An anonymous Mark ( ) at Productivity501.com writes an article explaining why you should not hire a person with a Master in Business Administration (full article at http://www.productivity501.com/never-hire-an-mba/7918/).

I don’t really agree on most of the things said, not because of concepts explained but more for the motivations supporting them.

As many time times you cannot generalize, but some of the points are worth some thinking, because there’s a lot of myth and “overselling” on MBAs.

I agree on the fact that most of the people seem to over estimate MBA skills, but I also think that as, all education matters, is not a differentiator. MBA becomes a differentiator only if supported by a solid working experience.

Having a Master degree helps in not being too much generalistic and can complete, again, education and working experience.

Being a MBA graduate at 23 is not a differentiator at an absolute level: is a good starting point but definitely a starting point.

It requires to be valued but also needs the applicant to be humble and available for learning  just like all the others. 

Too often I see companies asking people to be at most 22 years old, with a degree and a master speaking fluently 3 languages. This creates a not so applicable barrier at the entrance, because there will obviously be an excess of requisitions and so a compromise will be needed. But of course being so often required a MBA forces people to take the challenge thinking that this will make them compete for more, while they’re alligning to the rest of the offering.

Is everything in an MBA exchangeable with experience? No. There’s always the right time to make things and I put the timeline for a MBA  between 3 to 5 years after starting your work. taken Before is not usefull (is a sort of specializing, but without the critical approach coming from experience), taken after is overcome by experience.

Making an MBA should be an investment to upgrade current position or give you a competitive advantage? Overall I think that the answer is yes, but cannot be a general rule, since, many factors influence this.

This post as a comment also at http://www.productivity501.com/never-hire-an-mba/7918/