Ep 85 | Why Mid-career Pros Choose These Business Schools

Mid-career MBA programs offer a very different experience from traditional two-year MBAs—and for the right candidates, they can be transformational. In this episode of the mbaMission Podcast, hosts Jeremy Shinewald and Harold Simansky explore accelerated, one-year programs designed for experienced professionals, including Stanford MSx, MIT Sloan Fellows, London Business School Sloan Fellows, and USC IBEAR. Joined by mbaMission Managing Director Debbie Choy, the conversation breaks down who these programs are built for, how they differ from EMBAs, and why they often serve as a strategic pause for reflection, leadership growth, and career reinvention. If you’re a senior professional considering your next move—and wondering whether a mid-career MBA could be the right investment—this episode offers practical insight and clarity.

00:00 What Makes Mid-Career MBA Programs Different
03:04 Inside the Stanford MSX Program
05:50 The MIT Sloan Fellows Experience
07:30 Who These Programs Are Best For
12:12 Career Transition and Job Search Strategies
15:06 Comparing MSX and MIT Sloan Programs
18:02 Diverse Applicant Profiles and Success Stories
26:55 Navigating the Application Process
27:53 Financial Considerations and Investment in Education
29:56 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Transcript

Exploring Executive MBA Programs

Harold Simansky 0:00

I think these programs are a little bit different in the sense of they give you the jump. It's almost like they're a springboard where you take a pause, you sort of almost answer some very existential questions.

Debbie Choy 0:10

They really want you to be thoughtful about, you know, what you want to gain coming into the school and what exactly do you want to do after the school? Here's what I tell my clients an EMBA is your company's investment in you.

Harold Simansky 0:26

Yes.

Speaker 1 0:27

A MSX or MIT Sloan Fellows is your investment in your career.

Harold Simansky 0:32

That's great. The MIT Sloan Fellows MBA, Stanford MSX, the London Business School Sloan Fellows, and USC IBear MBA each offer an accelerated path for executives with 10 to 15 years or more of experience who want transformation, not just transition. I'm joined by MBA Mission Managing Director Debbie, who has helped countless senior professionals navigate their next big move through these programs. Together we'll explore how each school helps experienced leaders sharpen their purpose, expand their global reach, and redefine what's next in their careers. These are not traditional to your MBAs. They're immersive one-year experiences that blend academic rigor with personal reflection designed to help seasoned professionals sharpen their leadership vision, expand global perspective, and reimagine what's next. Whether you're an engineer stepping into general management, a founder seeking renewal, or a senior leader preparing for your next act, this conversation unpacks how each program approaches this pivotal moment and what kind of leader thrives in each.

Jeremy Shinewald 1:51

So great to be here. Obviously, my co-host, uh or actually I'm your co-host, Harold Samansky. I'm Jeremy Scheinwald. We're here in beautiful San Francisco, and uh you can see it at the back. And uh when you're in San Francisco, you have to have a Stanford GSB grad on the on the podcast. Debbie Choi, uh NBA Mission Managing Director. What's your like 14th year or something like that? 13th year or something. We're gonna 13th year. There you go.

Speaker 1 2:17

Yeah.

Jeremy Shinewald 2:18

Um thanks so much for joining joining us. And we we we we came very much came here to have to ensure that we had West Coast representation on our podcast on our podcast.

Speaker 1 2:26

That's very important.

Understanding the Stanford MSX Program

Jeremy Shinewald 2:28

So where do we begin? I guess we're here to talk about the kind of you know mid-career options for people. I I think probably the one that that applicants are most familiar with is probably the MSX program. I know you've had a lot of success with the MSX program of the years. I mean, first of all, as an MIT graduate, MIT MS. MIT Sloan Fellows, which you are we can debate that as this podcast goes on. These two, I would say these two are can we say these two are vying for supremacy, for lack of a better word. That's right. Um, for for for appropriate like brand supremacy in this space. We're gonna start, we have a guest. You know, let's behave ourselves. We're gonna we're gonna talk about the MSX program first. So um, yeah, tell tell us a little bit about your experience with it, about the type of applicants that apply to it. Um one thing I think we should talk about is maybe the type of applicants who don't apply to it who should.

