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Andy Baker, managing director of an online recruitment business
Kate Everall, management consultant
Doug Littlejohns, non-executive director and mentor for start-up companies
Anthony Morgan, head of a music business and marketing agency
Louise Pinfold, director of her own management consultancy

Andy Baker	Managing director of an online recruitment business
Business school:	IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland
Year of MBA:	1996
Profession pre-MBA:	Business development
Profession post-MBA:	Business development
% salary increase post-MBA:	Not a lot initially, quite a lot now

Why did you choose to do an MBA?
It was a combination of wanting to step out of my career for a while to take stock, wanting to gain a professional qualification and to learn new skills.

Why did you choose your particular business school?
IMD has an older student profile (the average age is about 30), which matched my age and experience. IMD is also very international, which I'd never experienced (80 students from 39 nationalities and only eight British people in my class), and was a one-year, albeit highly intensive, course.

How was the course/MBA experience different from what you expected?
It was less academic and more physically demanding than I expected in the sense of requiring very long hours - most of them spent working shoulder-to-shoulder with others in small teams.

What were the best and worst aspects of doing the MBA?
At IMD you have to complete a project during the year that benefits people outside of the school. We raised a significant sum and took seven terminally ill kids and their families to DisneyWorld, Florida. Best of times was completing the project; worst of times was the feeling that we were never going to raise the money to get there.

How has it helped you in your post-MBA career? Was it worth it?
I couldn't do my job now without having an MBA but, on the other hand, I can't claim that I use particular skills or techniques in my job that I learned on the MBA. It's more that it gave me a general sense of confidence and a grounding in all business areas and types of people. Was it worth it? Yes, without a doubt. It was a great year of my life but, despite the training, I've never done the financial payback calculation.

What advice would you give to others considering taking an MBA?
Easy for me to say now I know, but don't worry overly about the initial money or cost. You should look at it as a life experience (yes, as well as career progression) and expect the payback over the long term.

Kate Everall	Management consultant
Business school:	Cranfield University School of Management
Year of MBA:	1993
Profession pre-MBA:	Chartered surveyor
Profession post-MBA:	Management consultant
% salary increase post-MBA:	10% (first job post-MBA)

Why did you choose to do an MBA?
To widen my business knowledge and broaden my horizons. Also because the property industry was in recession at the time, so it seemed like a good time to take time out!

Why did you choose your particular business school?
Cranfield had a reputation as one of the best management schools in the UK. It also had a one-year, full time course, which was one of my criteria.

How was the course/MBA experience different from what you expected?
There was much more group learning than I'd expected - I gained as much from the experience of being there and working with exceptional people from different backgrounds as I did from the academic side.

What were the best and worst aspects of doing the MBA?
The best aspect was the people. I made friendships that I treasure today. It also gave me a different perspective on the business world and boosted my confidence. Worst was the debt I incurred through financing myself (like many people did at that time).

Other options What else can you do to transform your career? Find out how other people have changed theirs. How has it helped you in your post-MBA career? Was it worth it? I gained commercial focus - it made me aware of and appreciate the bits that make up a successful business. Was it worth it? Definitely. It also gave me the confidence to change my profession as well as the credibility to make that possible.

What advice would you give to others considering taking an MBA?
Look for a good school, of course, and be aware that there is more to be gained from an MBA than just academic learning.

Doug Littlejohns	Non-executive director and mentor for start-up companies
Business school:	Warwick Business School
Year of MBA:	1992
Profession pre-MBA:	Commodore in the Royal Navy
Profession post-MBA:	Ran Naval university for two years; managing director of Earl's Court & Olympia; MD of a computer games business in US
% salary increase post-MBA:	No difference initially on my salary in the Navy; 200% increase after four years in the private sector

Why did you choose to do an MBA?
As principal staff officer in the Navy, I would see military people being totally bamboozled by Treasury and even MOD people who had Harvard MBAs. The military needed people who could speak the language of business and answer back.

Why did you choose your particular business school?
I looked mostly at UK courses, and opted for Warwick on a basis of elimination. I didn't want to do London Business School because it two years long. I didn't want to go to Cranfield because I felt it was too financially oriented. Marketing was more up my street, and Warwick at the time had a strong marketing lecturer base, so I went there.

How was the course/MBA experience different from what you expected?
I didn't think I'd be so far out on a limb at the start. For the first six weeks I didn't understand a word anybody said - it was all business jargon. I couldn't for the life of me work out what was happening. But after about six weeks, suddenly a light went on. I realised that I did know quite a lot of what they were telling me, but that all they were doing was using different terms to describe it.

