By Paul D. Rosevear
Place your bets, folks. It’s the match-up of the century – in one corner sits the jack of all trades, master of none. In the other, the one-trick pony. When it comes to entering the ring of the modern-day job market, which has the edge?
In order to advance your career in today’s job market, job seekers need to possess two qualities that are seemingly at odds with one another: versatility and specialization. How can the prospective employee increase the breadth of their skill sets while simultaneously meeting the narrowing criteria of the employers they are looking to appeal to?
In charting their educational courses, many students are turning to specialized Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs in fields like hospitality, health care services, and pharmaceutical marketing to attempt to bridge that gap. But will specializing in graduate management studies give you the edge you need for their careers in the long run, or limit your options?
The Sources of Specialization
First, it helps to consider what is causing the proliferation of such specialized programs, which blend training in specific career fields with general management curriculum designed to be applied in said fields. According to Mark P. Rice, dean of the graduate school at Babson College (Babson Park, MA), the trend for detailed and specialized MBA programs has really only come about within the past five years. Why the sudden spike?
“Many people who get their MBAs choose to continue working while doing so, and very often, employers will help you pay for their tuition,” explains Rice. “Now all of a sudden, the employer has a stake in your education. They have specific needs they need you to fill, and they’ve gotten more heavy-handed in directing employees.”
The recession of 2000 served to encourage the popularity of more specialized MBAs. “During that time, companies started coming to us to set up joint programs where employees get specific training that the company needs, but they also get a degree from Babson,” explains Bill Lawler, Babson’s faculty director for corporate learning programs. Intel, Parametric Technologies, and Lucent are among those corporations.
Beyond the influence of employers, the pride employees have in any particular field has also contributed to the rise of specialized MBAs. “People within an industry feel that their line of work is unique, and therefore requires unique education to really excel,” says Dean Patrick R. Coonan, dean of Adelphi University’s School of Nursing (Garden City, NY). “The Business components of a field like health care are becoming more of a necessity, yet it’s a human services industry so you’ve got to be educated to understand the people using the services as well.”
The Benefit of Broad Strokes
After completing his bachelor of arts degree in marketing, Jim Tedesco knew he wanted to supplement his education with a graduate degree. But even though he landed an entry-level public relations position, and could further hone his skills with a marketing MBA, he decided to broaden his studies in general management. “I love my job, but since I'm still young and unsure if this is the industry I want to work in the rest of my life, I felt the management skills would also allow me to think about other industries.”
But how broad is too broad? Jim did run into some turbulence with employers who called his lack of specific experience into question. “I hope that having an MBA will serve as an equalizer when comparing me to others with much more experience,” he says. “While looking for internships and jobs, interviewers found the fact that I was going straight to grad school after graduation ridiculous. They thought I should get some real-world experience first.”
“I think the ideal scenario is that you have a few years of work experience before you return to a graduate program, but you can get that work experience employers are looking for in a variety of ways,” says Ric Sweeney, assistant dean at the University of Cincinnati’s (Cincinnati, OH) MBA program. “Options like cooperative education, study abroad, or internship programs can give you a foundation of experience to build upon, which is really the most important part.”
Even though Jim might not be fine-tuning his management skills with real-world experience or a targeted degree program, he’s confident in the package deal his marketing and general management training has to offer. “I’m learning skills that can be applied to many different industries,” he explains. “A good manager adapts to his environment, and if I can’t adapt my management style to a new environment, then I am simply not a good manager.”
A One Track Mind
Kelvin Baggett approached his health care management pursuits with the same uncertainty as Jim did marketing. Already having received his medical degree from East Carolina University (Greenville, NC), and completed a residency at Yale-New Haven medical center in internal medicine, he wanted to further boost his credits with some management training. However, he debated whether or not to get a specialized MBA in the healthcare industry or a general management MBA.
“I wasn’t sure I was going to stay in health care,” he says. “I considered some broader programs, but ultimately realized that health care is so complex that the best thing would be to get specific health care curriculum along with firm general management training.”
Kelvin completed Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business Health Sector Management (Durham, NC) program and now works as a Strategic Business Consultant for the Hospital Corporation of America. He attests that the specialized MBA provides him with a huge advantage. “Your potential is greatly improved by existing in an environment where all the dynamics of an industry are addressed,” he says. “Not only do I have management training, but I know what it takes to market a drug, specifics about biotechnologies, and the language the particular field of health care requires.”
Despite his advocacy for specializing one's education, Kelvin freely admits that there’s no wrong way toward a job if it ultimately gets you there. “My opinion is that you can still get where you need to be with a general MBA, it will just be more difficult” he says. “Furthermore, after I got my health care degree, I interviewed for financial positions at banks and at no point did anyone question my abilities.”
John Eber, dean of the Graham School of Management at Saint Xavier University (Chicago, IL), agrees. “We have found that when people take specialized programs and then choose to pursue an unrelated career in business, it is generally not a problem,” he says. “Our students take the same MBA core regardless of the specialization, and the core is two thirds of the program. I would be concerned if the entire program focused on the specialty.”
Eber adds that while general training gives you the skills to manage, specific training increases your marketability. “The purpose of an MBA is to prepare students for senior management. The core courses should do this, and the specialty helps them to get to senior management,” he says.
Creating a Personal Plan
With the increasing diversity and uniqueness of each MBA program, be it specialized or not, experts on both sides of the issue agree that the best way to choosing a management program is in matching details of the curriculum itself to your career goals. “We live in a world where there is a tendency to overspecialize,” says Webster University School of Business and Technology Dean Benjamin Akande. “As such, employers are demanding that students come to them with more than a general knowledge,” he says.
Determining how specific your education needs to be is a function of the employers you’re seeking out. Fortunately, with the growing variation in degree programs, the opportunities for students to customize their management education has never been greater. “There is a blurring between general management MBAs, specialty MBAs, and Master of Science (MS) programs,” explains Rice. “No program is the same as the next, and since the educational marketplace is delivering a much broader range of options nowadays, it’s up to the student to decide where he or she needs to fall on the spectrum.”
Putting a Twist on Tradition
Begin your search for specialization here with a few examples of some popular online programs that put a twist on tradition, blending Business leadership skills with additional curriculum geared toward a career focus.
Capella University’s MBA in Enrollment Management
Combines essential Business knowledge with a focus on key enrollment-related principles and practices for higher education leadership, featuring a partnership with educational consulting firm Noel-Levitz
Florida State University’s Online MBA with a concentration in Real Estate Finance and Analysis
For the learner interested applying his or her Business instincts in the world of real estate. Specialized coursework explores topics like the increased involvement of institutions in commercial Real Estate investment and lending activities, the growth in the securitization of Real Estate equity and debt assets on Wall Street, and the consolidation of regional Real Estate service firms into larger national and international entities.
Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business’ MBA in Pharmaceutical Management
A mainly online degree program, with the exception of three residencies, this 28-month course of study culminates in an AACSB-accredited Master's in Business Administration for the learner interested in leading the pack in the ever-challenging, ever-evolving world of pharmaceuticals. This program features a curriculum developed with Johnson & Johnson.
Kaplan University’s Newsweek MBA
Partnership between the school and the mega-media outlet provides unique program where issues and theories that are part of traditional MBA work are supported and illuminated using breaking Business news
State University of New York (SUNY) Canton’s MBA in Technology Management
With a combination of both core Business classes and core Technology courses, this degree offers students an additional opportunity to specialize, even beyond the dual blend. Concentrations in accounting and finance, marketing management, human resource management, and health services management allows students to further customize their degree in the realm of Technology and innovation management. The MBA is the ultimate degree for applied business.