| Of course you can learn online. So what? Here;s why you need to saddle yourself with $125,000 additional debt-- even though it might become useless soon. Let me explain how companies hire. If you want a job done, there are two things you can look for in an applicant. COMPETENCE. You verify the ability to do work. You can do this by (a) asking the person to perform tasks, (b) reviewing examples of their current or past work or (c) conducting an interview that is so highly detailed that it shows that they understand the work Verifying competence takes a fair amount of time, so you can only do it for a few people, unless you want to spend all your time doing it. CREDENTIALS. Ask the person to submit pieces of paper that indicate ability to do work. This includes (1) years of experience in the industry (2) employment with a company who does the work, (3) references or recommendations from people who do the work and (4) a college degree. Credentials don't guarantee that the person has any competence (even if they aren't lying, they could have been a complete screwup). But they take very little time to process-- any job-tracking application (Taleo) can automate the work. Guess which method most companies use. A friend who is a criminal defense attorney has a saying that applies. "It's nice that you're innocent. But how can you prove it?" I'm confident that you can learn everything an MBA knows, and learn it better than most MBAs do, and understand more. (I have.) Very few employers will take the time to verify that you do. If YOU don't have the credential, they'll give the job to someone who does. NOTE: All the preceding assumes you want to be hired for jobs that require an MBA in the posting. If that's not the case, it's an entirely different issue, but one nobody can answer. |