My Biggest Regret About my Online MBA Degree

Back in 2021, I graduated with my MBA degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This is a top 100 globally ranked university, top tier institution, and I did it all for just $22K! I earned the degree while working full-time and that was possible because this was a fully online program.

I had a great experience and it gave me an advantage when it came to seeking out promotions.

But… it wasn’t without one big regret that hopefully you’ll learn from if you’re considering an online MBA

💼 THE Most Important Benefit of an MBA Program

Now outside of just earning the degree, one of the most important reasons anyone goes through an MBA program is to build a network. One of the biggest drawbacks to doing an online MBA is that networking is more challenging than in a full-time program on campus.

Seeking out near term career opportunities is also more of a challenge if that’s what you’re after. You don’t have the advantage of being on-campus where other students are, or where company recruiters physically go to attend career fairs and networking events.

Now networking wasn’t a huge priority for me, and I wasn’t necessarily doing the MBA to find opportunities outside of my company, so I didn’t have high expectations.

However, once I joined the program, I realized networking can happen and the university did a great job fostering that. There were plenty of students that were highly engaged in the social media platform that we all used for the program.

There were also various networking events, both locally and regionally, that were hosted either by the university, or very proactive students.

So as it turns out, the opportunities where certainly there and quite abundant!

💭My Biggest Regret

While I did attend a number of those events, I wasn’t consistent. To add, the other issue is that I just didn’t follow up with the connections I made at those events.

I also wasn’t super engaged on the social media platform we all used, outside of the need to engage with peers on group projects.

What this ultimately meant was I didn’t create many deep and long-lasting relationships.

And not that anyone should be creating relationships purely for the sake of career opportunities, but let’s just say, if an opportunity of any kind came up, my name likely isn’t going to be top of mind.

Nor would anyone be likely to vouch for me for any relevant opportunities. Not because I wouldn’t be good for the job, but because they just don’t know me well enough to put their name and reputation on the line to recommend me.

🌐 Networking Potential

I know at this point you might be thinking, “Ok, I get it…but how realistic it is to make meaningful connections online?”

If you put in the time and effort, it’s very realistic. And I’ve seen plenty of students do it with great effect, which means they were constantly engaged and participated at every turn.

They were the ones involved with student council.

They were the ones planning the events proactively.

They were going out of their way to add value to other students in many different ways.

This meant that when they solicited feedback or needed help on anything, they had tons of people responding and willing to help.

But it’s all about cultivating your brand, being helpful, contributing. And then it’s the networking that allows those opportunities to manifest.

Outside of those kinds of meaningful relationships being a result of networking, I also just didn’t learn as much as I could have. I came into the program with 5 or 6 years of experience in tech.

But there were students I worked with that had a great variety of experiences from different functions, different industries. Despite there being a good amount of group work and opportunities to interact, I didn’t take that much further to learn more about how someone from a different background approaches the same kind of business challenges.

So my learning really was based on the coursework and associated projects, which is fine, but really only half of the equation.

Staying Engaged

That said, there is a bit of good news in that there are plenty of ways for alumni to stay engaged. So while the door was most open when I was a student, there’s still an opportunity for me to revisit.

If you decide to go the route of an online MBA, make sure to learn from my miss of an opportunity and take full advantage of the experience!