30 Signs It's Time to Go to Business School

by Knewton, Jul 31, 2011

These days it can be tough to know what you should do with your life! If you're seeing more than a few of these signs, you and an MBA are probably meant to be...

1. You want to be ridiculously good at what you do. And if that involves understanding finance, accounting, economics, statistics, and marketing on a rigorous academic level, so be it.

2. When you visualize your ideal life, it includes a "study cohort" - a tight group of colleagues who share their diverse perspectives with each other and support each other professionally.

3. Every time you see the leaves turn color, you get an agitated feeling that makes you want to hit the books again.

4. Lately you've been thinking about how much further you could go if you just knew a bit more.

5. You have an awesome liberal arts degree, but considering what you want to do with your life now, you feel like you missed out on some basic training along the way.

6. A visit to the MBA Gym really gets you going...

7. Wasn't always the case, but your idea of a busy afternoon at work these days is studying former classmates' LinkedIn profiles.

8. Whenever you go to any sort of meetup, panel or presentation, you find yourself jotting down notes, asking questions, and engaging in debate. You love a collaborative "classroom" environment.

9. You've already done a lot of trial and error and... err.... "character building through hands-on mistakes."

10. Getting an MBA first occurred to you in college. Over the years, you"ve been seduced by other ideas--an M.A, a Ph.D, a J.D, not getting another degree. But your MBA visions aren't going away. They're not just a passing fancy... No matter what happens, you find that you still want it.

11. You tried the entrepreneurship thing without the MBA. Didn't work because you're missing some skills and perspective and a few connections.

12. You love to be around other MBAs. You're basically in b-school anyway, considering the amount of time you spend hanging out with your friends who are in MBA programs.

13. You have this feeling that if you could just be in the same place at the same time with a bunch of other driven, talented people, together you would accomplish great things.

14. You applied to b-school last year, got rejected, and the day after, woke up with a desire to improve your application and reapply.

15. You want to push yourself mentally, socially, and professionally... and all at once.

16. Whenever you read MBA bashes (like this one), it just makes you want the degree even more...

17. You have an irrepressible need to shake up your life.

18. You have a creative job, but you're interested in the business side of what you do... if only, you think, there were a way to get a job somewhere in the intersection between art & commerce...

19. When you watch the bschool "Follies" videos below, they bring back warm, fuzzy memories of college a capella, winter carnival, culture night, and other extravaganzas... You love community involvement; and there hasn't been enough of it in your life since you started working 9 to 9 and pissing away your twenties.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ESGeeXC7Lc[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXSNkPxVzjM[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNv2xIrfh88[/youtube]

20. You hardly think of an education as a financial "investment." It's more like an experience that becomes a part of your intellectual DNA. In other words: priceless.

21. You have a lot to say about yourself, your ideas and your dreams--so much that you don't even think it would be much trouble to write those application essays...

22. 150k seems like a small price to pay for a world-class education, a career springboard, a transformational social experience, and a lifelong network of friends and potential business partners.

23. As Sheryl Sandberg advised, you plan to keep your foot on the gas pedal.

24. Screw "going with the flow." You'd rather pursue your dreams aggressively than take some meandering path.

25. You envision your life without the MBA, and it somehow seems a good deal emptier, all financial considerations aside.26. You just have this feeling you're going to meet "the one" there.

27. So an MBA isn't a business "finishing" school, but needless to say, you're interested in the "soft" stuff as well... poise, leadership, and teamwork.

28. You want to get a more global business perspective, and you think you can accomplish that by studying abroad for a semester or so.

29. You've studied the course catalog at your dream schools, and you already know what you plan to take and with which profs.

30. The idea of being 40 and stuck in a stale, dead-end career is a nightmare to you. You're thinking an MBA will help you keep your foot on the gas pedal for much longer - you'd hardly feel like yourself if you weren't progressing or reinventing yourself constantly.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL-lEACWn_I[/youtube]