Speaker 1 3:17

Um Yeah, I love the Stanford MSX program. I think it's one of the most overlooked programs, especially for my mid-career clients. They are looking for a minimum of eight years of full-time work experience. And I think MIT Sloan Fellows is looking for 10 years.

Harold Simansky 3:34

That's right, a little a little bit longer. That's right.

Speaker 1 3:36

Yeah, so slight, uh, slight difference there. But the average tenure at Stanford MSX is actually 13 years. And I have a lot of clients who um, you know, they're pretty tenured, they're managing teams, managing projects, and they're asking me, you know, they sort of feel like they uh have missed a boat on the two-year program. And they're, you know, they're looking at the MSX program, they're asking me, you know, is this a fit for me? You know, what is this program about? And I go, I love when they ask me that question because I go, let me tell you about this program. It's a much smaller program, so it's 80 to 90 people. Um, it is um really tailored for mid-career professionals, meaning that it's one year instead of two years. It's uh still a full-time immersive program. It's accelerated. That means that you are streamlining the core classes. You take um, you know, half of your classes are core, and then the other half you get to take electives, which to my mind is you know really the exciting part of your MBA experience because you get to really curate and take the classes that you you know are relevant to your career goals. So I think the MSX program is a fantastic program. I would recommend it for anyone who has at least eight years of full-time work experience.

The MIT Sloan Fellows Experience

Jeremy Shinewald 4:53

Can I just want to accentuate one or two things about the programs to make sure they're abundantly clear to our many viewers? One is you said this, but just to just to put an exclamation exclamation point on it, it's a full-time program. It's it's a one-year full-time program. So it's for mid-career professionals, but it's not like an EMBA where you're gonna spend, you know, two days on the weekend and then spend a week at, you know, uh, I don't know, in the middle of December or something like that. This is a full-time commitment for you. Um, the other piece, of course, it's taught through the GSP, but it is not an it's not a fish, it's not an MBA. It's it's you're getting an M, you're getting a master's degree, but you're not getting an MBA, which is which is important. I think um considering you're a mid-career professional, that's okay. You're probably not there for, I don't know, for the three letters on your on your resume. You're there for the education, and the education is a management education. If you want to be one of our success stories, sign up for a free consultation with a member of our full-time MBA admissions team. Since we've worked with tens of thousands of applicants over the past two decades, we can give you our honest opinion on your chances and help you put together your very best application. That is not a sales call, but rather your first session with one of us for free. We can give you a profile evaluation, answer specific questions about the process, review your resume, talk about your school choices, and so much more. Sign up at MBAmission.com slash consult. We look forward to working with you.

Harold Simansky 6:16

Debbie, I also really love the Stanford MSX program. I really love the MIT LGO program. And let me tell you why. If an EMBA, what it basically does, it accelerates your career. It really keeps you on a trajectory and basically gives you the skills, particularly the leadership skills, to sort of keep you going and to really, you know, move forward. I think these programs are a little bit different in the sense of they give you the jump. It's almost like they're a springboard where you take a pause, you sort of almost answer some very existential questions. It's an immersive program. And we don't just mean for yourself, we mean frequently for your family. At this point, it's later in your life, and you're really ready to say, okay, I am ready to really bounce forward to get going to really upskill it every single way, including sort of your thinking about your future, thinking about your family's future, where you want to be. I honestly I tell I tell folks, EMBA, you're gonna be in a wonderful trajectory, very clear. MSX LGO, it may be a little bit less clear where you're going, but you are going to the moon. I I I think that that's really it. And like you, I love it. Not for everybody. Long conversations about the commitment it takes. I think at the same point, though, I also talk to a lot of people who've never heard of it, and I say this is perfect for you. And to be honest with you, it's probably perfect for a lot of people that just don't know about it.

Speaker 1 7:41

Yeah, yeah. And I think for people who are able to uproot their family and move, you know, to Stanford or, you know, Boston for a year, I think that's phenomenal. That's, you know, that really gives you that space and that time to, like you said, Harold, think about where do you want to pivot to next. I think for folks who are uh very rooted in where they are and they're not close to these two places, um, the EMBA or even the part-time program might be a better option, uh, who maybe don't want to leave their job for a full year. Um, there is an opportunity cost, and that's why they've really tailored it to, you know, one year and compress that experience.

