Degrees of mastery - MBA vs master's in management
Published:Wednesday | June 15, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Why do human resource personnel refuse to hire someone with a master's degree in management, especially during this period of recession?
My thinking is that, you hire someone like that now; train that person and offer a fair benefits package, possibly with the promise in good faith that, once things improve, that package would be revisited. Alternatively, they could offer a bonus plan so that this hire sees that the company is trying.
I have a master's in hospitality and tourism management, but several HR professionals can't seem to see that it's a management degree, specialising of course in hospitality, but still a management degree.
MBA recipients may have more financial analytical exposure, but management students especially at a discipline like that, and at the graduate level, should be considered as having some of the requisite skills and attributes that companies are looking for.
I would appreciate your response.
Thank you for reading Careers, and for your encouraging words.
I am certain you have a basis for concluding that you've been turned down for jobs because you have a degree in management versus business. What you have written does not reveal why you think so, however.
It is possible that you may just not have been the best candidate for other reasons. Perhaps you did not interview well enough. Or your competitors had better degrees, or more experience. Please explore these possibilities, in the interest of correctly diagnosing the problem.
But, what if you're right? What if the problem is really that your master's degree is not in business but management? Shouldn't you then be given an equal opportunity as an MBA?
The answer is yes, in principle. In practice however, this is highly improbable. The reason is that there is a huge market of highly qualified MBA grads that fit the bill better, for a typical corporate hire.
HR professionals are not in the business of providing jobs for people, recession or not. Neither are they keen on employing people they will have to train in areas they can find others already competent in. Their goal is to make the best decision in their company's interest.
As you have correctly noted, the MBA degree focuses on certain areas that a degree curriculum in hospitality management would not.
An MBA course prepares students to succeed in business. Its curriculum therefore focuses rigorously on such areas as statistics, decision analysis, strategic marketing, financial accounting, macroeconomics and corporate finances. While your management graduate studies may have dealt with some of these subjects, they wouldn't have to the same extent.
Within the tourism and hospitality industry you would naturally have an edge. The opposite is true for an MBA in a typical corporate hiring situation. It's just a matter of who is the best choice, and the options that the HR personnel have to choose from.
Glenford Smith is a motivational speaker and success strategist.