Hi everyone, I posted a few months back asking for advice about career moves at Accenture. Long story short, I ended up taking a job at Deloitte focused on digital marketing.
To provide more context, the base salary is above a 100k. I'm also turning 26 years old soon and need to figure out whether or not I'll pursue an MBA. Leaving a 6 figure job at Deloitte to pursue graduate school seems extremely risky to me. I also did not have a stellar undergraduate GPA and more than likely I wont get into any top 10 schools. I'm not trying to break into finance either. I need to assess the ROI.
I have 5 years of full-time experience now and would like to make a name for myself in the digital marketing/digital strategy space. My next career goal is establishing myself as a Digital Marketing/Digital strategy expert at Deloitte and eventually joining a F500 in a VP-Marketing/CMO/CXO type role.
I feel that an MBA from a non-top 20 school would still benefit me - in particular I'm looking at GWU, UMD, and Georgetown's part time MBA programs. I can take advantage of the 10k a year tuition reimbursement.
Would love your thoughts on if this will be a good move on my part to pick up the part-time MBA? I would likely complete it over a 3 year period and aim to make Manager at Deloitte during that time period as well.
First off, congrats on your career progression, it is impressive for someone in his or her mid-20s. My advice follows.
A lot of the value of the MBA is the network it brings. If you attend a part-time program, the network you get is nowhere near as strong.
Another reason people get an MBA is to facilitate a career change. In your case, it does not seem that is really applicable.
Is your promotion to manager dependent on you getting an MBA? If it's not, I'm not sure an MBA will be worth it to you.
You already have a role that is great for a person your age. I would stick it out at Deloitte. Use your projects as a way to network with F500 professionals in the marketing space, since you will be working with them every day on your engagements. Save the money you would have spent obtaining an MBA and squirrel it away so if a great job opportunity comes that pays less than you make now, you can make the jump worry free.
Great advice and appreciate the detailed feedback. My promotion to Manager would not be dependent on receiving an MBA however it may help to get onto some of the more competitive projects and get some of the better roles. At Accenture, I got a bit lucky with timing and networking with an MD to get onto a great client. A lot of my colleagues had MBA's/graduate degrees and I feel it did provide them with a bit of credibility in front of the client. 2/3 Senior Managers that interviewed me had their MBA's (1 from a top 10). I just don't want to be the odd one out down the road.
Full disclosure, I worked for Deloitte post-MBA for 4 years and was a Manager before I left on good terms.
I can tell you having an MBA can provide some credibility, especially in an S&O generalist role, I personally think it matters less in Digital/Tech.
I know Principals and Directors at the firm with nothing more than an undergrad degree. At the SM level and above, it is really about your performance on your project, your managed revenue and sales. Having an MBA is a nice credential, but your work experience is going to be much more important.
Just as an example, the US head of Deloitte Digital doesn't have an MBA.
No harm in a PT MBA if you're at an employer you love and are already making good money. That's why those programs exist in the first place. Even better if the employer reimburses.
With the benefit of hindsight, I would only consider a top FT MBA for an outright career switch. Having the ability to recruit nationally to break into a career you otherwise would not have been able to access is obviously a tremendous benefit.
But in your position? If it's more of a "check the box" for upward movement kind of thing (which seems to be the case at your firm however incidental), PT is the way to go as you won't sacrifice much in opportunity-or even actual-cost.
Thank you! Great point on the recruitment. How was your experience? Did you end up going for the PT or FT?
I went FT at significant opportunity cost but ultimately have no regrets. I was able to change companies, locations, double salary in a lower COL area, and move up a couple ranks. That said I didn't career switch, so I would have been better off staying put, going PT, getting tuition covered (my last company had a generous reimbursement policy), and prob. would have still moved up a level...all while drawing a salary w/ raises + bonus.
Which is why I only advocate FT MBAs for outright career switchers (obviously scholarships can affect the calculus).
But I was determined to leave NY and couldn't really get any traction applying for senior roles out of state-they were all MBA/CPA preferred, so I rolled the dice.
This. I think you're the case study for a person who should do a part time MBA instead of full time. A full time MBA is a huge monetary and time investment which might be very difficult to recoup if you already like your field and are on a good trajectory. I'm not as familiar with consulting land but you might check with your manager and see if you can get full tuition reimbursement in exchange for staying a certain number of years. That would be a slam dunk.
Deloitte's main reimbursement program is called GSAP and pays for both years of FT tuition at a select number of MBA programs in exchange for coming back to the firm for a specified period of time. At the point when I left the firm, it was not available for PT programs. That said, the firm may have a program for any other kind of continuing education, I just am unaware of its existence.
I take some issue with the "no harm" statement. OP should only spend the money if s/he thinks it will actually be worth it. I don't necessarily know that to be the case given this person's background.
I looked at the tuition for Georgetown for the part-time program and it is $37k/year for the part-time program for 3 years. If OP just stowed away 27K, the amount he would have to pay per year assuming 10k reimbursement, in an ETF that earned 7% a year for 30 years, he would have about $200k when he was 56, just on one year of tuition. Do the math for two more years he would have to be paying the tuition for and he is staring at over half a million dollars total in his mid-50s.
If OP gets a scholarship, obviously that changes the calculus, but I don't think it is as easy of a decision as it seems.
GSAP will be hard to get into although I did check with my recruiter and the GSAP program is open to Deloitte Digital professionals. I had initially thought it was only open to S&O. We do get 10k a year education reimbursement to pursue a masters degree of our choice on a part time basis. I agree - 27k a year for 3 years is a lot of money. Especially since I would like to settle down and start a family as well. I'm thinking I should try for the GSAP first and if I don't get in, then decide if I go for the 10k a year path. I'll have a clearer picture after my first performance review where I stand within the firm and if GSAP will even be a realistic option. Thanks again. Might look at some specialized Masters degrees as an option, in either Statistics or Marketing.
If I can get the firm to cover the costs, then absolutely I would pursue the PT. I've done work mainly in digital marketing and worked on a few mobile banking projects as well. I might try to aim for that niche in digital banking and try moving up from there. Thank you.
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