, I'm not looking at entry level jobs.

So here is what I want:
I want a career change but not quite start from the bottom and compete with recent undergrads
I want to gain a new technical skill (quant based)
I'll still work fulltime once I get back to the states, so it'll need to be an evening or weekend program.
I'm also assuming my age is not a factor too right?

So with what I want, will an evening MBA give me what I want?
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by essaysnark » Fri Mar 22, 2013 8:04 am
Hi semidevil!

We're a little jealous about your year of traveling - nice job in pulling that off!

Your questions about what the MBA will do for you are good, and it's awesome to see that you're putting so much thought into this in advance.

It's sometimes more difficult to do a career change through a part-time program, just because the resources aren't always there for recruiting etc (some schools limit those mostly for their F/T students) and also just based on the realities of time: if you're working a day job, plus doing classes on the side, it can be tough to also do all the networking and outreach and whatever is needed to orchestrate a big change in career.

While it sounds like you've got some ideas on what you want to do - working with spreadsheets and numbers, instead of people - you will probably benefit from doing more research on what, exactly, you would be targeting as a post-MBA career. The things you listed out are actually very different from each other - "backend" is totally opposite from "strategy" - and they're also a little vague ("management" isn't really a career goal). The process of going through the MBA program offers a lot of insight into these different paths so you wouldn't have to have it totally nailed down in advance, but if you are more sure of what type of careers, exactly, that you're interested in, it can be much (much!!) easier to say whether or not an MBA in general, or a specific evening MBA at a specific school, can help you. (Meaning, all the schools are different and the answer could change somewhat based on which program you're considering.)

The bottom-line answer though is YES, an MBA - even a part-time program - can facilitate a career transition such as you're envisioning.

You've come to the right place to get started - there's so many resources here - good luck with your project of researching and reflecting, this stuff can be fun! And enjoy yourself on the travels too!!

EssaySnark
EssaySnark has MBA application guides for HBS, Stanford, Booth, Wharton, NYU and pretty much any other school you can name - including a fully revised and expanded 2015 Columbia essay guide!
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by campbellronald7 » Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:12 pm
Yes a part time MBA program will help you out with your career as you already having the skills like managing the people.
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by Michael@VeritasPrep » Sat Nov 14, 2015 5:31 pm
Many students attend business school simply for a career change so you won't be alone. Typically you will not start at the same point as recent undergraduate hires. You'll come in with a lot more experience and education than they will have. So don't worry too much about that. Good luck to you in your pursuit of business school!
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