Black MBA - Summer 2008 - (Page 46)

EDUCATION Dual Threats there. “In some cases, there is more than one route and ultimately people have to make a decision about what is best for them,” she says. And with the average MBA costing a whopping $100,000, a careful cost/ benefit analysis is in order. “It’s an expensive line to put on your résumé, so you should have a plan for getting that value back out after you finish,” says Tajh Taylor, an enterprise software architect with Washington Consulting. He has a master’s in computer science and is pursuing an MBA at Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Tajh Taylor Maryland to make a transition from technician to manager and entrepreneur. Marcia Montana, a former business development officer and loan consultant for SunTrust Bank, thinks she could have gotten more out of her MBA if she’d given more thought to her career path from the outset. Now she’s paying to obtain a Master of Science in Taxation to supplement her MBA and move into a more specialized field. The working mother says the degrees have been a drag on family finances and she’s not sure about the return on the investment. “I find that right now, because I was already working while I completed both my undergraduate and graduate degrees, I did not take an internship, which seems the rite of passage required for most companies to train you the way they need to,” she says. This lack of training and hands-on experience limited her job opportunities at the same time that the MBA made her overqualified for the sales position she was in. Choosing the right combination of degrees is only half the battle. Getting the timing right is also critical, as Alberlynne “Abby” Harris learned after going directly from college at Cornell University to earning a JD/MBA from the University of Southern California. “It was school overkill because I went straight through,” she says. “I didn’t receive any real world experience in corporate America or legal practice except for a few internships.” After graduating, she found that she didn’t have the work experience to win a coveted position with the companies that traditionally recruit MBAs Beth Flye, the assistant dean and director of admissions and financial aid at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, advises students to identify their goals in terms of industry and functional role, and then back up and determine the best route to get 46 BlackMBA • Summer 2008 • www.nbmbaa.org http://www.nbmbaa.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Black MBA - Summer 2008

Black MBA- Summer 2008 Contents Mailbag Up Front From the President & CEO Politics of Change Catalyst for Change: Results of our 2008 Political Poll Know Whose Shoulders You Stand On: The Legacy of H. Naylor Fitzhugh Howard University: Changing With the Times Straight Talk: CEO to CEO Creating Your Own Sandbox Dual Threats Avoiding the Faux Pa Invest in Your MBA Everything You Need to Know About...Estate Planning On Campus Plan Ahead The Big Show What's in a Name? On the Move Market Forecast Jeff Friday Keith Wyche Life Lessons On the Ground Real Biz A Golden Opportunity Entrepreneurial Institute Tech Tools Read for Success Stacey Tisdale Advertiser Index

Black MBA - Summer 2008

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