What is your M.B.A. worth? Is a masters of business administration still the ticket to success? (Career Management).

SHARON GRANDBERRY HAS BEEN MORE THAN HAPPY TO AGGRESSIVELY COMPETE FOR THE CAREER she wants. Even before she completed her M.B.A., the 29-year-old instructional design consultant for Delta Airlines in Atlanta crafted a long-term plan to distinguish herself from her peers by gaining key work experience while pursuing a dual degree--an M.B.A. and a master's in human resources management. For Grandberry, getting the M.B.A. was not her top priority: She was more interested in obtaining the skill set that would help her overwhelm the competition.

"It's important to position yourself in a market with sought-after, high-level skills that allow you to plug into all types of organizations when positions are eliminated," she says. "Then you have to network and continue to build relationships with individuals who are in hiring positions, or who know others who can hire you." Grandberry reasoned that human resource management skills are transferable among a number of industries, so she earned her degrees at the Keller Graduate School of Management, one of the nation's top-rated schools in human resource management. While still a student, she gained key job experience and expertise by serving two years as an employee-training manager at Infistar--a small credit card services company--and landing a one-year stint as the e-training and development manager for Centennial HealthCare Corp. Those experiences served as catalysts for her current job at Delta where she develops online learning programs, holds workshop-style training sessions, and assists project managers in developing job functions.

"I've learned to be flexible, because sometimes the position you are in may not be the position for you," says Grandberry. "You may have to get an extra certification or job skill so that you can fit into an emerging role at your firm or elsewhere." Grandberry's willingness to be flexible has helped her get the most out of her M.B.A. So how much is your M.B.A. worth? That depends on your reasons for deciding to get a Masters of Business Administration degree and your willingness to adapt to market conditions while working toward your ultimate career goal.

THE LINK TO CORPORATE SUCCESS

The M.B.A. has long been linked to career success in corporate America, but the recent three-year economic downturn has placed some nicks and scratches on the M.B.A.'s Teflon image. Layoffs have disproportionately affected experienced corporate middle managers, many of them M.B.A.'s who now find themselves out of work with few corporations willing to hire. Making matters worse is the increasing number of newly minted M.B.A.s flooding the market, adding to the competition for the few high-level jobs available during this period of corporate cutbacks.

"A lot of people are back in the job search market in ways they didn't think they would be," says Dr. Price Cobbs, president and CEO of San Francisco-based Pacific Management Systems, a leading management consulting firm. "Whether having an M.B.A. or going back to school to get an M.B.A. will be more advantageous [to a job seeker] is difficult to say because it depends very much on the specific company they are targeting, the position they are vying for, and what the company is hiring the person to do." Although an effort by the International Certification Institute to use an exam to "certify" M.B.A. degrees is seen as a first step to measure their effectiveness (see "An Official Stamp?" Powerplay, Feb. 2003), there is currently no way to accurately measure what an M.B.A. adds to a person's income-earning potential or the effects it may have on his or her ability to advance into upper management positions.

Cobbs and other human resource professionals stress that the responsibility for making sure that your M.B.A. enhances your career is yours and yours alone. A recent survey of 1,247 M.B.A. graduates from 2001 and 2002 by the Graduate Management Admission Council revealed that most were satisfied that their degree helped them to increase their earning power and career options, improve themselves personally, develop management skills, and gain a desired credential. But there are no guarantees.

"I often encounter candidates of all races who believe that an advanced degree or experience at a major corporation entitles them to a job. That's not the way it is," says independent executive search consultant Kevin Martin, who operates Beyond-Search from Santa Fe Springs, California. He says that the economy has a lot to do with job market success: In fast-growing economies--such as that of the late 1990s--well-educated and experienced candidates will find jobs easily, but during recessions (in 1983, 1992, and 2001, for example) jobs are significantly tougher to win. "In a recession, no matter what your credentials, you have to prepare yourself to compete," warns Martin, a point he says M.B.A. graduates often fail to consider (see sidebar, "Job Search Advice for the M.B.A.")

For minorities, coming to grips with this reality can be especially frustrating given the barriers of racism that have existed and continue to exist in the marketplace. In spite of recent moves by some corporations to establish legitimate diversity programs, Cobbs states the obvious about the overall employment picture when he says, "The playing field is still not level."

