商學院畢業生炮轟MBA學位不值錢

Mariana Zanetti had been working as a product manager for Shell (RDSA) in Buenos Aires when her husband got a promotion to a new job in Madrid. One of her colleagues, a Harvard Business School graduate, suggested that the Argentina native go to business school for her MBA while in Spain.

丈夫升職調任馬德里從事新的工作以前，阿根廷本地人瑪麗安娜?薩內蒂一直在布宜諾斯艾利斯擔任殼牌公司（Shell）的產品經理。一位從哈佛商學院畢業（Harvard Business School）的同事這時建議她，到了西班牙之後應該去商學院求學，攻讀MBA學位。

She took his advice, enrolling in the one-year MBA program at Instituto de Empresa (IE) Business School In Madrid. Zanetti borrowed money from her family to pay for the degree. And when she graduated in 2003, it took her a full year to land a job as a product manager at a Spanish version of Home Depot, at exactly the same salary she was earning three years earlier, without the MBA.

薩內蒂採納了那位男同事的建議，在馬德里一家名爲企業學院（Instituto de Empresa）的商學院報名學習爲期一年的MBA課程。她向家人借錢付了這個學位要負擔的學費。2003年，薩內蒂從商學院畢業，然後花了整整一年時間才找到一份和自己三年前沒有MBA學位時收入完全相同的工作，在一家類似美國建材家居零售商家得寶（Home Depot）的西班牙公司任產品經理。

For years, Zanetti says, she wanted to write a book on her experience but didn't out of fear that it would hurt her career, which included stints as a product manager for Saint-Gobain and ResMed, a medical supplier. Now that she has left the corporate world, Zanetti says, she can tell the truth about the MBA degree.

薩內蒂說，這些年來，她希望能寫一本書，講述自己的親身經歷。但由於害怕影響自己的職業生涯，比如可能在應聘建材業巨頭聖戈班集團（Saint-Gobain）和醫藥供應商瑞思邁（ResMed）的產品經理期間被視爲職業污點，薩內蒂並沒有將這個願望付諸行動。如今，她說既然自己已經離開了那個企業圈子，就可以道出MBA學位的真相。

Her take, in a self-published book called The MBA Bubble: It's just not worth the investment. "There is an education bubble around these kind of degrees," she says. "I don't think they have much impact on people's careers. There are exceptions, of course, in management consulting and investment banking, where the MBA is always valued. But for the rest, it's a nice-to-have degree. It's not that it is harmful to you, but every market expert I interviewed for the book says that what is needed today is specialized knowledge and skills, and an MBA is generalist training."

薩內蒂給這部自行出版的個人作品命名爲《MBA泡沫：並非貨真價實的投資》（ The MBA Bubble: It's just not worth the investment）。她解釋說：“它是與這類學位有關的一種教育界泡沫。我認爲這些學位對大家的職業道路沒有多少影響。當然也有例外，MBA在管理諮詢業和投資銀行界一直是價值不菲的金字招牌。可在其他領域，這個學位只是錦上添花。它對人沒害處。但我爲寫這本書採訪的所有市場專家都說，今天需要的是專業的知識與技術，而MBA是培訓通才的。”

Zanetti, now 40 and living in France, says it's not like the degree had no value. "I met wonderful people. I met brilliant professors. I learned some interesting business concepts that gave me a global vision about business. It just wasn't worth the cost in time and money. MBAs get high salaries, but the degree has nothing to do with it. I was hired because of my previous work experience at Shell."

薩內蒂如今住在法國，已屆不惑之年。她坦言，巴黎的生活和毫無價值的學位截然不同，“我和一些非凡的人見面，還見了一些有頭腦的教授。我在這兒學到了一些別有深意的商業概念，它們讓我對商業有了全球的視角。不值得爲學位投入那些時光，付出那些金錢。MBA畢業的人可以拿到高薪，但他們的薪水和這個學位無關。有公司能聘請我，那是因爲我以前有在殼牌的工作經歷。”

She is even advising people to apply to a top school, get an acceptance, and then decline to go. Put the fact on your resume and Zanetti thinks it will have nearly the same value as going to an MBA program for two years. "It's like being an Academy Award nominee instead of an Academy Award winner," she writes. "But the difference between the two is mortgaging our future and accepting the risk of getting stuck with a monumental student loan." When an employer asks why you didn't go to Kellogg or Yale for your MBA, she advises, just tell them, "I preferred to use that time and money to develop strategic skills to benefit my employers' competitive advantage…."

