I was invited to give  a short talk related to “anything about HR” in a young executives gathering event last week.  It was though trying to select a topic that would interest many since most of these people do not belong in the HR industry; and I guess it wouldn’t be right for me to teach “HR loopholes”; dwelling into the tips and trick of career would be too generic (furthermore Jobstreet.com - the event sponsor - gave the Career Guide as doorgifts).

Since we’re all getting ready to face recession, the economic downturn; pursuing postgraduate degree became the talk of the town once again.  I decided to go about this topic.  The interesting question to ask is “will a postgraduate degree really help your career?”.  My answer is “Yes, if ………”

While I was once managing a project of MBA recruitments, I realize that we do have many Masters Degree graduates in Malaysia.  There is however, one issue - the quality of candidates.  While the economy was good in the past few years, many organizations were actively seeking ot hire top MBA graduates to be developed as future leaders, therefore I have to say that it does help if you hold a postgraduate degree.  It does make you stand apart from the rest.

The right to put M.B.A. behind your name or in your CV does nothing more than getting your CV “screened and qualified”, not hired.  The problem arising depending on which business school the candidate graduated from is that many MBA holders still lacks the business acumen, analytical or presentation skills.  Many wouldn’t make it past the numerical assessment or english comprehension or might not even be able to understand simple business terms.  This does happen for many reasons:

• Many MBA programs does not require GMAT scores as entry creteria, thus the differing standards.
• While there are many accreditation bodies got MBA programs, many can still run without accreditation anyway.
• Some MBA programs may not be taught in English.
• Many MBA programs now does not require dissertation or research.
• There are even the online MBA programs where students doesn’t need to meet.
• MBA graduates without work experience?

We need to bear in mind that the hiring process is not only about having an MBA, but being competent and experienced.  Therefore, back to the question “will a postgraduate degree really help your career?”  My answer “Yes, if you possess the skillset and experiences beyond the paper as well”.

In my opinion, the reason good postgraduate degree holders are so scarce in Malaysia has got to do with the demand and supply of economics.  First of all, there hasn’t been a real demand for top MBA graduates.  While there are many organizations looking out for post graduates, there’s aren’t many that is ready to pay top dollar for top graduates in Malaysia.  So since there’s no demand, thus there’s no motivation to create the supply.

Many organizations in Malaysia still views experience to be of much higher importance compared to academic qualifications.  This is a norm for a developing nation like Malaysia because many middle managers in the organizations are not highly qualified, just highly experienced.  It will be hard to get these people to see the benefits of quality education, and obviously not ready to see a younger but academically more qualified person managing them.

Also, the Ringgit exchange rates in Malaysia doesn’t help either.  Imagine if a person were to fork out RM400k to study an MBA in top MBA schools in US or maybe RM250k to do it in Singapore (yes it does cost that much after the exchance rates) on top of the expenses incurred for the undergraduate degree; will this person be ready to take up a job that’s only about 30% higher than their last drawn salary?  If they would, it’s either because they want to be back here in Malaysia for other reasons, or that their business schools doesn’t teach the fundamentals about return on investment.  Let me make some calculations here based on some assumptions:

• Last drawn pay: RM5k per month
• Offered : RM8k per month (I’m being highly optimistic and generous here by giving a 60% increment)
• Difference per month (profit): RM3k
• Cost of postgraduate education: RM400k
• Opportunity cost of postgrad education: RM5k x 24 = RM120k (very conservative calculation that the candidate would have neither increment nor bonus for the 2 years if he chose to continue working instead of doing an MBA).
• Total cost is RM520k which should generate total month profit of 3k (once again I am going to assume bonus and no increment to ease the calculation); it will take 173.33 months or 14 years to recover the cost!  Now even if you add bonus and increment into the equation, wouldn’t it still be a long time?

Now doesn’t it make sense for Malaysian to stick to the “not at the top but still considerably reputable” universities or colleges locally where fees are in the range of RM25k to RM50k?  The downside is that these universities do often produce mediocre graduates too!  So it’s really up to the individual to make the most our of the education and self-study, take the initiative.

And for all those looking out to hire good postgraduates without breaking the bank, we just need to dig deeper to hunt for the great ones among the mediocre.

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Tags: CV, Economy, GMAT, MBA, postgraduate, return on investment, salary

This entry was posted by Clayton J.C Tan on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Generation Y, Leadership & Management, Malaysian Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.