But Cobbs says the good news is that the M.B.A. can become a formidable weapon in leveling the playing field for African Americans. He says the M.B.A. tells an employer that an African American is "credentialed," which makes a positive difference in some settings. More importantly, the degree improves a candidate's competitiveness in an ever-changing economic environment. "In today's world, there are few people who will be at the same company for 25 years. So getting an M.B.A. will help you be more competitive within your company and, when you leave, can make you more attractive to other companies," he says.

Barbara Rudd, a former vice president of marketing for the National Black M.B.A. Association who earned an Executive M.B.A. in 1987 at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Lake Forest, Illinois, concurs. She stresses that the M.B.A. experience can be especially worthwhile for African Americans because, "Any advanced degree will set you apart from the rest of the crowd." The Western advertising director for Ebony and Jet magazines in Los Angeles adds that, "There are so many areas other than financial services and consulting that appreciate the M.B.A., and it can be a stepping stone for minorities when you consider how competitive the marketplace is."

DIFFERENT DEGREES OF REWARD

For Edward E. Johnson Jr., the key to overcoming a competitive marketplace is not always rooted in acquiring an advanced degree. Johnson, a first vice president of the Managed Solutions Group and the Private Wealth Division at Merrill Lynch in New York, says that combining a confident attitude with coveted expertise is far more important to upward mobility in corporate America than simply attaining an M.B.A.

In the late 1980s, Johnson suspended his pursuit of an M.B.A. in his last semester at New York University's Stern School of Business Management because he earned an opportunity to work in sales and trading at Salomon Brothers' Atlanta office. He has since gone on to become one of BLACK ENTERPRISE'S Top 50 African Americans on Wall Street, proving, he says, that if you choose the right profession and company, your performance will deliver as many opportunities for advancement as educational achievement.

"Make sure that you have knowledge comparable to those who have M.B.A.'s and then operate with an air of confidence and you should get many of the same opportunities," says the 46-year-old Johnson. "These days, there are people who enter corporations without M.B.A.'s, but they will prove to be true leaders, risk takers, and effective managers, and some of them will become captains of industry--and some will not. People with M.B.A.'s will also enter corporations and some of them will do well and some not so well."

In the final analysis Johnson believes an M.B.A. is helpful, but it is not essential for success.

ADJUSTING TO MARKET CONDITIONS

Newly minted M.B.A.s are indeed struggling with the idea that obtaining the degree is only the first step to achieving their career goals in the current marketplace. The reality is that after you earn an M.B.A., you have to aggressively market yourself to reap the value of the degree. Sitella Glenn, who graduated from Harvard Business School in June 2002 as a member of the team that won the Executive Leadership Council/Goldman Sachs & Co. 2002 Business Case Competition, has had to adjust her expectations as she searches for her dream job. That has meant sending out more resumes, scheduling more interviews, and finding short-term consulting projects that can help her stay afloat and provide her with practical experience until she finds a job opportunity at an entertainment or media company.

"Historically, a Harvard Business School degree afforded you significant access to prime corporate opportunities with lucrative salaries. But I have many classmates who have graduated without job offers as a consequence of the current state of the economy," says the New York resident. Glenn says with the economy lagging, many companies don't want to pay the higher salaries that M.B.A.'s typically command. And since many companies have either downsized or eliminated management training and development programs, they require M.B.A.'s to have significant functional experience and specific skill sets before hiring them. This, as well as increased competition, is forcing her and other M.B.A.'s to consider lower-paying, lower-prestige positions. She is relying heavily on the Harvard Business School alumni network and personal and professional contacts to ferret out new job leads. Even though things are difficult, she insists the degree is worth it because she believes, "It's no longer sufficient to have just an undergraduate degree if you want to advance to levels of upper management in corporate America."

Wanda Newman also felt pressure to get an M.B.A. in order to advance her career. The 42-year-old product development and marketing manager is working as a consultant for Thompson, Cobb, Brazilio & Associates in Washington, D.C., while she prepares to relocate to New Jersey with her fiancee this summer. Newman, who has more than a decade of experience in marketing and product management at companies such as Nextel Communications, Network Solutions Inc., and MCI, worked full time for NeuStar Inc. until its Washington, D.C., office relocated to Sterling, Virginia, last year.

