JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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Why do some celebrities self-destruct due to substance abuse?
( 14 )
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What do you think are the main reasons why U.S. car sales are so low in Japan?
( 34 )
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What can be done to ease escalating tensions between the West and Iran over its nuclear program? And should Japan join sanctions against Iran?
( 14 )
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What do you think of the revised plan to realign U.S. forces in Japan by sending some Marines to Guam, and rotating others to Australia, the Philippines, Hawaii and possibly Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture?
( 17 )
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Why are there so many deaths due to snow-related accidents (people falling off rooftops, for example) in Japan this winter?
( 15 )
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- Financial Advisor
- Select Asset Management KK, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥100,000 ~ ¥999,999 Paid Training Commission Based
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- Corporate Business English Trainers
- ACT Systems, Inc.（株式会社アクト・システムズ）, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥269,500 ~ ¥280,000 / Month
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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42 Comments
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tokyotom
to crash through the glass or any other ceiling, everyone does it either coz company says to do it or to get a better job
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Kronos
Because everyone else does it.
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Proffesor
Honestly, I don't know even though I feel it's not even worth it.
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WayneRooney10
President George Bush got one !
I reckon that's what made them valuable. It's an alpha male thing.
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Eyeblack
It's a club.
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pawatan
Nothing, really. Seems like everyone has one, so there isn't any real value.
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combinibento
The debt one achieves in obtaining the MBA.
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ellieban
Nothing. If I see an MBA on someone's CV I instantly know they will have a business and management style I won't agree with and there's a good chance I won't much care for them as a person either.
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Junnama
Reminds me of a trip I took to a (dot.com) job fair in the net-bubble days. The folks there felt the same way. Turns out they could have used an MBA or two....
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sharpie
the thick paper they print it on
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Foxie
It's for people who don't have the brains to study anything else, value is zero.
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Patrick Smash
Nothing at all. It is essentially a US qualification for rich kids who need a paper to legitimise running (daddy's) companies at a very young age, without the real skills or experience. Most people outside the US have never even heard of an MBA. When most professors try to teach business, one should really just laugh at them.
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Junnama
Unfortunately there are very few people with MBA's who have enough free time to post on this board, so I guess it will be difficult to get a good answer.
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jason6
it's an academic arms race, soon they'll have a super-MBA and a ICBMa available.
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Gaijinocchio
I can't comment much about any other MBA besides business.
It's 25% about the qualifications/academics, and 75% about the people you meet. Especially for International Business, it's nearly ALL about networking. Meet and befriend the big guys in charge (or a classmate who has) and doors magically open; doors you never thought existed.
Most companies nowadays value work experience more than academics, anyways.
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abromofo
That seems like the kind of maths you'd learn on an MBA course.
It's an expensive venue for networking. Why not do it down at the pub?
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Badsey
really you could say this about any degree, but it is what is done after the degree that is truely important. -There is a flood of MBAs out there right now due to the financial fiat contraction.
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Patrick Smash
Yeah, Japan's full of MBA holders trying to get jobs as part-time English teachers at the moment. I really think the MBA was a bit of a fad, and that it is really not worth the money for people who do not know where the qualification will take them. If you can afford to get one from Stanford, then maybe, but let's face it those people have the connections to use the qualification to its fullest, and the average man in the street does not.
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seesaw
Do you really need an MBA to get a job in Japan? It looks to me as if it only takes drinking session and kissing butts...:)
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ca1ic0cat
I can't imagine why you need an MBA unless you need to know certain finanacial processes. Like how to wreck the banking system. They are worse than useless in technology fields.
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donkusai
The problem with MBAs are they are too generic. In past times, managers were promoted from within a company and came with a working experience of the industry and (better still) the actual company. These days most companies hire MBAs for managerial jobs and they come in with short-term goals that they learned in theory and with no real understanding of the industry or company they work for. Great if every company is the same, but that isn't how it words. The results? Workers get all the latest management gimmicks that just increase workload while really giving no benefits, the company goes around in circles or, worse, they lay off staff, require the remaining staff to work longer hours for temporary gain (it isn't sustainable). But if you've got an MBA, you move on before the temporary gain crumbles into a horrible mess and you've successfully achieved your short term goals, collected your bonus and moved on, just like you were taught...
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Hirota56
So they can exploit people who work at Walmart or McDonald's flipping burgers.Listen, so called MBA prof's teach at MBA programs , because they cannot make money in the real business world. My Japanese friends asked me what MBA stands for. I replied "I don't know". They told me that it stands for "Maybe in America too long". Like UCLA stands for "University of California lost among Asians". Does Kobe Bryant, Yao Ming, Ichiro, and the head of the Yakuza's have MBA's and the founder of McDonald's have an MBA?
