Getting an MBA for Government Affairs / Social Impact In Lieu of an MPP/MPA/IR Masters

[GradSchoolGrad]

A lot of people have asked me about the pros and cons of getting an MBA instead of can MPP/MPA/IR Masters but to achieve government roles + social impact interests. So I'll give you some insights based upon my extensive familiarity of MBA programs + government/social impact recruiting for MBA.

Generally speaking (of course the devil is always in the details), these are the 

Pros:

1. An MBA can (emphasis on can) be viewed as more unique, more competitive, and more prestigious compared to MPP/MPA/IR programs when being considered roles hosted by large organizations - for example - Presidential Merit Fellowship, the Mega Foundations (CZ, Gates, and Case), and government at large. 

2. MBA also gives you flexibility win career advancement within Government/Social Impact to be more naturally considered for finance, operations, and private sector engagement - so basically more opportunities to do well and promote. 

3. More and more about government and social impact is tied to involvement with the private sector (partnerships at a minimum), tech collaboration, and financial agreements - which naturally advantage MBAs. For example, I had a policy friend who got into sustainable housing policy, but quickly realized it came down to too tech collaboration and financial management and always joke how she should have went for an MBA instead of an MPP

4. A lot of government and social impact is also increasingly about acquisitions (resources, people, property, agreements, and etc.) which MBAs are helpful for. It used to be that you had some guru who did it for 30 years getting involved in acquisitions, but with baby boomer retirements on the way, MBAs are getting involved.

5. Due to how MBA schools are much more fiercely competitive against each other, they generally are very well run, well resourced, and well supported graduate school experience. At my policy school the ratio for career coach to students was approximately 1 to 200. At the MBA program at my University, it was about 1:50 (if you only count full time), 1:25 (if you count the part-time and full time). Basically, you get a very well curated experience for roughly the same tuition. 

6. Career flexibility to also included private sector. I know people with MBAs only and MBA and another masters weave in and out of private sector and policy sector. They really enjoyed the diversity in their career. Yes, you can do this with an MPP/MPA/IR Masters, but it is much harder. 

Cons:

1. You can be the weirdo of your MBA program. Granted government and social impact roles are becoming more and more prevalent, they are still the extreme minority in MBA world (as in people will look at you funny, or you are branded as the gov/social impact person). That being said, some MBA programs are really well equipped to support you academically and professionally with gov/social impact interests (Harvard, Georgetown, and Yale come to mind). However, many may really struggle to support you. 

2. At smaller social impact organizations (any organization that isn't recognizable outside of a small professional cohort) and policy intensive research organizations, an MBA can be meaningless (if not even a negative). Some of this can be attributed to how MBAs hasn't really matriculated there previously due to relatively lower pay/career advancement potential. However, many of my friends who were dual degree candidates or were pursuing a MPP/MPA/IR masters after having gotten an MBA previously found them treated rather suspiciously. I have plenty of stories of interviews whereby the interviewers treated an MBA with suspicion and viewed it as a negative investment. There is this legacy perception that MBA programs are basically one big drinking party and it is full of uncaring conservatives who have no interest in policy. I found this to be generally untrue, but heard this repeated to me frequently. 

3. In many ways the MBA curriculum is can awkward fit for many policy / IR jobs. Analyzing selling soap is fundamentally not that different than improving healthcare, but there are fundamentally different ways of thinking fo them. I have yet to know an MBA to get a policy analysis/research job.

4. Government and Social Impact entities have their own social networks that often stem from the Policy/IR schools, so coming as an outside as an MBA can mean limited networking gain. 

What You Need to Watch Out For:

Not MBAs are made equal. If an MBA supports government/social impact opportunities and has corresponding project opportunities in those areas, then it makes sense. If an MBA program doesn't, you should think abut other MBA programs or maybe it might not be right for you.

Edited December 31, 2020 by GradSchoolGrad

[Boolakanaka]

On 12/30/2020 at 11:18 PM, GradSchoolGrad said:

A lot of people have asked me about the pros and cons of getting an MBA instead of can MPP/MPA/IR Masters but to achieve government roles + social impact interests. So I'll give you some insights based upon my extensive familiarity of MBA programs + government/social impact recruiting for MBA.

