I can get pretty darn ornery when the subject of careers in finance makes the news. BofA's plan for throwing away a big chunk of its workforce gives rise to a whole bunch of discussion on how far it will go. That article makes me giggle when I read that "anybody who could walk and talk" could have landed a job in the middle of the last decade. Folks, I had an MBA from a pretty good school and I had to settle for entry-level jobs that paid next to nothing, and I went completely without job offers for several years after getting that now-worthless MBA. Add "family pedigree" to the walking and talking criteria and you've got a viable MBA job candidate.
The article is generally correct that hiring in finance has been overdone for years and will now permanently contract to a more sustainable level. That also means that MBA enrollments should contract, since the workforce won't need so many MBA-certified people to replace existing employees. The MBA degree will eventually revert to what it was decades ago, when the top 20 programs were a rite of passage for blue-bloods destined to keep publicly held companies under the control of private families.
Let this be a warning to anyone considering an MBA as a prerequisite for a career change. Don't do it, people. You don't need it to get the entry-level jobs of the future that will be available in farming, recycling, and suburban deconstruction.
The article is generally correct that hiring in finance has been overdone for years and will now permanently contract to a more sustainable level. That also means that MBA enrollments should contract, since the workforce won't need so many MBA-certified people to replace existing employees. The MBA degree will eventually revert to what it was decades ago, when the top 20 programs were a rite of passage for blue-bloods destined to keep publicly held companies under the control of private families.
Let this be a warning to anyone considering an MBA as a prerequisite for a career change. Don't do it, people. You don't need it to get the entry-level jobs of the future that will be available in farming, recycling, and suburban deconstruction.
