Each year, many people consider whether to get an MBA. There are plenty of long-term benefits to earning your degree: career development, larger and stronger professional networks, and eventual increases in salary, authority and reputation, among others.
Why wait for the advantages? The right MBA program can build your professional momentum from the start, making an immediate impact on your career while you’re still in school. It’s a question of what you’re looking for, so consider these priorities as you make your plans.
Accelerate your timeline.
What if your prior coursework in business helped you complete your master’s degree sooner? How would you utilize the earlier start to your post-graduate career and the tuition money you save?
Some programs, including Marquette’s, offer you the opportunity to find out, honoring undergraduate studies in business, accounting, finance, marketing and other core subjects as reason to waive some required courses in your overall MBA program. As you consider MBA programs, look at how they incorporate your background into your graduate education, and how that affects your career timing, financial commitment and professional impact.
Develop a new mindset.
Professional ambition and the desire to succeed can be powerful motivators, bolstering your energy amid the stresses of graduate school. They can, however, wear thin quickly.
What inner resources do you need to keep going? How does your chosen program develop and strengthen them? MBA programs with broader goals nurture priorities that continue to drive you forward and skills that define your success. In the right program, you’ll gain the perspective that helps you:
- Make better decisions, not only for yourself but for your business and community
- Act decisively to make the greatest difference
- Respond to and support your colleagues as a leader, in the service of your shared goals
Capitalize on career support from the start.
You’re employed, balancing work with your education, and looking to advance professionally as soon as possible. Wouldn’t it be useful to rely on your university for career guidance long before commencement day?
Some MBA programs offer career services as soon as you enroll. While still a student, you can work with specialists to define your goals, hone your resume, clarify your job-search strategy, and heighten your networking and interviewing skills. Those new strengths put you in prime position to utilize the professional search services that are also available to you from day one. This helps you build two facets of your education in tandem rather than sequentially, gaining skills through your coursework while preparing to take on the logistics of career progress elsewhere in your program.
Improve your work life, starting now.
It’s all too easy to regard your MBA as something that you’ll use in the future, once you have your degree, in your new/next job. While an MBA can give you invaluable skills that qualify you for top management positions, you should reframe your thinking.
The knowledge and skills you gain in an MBA program can immediately enhance your work performance . Utilize your new fluency in business literacy, strategy and leadership to reposition yourself in your current professional environment. By using your expanded acumen to benefit your company right away, you make yourself more valuable and more visibly leadership-focused long before your degree is complete.
Lifelong benefits begin today.
Choose the graduate program with principles and immediate impact. As an online MBA student at Marquette University, you’ll study with a top-tier business faculty of accomplished academics and successful industry leaders. Drawing on their expertise, you’ll gain the confidence to face any business challenge, the leading-edge skill set to produce innovative solutions and the ethical foundation and commitment to work for the greater good.