Is An MBA Needed For Creating A Rewarding Finance Career?

Do you want to pursue a career in finance? Are you thinking about getting an MBA? Will an MBA degree boost your employability and offer you excellent career opportunities in the financial services sector? Let’s have a look...

MBA For A Finance Career

An MBA in finance will provide you some great opportunities to start your finance career. You can work in multinational corporations as a financial analyst, financial advisor or an accountant. To help aspirants achieve their career goals, globally reputed B-schools like London Business School, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Business School are currently inviting applications for the MBA programmes they offer. But can an MBA degree actually help you in building your finance career? Or is it just a waste of your money?

Most people believe that simply by getting an MBA you will be able to amp up your career. However, the fact is the progress of your career basically depends on your skills, abilities, knowledge and experience. However, an MBA qualification can definitely open up new doors to better opportunities. It depends on you how you make the most of these opportunities and use your skills in the workplace.

Is An MBA Enough?

Your MBA education will prepare you to start your finance career with confidence and knowledge so that you can add value to your company. To make the most of your MBA degree you will need to possess intelligence, specific skill sets, experience and money or the capacity to take student loans. Moreover, you also need to make the right connections with the right people so that you can work in the best positions in financial services.

According to the efinancialcareers CV database, it has been observed that if you wish to make your career in trading, then there isn’t any sense in pursuing an expensive MBA programme. Apparently, merely 7 per cent of trading professionals who have posted their resume on efinancialcareers database in the last one year posses an MBA degree.

Why You Need An MBA

An MBA can significantly help your career if you are planning to build your career in the investment banking division or IBD as more than 15 per cent professionals in this field have an MBA qualification. In the United States, MBAs are particularly widespread in this sector with almost 19 per cent IBD professionals with MBA degrees, as compared to 13 per cent in Europe.

Furthermore, if you plan on working in private equity in the future, then spending huge loads of money on your MBA can be worthwhile. The private equity sector comprises of the highest volume of MBA qualified professionals in financial services, with American private equity firms with the most MBA graduates. However, it was found that MBA graduates comprise of only 19 per cent and 22 per cent of the total PE populations respectively.

So if you are planning on building a rewarding career in the financial services sector, then you should consider the fact that most of the professionals in the financial services sector are not MBA qualified.

How Online Education Can Help Your School Provide Better Learning Opportunities?

In the last few years online education has become an integral part of the learning experience as more and more students from around the world are now pursuing online programmes. However, there is still some scepticism remaining among a segment of education experts and institutions. Some educators believe that online learning provides valuable education and significant teacher-student interaction. On the other hand, some teachers think that online education is inferior to traditional classroom learning and contest associations with external for-profit providers.

Implementing Online Learning

For instance, most of the faculty at the School of International Service at American University were apprehensive about collaborating with an external provider to deliver online graduate education. Most of the teachers wondered how learners could benefit by not attending face-to-face interaction with professors. However, as the online programmes were implemented, the educators discovered that digital learning has its own set of benefits and could actually help students learn better.

But a huge investment of innovation and resources is required to achieve success and to make sure that institutes meet their objectives. This is important as administrators and faculty are committed to teach those learners who are unable attend on-campus classes for different reasons like location problems, family or professional responsibilities etc.

TheSchool of International Service introduced an online master's degree course in International Relations (MAIR) in May 2013. Now over 100 students have already taken part in real-time online classes from more than 13 nations and 26 states. Around 33 per cent of the students are either retired or active duty retired U.S. military. The school manages the admissions, offers curriculum and course content and organises with the university to determine different policies regarding the online programme.

Offering The Right Platform

The educators and faculty take around 7 to 9 months to prepare for the online course, which includes developing study materials so that the learners can study at their own pace by watching videos, lectures, simulations and presentations.

The institute has also collaborated with 2U, which offers online platforms and allows educators to provide live and pre-prepared coursework. Both students and teachers have said the online programmes offer high levels of satisfaction. A recent survey in the school found that around 94 per cent students claimed that the online master's programme is highly recommendable and they would surely suggest it to a friend.

Merging On-Campus And Online Learning

The school eventually invited online learners to the campus for an immersion programme in September. For the first time, students met with their fellow learners in person, whom they have met via their online programmes. The students also interacted with the faculty face-to-face and participated in academic and career advising sessions.

Although there are many challenges in developing and delivering an effective online master's degree programme, but with the right technological platform and trained professors and faculty, any institution can achieve its goals.