May 15, 2011 at 9:06 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Competing with an MBA
May 16, 2011 at 1:27 am
Only in IT could being a decent human being be described as "soft skills" 😉
May 16, 2011 at 3:32 am
Excellent editorial Steve!
When it comes to the continuing struggles of the global economy, there's a bunch of blame to go around. I don't think enough blame has made it to MBAs and the schools that train them. Part of the problem is a missing step in the admissions process; a step where the school checks the applicant's hands for callouses as proof that they've done a real day's work at some point in their lives.
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Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics
May 16, 2011 at 3:50 am
Richard Williams-416852 (5/16/2011)
Only in IT could being a decent human being be described as "soft skills" 😉
Point taken, Richard, but I don't think it's only in IT:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills
John
May 16, 2011 at 7:26 am
MBA and experience are good, but there is one thing that matters the most by far: Being in the right place at the right time. With that said, an MBA definately looks good on a resume if you are looking for a new job, but I would say the vast majority of people should not expect to become a manager without a lot of luck and timing. Might happen when you are 23, or 53.
May 16, 2011 at 8:21 am
I believe the emphasis on "short-term" goals, and immediate ROI work directly against the long term survival of companies across the U.S, and maybe the world. Managing "by-the-numbers" is ONE way to measure, but certainly not the only, or best way! I worked in an industry with 50- 100 year time lines. Investments were not made for frivilous reasons; but an immediate return was rarely the deciding criteria. Understanding the political, soclal, environmental concerns was at least as visible! It is important to have people paying attention to the machinery of the business; but equally important to know where it's headed!
May 16, 2011 at 8:45 am
dduensing (5/16/2011)
I believe the emphasis on "short-term" goals, and immediate ROI work directly against the long term survival of companies across the U.S, and maybe the world. Managing "by-the-numbers" is ONE way to measure, but certainly not the only, or best way! I worked in an industry with 50- 100 year time lines. Investments were not made for frivilous reasons; but an immediate return was rarely the deciding criteria. Understanding the political, soclal, environmental concerns was at least as visible! It is important to have people paying attention to the machinery of the business; but equally important to know where it's headed!
Well put. Managing by the numbers is only part of what should be done. Profit can be the most important, but not the only measure of deciding how to run a company.
May 16, 2011 at 9:07 am
I agree with Steve that soft skills are very important. You can google and get information on accounting but not softskills.
May 16, 2011 at 9:31 am
I got my MBA a few years ago because I wanted a leg up on the competition and because I wanted to understand the business side of things better. Coming from an IT background, a lot of the business side was fuzzy to me. I did not want to be a manager per se, but I figured that learning how the other side approaches things and what else goes on in a business surely wouldn't hurt.
I agree that too much emphasis is put on the bottom line in MBA courses. Thankfully, many of my teachers had real world experience and understood the importance of soft skills as well. My favorite courses were the non-financial ones like project management, communications, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and things like that. One of my favorite courses was the leadership course as it dealt with soft skills, how leaders and managers are not necessarily the same thing and how to effectively work with others. the course book was The Leadership Challenge. I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about moving into management, getting an MBA or is having leadership challenges of their own:
http://www.bing.com/shopping/the-leadership-challenge/where-to-buy/B8237C5634D6A57FF958?q=The+Leadership+Challenge&FORM=HURE"> http://www.bing.com/shopping/the-leadership-challenge/where-to-buy/B8237C5634D6A57FF958?q=The+Leadership+Challenge&FORM=HURE
May 16, 2011 at 12:31 pm
I'm curious as to how a person should advertise his/her soft skills on a resume. I've heard recently that hiring managers mostly ignore the entries such as "good communication skills, getting along well with others, great problem solving skills", etc. - because nearly everyone has those on their resume.
What would anyone suggest to make theirs stand apart from the crowd?
May 16, 2011 at 1:01 pm
I've read the same thing that you mentioned about hiring managers ignoring those soft skill comments. I saw a site once that had an entire list of things to NOT put on your resume and those basic comments were part of that list. What I have been told in the past is to instead put in more concrete examples that show your effectiveness and try to tie your soft skills into those.
So instead of "works well with others" put in something like: "Cross collaborated with a group of business and technology experts to create <some process or system or site or whatever> that resulted in < X > amount of cost savings OR < reduced the need for something or reduced the amount of processing time> for the company", etc. This way you get the point across that you have done important work and that you worked with others to get the job done.
The problem I have with writing these examples, other than just feeling greasy for using so many catch phrases and buzzwords :-), is that as an IT professional, we do not always know the total impact of our work on the rest of the company. We know that we worked hard to build something but we don't always know how that translates into dollars. Luckily, I had a boss at one point who was very keen on getting these stats from the business. He would keep these little tidbits of info so whenever he asked for new hardware, software, or employees, he could spit out these figures to show our team's importance. It was bold but it usually worked. I was able to get these figures from him and figured out my contributions for a few projects. He encouraged me to know what my work was worth in case I ever needed to justify my position.
Not all soft skills can be conveyed this way of course and there are probably better ways to showcase them. This is just what I have tried.
May 16, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Soft skills are part of one's personality. Some people have soft skills in abundance and others are sorely lacking in them. I'm not sure that soft skills can be learned. One can read about them and know what it means to have them but unless one was born with the empathy that soft skills require, it's nearly impossible to develop them.
Technology workers have long been characterized in the media as nerds who have a difficult time dealing with others in social contexts. The nerd portrayal is an extreme and few people are truly like that. But, those who are attracted to technology tend to be more introverted than extroverted. In my 30 years of experience, I have found that those with fewer social skills and soft skills tend to make better I.T. workers doing down-and-dirty coding and hardware setups. Those with more soft skills tend to be worse at the I.T. work and are better at management and supervision. It is difficult to find someone who is good at both.
May 16, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Hi Steve,
Overall I agree with you. However, I completed my MBA in 2001 (also have a BEng) and the most interesting and useful subjects were actually accounting, legal studies, professional services management - these were hard topics focused on the bottom line so to speak. After doing these I had a much clearer picture of what was happening in the services firm I worked in. What shape it was in - how it managed to pay me.
It also gave me a very clear picture of what it means to get a project completed, successfully.
Regards
Michael
May 17, 2011 at 2:01 am
Both ends have short-comings,
MBA - we have more VPs, Directors than IT workers?, who is going to do the real work? With US trade deficit thru the roof, are we ever going to produce real things again? (or just hand out MBA diploma for tuition money)
Soft skills - to the extreme means politics? There is no way to measure it. If one can buddy buddy with the right connection, one can be promoted to a wrong but higher position, regardless the true ability. I have seen the situation. When you see an organization with high turn-over rate, that might be the case.
Jason
http://dbace.us
😛
May 17, 2011 at 9:08 am
I think more consideration should go into getting real world experience before going for a master's degree as it allows the student to have more experiences to apply their new business knowledge to. Students who have not spent time in a professional working environment (I don't think video stores or coffee shops really count) don't have the same frame of reference to apply their schooling to and I don't think they get as much out of the MBA programs in general.
One thing that bothered me a little in my MBA program was the number of young students who were getting their MBA directly after completing their BA degree. Most of these students had no real world experience and a lot would show up unprepared for class, would skip class or would show up wearing sweat pants and flip flops. Most of these younger students were actually BA students who were allowed to continue on through their MBA in a reduced time frame. This was an incentive program by the school to basically get more money out of existing students. Sure there were a few shining stars who seemed to really get it and some who were doing internships for investment firms and whatnot but most just did not seem to care.
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