薩內蒂甚至建議人們申請頂級學府，爭取高等學府錄取，然後再主動拒絕入學。如此一來，這份求學經歷便會成爲個人簡歷的一段真實記錄。薩內蒂認爲，這其中的價值幾乎與學習兩年的MBA課程不相上下。她在書中寫道：“就像是獲得了奧斯卡金像獎提名卻沒拿到獎項一樣。得到入學認可後去上學和沒上學的區別在於，前者是將我們的未來做了抵押，同時還要承擔揹負鉅額學生貸款的風險。”薩內蒂建議，如果有僱主問起爲什麼沒去讀美國西北大學凱洛格商學院（Kellogg）或者耶魯大學的MBA，只需要回答：“我更願意利用念MBA的時間和資金開發有戰略意義的技術，它們會有利於今後僱用我的公司佔據競爭優勢……”

Of course, Zanetti's complaint about the MBA is hardly new. It falls neatly into the growing genre of anti-higher education tirades that decry the rising cost of education and the lack of any guarantees. But what makes her MBA bashing somewhat different is that she has a degree from a prominent European business school and has decided to write a 232-page book trying to convince others to pass on the MBA, the most successful degree in the education industry in the last 60 to 70 years.

當然，薩內蒂對MBA的這種怨言並不少見。它們與一些越來越抵制高等教育的反對人士不謀而合，那些反對派譴責高等學府一方面不斷提高教育成本，一方面缺少對學生未來就業的任何保障。而薩內蒂對MBA的抨擊與他們有所不同。差別在於，她擁有一家歐洲名牌商學院的學位，卻又決定寫一本232頁的書，設法利用這本書說服他人放棄過去60-70年來教育業經營最成功的學位——MBA。

She believes that other business graduates would fess up to the same conclusion, if not for the fact that their views would endanger their careers. "There are few people criticizing MBA programs because it makes no sense to say anything bad against their brands," Zanetti says. "I will not make a lot of friends with this book, but I won't make enemies, either."

她認爲，如果不是出於表露反對立場會危及職業發展這個現實，其他商學院的畢業生也會坦率地表達與自己相同的結論。“很少有人批評MBA課程，因爲說什麼對自身學歷品牌不利的話沒有任何意義，”薩內蒂說。“這本書不會讓我交到多少朋友，可也不會給我樹敵。”

Asked if she thinks her opinion would apply to MBAs from Harvard, Stanford and other elite business schools, Zanetti says she has no doubt. "The same would apply to Harvard or whatever school because Harvard is three times more expensive," she insists. "The benefits would have cost much more. It breaks a tie if you're competing with someone who doesn't have the degree, but people who have scarce skills an employer needs will get the job over you."

問起是否覺得自己對學位的看法同樣適用於哈佛、斯坦福（Stanford）和其他頂級商學院的MBA，薩內蒂回答說，毫無疑問是一樣的。她堅稱：“哈佛或者其他任何一家學院，因爲哈佛的學費比一般的還高三倍。得到這座學府的光環需要付出的代價大得多。假如你和一些沒有學位的人競爭，學位會成爲你打破僵局的決定性籌碼。可要是有些人雖然沒有MBA學位，卻具備僱主需要的某些稀缺技能，他們就會戰勝你，贏得工作機會。”

Zanetti says she harbored these doubts and concerns about the degree, especially after being unemployed for a year after graduation. But she largely kept them to herself until leaving the corporate world a little more than a year ago. "I always wanted to have my own business and to teach," she adds. "I didn't intend to write this book."

薩內蒂透露自己以前就對MBA學位懷有這些猜疑和擔憂。從商學院畢業後，她有一年時間失業賦閒，那期間她的疑慮更重了。可她把基本上都這類心思都深埋於心，直到離開商界一年出頭之後才吐露了心聲。“我一直希望經營自己的事業，拿起教鞭，”薩內蒂接着透露。“我以前並沒打算寫這本書。”

Then, she published an article in France about her ideas. The opinion piece seemed to resonate with a lot of people, so she wrote The MBA Bubble, which will be published in France next year and was self-published in English this week. She has built a website to promote the book, but she does not openly identify herself as an IE MBA. "My school is not a secret," says Zanetti, who lists her diploma on her LinkedIn profile.

後來，她用法語發表了一篇文章，表達自己對MBA的看法。這篇評論文章似乎得到了很多人的共鳴，所以薩內蒂後來又寫了“MBA泡沫”這本書。本週，這部作品的英文版已經問世，法語版將在明年出版。她建了一個網站爲這本書做宣傳，但並沒有公開披露自己獲得企業學院MBA學位的教育背景。“我讀的學校不是祕密。”薩內蒂對此解釋，她已經在個人LinkedIn簡歷頁面列出了自己的學歷證書。

Her primary arguments against the degree? It is oversold by business schools with slick marketing campaigns. Most people enter MBA programs without really understanding the limits of the degree. The education costs too much and delivers too little value. And graduates are often saddled with so much debt that it limits their ability to follow their true passions. They take jobs they don't want simply to pay off their student loans. Even the value of the network a graduate acquires with the degree is exaggerated.

