The MBA is no longer so great an option. About a quarter of the class of elite MBA colleges in the US have not found placements in the last couple of years.
Actually, MBA stopped being a great option quite a while ago. Let's look at it from the point of view of (a) placement, and (b) skills.
When it comes to placement, the conventional wisdom is that recruiting from a better college will guarantee you a better outcome. That was always a lazy person's option, what prevented the companies from casting the net wider? But that involves two things. (1) Doing a lot of work identifying the right candidates. Since when have you seen any HR person who does real work? I have yet to see one. (2) It's a risk. If you recruit from IIT or IIM, no one will blame you. Which person in corporate wants to take risk? In my experience, no one. Only entrepreneurs take risks.
Many parallel developments are combining to make the MBA obsolete. Especially the full time ones. Some of these factors do not apply to part time MBAs which may still retain some value.
1. Just like the Civil Services Babu was a go between, from British times, between the masters and the larger population, the MBA served as a buffer between the capitalist class and the other educated labour. With democratisation of information, free access to resources, internet, mobile, etc., all kinds of dalals or in betweens are losing out.
2. What skills does the MBA bring to the table? Nothing that the same person in the same position without the MBA degree could not have done.
3. Demand for all "general" skills will die out. I still need the barber for my haircut, but why do I need an MBA? Just think, if you are an entrepreneur, why would you want to recruit an MBA? Cobbler, barber, cook, driver - I understand what skill they have, that they have trained for. What skill does an MBA have? The MBA course in any college is an artificially assembled hodge podge of impressive looking curricula, after all the colleges have to survive. They never taught anyone much.
The MBA never had a right to exist. I mean, what exactly is "management" and how do you "teach" it? It's just babudom in a different guise, and in the new world, all kinds of babudom are under threat.
Forget MBA. If you are a youngster thinking about what to do in life, think about this. The gourmet cook is always sought after. The world values her skills and she actually does something useful. What skill do you bring to the table, and in what way can you add value?
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