There are discussions in many of the project management blogs and forums about whether it is better to go for a PMP or MBA. I think there is great value in each, but they serve 2 different purposes. This is is a personal decision, but having earned both an MBA and PMP, I have some definite thoughts on this.
Many people may remember the movie "The Wizard of Oz", and how The Great Oz described a university education to the scarecrow, who lamented "if I only had a brain". He was seeking "smarts", or the capability to think deep thoughts, the ability to analyze, interpret, distinguish, and reason. In the end, Oz granted the scarecrow a degree, which, Oz said, put him in fine standing with those who came before him attended universities, and learned to "think".
MBA and Education This, I believe, is more what an MBA is all about. It helps to teach us how to think about a broad set of situations. This provides exposure to different ways of thinking, many situations, and crosses virtually all business functions. It also builds skill in areas such as finance, marketing, operations, and more. It is certainly much closer to the business world than a liberal arts education, which is ALL about thinking, but nonetheless is has a great deal of breadth.
Certifications and Qualifications Now, on the other hand, let's consider certifications. Certifications became very popular a while back in the IT field, where companies like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and others created certifications around their products. They needed a highly qualified and consistent-thinking implementation community in order to support their complex products. Becoming certified was not and still is not easy, and requires hard work and experience.
More recent certifications, such as the PMP certification, have become popular and are similar, yet also different in some important ways, that the technical certifications. They provide a framework for dealing with a certain common problem set, they challenging to earn, and they are clearly a skill. But this is where they diverge from the education provided by an MBA. They provide a clear "skill" for the workplace. Education does not necessarily do that, although it provides great background that can help someone perform better. The certification provides employers with an indication of a minimum level of knowledge and achievement, and professionals with a distinguishing and proven minimum skill set.
What an MBA or Certification Can Provide Certifications for me have been a way to gain formalized learning is less familiar areas, or in areas where I want to focus and develop some specialized knowledge and skill. Thus they have applied directly to immediate and medium term career goals. I previously have earned technical certifications, specifically in Lotus Notes Application development and Administration, and several years ago earned the PMP certification. I n both cases, they helped me with more immediate career goals, especially the technical certifications. The PMP certification has helped in very practical ways, and also opens doors.
I will say that having had the discipline and broader thinking of the MBA background helped me not only to more easily earn these other certifications, but also to perform more effectively and with greater perspective with the certifications. Personally, I think I was much more effective with it in situations that involved certifications that I would have been without it.
It's a Personal Decision That being said, just as a university education is not necessarily for everyone, and MBA is not necessarily for everyone. Therefore, when all of the logic is put aside, this becomes a very personal decision. Different people have different learning styles. It may be that one person would be better off getting a certification like the PMP, work in project management for a time, and gain exposure and experience, the advance their career from there. Some people learn much better by doing and could be wasting their time in school. Similarly some people do not need the certification or the degree! But most of us will benefit best by one or the other, or both.
In conclusion, in a choice between PMP and MBA, I generally would recommend going for the MBA, but again that depends on the person. It will serve anyone in the long run, but in the end, experience is the best teacher, and performance results are best indicator. A degree will make it easier to earn certifications, if desired, at the appropriate time, but it is not necessarily required. The MBA shapes thinking in a broader and more comprehensive way for the long run. If time or resources is a concern, or there is a more immediate career need, then certainly earning the certification would help in the short term to anchor the career. But in the long run, I think an MBA would serve most people the best.
It is a bit of cliche to say that you can make money online with affiliate marketing, but you can. But the question is: 'Will you?' That is not meant unkindly, but to make money this way you need to be determined to do so, and to follow a plan. Then you need to find the products or services that will help you do it. Are you determined enough or desperate enough? Let's start with the beginning. How determined are you? Or how desperate are you? If it just seems a good way of getting extra cash for a holiday or something, chances are you won't stick to a program. If you've lost your job, and want to be independent of jobs, bosses and getting fired, your attitude will be different. Also, if you are broke. If you really want to make money online with affiliate marketing, the first job is to get a piece of paper and write on it why you want to do this. Then write down your goal three years down the road. Then, work backwards, putting down what you need to be earning at the end of the the second year, the end of the first year, and in six months time. Then work back till you know what you need to do this month. Don't expect to earn anything in the first month, as there is too much ground work to be done, such as finding out what affiliate marketing is, how you do it, and what you need to be able to do it successfully. What must I do today to make this work? At this stage you will not know what you need to do in detail, but you should end up with: 'What must I do today to make this work?' Maybe you only have one hour today, so what is the one thing that must be done? It could be to brainstorm what markets you will enter as an affiliate. These need to be markets where there is a lot going on, plenty of products, plenty of buyer. But not much competition, which means it will be a small niche in that market. That's the start. One way of doing it would be to go to Amazon and look up the latest non-fiction books in the best sellers category to see what they are about. This is a good way of finding a market. Another is to go into town and look at the magazine racks. If there are plenty of magazines on one subject, that's a market. Note how each one targets a niche in that market. After that you will want to find some products that really fit into that market. Then, you will be looking at keywords and key phrases to see how to promote these products. By this time you will need to learn about affiliate marketing. There are plenty of programs and e-books out there, but start out studying some free reports, which will help you see which way to go. But each day remember to say: 'What must I do today to make this work'?