MBA vs MS in Leadership

[dfrecore]

Ransomsoul already knows my opinion on leadership degrees.  

My Vote in business options would rank as the following:

Be An Entrepreneur - You're Young, Nows The Time!!! (change the world - create a legacy!)

Follow Your Talent In Degree Selection First & Passion In Degree Selection Second (maxing out your talent allows for you to max out your passions over time)

Get A Masters In Finance (great value & strong alternative to MBA)

Get An MBA (you'll make this forum happier & HR will love you!)

Get A Masters in Leadership (only if you secretly really want to be a licensed Psychologist)

Be An Entrepreneur

That's interesting - but doesn't apply to everyone.  I would not tell everyone to get a Masters in Finance, especially if they had no interest, or didn't want to work in the finance area.  That's kind of a weird recommendation (as someone who doesn't enjoy Finance, I would immediately discount a lot of your recommendations just because of this - which isn't a good thing to do necessarily, but I can't help how my mind works).

An MBA is a good all-around degree that will not just make this forum happy (who cares what I think really), but will make the business world happy.  It is really just seen as the go-to degree if you want to get ahead. No one will wonder what in the heck you studied.  They will have a good idea of what you can bring to the table right off the bat.  It's why hiring managers (NOT HR people) ask for that degree.  We don't tell the hiring managers what they want, they tell US what they want and we try to make it happen.

As for a Masters in Leadership, pretty much no one actually asks for that degree.  They may say they want an MBA or advanced degree in business, but hiring managers don't say "make sure to get me someone with a Masters in Leadership!"  Nope, nope, nope.

As for being an Entrepreneur, not everyone wants to do that.  LOTS of people don't want to do that (me included).  So while I always encourage people who ask, or might even suggest it to someone if they had an interest, I wouldn't encourage everyone to be a business owner.

[RANSOMSOUL]

Like all of you shares dfrecore. It just comes from a completely different space. Someone young looking at an MBA is most likely looking to be a leader in an organization (e.g Director, Management, VP, C -Suite). Most of these candidates are not intimidated by the challenges math can bring and a Masters in Finance is a great way to differentiate yourself from the very common MBA. This especially applies to young talent. There's a reason most MBA programs require you to have 3-5 years of corporate experience prior to being accepted into an MBA program. Would love to see a battle between a Masters in Finance + 3 years of experience vs a traditional BSBA to MBA applicant. Keep in mind, I selected an MBA #3 so see it as a value but this MBA talk of it as to the be all end all tends to show as becoming dated.

Saying no one asks for Leadership degree is insinuating most are asking for an MBA, while in actuality, most are asking for a Masters degree and at best 'preferred MBA'.

Perhaps I have just hired and worked for different circles in the US and globally causing my view.

Appreciate your NOPE NOPE NOPE to great levels - thank you for that!!!

[sanantone]

Ransomsoul already knows my opinion on leadership degrees.

Lol Cosign a lot on what has been shared in the comments. I have been fortunate to hire some talented people in my career both while in corporate and now running my own business. Many with advanced degrees in more common areas like Finance, Economics, MBAs and unique areas like Organizational Management, Leadership/Management and Industrial Psychology (this one is catching steam in Medical right now). Since most hiring where an MBA is a focused target (at least in medical), HR personnel is not the key decision makers to filter out a candidate. In this example, most organizations may list a preference for an MBA but the request is an 'advanced degree'. If I am with talent and we have hurdles in the degree portion of our time together, I am pretty comfortable in knowing that this partnership will most likely not work out.

What I liked about WGU's Leadership degree is it covers 5 of the 11 MBA courses. This could suggest that it's not a watered down psychology degree. I am someone who would be down to do another Leadership Degree possibly with Claremont Lincoln University in the future. Perhaps, what I am in search of is an actual Watered Down Masters in Psychology (hmmm you may be on to something Sanantone - PhD in Leadership? I am in a unique position to earn a degree strictly because I can and not because I need one. It's a great place to be in with my selection process. With that being said, if I was mentoring a young person (as I am with my own kids), I would encourage them to take a moment to understand that a 'unique' degree can be seen as less than a more familiar degree. In addition, not all degrees are built for growing young talent. If I had not dealt with contracts, international marketing and lead a sales force while in the corporate space, prior to even having a bachelor degree, I would most likely look at an MBA in a different light.

My Vote in business options would rank as the following:

Be An Entrepreneur - You're Young, Nows The Time!!! (change the world - create a legacy!)