Jeremy Shinewald 8:23

It's interesting you mentioned that about the kind of the value of moving your family uh for a year. Like I think of the admittedly, for me, the relatively small number of people I've helped get into this program, they were all international and they all brought their families with. Um, you know, one individual from Saudi Arabia, I remember, because he was he was applying during COVID and he was like, I don't know if I'm even gonna be able to like leave the country, get into the country. Um, he ended up getting in, and um, he and his family just had an had an awesome experience. And I feel like I feel like there are there's a really strong like international component to this program, and people really like it's it's they're like it's like they're making like a spiritual life commitment to it, not just like an educational commitment to it.

Family Considerations in Executive Education

Harold Simansky 9:02

Yeah, I I will have a number of folks or just over the years who may have chosen MSX versus LGO for the simple reason you get to Stanford. I despite being from Boston, I gotta admit it, there's something about Palo Alto, you get there, they help you get housing right on campus, they have a daycare for you right there, which for most of these people is amazing. At this point, you know what? You're you're suddenly living in a small town, you're really happy just sort of every day, the pressure is off, and the pressure just is sort of in some ways almost self-imposed. You're like, you're a kid in a candy store. What can I what can I do here? And I think truly it is sort of that memory a family has. And I I sort of hate to keep on talking about sort of the impact on a family, but that really is a big part of it.

Speaker 1 9:46

It is. Absolutely. I have um a uh Chinese client that I remember uh who happened, her her family was already based in the Bay Area. So it was actually a great fit for her. And uh, you know, and she was like, I'm happy to move to Palo Alto for a year, you know. They I think they were living in uh outside of Palo Alto at that time. Um but uh her background was uh looking to accelerate her career in tech. She worked for a Chinese tech company based in the US. Um, but she looked at the MSX as a way to pivot. So I think it's a great opportunity for folks who are um you know looking to uh leave their current employer, looking to either accelerate their career in their industry or to move to a different employer. I think it's a great opportunity.

Jeremy Shinewald 10:38

One of the things that I also notice when applicants are looking at the MSX and looking at the like it's sort of because it straddles both worlds, kind of you occasionally get people who are looking at full-time programs and the MSX, and sometimes you get people who are looking at EMBA programs and the MSX. But one kind of nice perk of the of the MSX, if you're if you're really only looking for that in EMBA programs, is that you can take the executive assessment, which is like it's very similar to the GMAT, but it was designed for executive education, and the schools aren't as focused on sky high scores. And so, you know, it really they're looking like a minimum threshold. And I believe the MSX's average is like about a one, is like I think a 158, which is from what I'm told, like not that it's it's not like painstaking, got to dedicate your life to achieve that. It's it's not easy, but it's not like trying to get a um, I'm still thinking old GMAT terms, you know, like a 760 on the old GMAT or something like that.

Speaker 1 11:35

Right. Yeah. I think the executive assessment looks at more your work experience, your business skills, as opposed to, you know, pure, like, are you able to do calculus or stats?

Career Transition and Job Search Strategies

Harold Simansky 11:47

Right. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think what's also nice about these programs, EMBA certainly, but MSX or MIT LGO even more so is you take your resume, you call them up, you show them your resume, you then start having some conversations, and they are very clear in terms of whether you're not a candidate, whether you are or not a candidate, because these are very impressive people who go to these programs. They have already been very, very successful. Just to circle back to one point that I also found really interesting about MSX, and it's sort of if you dig into the numbers, it actually takes people a little bit of time to find jobs. It's sort of funny, meaning, if, I don't know, out of business school you're talking about three months, some of these people take six months. And that's a reflection of the fact they're going in there being very thoughtful, already been very, very successful, and and they really start thinking to themselves, okay, I'm planning my career for the next 20 years. What do I really want to do? What is really going to get me excited? And that I think really speaks to who goes there more than somebody who's like on this treadmill, who like, okay, I got to keep on going, keep on going, keep on going.

Speaker 1 12:48

And that's one thing that is reflected in the MSX application because they have an extra question that asks you about your career goals because you have such a short time on campus, they really want you to be thoughtful about, you know, what you want to gain coming into the school and what exactly do you want to do after the school? Yeah, so I think that's uh, you know, the you you have um you do have access to career uh resources at the career center at Stanford. So same resources there, but you don't have the same recruiting opportunities there. Because if you're looking at a mid-career transition, very few employers are going to hire armies of folks. So you do have to do your own networking, you do have to do your own job search.

