Northern Illinois University College of Business

MBA, One-Year (1 year)

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MBA for Business Administration - useful or not?

Have you completed your diploma or bachelor's degree in an economics course, typically business administration, and would like to continue your education? But does an MBA make sense for business students? The short answer: yes, in many cases yes. But not always. We have put together an overview below.

The typical curriculum of an MBA program includes subjects such as marketing, personnel management or finance / controlling. There is definitely overlap with the content of a previous business degree. However, there are definitely more arguments in favor of an MBA as an economist. For example, refreshing your knowledge if your studies were five years ago. But above all the network effect and the different learning climate compared to a diploma or bachelor.

How are MBA programs actually composed?

The first thing that could be derived from the decisions of numerous other students was whether an MBA would make sense for business students. We looked at the participant profiles of various universities and you can see that at many universities / business schools the participants come primarily from the fields of engineering and economics (with outliers). Practice shows that business people very often add an MBA to it.

Why do business economists do an MBA?

There are basically two reasons to do a Master of Business Administration as a business administrator:

1.) Refresh

Let's be honest: after three to five years in your professional life, how exactly do you know the terms that you don't come across in your everyday work? And with changing job positions you need exactly this forgotten knowledge at once. In addition, certain things have simply changed, for example in controlling, marketing or general management. Therefore, graduated economists decide again to update their knowledge.

2.) Specialization

There are now more and more MBA programs that deal specifically with an industry or a specialist area. So if you want to qualify for management tasks in this environment or prepare for a change of industry through newly acquired knowledge, an MBA can also make sense as a business graduate.

This applies, for example, to Carsten, a business graduate and partner in an auditing company, who did the MBA International Taxation at the University of Freiburg. His motivation?

I chose to study because I wanted to expand my knowledge gained in the course of business administration and the tax consultant exam and joined the MBA International Taxation professionally exactly where the tax consultant exam ends.

Marcel (Bachelor in Business Administration, EMBA at the Frankfurt School) describes his reasons for choosing this:

• An MBA is a quality feature and seal. As such, however, a good and renowned university is important.
• An MBA focuses in particular on business management in the challenges of top management. It gives a new perspective on the knowledge of business administration from the perspective of a top manager and helps to identify essentials and to make a content selection, for example to prepare for a decision.
• A good MBA also raises awareness of emotional intelligence and leadership skills.
• Furthermore, an MBA is the ticket to certain management positions and a cornerstone for further, also financial, career development.

More than a classic degree

What is more, the MBA, if taught by a good university, is more than a typical course of study with a lecturing professor and listening or writing students. A Master of Business Administration, on the other hand, is based on mutual learning. You learn from the experience of the "teacher" (professor or rather entrepreneur) and from that of your fellow students. Not only are certain models presented, but really thought about how specific problems (which have already occurred to anyone within the group) can be solved. You also learn much more precisely because you may have seen the practical problem that could have been solved with each new theoretical part.

Seen in this way, an MBA does not only convey basic business administration know-how such as marketing and controlling, but rather tools for problem identification and decision-making based on it. This is supplemented by soft skills such as leadership, negotiation techniques and communication skills. This gives you a strategic view of the political, social and ecological environment of the entire company.

Conclusion: MBA for Business Administration - Yes, but not for everyone

It can therefore be said that such a course of study makes sense for business economists. Not necessarily directly after the Bachelor, but rather after a few years in professional life, with initial management experience and / or the specific opportunity to jump to the next career level(s).