To do an MBA, or not to do an MBA, that is the question..

I don't often talk about my professional life here on the bliggy-bloggy, but if you want to know a little more about me check out my About Me link.

A few years ago now, I had set myself a personal life goal of completing my MBA by the time I reached 30. So, when my little CC was no more than 6 months old, and I had already gone back to work full-time. I started a part-time, distance-learning MBA.

I completed the course in 2 years, each module was studied over three days and then an assignment and project were set, I also did a final dissertation. It's true to say that I couldn't have completed it without my BB, as there was many a night that I was doing the night shift in the front of the laptop, whilst BB was sleeping and, of course, he looked after little CC whislt I was at university studying.

Graduating was a defining moment, I really felt complete and I was SO looking forward to not studying any more... Ha, ha since then I have completed the Foundation exam in IT Project management, an A+ Hardware exam and just this month I became a Microsoft Certified Professional in SQL Server 2008.

But that's by the by, so what does an MBA give you ? Well, if you're not a manager already, it enables you to see the bigger picture and really understand where your managers are coming from, you now understand their priorities. If you are a manager already, it gives you expertise on all facets of management. Here's the subjects I studied as part of my MBA: Marketing, Financial Management, Finance, Human Resources, Corporate Strategy, Marketing, Project Management, Entrepreneurship, Research and Statistics. My dissertation was about Corporate Social Responsibility Policies in FTSE-250 companies, and whether having such a policy has an impact on share price.

If you are thinking about starting your own business, an MBA will give you everything you need to make it a success, except the idea, of course.

I enjoyed the MBA, I met really interesting people whilst attending the course, and whilst I'm in a job where an MBA is not required, it has to be said that in my current role right now, I use the skills that the MBA gave me every day.

If you are thinking of doing an MBA, my advice would be to go for it !