Why I Pursued an MBA?
Recently I watched the Netflix series “Maid” and was very much moved by the story. If you have not seen the series, it’s based on the true story of Stephanie Land. She broke the vicious cycle of poverty and domestic violence to become a writer. They based the Netflix series on her New York Times bestseller book Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive. After six years of cleaning houses and toilets, she could eventually pay for student loans with some grants to earn a Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing from the University of Montana. The story is truly heart wrenching. Then the question is why is this story related to my post about “Why I pursued an MBA?”
This is because pursuing a higher education is an investment of time and money. And is a commitment to up-skill and develop our capabilities. Many times it might not be clear what benefit the higher education can entail for us in the short term. But might be more of an investment for the longer term. So let’s dig into more why I pursued an MBA in this post.
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
― Benjamin Franklin
Contents
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Tertiary Education Country-Wise
What is Tertiary Education?
Before we dive into more into the meat of this blog about why I pursued an MBA, let’s try to get some perspective about higher education. Do you know what is tertiary education? It is any higher education that we pursue after high school. This can be undergrad studies, grad studies or PhD, or any other professional or vocational certificates, diplomas or degrees.
Population with Tertiary Education Country-Wise
The data below from OECD shows the distribution of its adult residents between 25-64 age group with tertiary, upper secondary and below upper secondary education in 2021 country-wise. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is a group of 37 member countries that discuss and develop economic and social policy.
So the top 10 countries in the world with the highest education are Canada, Japan, Israel, South Korea, United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Finland and Norway.
| Country | % Tertiary | % Upper Secondary | % Below Upper Secondary | 2021 Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | 56.71% | 34.41% | 8.87% | 38,067,903 |
| Japan | 51.44% | NaN% | NaN% | 126,050,804 |
| Israel | 50.92% | 36.46% | 12.63% | 8,789,774 |
| South Korea | 47.74% | 39.87% | 12.39% | 51,305,186 |
| United States | 46.36% | 44.29% | 9.35% | 332,915,073 |
| United Kingdom | 45.74% | 35.42% | 18.83% | 68,207,116 |
| Ireland | 45.66% | 36.35% | 17.99% | 4,982,907 |
| Australia | 45.36% | 35.63% | 19.01% | 25,788,215 |
| Finland | 44.30% | 43.80% | 11.90% | 5,548,360 |
| Norway | 43.21% | 38.76% | 18.03% | 5,465,630 |
| Switzerland | 42.59% | 45.21% | 12.19% | 8,715,494 |
| Iceland | 42.38% | 34.75% | 22.86% | 343,353 |
| Sweden | 41.94% | 41.06% | 17.00% | 10,160,169 |
| Luxembourg | 40.33% | 36.37% | 23.30% | 634,814 |
| Lithuania | 40.27% | 52.55% | 7.17% | 2,689,862 |
| Belgium | 40.26% | 36.54% | 23.20% | 11,632,326 |
| Estonia | 39.66% | 49.02% | 11.32% | 1,325,185 |
| Denmark | 39.23% | 42.10% | 18.67% | 5,813,298 |
| New Zealand | 37.73% | 41.15% | 21.12% | 4,860,643 |
| Netherlands | 37.17% | 41.21% | 21.62% | 17,173,099 |
| Spain | 36.35% | 22.72% | 40.93% | 46,745,216 |
| France | 35.21% | 43.17% | 21.62% | 65,426,179 |
| Slovenia | 34.30% | 53.38% | 12.32% | 2,078,724 |
| Latvia | 33.88% | 53.73% | 12.39% | 1,866,942 |
| Austria | 32.39% | 52.57% | 15.04% | 9,043,070 |
| Greece | 31.03% | 41.68% | 27.29% | 10,370,744 |
| Poland | 29.92% | 62.19% | 7.89% | 37,797,005 |
| Germany | 28.58% | 57.94% | 13.48% | 83,900,473 |
| Hungary | 24.05% | 59.97% | 15.97% | 9,634,164 |
| Portugal | 24.04% | 23.91% | 52.05% | 10,167,925 |
| Czech Republic | 23.93% | 69.87% | 6.21% | 10,724,555 |
| Slovakia | 23.10% | 68.21% | 8.70% | 5,460,721 |
| Costa Rica | 22.99% | 16.52% | 60.49% | 5,139,052 |
| Colombia | 22.49% | 31.29% | 46.22% | 51,265,844 |
| Argentina | 21.41% | 40.06% | 38.53% | 45,605,826 |
| Turkey | 20.01% | 19.28% | 60.71% | 85,042,738 |
| Italy | 18.67% | 42.25% | 39.08% | 60,367,477 |
| Mexico | 17.42% | 20.24% | 62.34% | 130,262,216 |
| Indonesia | 11.86% | 26.04% | 62.10% | 276,361,783 |
| South Africa | 7.44% | 65.83% | 26.73% | 60,041,994 |
Canada is the Highest Educated Country
The data shows most of the developed countries have significantly higher tertiary education level. With Canada topping the list with 57% of its population between 25-64 years having a higher education after high school. Does this data surprise you? Canada also has the rating be the best country to live in for quality of life. One of the key reason for Canada to have such high levels of education is because Canada is a country of immigrants. And the immigration rules prioritize immigrants with higher education.
