Degree program helps achievers manage a changing world
>> AN MBA ‘DEEPENS AND WIDENS’ OPPORTUNITIES STUDENTS RECEIVE
A Masters of Business Administration degree can lead to a variety of job opportunities because MBA programs teach students skills to lead businesses in a changing world.
“It’s a transformative degree,” said Blaize Reich, the dean of Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business. “It deepens and widens the opportunities people get.”
It also changes the way candidates think, opens up the world of business to them and then sends out signals that they’re ready for responsibility and leadership roles, she said.
SFU offers part-time two-year programs for mid- career candidates — an Executive MBA and a Management of Technology MBA, as well as a full-time 16-month program, in which students spend a year studying and four months on an internship.
“We have about a 90 per cent placement for our full- time MBAs,” Reich said. “There are lots of opportunities now especially for the full-time younger cohort because they are technologically savvy and not afraid of it ... They can help organizations become innovative and adaptive.”
Being able to use technology and the data available on customers and products are important skills for people leading all sorts of organizations — whether they’re in health care, retail, banking or other industries.
“It’s fairly endless in terms of what you can do with an MBA,” said Ian McCarthy, Beedie’s graduate programs associate dean. “Increasingly, students are starting their own companies.”
Whether candidates choose to go the entrepreneurial route or work for an organization, it’s important that they go into a job they love, he said.
That’s why the school has a career management centre that offers mentoring and works with candidates on everything from communications to presentation in order to help them be more employable and get good placements.
Amir Muradali, the founder and president of the Association of MBAs in Canada, said when he got his degree in 2006 it was a transformative experience and enabled him to switch the direction of his career from engineering into one with more of a business focus.
“I had a nice healthy jump in my salary so it worked out for me,” he said. “But I think the cost of doing an MBA program is a bit untethered from the market.”
Calgary-based Muradali said when he graduated from the business school at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, there was no professional organization vouching for his skills. And that led him in 2013 to start up the association, which today has about 1,700 members.
One of the aspects he wants the organization to address is career development after an MBA. The association has devel- oped two “career ladders” -- one for MBAs on a leadership track and one for MBAs on a specialist track to assess talent and career progression.
“The career ladder is a way for us to introduce some consistency and standards to the type of work MBAs are doing,” he said, adding it should help MBAs and organizations that hire MBAs.
There was an eight per cent increase in MBA job opportunities globally in 2014, according Nunzio Quacquarelli, the chief executive officer of Quacquarelli Symonds, a global provider of higher education and careers information, based in London, England. According to QS, it conducts the largest survey of employers worldwide, with 5,669 MBA employer respondents contributing to its TopMBA.com Jobs and Salary Trends 2014/15 report.
Employers are forecasting a 12 per cent growth in MBA demand in 2015, Quacquarelli said, adding MBA demand in North America increased 10 per cent in 2014.
Energy, technology, consulting, media, manufacturing and fastmoving consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and health care, and financial services are the main sectors with demand for MBAs, according to the QS report.
SFU’s McCarthy said he thinks the demand for MBAs is healthy.
“If you’re producing good students with integrated thinking who know how to manage and lead in diverse situations there will be demand,” McCarthy said, adding commodities, energy, professional services and consultancy are among the areas where there is demand in the province.