Have you ever thought of taking a full-time MBA course?

Will it allow you to say goodbye to your low salary, routine work and difficult boss? That sounds really fantastic.

But, according to some employers, taking an MBA course can be a mixed blessing, because the expected high salary is likely to be “a castle in the air”. To make matters worse, people who used to work for you could be promoted while you are still on the job market after your graduation. Before making your decision about an MBA, listen what some HR experts have told us.

The average annual income of an MBA graduate is RMB 70,000 – 80,000, relatively high compared to that for ordinary graduate or Ph. D. However, don’t be too optimistic! According to our survey, some HR managers are not inclined to hire expensive MBA graduates, although they may do if average salaries drop.

Miss Lu, an experienced HR manager tells us, “the salary of an MBA graduate is much lower than several years ago. Some of them can only get RMB 4,000 per month. That may satisfy the undergraduates but not the MBA graduates, considering the high tuition fee.” Mr. Wang, an HR supervisor from a leading private textile company says, ” I don’t tend to employ MBA graduates. I don’t fi nd them useful at all. The senior managers are usually drawn from the outstanding staff in our company, who are much more familiar with our routine business.”

Ms. Kornelia Wijaya, another senior HR director who has been working for multi-nationals for the past 10 years, told us, “an MBA is not everything. Selection will be done based on the match with job requirements, and motivation fi t for current and future jobs.”

Ironically the most obvious competitive edge of an overseas MBA is their language profi ciency, rather than a lot of managerial expertise. “Since our economy is in transition, up-to-date managerial knowledge doesn’t seem to benefi t our local fi rms, which are much more complicated and involve more procedures when handling some problems,” says Miss Liu, a HR specialist from Lucent Technology Co., Ltd.

Speaking of those local MBA graduates, Miss Liu adds, “their working experience is superior to their MBA degree. If they manage to combine their theoretical knowledge with work experience, that’s perfect. In Lucent, we usually have an annual review giving general managers an assessment of their employees, which is conducted from two perspectives, one is their performance and the other is their ability, and the latter involves their management level, working skill, potential and MBA degree.

Holding an MBA degree is not the decisive factor but we will take that into consideration. If a MBA graduate fails to possess excellent work experience, their salary won’t be very high. However, we usually send outstanding staff with great potential to take MBA courses, and an MBA is a qualification for most senior manager positions”.

With respect to the salary gap between MBA graduates and non-MBA graduates, Ms. Wijaya says, “the pay depends on the position, past performance and the person. The gap is on the third factor, which is the person. Other than the job price, and the person’s performance, the third factor takes into account the person’s expectation, their name and reputation, and the next possible career path related to one’s potential.”

So we can conclude that an MBA is not everything, and only when you have managed to upgrade yourself in all around respects can you wish for a satisfactory salary.

Going a step further, let’s have a glimpse at the current MBA market.

There are so many MBA graduates now! Some MBAs did not do well in their undergraduatecourses. That gives an unfavourable impression and a sharp reminder for HR managers as well. It has dawned on the managers that not all the MBA graduates are first-class – all that glitters is not gold! Too many unqualified institutions have cultivated too many unqualified MBA graduates, reducing the value of the degree. HR managers should choose the right person who is worth the high salary.

So, is the market saturated with MBA graduates? The answer is: yes, it’s saturated with inferiors MBAs, but is not yet, and may never be, with real highly-qualified MBA graduates.

Ordinary MBA graduate are reluctant to accept a salary of RMB 5,000 per month, but in the end have to accept it because no employer are willing to offer more. However, quality counts. The IMBA graduates from Fudan University have an average of three satisfactory job offers this year. Those from Fudan University and CEIBS got an average salary of RMB 120,000 and RMB 200,000 per year respectively. Graduates from many prestigious institutions, such as Fudan University, CEIBS, Qinghua University and Peking University are highly sought-after in the job market, and many of them go to some worldrenowned companies such as Citibank Group, HSBC, GE, HP, and the like.

Why is the salary gap so large? There could be a great many reasons. The prestigious institutions deliver first-class students with great potential and high IQ. Talented people are always in great demand on the job market even if they do not hold a MBA degree. Second, according to our survey, it is the brand-name companies that demand MBA graduates. These companies prefer to enroll MBA graduates from famous institutions rather than less famous ones. Other MBA graduates may go to smaller enterprises. However, such companies are not inclined to employ MBA graduates, and on this market supply exceeds the demand, so salaries tend to be lower.

While the numbers of MBA graduates are mushrooming, skepticism about them are also apparently on the rise. If, unfortunately, the unqualified institutions have no intention of improving the quality of their graduates, it is unlikely that salaries for MBA graduates will rally. HR managers definitely have the right to say “no” to all the inferior candidates.