Jeremy Shinewald 13:36

So let's talk about some other similarities between, you know, between the MBA program and the MSX program.

Speaker 1 13:41

The the most important selling point, I think, is that you have the same professors, same teaching methods, you have access to the same electives, both at the GSB and also at other GSB, uh other Stanford schools. Um, you have the same access to student clubs, you know, you are living side by side uh alongside the MBA students. So, you know, beautiful residences and everything. So, yeah, a lot of these similarities, you essentially getting the same experience. There are some differences like what I highlighted.

Comparing MSX and MIT Sloan Programs

Harold Simansky 14:13

Um again, sort of coming back to almost the structure of the program in a very physical way, you're at the point of a career also where you are very open to meeting other people. You're very open to just, and you find it interesting, I think almost in a way that younger folks do. And again, I'm a sort of middle-aged guy, so I'm looking at maybe a little judgmentally, but the reality is you're at a point of your life where you just start even being more curious. So there are a place like Stanford, again, a place like MIT, it's like a honestly, it's a candy store. And I keep on coming back to that analogy. You start going across campus, you start doing other things, you start talking to folks in the medical school and the environment school, the public policy school, and you're just excited about everything. And candidly, the workload just isn't the same. You know, it's it simply is. And part of it is it's you, part of it is actually expectations. So that really gives you the opportunity to just just play around it or meet somebody on the playground. And it gets just very very exciting.

Jeremy Shinewald 15:11

So let's talk about some of the some of the differences, uh, you know, sort of compare and contrast. I mean, you don't have to explicitly, but let's let's talk, let's talk about about the offerings at MIT, MIT Sloan. Um, you know, we it's great. I've I've got, you know, I've got I've got I've got the GSB and I've got Sloan on either side. Maybe I should just you know bow out and walk out of the room here. The uh so Harold, I mean talk talk about the the talk about the one-year options, the mid-career options at um get MIT Sloan.

Harold Simansky 15:37

Yeah, sure. A little bit older, generally speaking, a little bit more international. At the same point, then folks who are really looking to, you know, pivot in one way or another. And what I mean by that is they could frequently be tech people, and it sort of cuts both ways because they've been probably been in tech for a little while, and they themselves see tech world changing. They go to MIT and suddenly they start like, okay, I'm starting to understand the ins and outs of tech in a way that I didn't before. Or at that point, also the pharma, the health tech industry is getting just really, really exciting. So maybe they were entrepreneurs, but something a little bit more tech focused. And now, again, the biotech capital of the world is Kendall Square at MIT. So they have that opportunity as well. And again, it's just, I can't stress this enough the integration that they're seeing across campus, whether at Stanford, whether at MIT, with the two-year program, I think that that's just what drives things. Listen, I'll also say one other thing. An application to a two-year MBA program is very aspirational. It talks about sort of what you want to do, sort of big stories about the future. By the time you get to Sloan Fellows or MSX, and we talk about a few similar programs, you've done it. I mean, honestly, you've done it. You have to be a very strong professional to be in the program. Yeah. Yeah. So you've kind of arrived. Exactly. At that point, you've arrived, and everybody else around you has arrived, and they sort of really struggle with very specific issues that they've solved. You know, that they've actually solved here. Again, no hand waving. They get there and they just are with other very successful people. And that is really just, like I said, rocket fuel for their future. Question for both of you guys.

Jeremy Shinewald 17:15

When you how often how is it's geography destiny? Like, how often do you do you have people who apply to both of these programs? Because they they, you know, I I this sounds like a negative connotation, but they, you know, I mean this flatly, they uproot your life if you're not in one of those two cities. So, um how often when you have an MSX applicant, is that person applying to MIT Sloan or vice versa? Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 17:37

That's a good question. I actually, when I have clients who meet the criteria of both programs, I tell them, please apply to both.

Harold Simansky 17:44

I do myself.

Diverse Applicant Profiles and Success Stories

Speaker 1 17:45

Yeah. You are maximizing your chances. And um, you know, if especially for my international clients, moving to Boston is, you know, about the same as moving to Palo Alto in terms of distance. Yeah. Um, you know, for clients that are already rooted in one city like Boston, I I would say, you know, aim for Sloan Fellows first. But, you know, it's not a bad idea to live in Palo Alto for a year. Um but I do see that a lot of my clients who are, you know, interested in biotech, who have that healthcare, want to be close to that um, you know, MIT engineering school, for instance, they do choose MIT. Um, and then folks who are more entrepreneurial, um, who are more interested in the big tech, um, want to be close to Silicon Valley, they do choose um uh Stanford. So that's kind of the you know, where if they get into both programs, I see them kind of split up that way. What do you think, Harold?

