Getting my MBA was an enriching experience and a rewarding investment.
My MBA gave me a broad range of business skills, positioned me favorably in the workforce, opened doors to new jobs, and boosted my earning potential. It prepared me for anything that might be thrown at me (yes, a lot has been) and it gave me the ability to see the big picture in the business world.
When I decided to go to b-school, I was working in financial services. I enjoyed my job and I had excelled in the field, but I had learned everything on the job because my undergraduate degree was not in business. I decided to pursue an MBA because I desired a greater depth of business acumen and I wanted to sharpen my existing skills. I felt I needed to be more fluent in reading a balance sheet and understanding an income statement.
I knew I wanted a “generalist” degree and I didn’t want to specialize in one area, so an MBA suited my needs. I liked working in banking, but I wanted to expand my horizons and explore other industries. Going back to school for MBA would be a great way to transition into another field.
The timing was also right because the bank I was working for had been acquired and my job was apt to change significantly under the new ownership. So, in 1999, I said goodbye to my banking colleagues and I entered the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
It had been seven years since I had completed my undergraduate degree at Rutgers University, so shifting from the corporate world to the classroom was a big adjustment. A typical day at the office involved constant and high-speed multi-tasking: working at my desk, answering emails, making phone calls, going to meetings, and having people pop into my office who needed something urgently.
But all that came to a screeching halt. I sat down in a classroom and had to sit quietly while focusing on one professor for forty-five minutes. Initially, it was very tedious to sit in class paying attention to just one thing. It also took some time to get used to using textbooks again and writing twenty-five-page papers.
I quickly adjusted to life as a student and I dug into my course work. The curriculum gave me a sampling of everything from finance to operations. The program was also very strong in international exposure—from the classroom to the field.
Georgetown University has long been recognized as a global school and the b-school has branded itself as being very international. Our classes were rich in diversity and I frequently worked on teams where almost everyone was from a different country and spoke at least a couple languages. I observed how people from varied cultures communicated and approached problem solving. We were also required to do an internship overseas and I got to travel to New Delhi and see first-hand how a local company operated in the Indian market.
Overall, the two years I spent earning my MBA were exceedingly valuable.
However, leaving your job to spend thousands on your education is always a risk. I happened to go to graduate school during a tumultuous economy. During our first year, the dot-com craze was peaking and there was unbelievable temptation to leave school for outlandish job offers. Some did. But by the second year, the bubble had burst and I was glad to have stayed in school.
When I graduated in the spring of 2001, I had two attractive job offers. I chose the one at Arthur Andersen’s business consulting group with a start date in August. But as the economy worsened in the aftermath of the dot-com bubble burst, many of us got letters saying our start dates had been delayed. After 9/11, the delays continued.
