What is all this hassle about? Do you need an MBA? When do you need an MBA? Which country, school, and many, many more questions one will ask. I myself went throughout this journey. It took me more than two years to complete: 1 year of preparations and 1 year of full-time program. My recommendation is certainly yes! Its worth the shot. No matter the school, no matter the country, you should go for it. I will recall my personal experience and share my story. I decided to split this into several separate posts.
The first one will be the initiation – how I came to that crazy idea. My story is a long one. To cut the long story shot, I once got bored at my previous job. Not that I am a lazy bone, but my boss decided to go out of real estate development business, sell his assets and disappear(a very common approach and way of thinking in Ukraine and many other ex-Soviet countries). My beloved wife Hanna first recommended, then insisted that I go and study further. The same happened when I was finishing my BBA – I was so busy with my business that it took me 7 years to graduate, unlike my group mates, who graduated 3 years before me. And my wife was the driver in this decision. Same with an MBA – Hanna told me to try my luck with local schools in Ukraine. I made a research, talked to many people and then suddenly a crazy idea appeared – I decided to quit my job and go abroad.
I surely kept that decision in secret from everyone. Just my wife was aware of it as she observed me spending hours studying and cracking GMAT. GMAT was a nightmare! I could not even imagine how weird and strange this could be. I downloaded tons of tests, books, prep materials. I signed up for GMAT courses. I bought latest edition of Manhattan prep and Kaplan books. I even had an iPhone app with more than a 1000 questions. My best advice would be – schedule at least 6 months just for GMAT. I didn’t have that time. I was torn between my job, my family, a lot of problems and a bright idea to get an MBA. Not the best combination, frankly speaking. Anyway, I took GMAT three time – once every month(the first test after 6 weeks of prep, which was vey stupid idea). After got tired of GMAT after 3rd attempt. My best score was 630 and couldn’t proceed further with preparation. I decided to stop and move further.
In my next post I will explore the issue of business school research, essay writing and many more.
Roman Osypenko Blog 