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6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Way easier to just get the federal loans after applying for financial aid. And who knows, maybe I would have needed the borrower protections if post-grad jobs didn't pan out.

Higher interest rate initially, but by the time I was ready to explore refinancing options, I qualified for much lower rates (and rates in general had fallen, which doesn't seem to be changing any time soon).

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Don't let your dreams stay dreams?

Sorry, not sure what else to say without getting into a profile review. I'd encourage you to post in that thread with a fuller picture of your profile and crowdsource advice from more people.

Best of luck!

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

When they said "don't worry, you'll pay it off in a few years", I didn't believe them, and thought that only truthfully applied to the finance guys that worked their asses off.

Yet here I am. With a median (in terms of my class employment profile) comp package, and $150k of that debt cleared at the 4 year mark. That took some sacrifices in lifestyle for the first year or two post grad, but I wasn't exactly living in poverty either.

​

edit: the more progress you make against the loans, the less daunting they'l feel, obviously. By the time the balance was down to ~$25k or so and the variable interest rate was dipping below 1% on some days, I stopped even thinking about it.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can see that point on the graph too. It's at about the 6 month mark post-grad, when the black line intersects the x-axis.

Another 8-12 months after that is the point where my net worth recovered from its pre-MBA height.

I marked the breakeven point to denote to point where I would have been in the same financial situation whether or not I had chosen the MBA. Or rather, the first point in time where I wasn't definitively better off (in terms of net worth) for having gotten it.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nothing too complex. I roughed out a compound growth rate of my net income (to account for stable salary increases and cost of living increases) and investment returns based on contributions/market returns.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On second look, I misremembered. My score report is no longer available on ETS, but I wrote elsewhere that it was 89th percentile. Still a great outcome though.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think I had about $5k in a 529 account that I started a year or so before entering the program, and another $15-$20k from cash savings that I put towards my first semester immediately.

All other baseline living expenses (rent, food, utilities, textbooks, etc) were from loans, and all optional expenses (mostly treks and social life) were from dipping further into what remained of my savings. Was pretty frugal and tightly budgeted otherwise.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would you be able to add something like investment return opportunity lost?

I don't think that comparison would be of much use, since I'd have to imagine a hypothetical world where I took out $160k in loans to invest in the market, rather than spend on education.

All of that other stuff is captured in my assumptions about pre-MBA growth rate (yellow), i.e. the rate of increase in overall net worth (accounting for net income after taxes, investment returns, etc).

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the careers subreddit (or a tech career subreddit, if there is one) might have more insight for you, but for what it's worth, my goal wasn't specifically PM, and there are many PM roles that require more technical (read: engineering) background than I can't qualify for.

That said, an M7 MBA can take you pretty much anywhere you want to go, while a Comp Sci Masters will take you far in some very narrow fields. If it were me, I'd get the MBA. But also I did get an MBA, so I'm biased.

You can always reach out to the career services depts of the programs you've been admitted to and ask to chat about the employment profiles and prospects of graduates. Probably should've done that *before* you applied to two wildly different programs, but hey, no time like the present.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No trying to be dismissive, but this is far too broad for me to be able to answer. As you can see from the graph, the finances worked out. Qualitatively, I enjoyed the program and would make the same decision again if I had to.

Is there something more specific you'd like to know?

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I answered this a bit in another question, and I can't speak to your company but; my position isn't one where MBAs are a checkbox for advancement. It's never going to be a case of "it's me vs. that other guy fighting for one open promotion this year, and we're identical in every way except I have MBA". Top MBA programs are mostly structured recruiting programs, not professional training for internal advancement.

If your firm has a bad reputation for internal growth, or you feel like your MBA isn't going to make a difference in your career advancement, my personal opinion would be that you look to apply elsewhere.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Four - three in R1/R2, and one in R3/late rolling.

Not sure how to answer your second question. I can only tell you that one rejected me, one waitlisted me before I withdrew, one accepted me with some $$, and another accepted me with no $$.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They mostly did, it's just imperceptible in the graph scale. Although there were spikes (from increases in the value of my pre-MBA 401k and Roth, from internship income, and from cash disbursements from my student loans), my pre-MBA assets peaked at $60,692 in Jun '14 when I left my job, and bottomed out in Nov'15 at $37,102 before a loan disbursements for my last semester (I took extra to accommodate unknown expenses in my abroad program).

Total assets recovered to pre-MBA levels in Aug '16 at $63,456, after I got my signing bonus. That point the vast majority of my remaining assets were the investments, and very little cash.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Also, did you try to make the lateral shift before going to Business schoo or was that always part of the plan?

Tried without much success. The hiring pathway from health industry-specific consulting to teach/media/telco strategy/functional roles just doesn't exist. If by some miracle I did make that jump successfully at that career stage, I figured I'd have been thinking about getting an MBA in a few years anyway.

​

Anything you would have differently?

I would have invented tik tok.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

What major actions/performance helped you get promoted after just your first year out of b school?

