I have been reading some of the postings on whether it is worth pursuing an MBA/EMBA. The responses ranges from complete waste of time to best experience of your life. Like everything else in life, the truth is normally somewhere in between and it is up to you to make the most of it. I am now in my 40s, I have an MBA from IMD and attended a few executive programs from Harvard, Wharton and Stanford. I want share some of observations which I hope will be useful to most of you:
1) from an intellectual pursuit standpoint, doing a program with a good school is a fantastic experience. One of the commonly ignored benefit of doing a program like an MBA or EMBA is that it challenges your current thinking and helps you to realize that there are other opportunities beyond your narrow line of work. (IT, accounting,engineering etc)
2) one of the benefit of doing a program outside of Singapore, is that you need to challenge everything your professor teaches you. In another words, they are not Gods. You think for yourself and arrive at your own conclusion. For a singaporean schooled in our strait-jacket type of education here, it was a liberating experience. There will be professors who are idiots and there will be inspirational ones. You should leave the program not arm with models and tools but with an attitude and passion for learning and to know that there is no 'right' or 'one way' to solve challenges in any organisation. Most of time, you are training to be a better decision maker.
3) for those who have been working for more than 10 years, my advice is to do an EMBA. However, the probability of switching career (say from IT to banking) is very low. But it will enhance your current experience and help you move to a more global organization if you are prepared to get your ass out of Singapore. If you are planning to spend that kind of money, you have to be prepared to work for large corporation and be willing to be based anywhere. If not, why bother. Part of the reason why ROI is low for many programs is that many students focus only in the Singapore market. Singapore is too small a market. Which is why it is worth it to do a program with international standing where if you were to step off an airport in any country, you won't get strange reception like "where is
NUS?"
4) for career switchers, start early. If you cross 32, it becomes challenging.
5) on networking, I think it is overrated. Instead try to establish meaningful friendships which will last a lifetime.
6) For me, post MBA, I couldn't wait to get out of Singapore. The pay was good and I have never looked back. However, I have seen people who don't do well post MBA. Most of time, the people who do the program for the wrong reasons, will likely leave the program with unrealistic expectations and confusing aspirations.
7) A lot of questions on this post are question like "should i do an MBA?", "should I do a phd/dba", "should I do an
NTU program"? To me, everyone is asking the wrong questions. Like everything else, it depends. It depends on what you want to do afterwards. If your plan is to increase your pay, get a good global career, then do a program from a good international school (you can easily cross out
NUS/
NTU). If you plan is to stay in Singapore, your ROI is going to be low anyway, so, pick a well recognised program in Singapore. The problem with most people is that they want to switch careers, stay in singapore, get a high pay and get a high ROI. If that is your expectation, then it doesn't really matter what program you do, it is unlikely you will meet all your needs.
In conclusion, an MBA/EMBA is worth it and ROI is good if you are willing to make some changes yourself and be clear why you are doing it in the first place. Good luck to all.