Best MBA Alternatives
Having a Master’s degree is quite essential for you to advance in your profession, widen your perspective, help you manage your time effectively, boost your organizational skills, and punctually meet deadlines.
MBA, “Masters of Business Administration” is a renowned field of study that helps one to accelerate his or her business skills, by skilfully integrating theoretical skills with practical skills.
The main aim of this program is helping students gain a great perspective into getting a basic idea of the real-world work problems, as well as helping them develop intellectual, and well-grounded rational skills.
The global business environment these days is indeed, quite challenging, and one needs to get an insight into certain business functional areas like marketing, management, accounting, and finance to be able to tactfully deal with such complexities.
What is MBA?
It’s a postgraduate educational program that gives one a brief idea about many of the management practices that any graduate would most likely be unaware of.
This course is just the right choice for you, if you see yourself growing rapidly in the fields of Finance, Business, HR, Operations, Information Technology, and Rural Management.
Tired of rote learning through heavy books, and wish to be taught through a variety of interesting case studies, and practical examples? MBA is the apt program for you!
Why would you go for MBA?
Going for MBA can help you boost your leadership skills, problem-solving and coherent skills, and can help you develop a good rapport, and an alliance with your peers, as well as with your seniors.
If you’ve been someone who has been hesitant to take up new initiatives, then MBA might interest you, as it’d help in pushing you to become a person who’s well-versed with strategic thinking, and drafting skills.
Also, many recruiters mostly hire students with a Master’s degree in any field of their choice and tend to offer them higher pay packages as well.
What factors might add second thoughts to your mind, and make you resistant towards opting for MBA?
A few years ago, MBA was the to-do field of study for every student who wished to incorporate excellent business skills in their to-do-lists and aspired for a good amount of salary.
However, this is not the case now as most of the people find themselves faced with a common difficulty that pertains to whether or not, they should be actually going for a thing like ‘MBA?’ Are you one of those people, too?
Let’s discuss them, one by one.
It often happens that you’re too excited about getting a head start with the MBA course, but the ‘cost factor’ makes you want to reconsider your choice. £15,000 to £70,000 is the amount of tuition fees that you’d be expected to pay, excluding the cost of other knowledgeable textbooks, your accommodation facilities, and the basic amenities that you would be requiring.
Studying MBA involves deliberate consistency, determination, and sincerity. It’s a course that spans over a maximum of two years, and a minimum of one year.
If you’re planning to study, as well as work, then you would have to be more careful in terms of managing your time well; giving sufficient time to your near and dear ones, and accordingly segregating your ‘professional’, and ‘personal’ life.
Studying MBA after gaining a good amount of work experience is beneficial for you in the long run, as you would already be knowing certain analytical skills; can understand the case and practical concepts in a much clearer way than anyone who has an ordinary mental approach to such topics.
If you’re competing against several other candidates, your work experience could add wonders to your admission procedure.
Also, having a work experience means that you could help yourself through the ever-mounting worries of heavy expenses, that spent while studying MBA.
What are the alternatives to MBA, and how have they gained prominence in the last few years?
According to the GMAC, application rises of up to 58% were reported by MiM programs that are based in Europe- the hub of MiM programs. Other alternatives consist of MSc in the fields of Marketing, Finance, International Business, Entrepreneurship, MS in Data Analytics, and Masters in Engineering Management.
Thus, there are a variety of MBA alternatives, which can be easily acquired by you without even having prior experience of MBA, and without having the guarantee of gaining a permanent monetary security.
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Specialized Masters in Business
What is it?
A specialized master’s program is an apt choice, if you intend to gain an in-depth; rich, and detailed understanding into domains, like marketing, account, or finance.
What are its benefits?
- Career advancement
Who doesn’t like to recruit, or hire anyone who has gained a deeper understanding of the workings of business-related domains? If you already have such a background and aren’t totally new to such a business-like, and tech-savvy environment, there’s no way that you wouldn’t be benefited from your educational degree.
- You get to choose your mode of studying and the duration of the course
If you don’t wish to tire yourself by actually going to your centre of study, and paying attention to boring lectures, you could even opt for an online mode, and subsequently, go for an online, or offline course, depending on your comfort level.
- Focused on only one area
You get to discover your area of interest, and accordingly, develop an expertise in that particular field, and such a specialization aims at pushing you further; making the field more interesting, meaningful, simpler, and rich for you.
