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I understand that this is an age old question but I figured I would ask anyway... I really need the advice.
My question is, should I get an MBA or a 2nd bachelors in Business?
Background
Ok, I am a 20 year old college graduate with a Bachelors in Public Administration. Problem is, I didn't intern while in school and now my job prospects are terrible. Also, my GPA is terrible (2.83 OVR; 3.5 Last 60) due to me starting college when I was 16 and lacking the necessary maturity and work ethic needed to make good grades during my first 2 years of college. Because of this, I have been looking for jobs outside of my major but I am running into 2 problems: I lack work exp. and my major is not broad enough to transfer to different fields.
My P.O.A.
My Plan of Action was (is) simple; go back to school. The idea is to go to the cheapest public school in my area and use the remaining undergrad Stafford availability I have for a degree in Business administration with a concentration either in supply chain management or accounting as these seem to have the most utility. Problem is, everyone I have consulted with has stated how dumb it will be to get a second bachelors (even in a useful concentration like accounting) if I already had a bachelors degree and stated that I should consider a masters degree. After conducting about a week's worth of research, I have come to the conclusion that a MBA at my age and level of work exp. is completely and utterly worthless. I just don't know what to do. The Bachelors degree would take about 2 years if I went full time and would include classes I have never thought about taking like business calc. Still, a masters degree would force me to take these same courses before admitting me anyway so I don't see how the MBA is a better option.
Career Goals
Sounds dumb, but my Career goal is to simply have a career. I no longer have a "dream job," I just have a dream position I would eventually like to achieve such as Director of blah blah or Chief ____ Officer. I know that a bachelors itself will not get me into one of these positions but it will help me raise my GPA, allow me to intern with a variety of companies, and also put me on a path of redemption where I can turn this terrible set of circumstances into a life changing MBA degree from a top school if I could just find meaningful work and raise my GPA a little.
With ALL of this said, can you guys offer any advice?
I say get some admin assist type job, maybe with some temp firms to build up some experience, and/or take 24 credits of accounting without pursuing another degree, then go from there.
I say get some admin assist type job, maybe with some temp firms to build up some experience, and/or take 24 credits of accounting without pursuing another degree, then go from there.
Why not get another degree if Im only 2 years away from it? Im really trying to hear the possible cons to getting a 2nd bachelors other than the money factor.
You shouldn't get a second bachelor's to correct a 'mistake' when you could very well end up making another mistake. Find what you really want to do and see if you can at least get experience in that. Right now is the time for skill building rather than paper piling. Once you get a considerable history, get your masters.
Why not get another degree if Im only 2 years away from it? Im really trying to hear the possible cons to getting a 2nd bachelors other than the money factor.
Because getting a second one is useless and a waste of time unless you are going to really deviate, like get an engineering degree.
All you need is 24 credit hours of accounting, that is all most people look for anyway; you can have a degree in basket weaving and if it is supplemented with 24 credit hours of accounting, you are good to go most of the time.
As for the business admin part; gain one year of experience as an admin assist or something similar, that will do you much better, especially if you can get your hands on learning some standard stuff (depending on the position) like CRM, Publisher, QuickBooks, etc, your normal admin assist type programs.
You do not need a business admin degree to get into business, heck, I have a poly sci degree and I work in the financial industry doing financial stuff, and my company paid for my MBA. There are plenty of people with degrees like sociology, psychology, and English that work in business, many started off doing admin assist type work and moved on up in the organization (I started as an analyst using statistical tools).
Your best bet is to divert your resources to finding an admin assist type position, no matter who it is with, and build from there. If you want to take some more college classes to make yourself more marketable, just take the classes, not go for yet another degree. Take accounting, but also look into taking statistics, business is based off of statistics.
With your current degree, some real life experience in the admin field, and supplementing your degree with some classes in accounting and statistics, you can market yourself well to keep climbing.
As someone who is finishing their MBA at the ripe old age of 35, I would never recommend getting an MBA (or any graduate degree) without having career goals in mind first. If you have no idea what you want to do now, an MBA will get you no closer, but it will load you up on student debt and take away years you could have spent getting experience. I would also strongly discourage getting an MBA with zero work experience. Half of what I learned in my MBA program came from being able to apply concepts within my work environment. At 20/21 with no experience, you won't get much out of it and it won't make you any more employable.
You do not need a business admin degree to get into business, heck, I have a poly sci degree and I work in the financial industry doing financial stuff, and my company paid for my MBA. There are plenty of people with degrees like sociology, psychology, and English that work in business, many started off doing admin assist type work and moved on up in the organization (I started as an analyst using statistical tools).
Your best bet is to divert your resources to finding an admin assist type position, no matter who it is with, and build from there. If you want to take some more college classes to make yourself more marketable, just take the classes, not go for yet another degree. Take accounting, but also look into taking statistics, business is based off of statistics.
With your current degree, some real life experience in the admin field, and supplementing your degree with some classes in accounting and statistics, you can market yourself well to keep climbing.
I agree 100%. I have a history undergrad and started out working a lousy customer service job. After gaining experience I eventually moved into a series of increasingly more professional roles and now work in market research. Being able to prove that you can hustle, complete tasks and analyze situations is far more valuable than getting a second degree with no experience.
Thanks for the insight guys. Im going to try out different industries and see what sticks.. Ill try and start in hospitality or something like it because I hear they are open to entry level prospects with no exp. Any other fields you guys can suggest?
Thanks for the insight guys. Im going to try out different industries and see what sticks.. Ill try and start in hospitality or something like it because I hear they are open to entry level prospects with no exp. Any other fields you guys can suggest?
property management if you've got good communication skills. any degree gets a foot in the door as a leasing agent and there's plenty of opportunities for advancement within the field on site (assistant property manager, property manager, regional manager) or it will give you skills that you could use to go into the corporate offices (you do bookkeeping/accounting for your property, etc).
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