Why A Degree In Test-Taking Won’t Help Your Career
As a management educator, it pains me to tell you this. But an MBA won’t ensure you an enviable career. Neither will memorizing all the latest business books. At least that is what I told some of our incoming MBA students this week.
Careers are built on performance, which is made up of technical skills, management leverage (time, influence, power), social capital, and political capital. Period.
If you want to get an MBA, or memorize the latest business books, make sure you understand this formula
MBA (or books) =Enviable career IF
MBA (or books)=Education=Performance
The sad truth of the matter is that you can get a degree without getting an education. And just because you have letters behind your name (or an enviable library) and an education, does not mean you will perform better than someone without letters behind their name and whose library consists of the complete set of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books.
So how can you, or your direct reports, make sure an MBA, or a business library, leads to the career of your dreams?
Instead of thinking about what won’t work, think about how each pearl could help your career . For example, imagine you are a finance person sitting through a marketing class, or reading a marketing book. Rather than ruling out everything as useless, think about what aspects you could alter and use in your career.
If you spend your time trying to figure out what the professor wants you to know for the test, your education is in ‘test taking’, not in business.
So even if you are not getting an MBA, go out and get a leading book in another field. Don’t just read about what you already know. Branch out. What aspects can you embrace? For example, how does Good to Great
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