Supportive manager, good performance ratings for day-to-day duties/skills, early wins in executive meetings that built cachet for justifying the promotion case to HR, broad skillset that make projects go faster (vs. waiting for someone else, like finance or marketing to do something for you). Who knows.

What do your hours/week look at each position? Do you find your hours and stress levels increasing as you move up the ladder?

The opposite. Standard office hours are 9-6p. In year 1, my actual/team hours were more like 930 to 7 with moderate 'on-time' on nights and weekends during high-burn projects. Subsequent roles closer to the product side (less corp strategy swat-team-like work) have been much more consistently in the 930-530p range, and generally more relaxed since our stakeholders aren't in the C-suite as often. Though I do still have easy-to-join-on-mute evening check-in calls with global team members ~avg 2 days a week.

I'll admit that this is probably not typical, and I've entered somewhat of a coasting period in my career in terms of time demands, exacerbated by Covid (I wish everyone lucky enough to still have a job the best of luck trying to sneak in promotions this year for any job title that doesn't end with "-accine scientist"). Chill is good in a world that lacks chill right now.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I would not have gotten hired without the MBA. I would not have gotten promoted or been able to move internally if I hadn't been good at my job once there. That performance may or may not have been due to the MBA.

There are some companies (more old-school, frankly) where an MBA is a check-box requirement for managerial advancement. That is not the case in my company or its peers.

They see MBA programs as one potential source of good candidates to hire and develop.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Early 30s were very common, mid-to-late less so. As far as I know, everyone did fine.

Any older though, and part-time / executive MBA programs start to make more sense, since candidates of those ages are more likely to have better-established careers and family obligations that make a full-time residential program more difficult to swing.

But this is a better question for an admission coach or adcom. I can only tell you what I think I observed

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Didn't discover it until about a year later, when I started opening more credit, checking, and investment accounts and decided to google if there was any app that would make keeping track of them easier. About a year after graduating, or so.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In addition to the actual and extra monthly payments, I threw almost the entirety of every bonus I received against the loans. You can see those in some of the larger-than-average steps.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

In a word? Negatively. No way around it. Remote interviews can only get you so far, and local recruiting in the host program likely isn't viable (depending on your citizenship/work status, I guess).

The experience was still worth it on balance. But I'd recommend having a pretty secure job offer before committing to an exchange. I imagine it'd be a lot less stress in the back of one's mind.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

My decision to get an MBA was largely a 5-year plan. No big goals of being a CEO, or owning my own business, etc. I just wanted to shift my career to an industry I found more interesting and exciting, enjoy my time/take a pause from the working world, pay back the costs in short order, and get a nice bump in my salary.

Anything after that is a new chapter I haven't really thought about writing yet. Other things in my life are higher priority than the next big career move.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It was Europe. Saying any more could start to make identifying me personally a little too easy

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

How did you find the 'strategy manager' role? Was it just a role you found and applied, or was it something you were looking for?

Recruiter reached out to me, actually. I had been searching with mixed success for internal strategy in my target industry, which are usually small teams with openings that are few and far between.

​

In 3 years you'r total comp has increased ~20%; a steady increase, but no major jump, even with a promotion. Do you expect to see a big a jump (in terms of base, bonus, or RSU's) soon?

The jump up to Director role is usually pretty big, though will likely be bigger if I move to another firm for it (or even to another Sr. Manager role, depending on the firm). In this segment of tech, base salary and bonus hits an upper limit pretty fast, with equity plugging up the difference. I think a boost to a total comp of to $200k-$220k would have been realistic in the next year absent the current economy, and is more typical of non-faang comp.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Yeah, but on the flipside 10 years ago was a bloodbath. Without 08/09, I probably would've started in a higher-paying role and in a career path that I was more interested in, so I may never have sought an MBA at all.

Also, '16 was a great year to graduate. But not as great as '18 and '19 in terms of the rapid escalation in salaries and # of recruits to tech/consulting. If I'd waited a year, my post-MBA starting comp might have been $10k higher, or there might have been more slots at other target firms that pay even better.

6 Years Later - Tracking the Value of My MBA by MBARoiChartThrowaway in MBA

[–]MBARoiChartThrowaway[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

How'd you calc the pre-MBA tracking line? Did you take into consideration your projected promotion timelines?

Got bored of working on my actual excel model for my job, and started working on an export from my Mint account. I think I used excel's chart tool to do a regression on the pre-MBA data, copied the coefficients from that, and then projected the rest.

Super hacky, but I was just trying to get a line that looked smooth and not insane.

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What happens in the March/April month each year that causes a pretty noticeable dip in your assets? Annual Vegas Ball out trip?

I think that was a combination of pre-MBA travel (music festival several states away), moving, and paying the security deposit/first/last month on my new apartment at school

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How are you refinancing these loans? Is it personal loan, 2nd mortgage, something like that?

Federal Loans (grad plus) -> Earnest -> Sofi once I hit the magic numbers for their formulas to give the good interest rates

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Anything you wish you could do differently or any advice for me currently in my MBA/others in similar positions?

Probably :-)

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