Generally speaking (of course the devil is always in the details), these are the 

Pros:

1. An MBA can (emphasis on can) be viewed as more unique, more competitive, and more prestigious compared to MPP/MPA/IR programs when being considered roles hosted by large organizations - for example - Presidential Merit Fellowship, the Mega Foundations (CZ, Gates, and Case), and government at large. 

2. MBA also gives you flexibility win career advancement within Government/Social Impact to be more naturally considered for finance, operations, and private sector engagement - so basically more opportunities to do well and promote. 

3. More and more about government and social impact is tied to involvement with the private sector (partnerships at a minimum), tech collaboration, and financial agreements - which naturally advantage MBAs. For example, I had a policy friend who got into sustainable housing policy, but quickly realized it came down to too tech collaboration and financial management and always joke how she should have went for an MBA instead of an MPP

4. A lot of government and social impact is also increasingly about acquisitions (resources, people, property, agreements, and etc.) which MBAs are helpful for. It used to be that you had some guru who did it for 30 years getting involved in acquisitions, but with baby boomer retirements on the way, MBAs are getting involved.

5. Due to how MBA schools are much more fiercely competitive against each other, they generally are very well run, well resourced, and well supported graduate school experience. At my policy school the ratio for career coach to students was approximately 1 to 200. At the MBA program at my University, it was about 1:50 (if you only count full time), 1:25 (if you count the part-time and full time). Basically, you get a very well curated experience for roughly the same tuition. 

6. Career flexibility to also included private sector. I know people with MBAs only and MBA and another masters weave in and out of private sector and policy sector. They really enjoyed the diversity in their career. Yes, you can do this with an MPP/MPA/IR Masters, but it is much harder. 

Cons:

1. You can be the weirdo of your MBA program. Granted government and social impact roles are becoming more and more prevalent, they are still the extreme minority in MBA world (as in people will look at you funny, or you are branded as the gov/social impact person). That being said, some MBA programs are really well equipped to support you academically and professionally with gov/social impact interests (Harvard, Georgetown, and Yale come to mind). However, many may really struggle to support you. 

2. At smaller social impact organizations (any organization that isn't recognizable outside of a small professional cohort) and policy intensive research organizations, an MBA can be meaningless (if not even a negative). Some of this can be attributed to how MBAs hasn't really matriculated there previously due to relatively lower pay/career advancement potential. However, many of my friends who were dual degree candidates or were pursuing a MPP/MPA/IR masters after having gotten an MBA previously found them treated rather suspiciously. I have plenty of stories of interviews whereby the interviewers treated an MBA with suspicion and viewed it as a negative investment. There is this legacy perception that MBA programs are basically one big drinking party and it is full of uncaring conservatives who have no interest in policy. I found this to be generally untrue, but heard this repeated to me frequently. 

3. In many ways the MBA curriculum is can awkward fit for many policy / IR jobs. Analyzing selling soap is fundamentally not that different than improving healthcare, but there are fundamentally different ways of thinking fo them. I have yet to know an MBA to get a policy analysis/research job.

4. Government and Social Impact entities have their own social networks that often stem from the Policy/IR schools, so coming as an outside as an MBA can mean limited networking gain. 

What You Need to Watch Out For:

Not MBAs are made equal. If an MBA supports government/social impact opportunities and has corresponding project opportunities in those areas, then it makes sense. If an MBA program doesn't, you should think abut other MBA programs or maybe it might not be right for you.

Nice succinct and lucid synopsis. Further, we are now seeing increasing intersectionality between public policy and philanthropy, e.g. climate change, public health, issues of equity and race, etc, and for those reasons, there are real motivations to consider a different path. 
 

As always, I’ll place a plug for the college of Eli, specifically, the Yale School of Management, which has historically been thought of as the incubator of executive management in the non-profit sector, and in fact, only turned to the traditional MBA model in the 80s. I know scores of folks who now work for major philanthropic foundations as well as similar corporate foundations and have great latitude (as well as resources) in addressing many public policy issues. Further, the networking apparatus of Yale is second to none, and the last numbers I saw had about 5 jobs for every graduating student on campus.

Something to think about...