In today's corporate world, how important is an MBA?

A 'Masters in Business Administration' is nothing without competence in empathy for human relationships. They don't teach that in school.

Depends on the country you are from and the company you work for while earning it.

In Japan it is just a sheet of expensive paper unless you are connected already and work for a top tier company that is paying for it and has you on a track of high level management already.

In the US the market is over saturated with MBA holders that it comes down to are you going service, finance, production, or retail market. It is useless for retail and service they see it as over qualified. Then what university you got it at. Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Berkeley, UCLA will hold much more credibility than the gazillion public and state universities.

According to colleges everywhere, the answer is a resounding yes.

Next time a college wants to sell you on their program, though, ask them about the return on investment (ROI) ratio for their program; and whether graduates surveyed after graduation have rated their experience as a smart investment for the money. Ask to see their surveys.

If you are not satisfied, consider, instead, perhaps a Master of Finance degree. Or a Master's degree in Economics. Or maybe a certificate program such as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program or a Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certificate.

Been there, done that.

I know an electrician with an MBA. Very wealthy but never uses the degree.

Not much

Want to be middle management? An MBA is a fast track to that. Want anything more? It’s more likely a graveyard.

An MBA teaches one how to think like everyone else, or at least how the self-professed experts think everyone should think. It’s training that more often boxes people in than opens doors to top opportunities.

Curious about getting an MBA now. So, a question for two, ..well, actually one poster:

“One decided to be a doctor, another a pilate…”

As in Pontius, Qantas, or the Caribbean?

My experience is it is about as useful as a chocolate teapot, come to think of it you can at least eat a chocolate teapot!

A good MBA can provide someone with a variety of skills that can applied to almost any field of life, including being an electrician.

At Japanese companies, the value is essentially zero. They want to hire at the undergraduate level and develop from within.

At western companies, there's value, but probably only if you graduated from the very top schools with a high GPA with a lot of financial or data-based acumen. In that sense, it's not really different from a law or engineering school. A lot of "soft" skills at a mid-ranking school (or below) won't get you anywhere in particular.

An MBA is good as foundational knowledge of how things are “supposed” to work or how they used to be.

it’s just a beginning of knowledge/experience these days. not the end like it used to be.

@bvd/snoey: Has no advantages for an electrician unless you stick the paper it is printed on between a high voltage scarred cable at 220 volt against a DC current down turning a upgrade transformer.

None of my blue collar worker friends use their MBA but proudly post them on their walls.

Dang acute