The Top Alternative Programs for MBA
You’ll find some of the top-most specialized masters business programs along with their growth rate, being mentioned below: –
MSc in Finance
A masters in Finance could roughly last from 1-2 years, depending on the area in which you prefer to study. The aim of it is to give an edge to highly skilled financial undergraduates; to develop a knack for working financially in the workplace, and to make oneself adapt thoroughly in the financial sector.
Salary
The average salary for an undergraduate is more than 93000 USD. Within 3 months proceeding graduation, the employment rate could be around 98%, out of which a variety of 2 to 5 job offers are showcased in front of 63% of undergraduates.
Job Areas
One can go in the Financial Service Sector that includes insurance firms, pension funds, commercial banks, auditing, or mutual funds.
MSc in Entrepreneurship
If you are keen to come up with a start-up, or assist any of your family members with the family business, then this is the right choice for you! Even if you’re an entrepreneur already, and wish to expand your business further, you could go for this course, and further renew your innovative side by dealing with interesting policies.
Salary
The average salary for an undergraduate is more than 92000 USD. Within 4 months proceeding graduation, the employment rate could be around 97%, out of which more than 2 job offers are showcased in front of 65% of undergraduates.
Job areas
One can go in the Financial sector, or the Audit sector. One could also try his, or her hand at various consulting agencies.
MSc in Marketing
This course will help you in delving deep into areas like ‘demand and supply’, make you more market-oriented, and understand the mindset of your specific-target consumers, and what do they really expect from a seller.
Salary
The average salary is 38K Euros.
Job areas
One can opt for Financial Accounting, Data Analytics, Digital Business, and Sales Management.
MSc in International Business
This course helps one to try to get a hold on Global Economy, International Marketing, International Finance, International Human Resource Management, and the basic working of International Trade, that confines itself to exports and imports.
Salary
It could vary, according to the industry. $58,000 could be regarded as the average annual salary. However, if you perform exceptionally well, you could expect an increment of up to $124,900.
Job areas
A lot of options, including the posts of a Management Analyst, International Accountant, International Economist, International Banker, Human Resource Adviser (International Management), Global Marketing Manager, Global analytics leader etc. could be considered for anyone who has done specialization in this course.
Masters in Management (MiM)
What is it like?
It’s a post-graduate degree that will help you be familiar with areas like Finance, Marketing, Consulting, and Entrepreneurship at quite a young age, if you want to. You read that right! Even if you have zero amount of work experience, you could opt for this course, and ace it eventually, as many students are initially quite confused, as to what do they wish to pursue in their lives. Don’t worry! Stream-changing doesn’t sound so bizarre, once you start studying such a course.
Benefits of studying this course:
1)Appearing for GMAT isn’t mandatory:
This serves as an advantage to those who aren’t confident enough to clear the GMAT or believe that they just don’t have an aptitude to enter such a field. In this way, it encourages everyone and almost anyone to register themselves for this course.
2)Budget-friendly:
It is much cheaper than an official MBA degree, and also, helps those students who don’t have enough work experience to pay for their course, accommodation, and other basic amenities.
3)International recognition:
Traveling and learning tend to break the monotony while making learning more fun, enriching, and meaningful. The courses that are offered abroad helps the students in expanding their limits of knowledge, exploring various places, and perceiving the world with an original, and a fresh perspective.
4)Management-oriented:
Analytical, mathematical, and logical skills will be helping you in taking up leadership responsibilities; for instance, a manager. All your focus will most likely be on management, and you won’t have to worry about other areas that don’t seem to interest you.
5)Job Prospects and Career Progression:
You could choose from a number of areas, like Finance, Marketing, Banking, Operations, and Consulting; choose the one that fascinates you the most. The salaries constitute to be a fairly good amount of around 45,000-50,000 Euros, in general. Henceforth, to put it in a nutshell, it offers a good ROI, that is, Return of Investment. Mentioned below are some of the approximate salaries for some of the popular courses that students usually go for.
- MSc in Finance- $80,310 to $85,309 per year approximately.
- MSc in Marketing-$93,867 – $101,901 per year approximately.
- MSc in Entrepreneurship- $39,000 which drastically increases over up to $86,000 with an experience of 5-8 years.
- MSc in Data Analytics- $35,000 – $45,000 per year
Thus, the degree mentioned above could be your go-to choice, if you wish to embark on new challenges in life, and further enhance your strategical, logical, and coherent skillset.