Follow Your Talent In Degree Selection First & Passion In Degree Selection Second (maxing out your talent allows for you to max out your passions over time)

Get A Masters In Finance (great value & strong alternative to MBA)

Get An MBA (you'll make this forum happier & HR will love you!)

Get A Masters in Leadership (only if you secretly really want to be a licensed Psychologist)

Be An Entrepreneur

To be fair, the WGU program is leadership and management. Management is a watered-down MBA.

[RANSOMSOUL]

Have been leaning more towards a Ph.D. vs DBA but have an entertaining interest to get a DBA so Sanantone can call the MBAs an extremely watered down DBA

[sanantone]

Have been leaning more towards a Ph.D. vs DBA but have an entertaining interest to get a DBA so Sanantone can call the  MBAs an extremely watered down DBA

I have different terms. I call criminal justice sociology-lite.

[RANSOMSOUL]

Even though the lead is to earn a Ph.D., my current interest is an EdD in Leadership but have cracked up at the countless Ph.D. forums hating on EdD. Can only imagine the heat an EdD in Leadership could bring to our family forums

[sanantone]

Even though the lead is to earn a Ph.D., my current interest is an EdD in Leadership but have cracked up at the countless Ph.D. forums hating on EdD. Can only imagine the heat an EdD in Leadership could bring to our family forums

I don't see the problem with an EdD other than it might make you a little less competitive for tenure-track positions at research universities.

[dfrecore]

Saying no one asks for Leadership degree is insinuating most are asking for an MBA, while in actuality, most are asking for a Masters degree and at best 'preferred MBA'.

I wasn't saying that everyone is asking for an MBA (although many do) - they just don't specifically ever ask for a Masters in Leadership.

[RANSOMSOUL]

Saying no one asks for Leadership degree is insinuating most are asking for an MBA, while in actuality, most are asking for a Masters degree and at best 'preferred MBA'.

I wasn't saying that everyone is asking for an MBA (although many do) - they just don't specifically ever ask for a Masters in Leadership.

You are locked in and I can appreciate this, my only counter would be wondering where you are getting this information that 'many do'. I have business partnerships now in 9 countries with large organizations (average over 2,000 employees) and there isn't this heavy search for MBAs going on these days. We all appreciate them but it's far from the lead interest when hiring. And, the strength of the position that no one ever asks for a Leadership degree isn't a narrative that fits as a value against getting one. Rarely do you see a request for a Degree in Finance but 'rarely', we would agree does not define the degree.

Again, my comments are more for the future reader interested in some degree that is different than what might be expected and encouraging them to do their own research and let their talent outshine the competition.

Just in case it was lost somewhere in these or other threads; I think an MBA is the most recognizable degree and there is a true value in that over other Master degrees. I could have lead with that but then I might have missed out on this thread

[sanantone]

Saying no one asks for Leadership degree is insinuating most are asking for an MBA, while in actuality, most are asking for a Masters degree and at best 'preferred MBA'.

I wasn't saying that everyone is asking for an MBA (although many do) - they just don't specifically ever ask for a Masters in Leadership.

You are locked in and I can appreciate this, my only counter would be wondering where you are getting this information that 'many do'. I have business partnerships now in 9 countries with large organizations (average over 2,000 employees)  and there isn't this heavy search for MBAs going on these days. We all appreciate them but it's far from the lead interest when hiring. And, the strength of the position that no one ever asks for a Leadership degree isn't a narrative that fits as a value against getting one. Rarely do you see a request for a Degree in Finance but 'rarely', we would agree does not define the degree.

Again, my comments are more for the future reader interested in some degree that is different than what might be expected and encouraging them to do their own research and let their talent outshine the competition.

Just in case it was lost somewhere in these or other threads; I think an MBA is the most recognizable degree and there is a true value in that over other Master degrees. I could have lead with that but then I might have missed out on this thread

I see degrees in finance asked for all the time. 

Are MBAs asked for by most employers? First we have to determine which field or type of employer and the level of the position (supervisor, manager, mid-level manager, senior manager, executive, etc.). In my field, almost no one asks for an MBA, and that is to be expected. It's criminal justice and social services. Once the field is determined, one would have to look at all the job openings, at least in the local area, and see if the majority require or prefer an MBA. 

If you're just doing a keyword search for "MBA," then you will get a lot of hits in a large city. I received 409 in my city. I think that says enough about the marketability of the degree.