Harold Simansky 18:37

No, listen, I think that's right. I think there's a subtle difference here in the sense of honestly, you can get to MIT, you can get to Cambridge, you can put down some roots in a very, I would say, almost natural, financially secure way. If you get to Palo Alto, and God bless Palo Alto, one of the greatest places in the world to live, you're living sort of this dream on the Stanford campus. Amazing. There's nothing about it that's not amazing. At that point, you say, let's stay here. And at that point, uh, not so easy to do. And because your child is going to move schools, for example. You're gonna move. I mean, Debbie, if you many people can't afford Palo Alto, so where are they going? They're going not one degree away from them, two or three degrees away from them. And the reality is I think a little bit more disruption to your life, but but in a good way, too.

Speaker 1 19:23

Yeah. Well, if they get jobs with within tech, um, you know, the salary will enable them to stay.

Harold Simansky 19:30

So yeah, no, no, that no, that's a good question. Yeah. Yeah. So I I think that's listen all consideration. And again, to come back to this, I don't want to keep on sharpening this edge here. It is a big decision that frequently goes beyond your own considerations. It it simply does a different stage of your life. Um, if I think to myself, who goes where, again, I think it's somebody who is a little bit more mature in their career, or just a little bit, I'll say more mature in their career, who is going to MIT. Um and for all I would say more industry focused reasons. For somebody who's going out to Stanford, I think it's almost a change in viewpoint. I think it's almost a change, again, this existential question of okay, I'm ready to become a superhero, as Stanford itself describes it. Folks who are going to spend a little bit more time thinking about, okay, where in this world do I really want to play?

Jeremy Shinewald 20:25

Tell us about an applicant or two of yours that went to the MSX or to or to you know through the MSX program or the MIT MIT Sloan program, you know, just to make it real for someone who's listening.

Other Notable Executive Programs

Speaker 1 20:35

Sure. I've got one of my favorite clients, really interesting guy, entrepreneur, zero entrepreneur from South America, and bootstrapped a few companies and sold uh companies as well. And he got to a point in his career where he said, look, you know, my business is in good hands. And then his current business, founder, co-founders, you know, taking care of it. He's thinking, I want to take the next step in my career and start building multinational companies. And so he applied to both uh Stanford MSX as well as Sloan Fellows, and he got into both. Um, and he ultimately, not because of my persuasion or anything, uh, he ultimately chose Stanford because of that entrepreneurial ecosystem where he could meet his next co-founder, where he could meet investors, um, and to really build that next large company. Um, so I'm excited to um hear what he comes up with next.

Harold Simansky 21:33

Yeah, yeah. No, of course, I have a guy who is similar in a couple different ways. He's a guy very successful, complete up from the bootstraps, incredibly poor family. But things had never, I would say, co-laced around any specific piece of the world. He was an entrepreneur in real estate, he was an entrepreneur in the world of green, he was an entrepreneur in sort of this very interesting finance piece, very successful. But at the end of the day, he was like, okay, I've tried many different things. It's trying I can be successful, I can be an entrepreneur. That's not the thing. I really now have to really start narrowing down what exactly where I want to be. Maybe that's a better way of putting it. In which industry do I really want to focus? He'd fell in love with green. So at that point, could have gone either way, admittedly. Um, but for him, sustainability, again, he was going to take all of his powers, go into the world of sustainability. So Stanford made more sense, got into MIT LGO. It was a little bit of a question. And the real reality for him is listen, Stanford, when it comes to sustainability, huge in all sorts of different ways. And I think this is what makes MSX so nice. Stanford is doing sustainability in all sorts of different ways. It's doing it from an engineering perspective, it's doing it from a public policy perspective, it's certainly doing it from a business perspective. So he's like, I want to really push into that field again, across many different dimensions. Also, I mean, again, you have to say it. I've said it a thousand times, but I'll share it again because it's a cute story, in the sense of he had a two-year-old, his wife was pregnant, he looked at what's happening in Cambridge, he gets to Stanford, townhouse next to the daycare. And it's like, again, you just can't beat it. I mean, for him, it was a wonderful story. And also, listen, some people need the credential. He sort of bounced around colleges. He needed the credential.

