Choosing a UK MBA

Dear reader,


Taking a cue from the post by Goks, let me tell you a bit about how you can go about choosing a B-School in UK.


The first thing that comes to mind when you think of doing an MBA is what are the post-MBA job prospects. I am sure at this stage when you are researching B-Schools you are reading up almost every available info on how much the last batch in each of these schools netted as post-MBA starting salary. Let me tell you that the median salary for a Strathclyde full-time MBA after 2 years of graduation is about £65,000 per annum (this is amongst the top 1% of salary earners in UK). The median salary for executive MBA may be higher since the students in the course have an average work-ex of 10 years. For the full-time MBA on the other hand the minimum work-ex required for making an application is 3 years.


Post-MBA salary varies due to several factors like industry sector, location within UK and most importantly your previous work-experience. If you want to work in UK after your MBA, be aware that the firms here lay a strong emphasis on previous UK work-experience. It would be advantageous if you have prior UK work experience. If you are from any other country without UK-experience it would be good to have experience in a large MNC which has presence in UK. I am not saying that the work you did in your previous company is not important and its all about the brand. What I am trying to emphasize is an employer here feels comfortable if they know the name of your previous company simply because they then understand the metrics used to evaluate your performance. So for example if you were working for HSBC as opposed to some regional firm they would immediately understand the nature of your work and the applicable standards which dont differ much from country to country.


Choice of industry also plays a big role in the post-MBA salary. Typically the banking and Finance sector pays the highest followed by Management Consulting. However if you have special skill-sets (eg. SAP, 6 Sigma) or experience (eg. in Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy) then you can claim higher salaries in other industries.


Choice of location is also very important. You would hear from people that jobs in England pay higher than in Scotland. However thats not entirely true. If you are in the Oil and Gas Sector, Aberdeen is the place to be. London and Edinburgh are better for jobs in Banking and Finance. Manchester is good for advertising jobs. If you go to monster.co.uk or reed.co.uk you can access industry wise / location wise salary trends in UK.


While earning potential is a very important criteria for choosing a B-School over another, there can be several other considerations like course structure, fee, location etc.


For course structure and fee refer to individual websites of B-Schools. How much you are willing to invest and what kind of course structure you are looking at is a very personal issue and I can't guide you there. Take location into consideration too since Scotland is colder than southern UK and the weather is filthier with constant rains and gloomy sky. But then if you ask me I loved my days in Glasgow and I know someone who swears by Lancaster. So do some background research before you finalize.


One last thing you should be aware of is the relative ranking of B-Schools according to Financial Times. Opinion expressed by FT is taken very seriously in the corporate sector so the ranking is a good thing to refer to.


You can access 2008 FT rankings here:

http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-rankings