Hacker News Reader

Comment by Synroc | Hacker News Reader

I think it’s more the opportunity cost potentially. Amount of lost income by not working for 2 years + can you get that $10k increase in salary by having 2 more years of experience

View on HN

Why would you have to not work for two years?

There are plenty of executive MBA and part time MBA programs from reputable schools (not just for profit and online schools) that would allow you to work and go to school. There are some that only meet on weekends.

My casual observation is that these programs are not taken as seriously (likely because the reduce time commitment is seen as less rigorous) and therefore the payback is more difficult to achieve.

Even from the same top tier schools?

The one person I know that got an EMBA from a decent respected school is a manager at a FAANG. Total comp is somewhat higher than mine, but he is also on the west coast where the cost of living negates much of the difference and if I went into consultancy, it would negate all of the difference.

Depends on the school. If it is a nationally ranked school then it is very likely that on-premise and online versions are the same. You would have to research this for each school.

> My casual observation is that these programs are not taken as seriously

In many schools there is no external difference between full time and part time (evening) MBA programs. You walk out the door of both programs with the exact same degree. Nobody outside the program will ever know which path you took to get the degree.

Nobody outside the program will ever know which path you took to get the degree.

Will they not notice the overlap between a job and the programme?

Even if they do notice, anybody who was ever in a school with both a full time and an evening program knows that there are tradeoffs to both. Working a real, full time day job and then taking school on nights and weekends is not easy.

I've had a job since I was ~15 years old and have a masters in CS. No one has ever wondered about the overlap.

I also did my Masters part-time. Noone’s ever mentioned it, but it’s pretty obvious that that’s what I did from the dates.

I will actually give more credit to the Executive programs because they require prior work experience (normally 5 years). People are much more likely to remember and be able to use the concepts they have learned in class if they can immediately apply them to real world situations that they have been in.

I think some people will be focusing on what benefit an MBA can bring to their salary, but I think others may look at it as a way to hedge against long-term obsolescence. It's a way to make the jump to management, architecture, and consultancy - especially in the case of larger organisations.

These roles are rightly challenged by many on HN since they aren't "true" technical architecture roles, for example. Even so, they do exist to support the businesses that create them until there is rationalisation during a recession when many of these roles are jettisoned.

You can do an executive MBA and also a lot of companies will pay back your tuition when they hire you. Or you can get a company to pay for it outright.

>>[...] also a lot of companies will pay back your tuition when they hire you.

By all general measures, company sponsorship in any significant manner is shrinking[1]. I believe the US employer education assistance tax credit is limited to around $5,250[2] per individual per year. Companies that will foot the entire bill for an executive MBA program seem to be few and far between.

[1] https://poetsandquantsforexecs.com/2014/07/22/how-to-get-an-...

[2] https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-benefits-for-education-info...

To clarify, my calcs included the lost salary (by far the biggest cost for most ppl)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com