Financial Considerations and Investment in Education

Jeremy Shinewald 23:22

We're talking, we're talking about a lot of there's a lot of he in this conversation here. Sure, sure, sure. Uh and that's you know, that's that's fine. Um, and I and I do think that I do think these programs skew more male than traditional MBA programs. We should have some, I should have some stats to back that up. That's that that is, I believe, accurate, but please do check this the uh class profiles on that one. But um tell us about tell us about about a woman who you've who you've helped get into MSX or MIT Sloan.

Speaker 1 23:46

Yeah, fantastic um candidate. Uh she was a project manager in a uh tech firm, and uh she was you know managing projects and uh really doing well in her career, but really aspired to be a business leader, to be an executive of a tech company in the future. So she needed that business credential. Um and uh the MSX program was the perfect fit for her. I think she also had a very creative background. She came from a you know kind of a creative education. And so the Stanford, um, you know, the the way that it thinks about business leadership, but also incorporating interdisciplinary uh, you know, aspects like um, you know, design and everything, that was a perfect fit for her. So uh yeah, she you know also had a young child, two-year-old, you know, which for uh a mother going through the MSX program, I mean that was not easy. So kudos to her. And it was, you know, that one year was you know fantastic, great fit.

Harold Simansky 24:49

I have an MIT LGO, got into both programs. She ended up at MIT. I think a really interesting story, as well as sort of a classic story for this program. She was a CIO, chief investment officer at a number of finance companies. Incre in brilliant woman. She had been a masterful CIO. She had proven herself over and over again. Two things were happening from her perspective. First was just from her personal perspective, you know, investments, she was starting to sort of burn out on the notion. She really wanted to conquer finance problems that are a little bit more impact focused. So, in particular, issues around the underbank populations in some of these very poor countries. So she wanted to really explore that, as well as this notion here. She was always the number two, to be honest with you, CIO. And she just wanted, it was time for her to say, I'm ready to be CEO. She was ready to be a CEO. That's the bottom line. So she took no finance classes at uh MIT Sloan. I used to have lunch with her. Amazing woman, took no finance classes. It was about leadership, it was about thinking around finance in a much different way. I mean, really home run goes back to India. Uh, and again, things start really accelerating fast for her.

Jeremy Shinewald 26:02

What so we've we've we've dug in pretty deeply on the on the MIT Sloan program and on the Stanford MSX program. What other options are there for sure?

Harold Simansky 26:11

Sure. There's also the London Business School Sloan Fellows program. There's a reason why they're both called Sloan, which if someone wants to spend 30 minutes on the phone with me doing a free consult, I will tell you uh who Alfred Sloan is, why he has a number of programs named after him. But again, let's let's put that aside. There's also the USC Eye Beer Program. USC is a wonderful school, truly a unique program, very internationally focused. And that's a program that many people haven't heard of, but it, but for the right person. It's actually a fantastic program.

Jeremy Shinewald 26:40

Just to accentuate that, the Sloan program in London, very similar to the MIT Sloan program in Cambridge.

Harold Simansky 26:45

Uh that's right, a little bit older, a little bit of an older student, obviously different, pulling from a different geography, but for all intents and purposes, very, very similar program. Yeah.

Navigating the Application Process

Speaker 1 26:55

The iBear program, I think, is really fantastic for folks who are rooted in Southern California. Yeah. And all with an eye on international, an international career, especially as it relates to, you know, Asia and the across the Pacific. Um, so I think that's also a great program that a lot of people don't often talk about.

Harold Simansky 27:16

That's right. And what I find interesting about that program, there happens to be a lot of doctors in it. I'm not quite sure what the straight line is. Maybe it's just the fact that Southern California, big medical community, I guess you could say that anywhere, but I always found that interesting. I always I also found the fact that people are really, really internationally focused in terms of looking outward, in terms of the US outward, as opposed to some of the other programs are more they're bringing uh the the world into their program. Listen, I think really one of the considerations is always EMBA versus a full-year, again, mid-career program. And we also have to be quite honest, it is a huge financial consideration to go to a one-year mid-career program. I'm to my mind, I think practically everyone pays for it themselves, right? It's a big check.

