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What are potential employers looking for in hiring MBA candidates, and do they recognize Online MBA value? When online degree programs first launched, employers were a bit skeptical and questioned the quality of online instruction. With advancements in technology, and the growing success of online MBA graduates in the field, more employers are recognizing the value of the skills and experiences candidates gain in Online MBA programs.
You never want to leave anything to chance. Just as you would prepare for the tough questions for any interview, you want to be armed with reassuring evidence supporting the value of your online MBA degree. To sell yourself, you must also sell the Online MBA value. In every answer you give, be sure to include how your online MBA experience prepared you well in the skill being addressed.
Sample Interview by a Potential Employer
Here are some examples you can build upon and use to impress a potential employer in your interview:
Question: As an MBA candidate, describe the strength of your basic business knowledge.
Potential Answer: All MBA degrees stress the importance of understanding the core functional areas of business. In campus-based courses, only a few students get the opportunity to share in class due to time constraints. In my online degree courses, everyone had a voice and was required to discuss and work through the basic business skills in business law, finance, economics, marketing, accounting and management, and statistics.
Question: MBAs must be able to communicate in a typical business setting, how did your online degree prepare you?
Potential Answer: To communicate effectively in a high-tech business setting, one must be able to use technology to communicate their ideas effectively. As an online student, I learned to pitch business solutions in online business chat rooms and worked on team projects within the online platform.
Question: Teamwork is a must have skill to work here. What kind of teamwork experience would you bring to this position?
Potential Answer: Collaboration is important and working as a team in person and online with clients is important in the new high-tech business industry. Through online discussions and team projects, I learned to embrace the ideas of others and find ways to build upon their strengths.
Question: In the end, what personal qualities make you the best MBA candidate?
Potential Answer: As an online MBA graduate, I bring the necessary ambition, leadership, discipline, and creativity skills every MBA needs to succeed and help the company to become a leading edge in the business industry. These skills do not automatically come with every earned MBA degree.
Question: Lastly, describe the value of an Online MBA verses a face-to-face earned MBA degree?
Potential Answer: I will refer to a study conducted by the Department of Education, reported by the New York Times, which states “Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile.”
Successful MBAs know how to assess a situation, gather the important evidence, and defend solutions proposed. What better way to demonstrate those very skills to a potential employer than to sell yourself and your MBA online degree! These kinds of winning interviews will cause the question of Online MBA Value to become obsolete.
