The Benefits of an Online MBA

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they have to decide. Whether you are in full-time employment or have just finished a bachelor’s degree, you might be thinking about whether or not to take a Master’s in Business Administration. Usually ranked as one of the most useful degrees around, there are a whole host of benefits that you can accrue by taking part in one. To help you think about whether or not this is the right decision for you, this guide has been created. It will discuss the benefits of getting an MBA in general and explain why it might be a better decision for you to do it online as opposed to in person. Read on now to learn all about it.

Chance To Command Higher Wages

One of the biggest draws in taking an MBA is the fact that you can command a much higher salary than people who do not take part in an MBA. In fact, according to this article by Fortune, taking part in an MBA means that your salary is likely to be 75% higher than just taking a traditional bachelor’s degree, with the average salary for graduates clocking in at a very generous $115,000. As a result, this means that you will be able to have a more comfortable and affordable life than someone who has only studied for a bachelor’s.

Bigger Sense of Authority

When working in a competitive field, it can be difficult to project a sense of authority. If you have an online MBA, however, you can walk into a business meeting and immediately have people respect you for the work that you have achieved. As an MBA is no walk in the park and requires a lot of work, people will understand that you are hard-working, dedicated, and willing to see a task through to its finish line. This means that you may also be able to progress in your career a lot easier than someone who does not have that experience and will be seen by others not to have the necessary skills that make them worthy of a promotion.

Build Leadership Abilities

The business world needs leaders. Thankfully for you, the diverse skill set involved in an MBA means that you are taught to think like a leader. Not only do you learn about previous examples, for example, business visionaries like Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs who were able to find their own companies and make them a success, but you are given the tools to learn your own pilot projects, getting the opportunity to practice what leadership is like. An MBA also gives you the necessary opportunity and safe space to fail, allowing you to understand what actually works in the business world and what does not.

Better Job Security

Whether it’s the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which has been estimated to have caused at least 47 million job losses, or the great recession, that job you may believe is very secure — for example, it is at a company that has a great track record and accountability procedures — can dissipate in just a few moments. That is why it is so important to make yourself absolutely essential to the company’s success. By having an MBA, you can prove to those around you that you are someone who can weather these types of challenges and make the company better, as a result, thus giving you a far better chance of actually retaining your job in the long run.

Diverse Specializations

Taking part in an MBA is not only for aspiring business leaders, CEOs, or business consultants. Instead, it can be combined with a whole host of topics that spans not just the traditional paths such as accounting and consulting but almost every industry imaginable. The types of different MBAs that you can take part in include, but are not limited, to:

• General Management
• Airport Management
• Accounting
• Non-Profit Management
• Media and Entertainment
• Sports Management
• Healthcare
• HR Management
• Event Management
• Fashion Management
• Design Management
• IT and Technology Management
• Operations Management
• Marketing
• Entrepreneurship

Simply put, this means that when you take an MBA, there are a whole host of careers that you could later go into, whether or not you want to become an employee of a big business or start your own.

The Tools to Start Your Own Company

An MBA is all about creating an entrepreneur mindset, following those who had the vision to start their own companies that have managed to shape the world. With new companies specializing in delivery, transportation, and more coming out in the past few years, one can see the opportunity to come up with the idea that is truly transformative in the business world. With an MBA, one can learn about starting their own company, finding ways to scale it, and making it a success. There is a strong likelihood that you will be studying actual use cases in detail, getting to grips behind what makes some companies break out and what causes others to falter at the first hurdle. This means that if one does create a solid business, there is the opportunity to make a serious amount of money.

Find a Great Network

No one ever makes a great business just by themselves. Instead, they have to collaborate with many other people to work together on different ideas that help their business be a genuine success. When working on an online MBA, you can find like-minded people who are just as smart and as driven as you and find future colleagues to work together with in the future. Additionally, due to the different types of speakers you might see come to your institution, you will have a direct connection to great business leaders. Just remember that when you are taking part in an MBA, that it is very important to add everyone on LinkedIn and get to know them personally at different events.

