MBA or MSc Management?

It must depend on what you want to do, career-wise. Also, wouldn't an MA/MSc be more specific.. i.e. good for very niche roles, whereas an MBA is more general, so good for several roles?

I would do MBA

I would certainly do MBA.

As someone who used to work in graduate and second-jobber recruitment I would advise you to think very carefully about doing an MBA as the top employers (i.e. the Goldman Sachs and McKinsey of this world) are always very wary of people that had done MBAs for the wrong reasons. The wrong reasons were typically either:

1 - Doing it to fill time because the person didn't know what else to do
2 - Doing it to try and engineer a change in career direction.

Number 2 was found more in experienced people (perhaps working for 3-5 years) who had decided to try and get into strategy consultancy from a not-so-relevant background (mostly IT consulting somewhere like Accenture, or accountancy at one of the Big Four).

Two further disadvantages:

1 - They are seriously expensive, which can make people that do them have overly-inflated salary expectations for their next job. A typical MBA will cost £50k - £80k all-in.
2 - Arguably there are no stellar top-tier MBA providers in the UK. London Business School comes closest; Oxford and Cambridge don't have great reputations for their MBAs at the Said Business School / Judge Business School respectively. The places to go are stateside: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Wharton etc etc - get onto an MBA here and employers will be knocking on your door from day one, paying you serious £££ / $$$.

If you are looking to do further relevant study straight after your degree, I would definitely advise doing an MSc. These (i) are cheaper than MBAs (ii) are more focused to less-experienced people (iii) allow you to align your career with European students, who almost always do a vocational masters degree before starting in finance / business (iv) don't have the same problem of prestigiousness as MBAs, all the top UK universities have really well regarded courses, as do some universities such as Nottingham Trent and Reading which are very well known for their business degrees at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

One final piece of advice: don't do a masters just because you don't know what to do / missed the milkround and need a back-up - it's just expensive and delays the pain of job searching for another year. But if you're really interested in business (regardless of whether you have done a related degree or not) and feel that learning more about it would be generally interesting and helpful in focusing a job search then I would definitely advise doing one. There's a good article here - http://www.thegatewayonline.com/article/323 - written by a professor in Nottingham University's business school all about their masters course; I think it's a decent introductory guide.

I think that nowadays the world has changed so much that employers do not value when someone has Msc or some Master degree. That is a big shame. After I will graduate I will go certainly for jobs but if I won’t be able to secure anything I might do Master degree cos what else is there to do if you can’t get a job.

I am in the same dilemma...
I want to do a Part time MBA / MSc now cos this is the time I can afford it and have a job to help me with the finance. I am still young and I want to use the degree to aid my progress.

I am in dubai, working in marketing for over 3 yrs, (2 yrs post graduate work). I have the option (affordable fees and am eligible for them) to do MBA from the following:
Middlesex or Heriot watt - UK
University of Wollongong - AUS

On the other hand, I am really impressed by Strathclyde uni from UK, but I am neither eligible coz of first degree (non accredited degree from Preston University (USA) from the Ajman campus) and the fees is too much - AED 110,000.

I am also really inclined towards Hult Business - USA, but MBA is with too many zeros - US$ 60,0000.

I need help - MBA from so so universities vs MSc from a great university

-

Hi everybody,

im general, the question about MBA or MIM (Master in Management) is comparing two different things. As a rule of thumb:

The MBA is for professionals with some years of work experience who want to enhance or develop their career. The MIM, in contrast, is for graduates who want another qualification before they go on the job market. It is for starting a career.

In terms of employers, I think the MBA still has the higher reputation - but again, you won't choose an MBA without work experience and you probably won't choose a MIM with work experience.

Have a look at the article http://www.mim-compass.com/Master-in-Management-MBA/Master-in-Management-MiM-and-MBA-Difference-between-two-postgraduate-career-programs-in-general-management to get more information for this topic.

Best, J.