What an MBA tells recruiters about you

BOSS, Financial Review, September, 2015, p 29-31 and Online Australian Financial Review

Andrew Horsley, director of boutique search firm, Horsley & Co, used his MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management to move from law into consulting.  He’s a big believer in business management education, but says that after almost 30 years in executive search, an MBA has never been the deciding factor for him when ranking job candidates.

“It’s always nice to see that a candidate has gone to a good business school, it means they’ve had that discipline,” he says.  “But it’s certainly not fatal if you don’t have an MBA.  It will always come down to how you’ve performed, your reputation and how much of a contribution you will make to the business.  The key is to be energetic, focused, forward looking and have a vision and a view.  An MBA gives you the enabling tools to help you realise that vision and the future for the business, it can help you with the stepping stones, but it is of decreasing importance as you get more senior.

Real life experience wins hands down.  What have you done with your talent in the real world?  Employers don’t want a highly educated nincompoop.”