Speaker 1 28:05

Yeah. So I always here's what I tell my clients an EMBA is your company's investment in you.

Harold Simansky 28:11

Yes.

Speaker 1 28:12

A MSX or MIT Sloan Fellows is your investment in your career.

Jeremy Shinewald 28:17

That's great. I'm gonna steal that. I'm like, that's fantastic. I'm gonna I'm gonna use that for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put that on our internal Slack. Yeah, yeah. That's great. Yeah, I mean, I think the other, the other, it's it's almost like there's probably a continuum. It's like, okay, you're you're a mid-career and you're looking either at like EMBA programs, but if you want something different that's full time, these programs work. And it's it's it's almost like the version of that, I think, in for earlier career people is, you know, like if you're just trying to have like a more abbreviated experience but still get the education, is like there are one-year programs at the at you know, at the at the MBA level that are offered by different schools. And like and like the European programs tend to skew a little bit older in CIA, IMD in particular. Um, a lot of people haven't heard of IMD, but almost functions as a as an EMBA, as like a full-time one-year EMBA program, and it does does skew older um there as well, but it's not quite the MSX or the or the Sloan program, but it's sort of like it's like maybe just one shift earlier in your career if you're looking for like a one-year program.

Speaker 1 29:20

Kellogg has an accelerated one-year program as well. Yeah, it does require you to have um certain business background. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and and I think the age is a little bit younger. Um, so I think for somebody who's wondering which of these programs are the right fit for me, think about where the geography, geography, where do you want to root your career long term? Think about um the median age of the incoming class and how you're gonna be able to contribute as well as, yeah, hold your hand candle in the classroom. Right. So I think those are two.

Harold Simansky 29:56

Right. A quick commercial here. Yeah, as usual. We just did a podcast on EMBA programs with our colleague Julianne, and we'll give you a lot more specific information about EMBA programs, which is a very big consideration. One thing I will say, and I'm not quite sure I should put it this way an EMBA program can be a slog, to be perfectly honest with you. You're balancing not just your work, your family life as well. You're traveling, you're doing your schoolwork, and it's hard. As opposed to MIT Sloan, MIT LGO, iBear, whatever it is, it's a wonderful life-changing experience. Everyone's sort of it's a happy place, to be perfectly honest with you, which sometimes more important, honestly, sometimes more important, sometimes less important, just where you are in your career. In this particular case, I think it's really important by all means 30 minutes with us. And I think one of the reasons is there's a nuance to deciding between an EMBA and a sort of mid-career one-year program, MIT Sloan or Sloan Fellows or MSX. There is nuance there. Most people are thinking about realistically any MBA or this one of these one-year programs. And there's so much that goes into that decision. Let us help you start thinking about it in maybe a way you never thought about it before.

Speaker 1 31:07

Yeah. And also putting together the applications. What the different schools are looking for, it's nuanced and you can't just cut and paste.

Jeremy Shinewald 31:16

And I would say one other thing. If you're a mid-career, you probably haven't done a lot of written or verbal self-exploration for a long time. And so the execution piece of this can be quite challenging for some. So certainly take us up on that for that free half hour consultation and uh and know that we've got a very experienced team here uh who, you know, whether it's MIT Sloan or MSX or the or Stanford MSX or both, because you've both helped them on many. Um, you know, we've got we've got experienced professionals who can walk you through this and and make your life a lot more efficient because you said a lot of people are mid-career, they got careers, they got families. Exactly. They want to make their lives a little easier. Thank you so much for I was thank you so much for being here. In the same way that I always say thank you for hosting for allowing me on your show. Thank you. Thank you for being here in your town. Like I know you're a couple of hours away, but please come tomorrow. Yeah, yeah. Thanks for being here. Exciting news! You can now access on track by NBA Mission for free. Take our two-minute onboarding questionnaire to personalize your learning path. Choose the free plan, and you'll have unlimited access to our complete modules on MBA application timelines, standardized testing, your professional background, community leadership, school selection, and more. You'll also get access to select lessons from our brainstorming, personal statement, essay, resume, and recommendation modules. It's a great introduction to the on-track platform and will help you jumpstart the MBA application process. Get started today at ontrack.mba mission.com.