薩內蒂主要有哪些反對MBA學位的看法？她認爲，在一些圓滑的營銷活動推助下，商學院過分自賣自誇。大多數人修習MBA時並沒有真正認識到這種學位的侷限性：教育成本太高，產生的價值又太少。這些得到MBA學位的畢業生常常因此負債累累，這類沉重的債務包袱又限制了他們追求心中真正理想的能力。到頭來，他們不得不爲了償還學生貸款從事自己並不喜歡的工作。甚至一位MBA畢業生獲得學位後擁有的人脈網絡也摻了水分，誇大了價值。

She's unimpressed, if downright skeptical, of data that shows MBAs get average increases ovetheir pre-MBA base salaries of between 120% to 46%. And those averages are for all business schools, not just the prestige brand-name places. Zanetti is also skeptical of surveys that show widespread satisfaction with the degree. One recent survey, based on the opinions of 4,135 MBA alumni, including 963 members of the class of 2011, found that three out of four alumni of the class of 2011 with jobs reported that they could not have obtained their job without their graduate management education.

有數據顯示，得到MBA學位後平均收入會比得到學位以前增加46-120%。而且這是指所有商學院畢業生的平均薪資水平，並不是取樣於那些名牌學府的精英。面對這樣的數據，就算薩內蒂還沒有徹頭徹尾地懷疑，起碼也是無動於衷。而一些顯示畢業生普遍滿意MBA學位的調查確實引起薩內蒂懷疑。最近一項調查採訪了4135位MBA校友，其中2011年畢業的受訪者就有963人。調查結果發現，每四位已經找到工作的2011年畢業生之中就有三人表示，如果沒有接受這種管理學位的教育，就不可能找到工作。

"Everybody is doing it and everybody still goes," Zanetti sighs. "They take for granted that it is a good investment. Business schools manipulate the statistics.... In France, one school hired a company to make fake [positive] comments in Internet forums. These schools have this university halo around them and talk about the labor market as if they are impartial, but they are not. They continue selling things that do not have value because it has profit."

“大家依然如故，趨之若鶩，”薩內蒂感嘆。“他們想當然地覺得這就是項不錯的投資。商學院在玩數字遊戲……在法國，一家商學院會聘請公司在互聯網論壇上發表正面評論。這些學院頂着自己所在大學的光環，談到人才市場的時候簡直好像自己是解決就業問題不可或缺的功臣，可事實並非如此。他們還在兜售那些一文不值的東西，因爲那麼做可以讓他們財源滾滾。”

Zanetti says her experience at IE was not satisfying. "Business schools don't treat you as a customer," she says. "Applicants should not forget that they are customers and are buying something. We were even insulted. One day we were in a meeting room and the professional career director said to us, 'Get out of here you scum.' It was funny to him. I told him, 'What's so funny? I am paying your salary.'"

薩內蒂對自己在企業學院的求學經歷並不滿意。“商學院沒有把學生視爲客戶，”她說。“申請入學的人不該忘記自己的身份就是客戶，學MBA就是在買東西。我們甚至還受到了侮辱。有一天，我們來到一間會議室，那裏有位專職的職業規劃管理主管對大家說：‘滾出去，你們這幫渣滓。’他這席話可真夠逗的，我當即回敬他：‘幹嘛開這種玩笑？你拿的薪水可是我給的。’”

She says that IE's director of career management also told students it was really hard to change industries with an MBA. "Yet they use it as a marketing claim," she points out. But it is really not true. You really have to fight to change industries. I did change industry but in the same job function."

她說，企業學院的職業管理主管還告訴學生，很難改變各行各業對MBA學位的看法的。“可他們用這作爲一種營銷宣傳，”薩內蒂指出。“其實根本不是這樣。你確實不得不爲了轉變業內看法而奮鬥，我也改變了業內的成見，不過是利用同樣的工作職能做到的。”

Zanetti estimates that she uses no more than 20% to 30% of what she learned in her one-year MBA program. As for networking, she shrugs. "You spend time with great people, but you can spend time with great people in many places. It is not unique. You can build your own brand in less time than it would take to pay back your loans."

薩內蒂估計，自己那一年商學院學習MBA期間掌握的知識最多隻用上了20-30%。至於人際關係網，薩內蒂聳聳肩不置可否：“你花時間和一些精英打交道，可你在很多地方都能花時間結交一些了不起的人。這沒什麼特別的。有時間還讀MBA的貸款，還不如用來打造自己的品牌呢，而且需要花的時間更少。”