While she doesn't have a full-time job now, she says the degree she earned from the University of Maryland's Online M.B.A. Program in June 2001 has paid dividends already. "I've been able to command more in salary, and I feel it's been a lot easier to get consulting assignments," she says. And since she has started her job search she notes, "Headhunters and hiring managers engage me in conversations quicker. The degree, coupled with my experience, opens doors faster."

Newman is confident she will find full-time employment before the end of the year because she is diligent about using the network of contacts she developed while earning her degree, as well as the new contacts she continues to form at events like the National Black M.B.A. Conference held in Nashville. "I arranged five interviews while I was at the conference in September and I've also used Internet job boards and have worked with some executive recruiters to find the right opportunity."

As well respected in the marketplace as an M.B.A. is, it is not necessarily the right thing for everyone. "You really have to examine why you're trying to obtain the degree in the first place," says Cobb. "The value of the M.B.A. degree is really more rooted in the skills you learn in whatever program you attend--[skills] that enable you to add more value in the job for the organization for which you are functioning (or hope to function), in the specific position you are seeking." If the M.B.A. doesn't help you do that, then you probably haven't maximized its value, and the company you want to work for probably won't hire you. So what's your M.B.A. worth? Like life, it's often worth only what you're willing to make of it.

Job Search Advice for the M.B.A.

With millions of people out of work due to the slumping economy, it's been difficult for even the most qualified applicants to find good jobs because there are not enough of them to go around. Independent executive search consultant Kevin Martin, who operates Beyond-Search out of Santa Fe Springs, California, says the tight job market may seem especially unfair to holders of M.B.A. degrees who are unemployed or underemployed, but they shouldn't lose hope.

"Things may look bad now, but this is actually a good time to look for a job," says Martin, who holds an M.B.A. from U.C.L.A. "Learning to look for a job in a tough market makes you that much better at finding a job and selling yourself when things return to normal."

Martin also points out that within three to five years, the demand for highly skilled M.B.A.s should increase significantly because the demographics of the workforce is shifting. People in today's job market will benefit "because more people are retiring and the acceptance of blacks in the marketplace is becoming more commonplace, so there should be more opportunities and less racism in the future."

For those M.B.A.'s who are desperately seeking a position to match their credentials, Martin says they must become expert at selling themselves to corporate America immediately. Coming up with a personal employment pitch will be essential to their efforts to realize the total worth of their M.B.A, degree. To aid in the search, he offers the following advice:

1. Be your own search consultant

Martin says take control of your job search by applying the skills that you learned in business school to your search for the job that is right for you. "Analyze and research the marketplace and determine what you bring to the table," he emphasizes. Then, "see what other resources you have to assist you and put together a business plan for how you are going to serve the marketplace with your product--you."

Don't just respond blindly to postings on Internet job boards. Use alumni groups, friends, and relatives to establish contacts at the companies you are most interested in to help you navigate through the application process.

2. Determine your personal competitive advantage

Rewrite your resume using the STAR method (situation, task, analysis, results). It helps you show what you achieved at every stage of your career. "You must explain what you've accomplished or learned from what you've done," says Martin. "Be descriptive and highlight all accomplishments or achievements on your resume and during all interviews."

For example, you should highlight the amount of money you generated for, or saved a company, or explain how the work process became more efficient as a result of your efforts. "You must explain how what you know can be advantageous to the perspective employer."

3. Focus on positive activity, not the outcome

"The problem with a job search is that every time you hear `no,' it depresses you and makes you not want to continue the search," says Martin. He says dealing with rejection is a reality for everyone who looks for work--the trick is to not let it defeat you.

Martin suggests that job hunters focus on what they have the most control over--their ability to take positive actions toward finding work. Make a list of tasks such as locating potential companies, finding contacts within companies, and calling friends for referrals--then keep track of their progress. "If you focus on the activity such as, `I found three new contacts for jobs today,' you'll feel much more in control of your job search."

--M.S.S.