I love job posts. I love how silly we are with the requirements we ask for. I love how we think we know what we want in an employee. I love how we claim that relevant work experience is valuable yet we REALLY care about someone’s education experience. Why do we think that having an MBA makes you a better and/or more valuable employee? I have NO idea why we do that.

The majority of MBA holders that I’ve come across are no better, and in fact usually worse, than their non-MBA competitors. Let me sketch out two candidates that I’ve come across:

John
4 year degree in Marketing
2 year MBA in Management
3 years of “work” experience

Jim
4 year degree in Marketing
5 years of “work” experience

Given those two choices, I’d choose Jim 90% of the time. I’m not biased. Quite the contrary. I want the best person, period. As I look at the type of people I like working with; they’re doers. They make it happen. They can react quickly. They can turn on a dime. They’re bright, sharp, and have a fast moving mind. These are all things that generally don’t fit the traditional MBA mold. The MBA mold is methodical, theory based, data driven, square minded, and is unable to move/think/act quickly.

As a matter of fact, FedEx captured the MBA mold so well here:

Now, let’s do this…throw out everything I wrote above. Assume it’s complete and utter bull shit. Let’s agree on one thing: you, him, her, me; we ALL want the best candidate. If we can agree on that; which I think we can, then why do say “Bachelor’s degree required; MBA strongly preferred?”

Think about it.