Studying for an online MBA degree makes career advancement possible sooner because new knowledge can be applied on-the-job. Instead of needing to quit a permanent job to study full-time for two years or longer, students can take lectures over the internet, download coursework and submit their completed assignments entirely online. The advent of online degree courses makes all this possible and for potential MBA students, it’s a compelling new opportunity to advance in their career.
Management & Leadership 101
When you reach a certain level in a company, you must manage others. There’s generally no avoiding the role of management unless you end up working in a position where you never advance. If an architect wishes to move up, eventually they’ll be managing whole projects and former colleagues. It just becomes almost inevitable. The problem is an issue with zero managerial training.
There’s an assumption by companies that everyone knows how to manage, assuming that they’re born with the natural ability. The reality is that while there are natural born leaders who need very little instruction to learn how to manage people well, most people are used to taking orders, not giving them, and struggle as a manager.
Management Theory vs Leadership Reality
An MBA course provides strategic leadership skills, marketing management and focuses on the differences between nice theories about management from ivory towers that are largely untested in the wild, and leadership reality on the ground. Understanding different management processes like lean model execution and working in sprints to keep motivation levels higher are newer concepts flowing over from the computer programming world that younger managers are finding useful in deploying in their departments to keep momentum and morale at a sustainable level.
Having access to an online MBA through a program like the UNC Kenan-Flagler business school at https://onlinemba.unc.edu/ makes it possible to learn new managerial skills via online classes and directly apply them with the management of teams within the organization. There’s no need to wait until graduating to benefit from the new understanding of strategic management or how to resolve conflicts more effectively within teams which are currently preventing efficient workflow. Working students can jump right in and make the necessary changes without the need to wait.
Flexible Location & Study Time
Online MBA courses often are set up to let students login via a supplied mobile app or web app. Students gain access to the curriculum, the recommended article reading list and business-related books they should purchase, as well as the latest lectures, coursework, and study notes. The information and documentation are usually downloadable for offline use and accessible when they have free study time available wherever they are located.
Lectures are commonly live streamed and can be either re-streamed afterwards or downloaded and viewed through a college app much like can be done with YouTube or Vimeo video content. While some lectures may have a mandatory attendance because students can ask live questions and get the professor’s help immediately, others are accessible for study at a later time. Accompanying notes and digital handouts attached to the lecture are pulled down for accessing on-the-go.
Financial Knowledge, Acquired Early
One of the benefits of taking an MBA course is that students study the essentials of financial reporting for companies. The corporate balance sheet, profit and loss statement and cashflow forecasting are the main instruments used to report the financial state of a business. Unless the student is involved with personal investing in stocks within their 401(k) or they have studied accounting at some level before, they will not have much of a background in the numbers behind a business. By studying the financial reporting basics, they’ll have a better understand of the financial discussions going on at company meetings that they’re privy to.
Specialization into corporate finance or other subjects that touch on financial matters makes it possible to understand how companies raise money, create debt structures in the financial markets, use options and futures to hedge their currency exposure on foreign orders paid upon delivery, and more. For prospective MBA students interested in this side of business management, the greater focus delivers improved understanding in real-time.
Getting Ahead Sooner, Not Falling Behind
One of the worries MBA students have been having is trying to study full-time at considerable cost while giving up their job and career. They often need to save up for large college fees and suffer a loss of income for a sustained period in the hope that graduating with an MBA will deliver an incrementally higher salary in the future working years to more than make up for the early losses.
When studying an MBA online, it’s not necessary to see things as drastically. Students can work with their employer to get a reduced salary in exchange for time off each week used for studying the degree. This allows them to not fall behind their peers with their current career while still bringing in sufficient income to avoid going into debt to fund the educational course.
Online education is beneficial to all students but for people with a full-time job who cannot afford to quit to become a student, taking classes over the internet makes studying possible again. The financial burden is no longer a problem either because they don’t have to give up their complete salary to attend college. And that’s a win-win for colleges, employers and students alike.