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Hirota56
So sorry, University of California lost among Aliens. UCLA all the way!!!
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yokomoc
It has this magically ability to get people employed in well-paying jobs, without having any discernable skills to speak of.
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Junnama
It seems to have the magical ability to anger and jealousy in people who don't have them.
Anyway, MBA learning is intended to be secondary to some other skill set. Noone is supposed to have an MBA as a primary qualification...
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Altria
Becoming well-versed in corporate bullshit and profiteering is only one facet of the MBA experience.
What's truly invaluable is the network of smug a$$holes you become 'friends' with along the way.
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sfjp330
The harsh reality of the real business world has shown that MBA graduates are better equipped to handle the rigors of everyday business than most other business degrees. An MBA is recognized world wide as being a "cut above" an undergraduate business course. Today, there massive growth by demand from the employers who prefer MBA graduates ahead of others. MBA courses place a lot greater emphasis on work experience, references, personal interviews, community service and non-business interests as well as academic achievements.
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Patrick Smash
Junnama, most people with MBAs here have no decent job. It works okay in America for those who are connected and/or went to top colleges, but it's essentially useless elsewhere. Here in Japan, people with MBAs are applying for jobs as part-time English teachers having spent all their savings on this useless piece of paper from an Aussie Uni nobody has heard of. Hope yours is working for you, but I get applications all the time from people with MBAs looking for part-time teaching work.
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Junnama
That's because they don't speak the language and/or don't have substantial primary qualifications. Again, an MBA should never be the primary qualification - of course they teach you that in business school.
Anyway, I sense more than a bit of schadenfreude in your comments...
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Junnama
Oh and as an aside: how many people without MBA's are you getting resumes from?
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Weasel
Who was the authority that made that claim?
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yokomoc
Patrick Smash:
Is this only recently? The last year or two it's pretty much been the case for all ryugakusei grads. I've got a few friends from uni who graduated a year after I did. These are really smart guys, mostly from engineering/science backgrounds who would have been snapped up 2-3 years ago, and now they're all in the same boat - no jobs going outside of English teaching, tutoring and post-grad placements. One guy has the perfect qualifications to be a quant analyst and he's teaching guitar to make ends meet.
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Richard_III
Really, I think you can question the value of any academic qualification in and of itself. I have friends who left school with no qualifications but are millionaires. On the other hand, many PhDs I know are struggling on 5 million or probably less a year. If you have a really goofy personality with no social skills but a top notch MBA, you'll probably still struggle to get a good job. More to life than just qualifications in my opinion.
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combinibento
To their defense this implies the MBA-holders are in fact employed in a good job and thus are looking for part-time english work as opposed to full-time. I don't have an MBA but am duly employed and have considered applying for 'part-time' teaching work (say, an evening or 2 a week) simply because it is generally an easy way of making some extra spending money ontop of the regular salary... Haven't followed through but if I had a huge student-loan debt caused by an MBA I might.
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Patrick Smash
yokomoc, no, not only a recent thing, but far more the case now the economy has fallen apart and companies want workers rather then people with useless management qualifications. People with MBAs are 19 to the dozen now, and the Japanese companies are no longer impressed with someone who studied management, especially when the qualification is from a little known university and the person has no work experience.
I cannot usually even employ them as part-time teachers because they have no teaching qualifications or other skills.
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anderstungtwist
They turn data into information.
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Cliffy
MBA? Basically, just 3 basic principles, Customers want the best service/products for their dollars, stock holders want the highest return for their investments and the employees want the best benefit. It was just basically balance those things out. However, recently it becomes, jack up the short term profits and get the highest bonus you can get and jump ship before it sinks. Ignore the wails and morals of the employees. Out source everything to low paying countries even though they could not support the products.
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nemoflow
Yeah, an MBA is decent if you are already managing your own company, and want some genuine knowledge and skill enhancement of your existing skills, but to jump onto one from working in McDonalds seems foolish, if only for the financial out-lay.
If a person wants extra qualifications that they can actually use, they should get something more specific, and modular, like a few Microsoft qualifications and an Oracle certificate. Way more useful at the moment, will take less time and effort, costs less, and is directly applicable to market demand. The MBA can get bolted on to that lot if, and when, the mid-management positions with genuine opportunity for growth start opening up.
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ca1ic0cat
What I have seen is far too many "MBAs" who think they can manage a technology development group without any understanding of the technology just because they know management techniques. Inevitably the MBA looses actual control of the project when some techie botches a job and it isn't found out.
Too many MBAs are taught that they can manage any situation just because they know six sigma or PDP or something. That's not the case in many jobs.
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