Online MBA Forum

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Confidence

I'm struck by Failing Economist's remark about selecting people who were good at doing MBAs. I have to say that I think that there is a great deal in the idea that people get selected for education on the basis that they are going to be successful on the program - not that they are going to learn the most that will be useful to their future careers.

In fact many universities select on this basis - especially the best universities. They become self-perpetuating in that they select the people who meet the profile that the selectors themselves fit, and therefore gain success at university.

I can't personally make up my mind how good or bad this is. My experience employing graduates from Cambridge University in the UK is that you get a certain kind of person, not necessarily the most original thinker, or the person who can cope best with life, but someone who has bags of confidence (even arrogance)and who can use their intelligence well.

# posted by Mary @ 8:05 PM

Comments:

I'm not sure that this is exclusive to MBA programs, or even to undergraduate degrees. The same is often said about Etonians (or indeed people from many of the private schools in the UK). It isn't so much an education in the academic sense that is being brought to the table rather a certain sense of confidence (and in the case of Etonians of course, arrogance).
Plus, in the way that UK society works, a net of contacts and a shared background of sorts with those who are the power brokers in that society.
Perhaps MBA programs really do work in that manner, at least in part? Confidence and contacts being as important (or almost as) as the actual academic matters covered in the courses?

# posted by failingeconomist : 1:03 AM

Online MBA Forum

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Confidence

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