Will A Business Degree Get Me Promoted?
Nope. But it will get you a job.
Cameron Martel has an interesting post today about the purpose of higher education. Like Cameron, the idealist in me would like to encourage you to get an education for your own personal growth, But realistically, yes, a business education will get you a job.
But it won’t get you promoted. People are usually hired for their technical skills–accounting, finance, marketing–the things you learn in business school. But promotions (at least eventually) depend on soft skills such as getting things done through others, strategic (and ethical) influence (aka office politics), and conflict management.
My advice is to stay current in your technical skills. But load up on training in soft skills. Career frustration abounds when you follow the oh-so-logical path of getting better at you were hired to do in the first place.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Dan Schawbel said,
Wrote on August 22, 2007 @ 10:46 am
The degree might not get you a job if you barely passed, don’t know how to network or take an interview. Learn how to develop your personal brand through college and you will see results.
Timothy Johnson said,
Wrote on August 24, 2007 @ 8:36 pm
I have the unique perspective of teaching graduate school (MBA classes) while being a consultant. Your assessment is correct, but it’s more of a baseline filter for HR to weed out people. As Dan mentioned, if you don’t know how to interview or network, no degree will help you. My students run the gammut of understanding the work place dynamics.
Great post!