PT MBAs in RE
Firm will cover full cost of an MBA. It would be part-time, all online. Unfortunately, no RE focus but electives are available. I know much of the value in the MBA comes from relationships built, but the tradeoff is that I don’t forfeit wages or work experience and the cost is fully covered.
I know RE heavily values experience over education, and MBAs in particular aren’t always highly valued. But is it worth the extra work if you don’t need to sacrifice work experience/money? What are the odds it would be a complete waste of time?
Why not go Part Time in-person in the evenings?
Bump. Super interested in understanding value of part-time MBA, especially for part-time in person vs online!
I'll bite - In my opinion a PT MBA only makes sense if you're in a secondary market and are looking to deepen your ties to that market/region, especially if you did not go to undergrad in that area. If you're in a Primary market then a FT MBA preferably at a top 15 minimum is the preferred option - you're just going to burn money on a PT MBA that won't differentiate you against the hundreds of other candidates with better MBA's and a deeper network because they took 2 years off to socialize with classmates and network with alumni.
Also the entire value of an MBA generally is the networking so online is pointless.
I agree with above. Don’t do an online MBA. The whole point of an MBA is to form relationships so if you’re doing PT, try to be on campus. I think the PT MBA would be beneficial if you plan on staying at your company long-term to climb the latter quicker or the region you’re in has a lot of alumnus that you can leverage relationships later on in your career.
If you were an interviewer, what do you think is more impressive--
Someone who took a break from work and got their MBA over two years...
or
Someone who managed their daytime workload, and completed their MBA at night, while continuing to gain years of work experience.
A PTMBA is just as impressive as a "regular" MBA, but for your money, I would recommend a Hybrid option, or an option that offers some sort of in-person programming.
I did a PTMBA while working full time (...and I had a newborn) and it changed my life.
Based on my personal experience I would say that the person doing the part-time MBA thinks it's more impressive than a lot of people hiring in CRE, unfortunately.
Glad that it changed your life, but sadly I think that most people recruiting value the full-time MBA more. Additionally you just get way more networking and recruiting opportunities in a FT program.
There are a lot of firms (typically megafund) that hire directly out of MBA programs and that's mainly driven by the network you'll gain from a top FT MBA. They want to hire people with lots of connections. PT MBA is easier to get into which means lower quality immediate network and generally a smaller network just given your ability to socialize with people in your class. But it does make sense for some people.
Hey thanks for this. I went for it and having it on my resume as a WIP has already helped me get interest from the PE side. Not much for the knowledge but more for the ambition it signals, just like you said
I also have worked my way into being involved with their brand new RE academy so overall turned out great. Your advice was right on
Happy I could give my two cents, but it is you who is following through and putting in the work!
I'm wishing you continued success! Thanks for the update and look forward to hearing more great news in the near future.
I would absolute not recommend a part-time, online MBA. The opportunity cost of your time is much higher than the benefit you will receive from that program.
I did a part-time in-person MBA to make a career switch into real estate from another field, and I wouldn't do it again. It was much harder recruiting than I expected and I should have just bitten the bullet and done a full-time program. Schools put all their recruiting resources into the full-time programs, and they see the part-time students as competition for their full-time students / full-time hiring rankings.
I can't emphasize enough how much I do not recommend pursuing a part-time, online program. A part-time in-person program might help if you want to stay at your employer as others mentioned, but I would not pursue that option either if you are planning on switching companies / job functions / industries.
There were a few part-time MBAs who joined the real estate club at my program and who really participated when they could, and they were the ones who found good jobs (like comparable to the full-time students) after school. Like they showed up to all of our evening events, networked a ton, etc. Essentially they acted like full-time MBAs. Online-only sounds like a disaster, you get few of the benefits of the MBA with all of the work.
Are you already in the RE industry? If you aren't, you might need the credential to get in. If you are, consider setting aside all of the time that you would need to spend to get the MBA and devoting all of that time to direct networking, and to learning whatever specific business/quantitative skills you want to acquire. For many people, that would be a more efficient use of time than a degree.
Wouldn't PTMBA (in person) assist on the networking side though? See no reason why this can't be dual tracked
Just cold contacting people in the industry and asking them to have coffee with you would be a far cheaper and more efficient way to network than getting a degree.