Benefits of an Online MBA vs. a Traditional MBA

In the previous section of this article, the aim was to outline the benefits of an MBA in general, from career prospects to entrepreneurial possibilities. These days there are two different ways of doing an MBA, online or in-person. While online degrees were not so popular 20 years ago, they have risen in prominence, especially in the past 18 months due to the reaction to the coronavirus pandemic. Read on now to read a whole host of reasons as to why an online MBA may be more beneficial to you than a traditional one.

Balance it Around Your Other Commitments

We all have busy lives, often having to work jobs, take part in relationships, look after our children, and have some space for self-care in the process. This means that taking part in an MBA in person is simply not feasible for many over-stretched people. The wonder of an online MBA is that you can take part in it while balancing it around other commitments. This is great if you do not want to burn out while trying to do too much at once. However, if you are interested in what has been written so far and would like to take part in an online MBA, Suffolk University offers some brilliant online MBA programs in Boston that can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

Stay in Employment Throughout

People do not want to quit their jobs to take up a degree as much as they used to. With degrees becoming more expensive, it can be rather cost-prohibitive to leave a career to take part in a degree instead. Due to the flexibility that online MBAs offer, however, one can learn more about the business world while not having to leave their job at all. This means that you can retain a lot more money over a longer period.

Work With a Global Network

Earlier in this article, it was argued that an MBA gives you a great network of people to collaborate with on business ideas. This is even more powerful when it comes to an online MBA because you can access a network of people worldwide, spanning from Boston to Belgrade to Bangalore. Moreover, as you will be meeting people from all over the world, you will be able to learn more about other cultures, making it perfect if you are looking to take part in a business that communicates with other countries. Simply put, in a globalized world, online MBAs offer far more opportunities than in-person ones.

More Cost-Effective

One barrier to people actually coming to take part in an MBA is the high price involved, often stretching out into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, broadly speaking, an online MBA is a much cheaper option, meaning that you will be saddled with less debt when you finally graduate. Additionally, companies that offer online MBAs often have more generous packages when it comes to actually paying off the money owed. With that said, it is also worth taking a look at federal help when it comes to finding the financial help to complete an online MBA.

Less Prone to Disruption

The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the last eighteen months has taught us how difficult it can be to expect certainty in the future. As a result of this uncertainty and many people wanting to skill up during lockdown, online MBAs have risen rather significantly in popularity. The coronavirus, however, is just one example of a global event outside our control that can cause massive disruption. This means that when you study online, you can expect to have far more control over what you are studying while knowing that it is very unlikely for your course to suddenly be canceled for any reason.

No Need to Relocate

While young people flock to universities due to their lifestyle, for many older people wanting to retrain after a break, this is not an attractive option. With roots in your own neighborhood and comfortable living amongst family and friends, moving across the country (or even moving to another country) can seem like a huge effort. Thankfully, if you decide to opt for an online MBA instead, you can take part in it from the safety of your own home. This also means that there is:

No Need to Commute

Commuting is often the bane of many people’s lives. Whether they are traveling by car or via public transport, events such as delays, or heavy traffic can turn this experience into a slog. This is further exacerbated by fears over catching the coronavirus when traveling. This is not something one has to worry about when taking part in an online MBA, as the only commute you have to do is form your own bed to your computer to get started. The only part to bear in mind is that just because you are working from home does not mean that you are working any less; expect a heavy workload and lots of tasks to complete while taking part in an online MBA.

Conclusion

This guide has been created to give a complete overview as to why an MBA can be a great choice for your career and outline the benefits of studying for an online MBA as opposed to taking part in one in person. As you can see, there are a whole host of amazing benefits for studying for an online MBA, namely more flexibility and the ability to study while not compromising on other parts of your life. If you would like to take part in an online MBA, there are a whole host of great options available. Take a look around to see which kind of MBA would work best for you and your family. If you struggle to decide, make a list of pros and cons about each choice that you are drawn to and weigh up the options, everything like cost, location, ease of accessibility, online or in person all count toward that all-important decision.