How to get your employer to pay for your MBA
If you’re reading this, you’ve likely already made the significant decision to pursue your MBA – nice! What you’re probably realizing now is slightly more complicated to figure out – how you’re going to pay for said MBA. If you’re suddenly having nightmares of being buried in student loan debt for the rest of your life – wake up, wipe the sweat off your brow and smell the good news! Many employers will outright pay or partially pay for your MBA. All you have to do is convince them why they should.
Let us help you with the talking points. Read on to see the top five reasons that will help convince your employer to pay for your MBA.
- An MBA gives you access to information you can use in your job right now
Your employer doesn’t have to wait a year or two for you to complete your MBA in order to get a return on their investment. The information that you learn in an MBA program can be put to use immediately!
Just take it from UF MBA Weekend Professional Two-Year student Daniel Faulk (MBA ’19):
“Last year, I was selected by our CEO to participate in the business’ strategic planning session. I was placed on the technology strategy team and worked with each manufacturing center in identifying and developing their value propositions and differentiations. This allowed our business to finely tune our strengths and how we would posture ourselves in the following five years.
Previously, if you would have asked me what a value proposition was, frankly, I would have stared back at you clueless! Without Dr. Joe Alba’s class Problems and Methods in Marketing Management, I would have had zero input to provide my team in developing their strategies.”
- An MBA connects you with beneficial business contacts
When you enroll in a UF MBA program, you don’t just become a student, you become a member of The Gator Nation. There are more than 400,000+ UF alumni and 9,000+ UF MBA alumni around the globe. Each of these Gators is an additional professional contact across the world in different industries and functions to add to your Rolodex.
Many of them you’ll get to know as members of your cohort, but you’ll have plenty of additional opportunities to meet with students across all of UF MBA’s programs.
Weekend Professional Two-Year in South Florida alumnus Jesse B. Wright (MBA ’19) found the connections with his UF MBA peers to be one of the best benefits of the program:
“The quality of cohort classmates…exceeded my expectations. My classmates came from a variety of professional backgrounds, from finance, to medical, to legal, to marketing with a broad depth of experience. Geographically, they were from all over the United States, Caribbean and Latin America. Our classroom environment was very engaging and our cohort truly bonded. We kept in touch outside of school, and I feel confident that I have a viable network of classmates to turn to for years to come.”
- An MBA will transform you into the ideal employee
The most important skills that employers are looking for include abilities like problem solving, working with others, data analysis and interpretation, and other soft skills like oral communication and presentation, self-management and listening, according to the Employability and Business School Recruiters Survey from GMAC.
You don’t have to go running all over the nation to have experiences that build these skills. At UF MBA, you can strengthen these abilities, while sharpening your traditional business knowledge, all in one place.
Just one of the opportunities UF MBA offers that teaches the ideal employee skillset is Transformation Weekend.
Weekend Professional Two-Year in South Florida student Khue Tran (MBA ’20) didn’t miss a single session of Transformation Weekend, and it paid off:
“[Transformation Weekend] is truly the heart of the UF MBA program because it is for anyone that wants to experience personal transformation. It provided a crash course into some of the most important soft skills that you cannot learn in your MBA classes. It was an opportunity to meet other MBA cohorts to maximize all the benefits UF has to offer in addition to coursework.”
- An MBA is an investment in your company’s best resource – you
All good business professionals know you have to spend money to make money, and continuing to develop company talent is no exception. UF MBA is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top programs with the highest ROI.
Talent development is even beneficial for people with double-digit years of management and leadership experience like Executive MBA alumna Catisha Turner (MBA ’19):
“The curriculum has helped me grow professionally in so many ways. Virtually every class added something valuable to my personal and professional development. The information I gained helped me become a part of conversations where I would have previously been excluded or overwhelmed. I am a more knowledgeable and well-rounded businesswoman because of my participation in this program, and it’s not just head knowledge. I have legitimate tools that I can use to implement change and increase productivity.”
- An MBA doesn’t require you to leave your current job
One of the most important things that will help convince your boss to pay for your MBA? They don’t have to worry about losing the talent they are investing in because of the flexible structure of UF MBA’s Online, Weekend Professional and Executive programs.
The Weekend Professional requires only one weekend visit per month and the Executive Program requires only four visits per semester, while the Online program has a recommended one visit per semester.
The flexibility of UF MBA’s programs allow even students with the most critical jobs to continue their work while pursuing their degree. Take it from Online MBA student Patrick Brennan (MBA ’20), who is also an active duty member of the United States Air Force:
“I have been deployed to the Middle East for the past six months. I have taken my finals on a different continent with my commander as a proctor and worked with my professors each term for course materials. On one occasion, I was forced to ask for a week extension on my finals due to being stranded in a remote part of Syria, which my professors willingly afforded me.
Even though I am so far away, and my schedule is so unreliable, over the past ten months of the UF MBA Online program I feel as though I’ve really managed to make lasting and powerful connections – the kind of connections that last a lifetime, having been formed under challenging circumstances.”
Now that we’ve armed you with the information, it’s time to set up that meeting with your boss and get your MBA.
