At a base-level, one of the key aspects of a successful career—both in school and beyond—is resilience. Specifically, how one can stay viable in a moment of collapsing political, social and economic structures? Beyond just that, one must consider how to do it among peers, international competition and the dreaded concept of automation?
There are certainly practical considerations one can make to stay fast and loose in the post b-school rat race, like an MBA from an elite school. But with more and more MBAs flooding the job market, the advantages of securing a niche outside the usual realms of finance, marketing, accounting, etc. where you can put business school to use are numerous—and have become extremely attractive to potential employers.
Dual and joint degrees not only supplement the standard MBA curriculum, but allow b-schoolers to understand how their business education can function within different management contexts. Although dual and joint degrees are typically more expensive and take an extra year or two to complete than the standard MBA, it’s also a pretty efficient way to fast-track your way up the corporate ladder. That said, it’s important that students who choose the dual or joint degree route consider how their degrees work in tandem with each other, lest they seem like they’re haphazardly tacking on some extra letters to spruce up their CVs.
When it comes to holistic MBAs, MIT Sloan is world-renowned for its emphasis on supporting sustainable businesses with an innovative tech twist. We took the liberty of rounding up three MIT Sloan dual MBA degree programs for you below:
Leaders for Global Operations
The two-year LGO program, which pairs a Sloan MBA with an engineering MS, is ideal for students who “aspire to leadership roles in operations or manufacturing.” LGO students spend a quarter of their time “working on a real-world operations problem” with one of the program’s partner companies, including Amazon, Boeing, Verizon, Nike, Quest Diagnostics, Good Year, Johnson & Johnson, Dell and General Motors.
System Design and Management
The SDM program also pairs an engineering degree with an MBA but the focus is on design and management, rather than operations. SDM students “learn to lead the design and management of complex products, organizations and systems” by working with participating companies like Adobe, Apple, American Express, Bank of America, Deloitte, GE, IBM, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Motorola and Oracle, among others.
MIT Sloan and Harvard Kennedy School of Government Dual Degree Option
Sloan offers a three-to-four year MBA and MPA/MPP dual degree program with Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government designed for students “who plan to pursue careers in international management or economic development, or who plan to work in industries or regions with a high degree of government partnership or regulation.”