Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

A Master in Business Administration - by definition is generalist degree in Business. Depending on the school you go to to pursue this degree, you will have opportunity for gathering advanced knowledge in a variety of areas and to collect a broad toolbox of tools to prepare you for a variety of careers including accounting, marketing, IT management, sales management, manufacturing management, general management, HR, health administration, consulting, entrepreneurship, engineering, etc. Where you go with it largely depends on your undergraduate background and experience. If you have a BS in business (or a BA to a lesser degree), and with your sales background, marketing is within your grasp while the other pursuits will take much more effort and probably additional classes to reach. IT management, engineering management, and health management will be a stretch and with just a couple years experience, general management likely will not be in the cards for a while.

Rather than to blindly pick an MBA or a degree category first, I'd recommend that you look around you and decide what it is that you would like to do with your career. Look at people around you who are in those positions and then find out what it takes to get into that position. Interview the person (or persons) and find out what their background is from an educational and experience standpoint and what they attribute their success to. Armed with this, you can chart your course.

The good news is that you are young and no matter what degree and next career move you make, you will make many opportunities ahead of you to change the course. It may be hard for you from your point of view to select THE path to your career satisfaction. But, don't worry about that. Just take a path that looks good now. If that includes an MBA, that's a versatile degree and can benefit you for many career choices.

I hope this helps.

Wayde

You can always specialize in your MBA with Marketing this will help you position yourself into more senior positions.

it all depends on the school you plan to attend to pursue your degree. A Master of Science in Business will give you a broad view including Finance, Marketing and Sales, Management and Project Management. Other options may be available such as Export Management. The Master of Science degree is generally a one year program. Then in a similar period you can get a specialization getting deeper into those fields to obtain the MBA.
What Wayde says is very reasonable as you are young and can always get a new opportunity to move.
As the world is now it seems that the Marketing area from an export point of view is an attractive and challenging field. Of course it will always depend on your own views and your plans for the future. One thing I can tell you very frankly, do not set aside a strong knowledge of Finance. You will always need it to understand the economics of the business when planning your marketing. It will sharpen your arguments with the Finance people.
Juan

Hi Sunshine,

Let me first appreciate you for the fact you know where you want to go in your life, many cant figure for whole life!

As said earlier, it depends upon the college and not just MBA as studies to see you land up in right place. Rather than checking where the companies take you I will suggest that you track the opposite way.

The job profiles will depend upon recruiters, so look for the marketing companies which have come to the colleges you are looking for. MBA in marketing itself may take you through variety of roles.

Just in case you are feeling like we still haven't answered your main ques, you have options of Brand Manager, Sales manager (with larger area), Sales Promotion In charge etc. Essentially MBA isn't a requirement for the positions, but will take you faster there. It connects one to business angle hence the pace.

Jas