What to Know About the Master’s in Management
If you want to head to business school right out of college, one degree you can get is the Master of Science in Management, or MIM. MIM programs are popular in Europe, and they’re gaining recognition in the United States.
Like the MBA, the MIM provides training in the fundamentals of management. However, while most MBA programs are targeted at people with at least a few years of work experience, the MIM has no such requirement.
Here’s what you should know about the Master’s in Management degree, including how it fits into your career plans and what the top programs are.
Who Should Consider the Master’s in Management?
In terms of the actual coursework, the MIM is similar to the MBA. The main difference is that the MIM, as a Master’s of Science, tends to be slightly more theoretically oriented while the MBA is more hands-on.
In practice, though, this distinction can be blurry, and there’s a lot of overlap in the content of the two degrees. The more essential difference is who the degree is designed for.
Unlike the MBA, the MIM is designed for people with little or no work experience. Therefore, it’s a good fit for recent grads who want to get their business school plans underway.
The MIM is ideal for people who want a degree that will have an impact on their early career. It can make you more competitive for entry-level jobs and kick-start your professional life. Because it’s an early-career degree, it doesn’t generally lead to a managerial position right away like an MBA can.
Whether the MIM is right for you is largely a question of timing. If you want to head to B-school with little work experience so you get a degree sooner rather than later (and save some money in the process), an MIM might be just the thing.
Top Programs
Although there are signs that the MIM is catching on in the United States, the degree is still most popular in Europe. As a result, the top 5 programs according to Financial Times‘s rankings are all European:
– CEMS
– Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
Over the last few years, several top U.S. schools like Fuqua, Ross and Kellogg have joined the MIM scene. As more and more students show interest in MIMs, the degree is spreading around the world.
Career Options
Since the MIM is an introduction to general management principles, it’s similar to the MBA in that it can set the groundwork for a variety of management positions in different industries.
The difference, though, is that while an MBA implies significant work experience and can pave the way immediately to a higher-level position, an MIM often leads first to an entry-level position.
In contrast to an MBA, which lets you take your career to the next level after gaining a certain baseline of experience, an MIM makes you more competitive as you enter the business job market and may help you accelerate the initial stages of your career.
Like an MBA, an MIM can lead to a career in almost any industry you can name, from tech to consulting to the public sector. Because the MIM is more theoretically grounded, it’s also a common degree for people who want to pursue PhDs and study business in an academic setting.
Many companies still aren’t as familiar with the MIM as the MBA, especially in the United States, and top MBA programs often have deep connections with recruiters that newer MIM programs lack.
That said, the MIM is quickly gaining ground. More and more students are looking to this degree as a way to fast-track their careers, and recruiters are taking note. If you’re fresh out of college and want to up your game with an early-career business degree, an MIM might well be the way to go.
Have questions about whether an MIM is right for you? Wondering what schools are your best fit? Get in touch with us for a free assessment!