As you approach your decision to enroll in your Masters of Business Administration program, you’ve got to consider an important question: should I specialise or should I generalise?
There isn’t an answer that fits everyone, but with a little guidance and some self-reflection, you should be able to choose the path that’s best for you. In this guide, we’ll look at several factors to consider.
Career Goals
What you plan to do with your degree bears a large weight on whether you decide to specialise or not. If you have a clear idea of what it is you want to do for a living, or how you want to advance in your current organisation, than an MBA specialist may be the best direction to take.
For example, if you’ve always wanted to start your own business, you would probably feel most fulfilled with an entrepreneurship specialty. Likewise, if you are currently working in the marketing department of a well-established company and have plans to seek upper management, choosing a Master of Business Administration (Marketing) may be best for you.
If, on the other hand, you don’t have a firm grasp on what your career goals are, you would leave more doors open with a generic MBA. Specialising forces you down a specific path, but if you aren’t one to be pigeonholed, you don’t have to decide your career goals too early.
General Managerial Training
For those people seeking to become general managers within an organisation, you may be better off not specialising. This is because the generalist will have a better understanding of all aspects of business management rather than just a specific concentration. The specialist may rise to upper ranks within their department, but a generalist will have a better chance of performing well at managing many different types of employees. Compare MBAs from over 40 Australian business schools.
Length of Program
Shorter MBA programs have a tendency to not offer specialisation tracks. Therefore, the time you have to pursue your MBA may force you down one path or the other. If you are pursuing a quick, 1-year program, you may have no choice other than a generic MBA. Specialising will likely require you to enroll in a longer program, but you should always check your institution of choice for the exact details.
If you think you can decide whether you want to generalise or specialise, the next logical step is to find your MBA by searching our database of almost 100 MBA programs throughout Australia.