With apologies to my MBA-possessing friends: the case against MBAs.
Not that the degree’s really worthless, of course. As the above-linked transcript acknowledges, it’s an admission ticket to certain spheres of money and power. And the introduction to financial and economic concepts that the associated coursework provides is something I frequently wish I had. But while I won’t say that I outright dismissed any resumes because of it — that wouldn’t be very responsible of me — seeing the degree on a programmer’s resume has definitely prompted me to record a mental strike against them.
In that case it’s because I was specifically looking looking for focused technicians. But speaking more broadly, I think the folks quoted in the above-linked transcript are right when they discuss how the brand of generalism afforded by a business education — as distinct from the type produced by a liberal arts education — can be pretty grating to the rest of us, particularly when it’s wielded by someone unaware of its limitations. Fortunately, nearly all of the MBAs I know are quick to acknowledge those limits; most of them do have an education in something substantial; and none of them, so far as I know, willingly read management books.
Anti-business sentiment is obviously at its high water mark right now; other than our normal societal baseline of simmering anti-authoritarianism, we shouldn’t expect it to last. But for anyone who’s worked under a hapless b-school acolyte, the last few months have been something of a golden age. That they’re producing radio programs embodying this resentment (rather than just NBC sitcoms) seems noteworthy.
seeing the degree on a programmer’s resume has definitely prompted me to record a mental strike against them
Wha-huh? There are people out there looking for coding jobs who are actually dumb enough to put their MBA on their resume? That’s just… wrong.