How much work experience??? Please help

Admissions to a doctoral program

  • Posted by ranjanMAR on 10/08/12 3:47am

    Hello Thomas,

    first of all: Congrats for an excellent website. I was looking for something like that for a long time and use your database a lot.

    My question is: Is there a minimum work experience required for DBA programs? My impression is that the schools have very different requirements regarding work experience.

    Also I would be interested if there is an optimal number of years of work experience for doing a DBA.

    Thank you very much and good luck!
    Rang

    Reply

    • Posted by Thomas Graf on 10/12/12 1:32am

      Hi Rang,

      thank you for your kind words. Though most DBA programs require work experience the number of years required indeed differs.

      The IE Business School Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) for instance requires a minimum of 8 years. The Manchester Business School requires six years of "relevant management experience".

      The only common thing appears to be that most DBA programs address experienced professionals as opposed to young professionals, people with leadership experience ideally. But you need to visit the schools' sites to get the specific number of years.

      The optimal timing is when you have a career trajectory already behind you, when you have established yourself as a manager, and when you look for new challenges. You may even have the MBA and now look for a new intellectual challenge.

      Best wishes,
      Thomas

      By Thomas Graf
      Founder DBA Compass
      Author of the DBA Survey

      Reply

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