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What do Warren Buffett, of the leading U.S. investment company, Berkshire Hathaway, Bernard Arnault of LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy), the Koch Brothers (David and Charles) of Koch Industries and Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin have in common?
They all belong to the 50 highest paid CEOS and they all have a degree in Masters of Science (MSc).
As Matt Symonds of Forbes.com wrote, “If you do insist on graduate school, a masters in science would seem to be a good bet.”
MBA and MSc, what’s the difference?
An MBA (Masters of Business Administration) is a general, broad degree covering a wide variety of business issues, training students for careers in managing any business or all areas of business.
An MBA curriculum has accounting, finance, marketing, statistics, management, economics, strategy and other management-related subjects lumped into one program.
After the Occupy Wall Street Movement, business schools are now considering adding politics into their program.
This post graduate course was developed because technical people going up in the organization didn’t always have the skills to manage effectively and management guys didn’t understand the technical aspects of management.
For this very reason, an MBA program prefers students with degrees in other disciplines and a 2-4 yrs work experience behind them so that graduates can speak the language of the people they are managing.
A Masters of Science (MSc) on the other hand, is a degree that concentrates study in a specific field, i.e., finance, operations management, accounting, electrical engineering, etc.
It’s the choice between generalization and specialization that makes the big salary difference.
Deciding what to specialize in can be very difficult because there are so many fields to choose from, i.e. from Accounting to Supply Chain Management, with more than a dozen in between.
But if you want to get the most out of your post graduate studies, you must specialize.
Choices for specialization:
There are several specialized programs to choose from and they are offered by most business schools. Arguably some business schools are better in some fields while others are not.
For example, Harvard Business School is tops in business and management but Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is better in Information Technology courses.
Before picking a business school to apply for, it is necessary, therefore, for you to know how they rate in the field you want to specialize in.
How to choose a specialization:
To do that, the following tips should help you make a good decision:
- Make a list of specializations you are interested in and write their pros and cons;
Example:
Good marketing people are never out of work. But are your signature skills compatible with marketing? Are you extrovert or would you rather work alone, with the minimum of supervision?
Marketing commands good pay but not all are cut to be marketers. Are you?
- Determine what you want to do with your business school degree after graduation:
Example:
Do you plan to go back to your old job or find another, high-paying one? Do you plan to go into business for yourself or do marketing for someone else? Are you research oriented or you prefer the manufacturing environment?
- Decide how much money you want to make and find out what specialization can pay your salary goals:
This may be difficult as salaries are determined by many factors aside from an MBA or MSc degree.
To get you closer to your goals, find out what is the latest in the job market, i.e., green technology, real estate, health care, currency trading, supply chain management, etc.
- Talk to people who are in the same field you are interested in and find out what they like and don’ like about their job.
This is called benchmarking. Corporations find this a useful tool to see how they stand against their closest competitors.
Likewise, it will give you an idea of the general sentiment of the working people in your field of interest.
Beware of some bias, though. Some accountants wish they were engineers not because they love the engineering field but because they are plain tired and bored from looking at all those figures.
- Research the companies in the range of your chosen field and determine which you would you like to work with.
Corporate fit is a crucial factor in job satisfaction. It is practically impossible to bring out you’re your best in a corporate environment that does not support individual growth.
B-School.com incoming search terms:
- pros and cons of generalization and specialization