What were the best and worst aspects of doing the MBA?
The best: the freedom to think out of the box - something you can't do much in the military! Another pleasant and unexpected outcome was discovering through the course that I'm a bit of entrepreneur. The worst: It really grated on me that lecturer after lecturer would stand up and say that this is the way the Japanese are doing it, so this is how we should do it. I was 45 when I did my MBA, so was a bit long in the tooth to believe it. Another worst aspect was that some of the lecturers had never been anywhere but school since the age of five, and hadn't much of a clue about the real world of business.

How has it helped you in your post-MBA career? Was it worth it?
It has been a tremendous help, and a great door-opener and antidote to the "if you've been a career military person then you must be thick" thinking of some employers. Since then, I've used a lot of it - not so much the detail, but the overall approach, ability to sift information from all directions, to understand the economy, and to think 'out of the box'. So it was most definitely worth it for me.

What advice would you give to others considering taking an MBA?
Know why you want to do an MBA. You need to know how you want to use it afterwards. For example, when I did my MBA, a number of people on the course were doctors who wanted to use it to move into pharmaceuticals, and lawyers, who wanted to move out of law, and accountants who wanted to move up to MD level. And then do your homework on the different business schools. For example, there are many more specialist MBAs now, eg for entrepreneurship and marketers, than there were 10 years ago.

Anthony Morgan	Head of a music business and marketing agency
Business school:	Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden
Year of MBA:	1996
Profession pre-MBA:	Research
Profession post-MBA:	Music industry
% salary increase post-MBA:	100%

Why did you choose to do an MBA?
As a way to get back into the career apex - and also to learn the phrase 'career apex'! At the time, I found myself moving further into a career that focused on my existing skills and past experiences when I realised that I really wanted to develop other skills, and have other experiences, and to build a career around those instead.

Why did you choose your particular business school?
Culture, approach to education, chance to live in a different country, standard of guest lecturers.

How was the course/MBA experience different from what you expected?
It was easier in terms of time management. Having worked in London before taking the course, doing a 40-hour study week was pretty simple and I found that I kept on top of the workload far more easily than the horror stories that sometimes emerge from MBA courses. It also broadened my horizons far more than I had imagined. There were over 30 nationalities studying at the school, and the insight and empathy gained simply by studying within this group was extremely stimulating.

What were the best and worst aspects of doing the MBA?
Best - the ability to take time out and learn (for the first time ever) things that I wanted to learn. Worst - I can't think of any.

How has it helped you in your post-MBA career? Was it worth it?
It has given me experience, information, knowledge, some letters (though this hasn't really been of direct benefit in the music industry), a great number of like-minded peers (both from my school and other schools too). So was it worth it? Yes.

What advice would you give to others considering taking an MBA?
Only do an MBA if you want to develop personally through your career. I'm not convinced that doing an MBA in order to increase your salary is the best approach to achieving that goal - at least not in the present climate. If you want to develop your skills in order to enjoy your work more, then I'd absolutely recommend it. Other things to consider include studying with lots of different nationalities, living abroad, learning a language, writing your thesis (or doing projects while studying) for a company related to a field that intrigues you.

Louise Pinfold	Director of her own management consultancy
Business school:	Manchester Business School
Year of MBA:	2002
Profession pre-MBA:	Management consultant
Profession post-MBA:	Business start-up - small management consultancy
% salary increase post-MBA:	n/a

Why did you choose to do an MBA?
I wanted to broaden my knowledge and develop my skills and understanding.

Why did you choose your particular business school?
MBS had a good reputation and a very flexible course with a wide range of topics and experiences.

How was the course/MBA experience different from what you expected?
The extra value in the wider context of the course that you gain from the experience and contacts of working with so many others with different backgrounds. This built a significant network of friends and business contacts.

What were the best and worst aspects of doing the MBA?
The best: the depth and breadth of the learning, and meeting many new colleagues and friends. The worst aspect was not having enough time for everything that was possible to do.

Work in the City? What can you expect if you try to inject some flexibility into your work life? And which firms are prepared to give you the slack you need for a part-time course? Read the 'Quality of Life' report from Parents at Work and find out. How has it helped you in your post-MBA career? Was it worth it? I met my new business partners and together we established our new business - which is continuing to operate successfully. It was absolutely worth doing. What advice would you give to others considering taking an MBA? Keep an open mind to what you are going to learn and explore all of the new possibilities, especially the things that you think you don't like, as you really get out what effort you put into the MBA.

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