Distribution of Tertiary Education Population in the United States
If we see the tertiary education distribution data by the US Census, the tertiary education it is has been on the rise since the last decade. Both bachelors (61% increase and master’s (100% increase) degrees have seen a rise for residents over 25 years old. The analysis also shows recent immigrants to the United States are more likely to have a college education than earlier immigrants or the native born.
Top 5 Countries for Job Opportunities
If we try to corelate higher education and job opportunities in my earlier post 5 Best Countries for Job Opportunities, we found that United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, United States and Japan had the highest job opportunities based on an analysis in 2020. So what does this data tell us? Almost all the highest educated countries are also the top countries for job opportunities. Does this surprise you?
Highest Happiness Index Countries
Now if you want to see how the highest educated fare on happiness index refer my earlier post 15 Top Happiness Index Countries. Here, we observed the top 10 countries with the highest happiness index in 2020 were Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Ireland and the United States. So is there any corelation between higher education and happiness? There is which is primarily driven by quality of life wherein higher education is a major enabler. What do you think?
Why Higher Education?
So, having seen some data above, what do you think are the benefits of higher education? If I were to summarize in 5 reasons, below are the ones. This then resonates with why I pursued an MBA?
Career/ Job Opportunities
Career and job opportunities would definitely be a major driver. In today’s competitive world, we need to up-skill continually. So formal higher education is for sure a path to consider.
Develop Entrepreneurship Skills
Then, higher education also helps us attain the skills and knowledge if we were to consider an entrepreneurial opportunity. We may say not always we need a formal education say in business to become an entrepreneur, but the formal education is always a tool in our toolkit.
Achieve Sense of Fulfillment
How is pursuing a higher education related to achieving a sense of fulfillment? This is because fulfillment essentially has two parts to its meaning. First is a sense of happiness or satisfaction. Second is a sense of accomplishment that one would have yearned for.
So it is the second part where the higher education pitches in. How many of you have yearned to going back to school and studying what you always wanted to study? Then do a particular type of job that you want or wanted to do?
Again, there are two parts to this situation. One you wanted to do a particular type of work so you wanted a formal education then second, then mid-career or late career you want to do another type of job so now you need to up-skill and decide to go back to school again.
After all, fulfillment in life is also about deriving happiness in what you do.Because even if you don’t need to work for a living, you should always try to do a work which you love and enjoy doing. Does this make sense??
Broaden Perspective
Then we can talk about broadening our perspective. Would you agree education not only helps us gather new knowledge but also provides us with learning how to apply the new knowledge to broaden our perspective.
We live in a highly integrated and globalized world and it is this broadened perspective that is what we need to drive innovation through inclusion of diverse thoughts and ideas. This is because we can foster inclusiveness if we don’t have a broadened perspective, which is mostly enabled through education, that can be formal or informal.
Achieve Enlightenment
Now this can be a little tricky. So what is enlightenment? We may also relate enlightenment to spiritualism. So education is a tool in the toolbox for wisdom. It is also the windows of our mind that provide not only the influx of light, but also keep our minds ventilated. Because sometimes to learn, we may need to unlearn something.
Why I Pursued an MBA?
Then coming to this post, why I pursued an MBA? I would say it is a combination of several of the 5 reasons I stated above.
I would say I am not only technically inquisitive, but also have become socially inquisitive. This is because holding a technical degree and having worked in the technical field for a long, I have also become a lot socially inquisitive. So I have been reading a lot about complex socio-economic issues in the world and trying to question the why part. Hence, the MBA is the direction for me to gain knowledge to answer these questions I have. And then it could lead to what else I could do with my enhanced knowledge and broadened perspective to make a difference. That would be a topic for another detailed post. How can I use my MBA to make a difference for the betterment for the larger global economy?
Conclusion
Thus, this brings us to the conclusion of my post why I pursued an MBA? As I make progress with my MBA, I have fallen to enjoy the course material. This is because I can relate the topics extremely well with my work and can see how I can practically apply the learning at work. I would say I am extremely fortunate to work for a global multi-national company wherein I get ample opportunities to apply management principles. Further, the continued education and broadening of my business knowledge and perspective is an extremely fulfilling journey. It is something that I feel excited about getting up in the morning, going to work, return and study. Hence, truly, it provides me an amazing sense of fulfillment.
Besides, the application of learning, I believe the MBA has stimulated my academic interests that I feel like taking it forward with a PhD in management, if I could make it possible. But I am very excited to take this academic journey forward in whatever way possible. That only time will tell.
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