[brightball]

MBAs are great once you have real work experience in your field already. Duke’s MBA program won’t even admit you until you’ve been working for 10 years.

Without the experience, it’s a different perspective on the program.

EDIT: That was the Global Executive MBA program at Duke. Citation in comment.

[wenc]

From a career perspective, there's definitely a best-before date, after which an MBA does not buy you advancement. It seems that the optimal period for most people is after about 5-8 years of working experience.

Get your MBA too early, you come without practical perspectives.

Get it too late (once you reach senior management or about a decade of managerial experience), and you don't really need it anymore. Your real-life experiences have already exceeded what an MBA has to offer.

In most places, acquiring an MBA doesn't automatically lead to a pay increase or promotion. You still have to work for those. That said, an MBA may break some glass ceilings.

[kumarvvr]

> Get it too late (once you reach senior management or about a decade of managerial experience), and you don't really need it anymore. Your real-life experiences have already exceeded what an MBA has to offer.

Is this generally true? Just curious. So as a person in a senior management position, if I read a good selection of books or watch a bunch of videos, would that make me on part with an MBA education?

[wenc]

I will let folks in senior management comment on this.

This was advice I received from folks in senior management.

As with everything else in life, it depends.

[Smirnoff]

Duke won’t admit without 10 years of experience? That’s a lie. Please cite sources because their admission stats beg to differ.

[brightball]

When I looked into about 10 years ago that was the case. Looking for citation now.

https://www.mbamission.com/blog/2010/10/21/mbamission%E2%80%...

EDIT: That is for their Global Executive MBA program. Cited in the last paragraph. Apologies for the confusion.