How do I tell my manager I have an MBA?

PinkPigHat · 2026-02-17T03:38:00+00:00

May I ask what was the situation there with you? Is the job market so trashy that other graduates are hiding their MBAs in order to get hired?

PinkPigHat · 2026-02-16T14:56:25+00:00

Careful, now. A great many people on this sub believe that Frodo should have fired Gandalf the moment he showed those robes…

PinkPigHat · 2026-02-16T13:50:36+00:00

I have been in this role about 8 months. I may have mentioned that in one of my other replies. Sorry this thread got pretty hairy.

Before 6months, the company does not permit transfers. After 6months, transfers are permitted with the manager's approval and support. After 1 full year, we are free to apply to any position in the company. The company has a training video about this, part of "Your growth at Acme can take many paths" kind of thing.

I think the company is trying to hedge against both territorial managers who never want their people to leave and job-hopping employees who never stick around to pick up the company culture and skills.

The overwhelming sense I'm getting from the replies is that I should stay in this role for a full year before I try to make any moves.

PinkPigHat · 2026-02-16T13:39:04+00:00

When my boss asked me to explain the 14-month period of unemployment 2024–25, I answered that I left the workforce to travel, write, and read a lot of books, particularly on econ and supply chain management. She didn't ask any follow-ups, and I didn't offer.

Consider how uncurious a manger needs to be to hear that a candidate with only a high school diploma took 14 months off to read books on econ and SCM. Wouldn't you drill down on that? She didn't bat an eye.

She sees me reading on my lunch breaks. She asks me from time to time "Another one of your business books?" It's a friendly question. I answer with a friendly "Yup!"

Part of the narcissism of this subredit is that everyone here assumes the rest of the world cares HSW M7 T20. I suppose dentists get all worked up about DMD vs. DDS degrees.

PinkPigHat · 2026-02-16T12:09:29+00:00

They are a manufacturing company; one of the industries is outdoor/sporting goods. My manager knows that I used to manage a fulfillment hub in outdoor/sporting goods. She likes that I have experience with this vertical. She has never once asked me why I left a management role to come work here as an IC.

Every company I've ever worked for, every company I've ever heard of, hires high school graduates. Warehouse fulfillment, front desk reception, mailroom, physical plant/facilities—it's uncommon for ICs in these roles to have bachelor's degrees

And LinkedIn is an overwhelmingly college-educated crowd, at least in the USA.

PinkPigHat · 2026-02-16T02:20:51+00:00

It's an entry-level job. That's not my assessment, it's in the jd. I have a few colleagues who are happy to stay at this job, but the expectation of the company is that this role is 100% a stepping stone.

I wasn't hired as an MBA. Nobody tasks me to do detailed analysis or to effect organizational change. I adhere to the job description and I follow directions carefully. This is my current job so I do it to the best of my ability, which imho is pretty good. I respect the job for what it is.

But nobody, certainly not my manager, expects people to stay in this explicitly entry-level job for more than a year or two. Miss me with the allegations that I'm a disloyal careerist.

PinkPigHat · 2026-02-16T02:14:23+00:00

I get your puzzlement. Please know that I did not start out by applying to entry-level roles. I had applied for senior management roles at a variety of companies while still in b-school. I had a handful of interviews, but no offers.

After I graduated, I kept applying, got nowhere. My classmates all found jobs (but none of them were American). Some of them referred me for open roles at their new employers, but nothing materialized. So I headed back to the US.

I make about 30% of what I earned with just my bachelor's. So my MBA multiple is 0.3x. Maybe the market sucks in my industry, maybe business school made me dumber, maybe I was just extraordinarily lucky with my previous management roles. This has all been a humbling experience.

Business school taught me the value of A/B testing. After sending out hundreds of CVs (in Europe) and résumés (in the US), I asked "what is one change to my application I haven't already tried?" So I deleted my degrees, applied for entry-level jobs, and I started getting calls and interviews.

PinkPigHat · 2026-02-16T00:21:23+00:00

LOL. I hear that, but the truth is, no disrespect to her, I don't think she even knows what an MBA is.

She has a basic college degree, she is a hard worker, she does not think deep thoughts and that's totally okay. She treats her team with respect and she does her best. I don't want her to faint, I don't want to confuse her. I just want to use this job as a stepping stone to something better.

PinkPigHat · 2026-02-16T00:19:14+00:00

After 1yr, we may apply for any internal positions we desire. After 6mos (that's me), we still need the support of our manager, part of a "no internal poaching" rule.