Do you think a PT RE MBA from a Reputable MBA combined with a few years of institutional capital markets experience will have good exits?
Why wouldn't they?
You would get more value out of a part time evening MBA vs. online.
I did my PT MBA at Berkeley. I started the program when I turned 30 after having 1 year of Big Four audit, 3 years of REPE acquisitions, 2 years of accounting/small company, and 2 years of development experience. Approx 8 years total.
Before I did it, I vacillated between getting my MBA and “I have all the real estate work experience needed, I don’t need a MBA.”
But I found myself attending Berkeley events for fun. From their real estate club mixers inviting professionals to the student led Asia Business Club conferences. Also, when USC played Cal in football, having to experience a college town in a buzz.
When I worked at a large real estate investment fund, my immediate hiring manager and MD both got their MBA part time at Haas.
What ultimately led me to pursue the Berkeley part time MBA was when I was working for an apartment REIT and was studying construction on my own from a textbook. I was the only investment analyst for a $4B REIT and managed all underwriting for the development team. So, this was a Friday afternoon around 4pm, I was walking to the office kitchen with my textbook when I walked past a development manager’s cubicle. He asked me what I was reading, and I said I was learning about construction materials. I had learned things before on my own but never to the point that I could put it on my resume. Then, lightning struck my head and I asked bluntly, “should I get my MBA?” The development manager said “absolutely.” The dev manager explained to me how the MBA helped him: started as an architect, then went into property management to get on the operator side. But approached a career ceiling that prevented him from going into the investment side of his company. He was told he needed a MBA (or graduate degree). Ended up going to Haas and then working at Tishman Speyer and then working on his own developments and then to the company I was at. At the time I was making $90K, 29 years old, with the Great Recession a couple years in the rear view mirror (unemployment, a disruption to my corporate path, but a blessing to my future entrepreneurship path).
The Haas part time MBA was 3 years. At the time, $120K all in. 2012-2015. A semester into the program, an industry friend asked me if I was happy at the REIT and I was, but his company was hiring and growing. I had barely heard of them (now this company is mentioned all the time - meaning, you can help make big brands). I got hired as a post-MBA development associate making $120K after one semester in the Haas part time MBA.
While I was working for this company and getting my MBA at Haas, I took the great real estate classes (Real Estate Development with Prof Williams and Real Estate Entitlements with Prof Falik), but I also took classes like Venture Capital & Private Equity, Corporate Turnarounds, and M&A. My PowerPoint skills greatly improved from my M&A class, to creating “slides of the record” I directly applied this at work which really made me stand out as a top performer (Goldman really liked my decks). My co-workers were Penn, Duke, Columbia, Kellogg grads (I was University of Hawaii and Haas MBA). Later, when I went into my own investing and co-founding of businesses, the Corporate Turnarounds class (Prof Goodson - a legend) helped me so much. Also, having a Haas MBA in the sector that I co-founded companies in, gave me a lot of legitimacy in pitching, especially since there were few MBA’s in the industry.
What I’m saying is the part time MBA at a place like Berkeley - gave me such a valuable experience. While real estate students in the full time and part time amounts to about 5% of the student population, real estate students and alumni value long term relationships and connections. So, despite being 5%, you add that over decades of classes and you have a very strong alumni association. Recently, we had a real estate alumni workshop on mid-career topics, which I know on WSO we discuss how the job market sucks. Anyways, I find value with my Berkeley experience 10+ years beyond my graduate school experience.
I’m a big advocate for part time MBA’s at the right place for you - at least that was my observation for the past 20 years of my career. For me, Berkeley was the place. I like the MBA because of the versatility. Now, there are newer programs with the real estate concentration and I think those can be good too. The head of development at the REIT I was at had a MSRED from USC (great guy and running development at another company). Do what is best for you, but always keep striving to better yourself. You have a long life to amortize these education costs, and grad school after you know what you want to do and have a plan, is a worthwhile pursuit in the grand scheme of things.
Merry Christmas!
Thank you for always taking the time to contribute something insightful! Merry Christmas!
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