The 3 Best Times to Do Your MBA

Getting an MBA can transform your career prospects, however choosing the right time to do it is key. You need to meet the prerequisite requirements, which include having a few years of good executive experience, but you also need to be at a point in your life where it is acceptable to either take time out of full time work, or to spend most of the time you are not working studying.

Here are three times in your life which can be ideal for doing your MBA:

 

When You're a New Parent

When your first child is born, you may want to take some time to be a stay at home mom or dad – both to have a chance to make the most of these unique years in your family's life, and to save money on childcare. If you do your MBA during this period, you can take a sabbatical from work to spend time with your child, but also spend that time preparing for a more senior role and higher income when your child starts school and you are ready to go back to work. Of course, to do this you'll need to do an online MBA degree rather than going away to college, but lots of high quality universities such as North Eastern now offer these, and a good AACSB online MBA is as desirable to employers as one gained on site at a college campus.

When You Have Been Made Redundant

Redundancy is always hard to swallow, however the payment you get along with the fact it may take you a while to find a new job anyway both make this a good time to take time out and get your MBA. You can take a more casual part time job just to bring in cash if you didn't get a big pay out, or study full time, and your next job can be a more senior position than you had before. Getting your MBA really can be the silver lining in the redundancy cloud, and you may look back on the redundancy as one of the best things that could have happened for your longer term career.

When You Are Stagnating in Your Current Role

If you feel like you can't really move up any higher with your current skills and have been in the same middle management role for years, an MBA is a way to develop a skillset more suited to the kind of jobs above you in the company pyramid. If you feel bored or disillusioned, or simply want more money, then it can be a good idea to look at online MBA programs that you can do while you continue working. You'll feel far more positive as you make efforts to move up, and your company may well support you in terms of time and money as it will benefit them too.

These are three periods in many people's lives when an MBA is a great thing to take on.