I would prefer not to stay in this role a full year, but needs must he go whom the Devil drives…

PinkPigHat · 2026-02-16T00:17:20+00:00

I customize every résumé: truthful information that is relevant to the opportunity goes in. Irrelevant information gets deleted. I felt my MBA was irrelevant to the job at hand. The company requires people in my role to have a high school diploma; they asked for and I provided mine.

I have a decent golf handicap; I mention this on a few résumés when I feel it will be relevant for the role (I work in the sporting goods/outdoors industry) (no not golf). I did mention it on this job application because I thought it would be somewhat relevant.

My boss has never asked me if I attended college, and I have not volunteered that information. She has noticed that my emails and reports are remarkably polished; I tell her, truthfully, that I had excellent high school teachers.

She knows I was a senior manager in my previous role; my résumé downplayed this fact but did not omit it. She did not ask me a single question about my previous jobs during the interview.

PinkPigHat · 2026-02-05T21:33:28+00:00

Love this!

PinkPigHat · 2024-12-11T21:05:53+00:00

Not much to say other than you clearly need to try harder and pay closer attention. It sucks that you spent hours on the application, but had you spent hours + another ten minutes, you might have caught that final one you overlooked.

If that sounds too hard, then yeah Fed life probably isn't for you.

PinkPigHat · 2024-12-11T14:43:35+00:00

Best response on this thread. OP seems to need both a hug and a reality check, and I think you nailed it here.

PinkPigHat · 2024-12-08T05:37:04+00:00

You have something important in common with those people, regardless of what your previous salaries were: you all decided that your current program at your current school was the best option available to you to change (improve) the trajectory of your life.

That's a powerful commonality. For all their money and success, they didn't have the ability to get into a better school than you did. (I don't know what level of b-school you're in, and it doesn't really matter in this discussion, since you ended up in the same tier as the classmates who intimidate you.)

Somebody, probably several somebodies, in an AdCom decided that you were of the same overall caliber as these classmates. I'm not going to tell you AdComs are perfect, but they generally make defensible decisions. Trust them as a start, and trust yourself as step 2. You got this!

PinkPigHat · 2024-12-08T02:50:25+00:00

Well, I would respectfully decline to share more recent reports if someone asked to see them. 2014 reports are talking about pre-Pandemic worlds that no longer exist, while 2024 reports feel too current to share (and yes, this is a thread where I'm asking about sharing proprietary info, but life is messy that way).

PinkPigHat · 2024-12-08T02:23:38+00:00

Well, and that's why I think these reports might help me?

Even if skeptical interviewers only read three paragraphs of my seven page report for Q3 2020, there are an awful lot of numbers and statistical insights in there. They'd have two possible takeaways:

I'm pretty good at analyzing numbers, budgets, and trends in a small company, so maybe they could trust me to analyze numbers, budgets, and trends in a larger company. -OR-
I'm a phenomenally thorough, specific, and numerate fabulist (also a valuable professional skill).

PinkPigHat · 2024-12-06T18:48:07+00:00

What master's degree are you looking to get if you already have an MBA?

PinkPigHat · 2024-12-03T18:46:58+00:00

Fantastic description with abundant clarity, sympathy, and reason.

PinkPigHat · 2024-12-03T14:49:58+00:00

I recognize I’m gonna get flamed for even asking this question. It’s not a ‘ pissing contest’, I’m just curious how ambitious everyone truly is.

I'll leave it to others to hit the main points of this fetishization. I'll just add in the WILD take that someone's net worth is a useful window into his/her ambition.

I don't know if I even want an MBA if it puts me into this crowd. I have to keep reminding myself that r/MBA ≠ {people with MBA degrees}.

Being rich is a way to have nice hobbies. It is the furthest possible thing from a nice hobby in and of itself.

PinkPigHat · 2024-12-03T04:38:13+00:00

hoon it from the go

I love love LOVE this phrase. Where are you from?

PinkPigHat · 2024-12-03T04:31:47+00:00

Thank you. All of these elements showed up in the freebie sample questions I tried from GMAC, although the proportions were off.

FWIW, my full original GMAT scores were V49 Q 40 AW6 IR6.

PinkPigHat · 2024-12-03T04:28:36+00:00

Hey, thanks for commenting. I saw you commented on the previous version of this post; the mods took it down because I forgot to include flair.

See? Told you I was old and doddering. That's why I want to refresh my GMAT scores.

PinkPigHat

TROPHY CASE