As a scientist, should I get an MBA?

As a scientist, should you get an MBA degree? The answer will be different for every individual scientist. It will even be different at different points in a single scientist’s career. Nevertheless, there are some common pros and cons to consider. This post isn’t meant to convince you one way or the other; rather, it will give you a better context and framework to aid your decision making.

Why would a scientist consider getting an MBA degree?

Scientists traverse a broad range of paths to arrive at the question of whether or not they should pursue an MBA degree. Here are some common ones:

• Transitioning from academia to industry
• Seeking a career pivot away from the laboratory
• Ascending into and through the management ranks of industry 
• Considering entrepreneurship

These paths describe particular situations. However, they do not articulate a problem or a requirement that an MBA degree can solve or satisfy for a scientist. Beneath these situations, there exists a deeper problem seeking a solution.

Lack of hard knowledge around the way business works

Upon entering industry, a scientist is suddenly surrounded by a massive enterprise where perhaps 90% of employees are not scientists. These employees will come from marketing, sales, quality, regulatory, supply chain, operations, etc. They will all speak their own language, which will seem foreign to a scientist. Even when a foreign concept is explained satisfactorily, the scientist will often try to project beyond this isolated conception an effort to synthesize and consolidate understanding. The scientist will quickly realize the limits of their knowledge. Faced with this situation, it is common to conclude that they lack the required training and knowledge to function in a business environment. As a scientist, an MBA seems like a natural solution.

Imposter syndrome

Scientists are particularly prone to imposter syndrome, because they have been trained to recognize the limits of their knowledge and expertise. Industry is filled with many people who are not as careful about the limits of their knowledge. It will be difficult to distinguish between someone with bona fide knowledge–perhaps gained through years of experience–and someone who projects a veil of authority without legitimate experience. Nevertheless, pretty much everyone around you will be somewhere along this spectrum and will seem more knowledgeable than you. This is the perfect recipe for imposter syndrome.

Credential

A scientist may pursue an MBA degree to satisfy a real or perceived requirement for the credential. For good or bad, our society often uses degrees as credentials: indicators of authority and knowledge. You have probably benefited from this system. Your bachelors, masters, or PhD degree may have checked a box for you, indicating that you were a bona fide scientist. However, the credentialing system might now be working against you. Now, you may see an MBA degree as a requirement or at least a preferred credential. You may have even inferred the value of an MBA credential in convincing someone that you are more than a lab rat or a set of hands experimenting in a windowless room. Whatever the reason, an MBA can serve as a valuable credential.

Network

You may have the perception that a strong network is an automatic outcome of business school matriculation. This can definitely be true. Relationships forged over a couple of rigorous, immersive years spent in residence at a premier business school are likely to hold significant future benefit. These networks will be self-selecting and self-amplifying. In other words, the types of people who desire this outcome will tend to aggregate with other like-minded individuals, build strong networks, get high-power jobs, and continue to develop their networks throughout their career. (An MBA is not the only way a scientist can put themselves in the company of ambitious networks. Consider Circle of Scientists.) Such networks will continue to accrue social and professional equity, reinforcing and strengthening their effectiveness. The desire to join this exclusive, powerful club is definitely appealing.

How to decide?

Clearly articulate the problem you want to solve

The problem must be actionable. It should not be a description of your current circumstances or your future desired state. These are examples of bad problems statements.

• I’m tired of the lab and want to be an investment banker.
• I’m not sure what to do next, so maybe I’ll go to business school.
• No one taught me to be a manager.

In contrast, these are good problem statements.

• After speaking extensively to several investment bankers, I understand that I need the credential and network associated with an elite business school to be competitive for an entry-level position in investment banking.
• After exploring a broad spectrum of non-science fields, I’ve narrowed my list down to marketing, accounting, and finance. Business school will allow me to further explore and decide between these three fields, while providing the hard skills and credentials to pursue whichever I ultimately choose.
• As I continue to ascend the managerial ladder in industry, I recognize my lack of general business education, specifically with regards to accounting and organizational behavior. An MBA will help me to close those knowledge gaps.

A clear problem statement is a prerequisite for any analysis, so don’t rush past this step. Spend time reflecting. Be honest with yourself about your motivations, weaknesses, and aspirations. Test out your story on friends, family, and colleagues. They will help ground you and keep you honest. Iterate through this process, refining your problem statement until you feel confident that you’ve pinpointed the problem you want to solve.

Validate the expected benefit of the MBA

Once you have defined a problem, you need to validate that an MBA will actually solve that problem. One of the reasons you’re seeking an MBA may involve your relative ignorance about the knowledge, experience, and lives of MBA types. So don’t make assumptions about what getting an MBA entails or what a scientist like you stands to gain from it.

Instead, seek out people with the relevant experience. Conduct informational interviews with scientists who hold MBAs, non-scientists who hold MBAs, and non-MBAs. Test your assumptions and hypothesis during these interviews. See how the individuals react and try to read between the lines of their perhaps polite responses.

You’re likely to get a broad range of responses to your questions, because there’s no correct answers—only honest perspectives. So make sure you talk to many people. (A professional coach can provide an important, potentially orthogonal perspective.) Think tens of people, not one or two. At the end of each interview, try to synthesize everything that you’ve learned so far and answer the questions “how will I benefit from an MBA? Does the likely benefit match my expectations and solve my problem?”

Calculate the financial and non-financial costs of the MBA

The financial cost of an MBA can be significant. A full-time, in residence course of study can easily cost upwards of 100,000, get laid off when you’re one credit shy of graduation, never finish your degree, and end up on welfare. Of course, this is an incredibly low probability outcome. But technically, it’s a risk you are taking by choosing to pursue your MBA. As you’re analyzing the range of possible outcomes, make sure to include the less severe but more probable adverse outcomes (e.g. you can’t secure your target job until four years after you receive your MBA). Don’t put yourself in the position of making a bad bet on the outcome of this decision.

Iterate through options

Your decision making process is likely to be branched and iterative. As mentioned previously, different MBA experiences may be required for different goals. If your goal is to obtain a prestigious management consultant job, you will likely want to get an MBA from a top-tier in residence program. An online MBA program is unlikely to meet your requirements. You may have discovered this fact, only after attempting to validate your plan, scuttling your hopes and calculations of an inexpensive degree. If you find yourself in this position, that’s OK. Refine your goal and or your plan, then go through another iteration of calculations, validation, etc.. Eventually, you will reach a go/no go decision

Then you only have to be brave enough to implement and stand by your decision.