Graduates of MBA programs traditionally make a beeline for careers like financial planning, investment banking and management consulting. But the leadership and management skills from business school can be useful, sought-after traits in a variety of fields. And, Arab region universities offer a number of MBA programs to meet students’ varied career objectives.
Syrian-Armenian Kapriel Kalenderian says he chose to pursue an MBA at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon for its reputation in the region to “enhance my career and open new doors” and because he was given the Asfari-LIFE scholarship, which supports qualified business students in need.
The 2014 graduate says he also wanted to complement his bachelor’s in business administration, with an emphasis in marketing, that he received from the University of Kalamoon in Syria. He says the MBA “enhanced my interpersonal skills and built my professional network.”
Kalenderian works as a senior account manager in the client servicing department of Interesting Times, an advertising agency based in Beirut. He says he got his job in the Kuwait office by getting one of the partner’s contact details from a friend who did an internship with the company.
“I called him and went and met him. He contacts me a year after and tells me about this position. I end up getting the job,” says Kalenderian. “Without the MBA I would need at least three to four years to get where I am now.”
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Kalenderian says his job entails ensuring client requests are reasonable and in their best interest, briefing the agency of client requests and ensuring the produced materials are correct and of quality “before presenting them personally to the client.”
Ron Bradfield, director of the University of Strathclyde Business School in the United Arab Emirates, says the majority of the school’s MBA students undertake the degree to advance their careers in their current organization, to transition “to more general management positions and to develop the knowledge and skills to start their own business.”
A survey released in February by Middle East job site Bayt.com showed that a degree in business management is the most sought-after educational qualification by employers in the Middle East. Suhail Masri, vice president of employer solutions for the company, says job seekers with MBAs apply to jobs on the site across a wide range of fields. And employers from diverse industries want candidates with MBAs, “both by posting vacancies on Bayt.com and by searching for such professionals using Bayt.com’s CV Search.”
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Syrian national Mariam Jabri Tabrizi, a 2015 MBA grad from Alfaisal University in Saudi Arabia, says she chose the school because she felt it was the best program in the country and in the region.
“I chose to pursue the MBA degree because I always aimed for career advancement and knowledge,” says Tabrizi, who works as a curriculum coordinating specialist for fourth to sixth year medical students at the College of Medicine at Alfaisal. The school waived 50 percent of her tuition provided she work two years in her current role, where she designs curriculums.
Tabrizi, who comes from a computer science background, says in regard to her job, she’s positive that the MBA “helped me a lot in improving the way of analytical thinking, communicating and problem solving.” She says she hopes to eventually transition into a global business company and work in human resources.
Bajis Dodin, dean of the college of business at Alfaisal University, whose MBA program opened in 2010, says many graduates join their own private businesses “or move upward in their current government or private sector jobs.” Others start their own businesses and a few pursue Ph.D.s in the U.S. He says the school is branching out with an MBA in finance and an MBA in health care management “to respond to the community needs in these two areas.”
There is increasing demand for MBAs in education and health care, driven by the demographics of the MENA region, says Brad Penner. The career and executive coach at Sandpiper Coaching in the UAE points to the large percentage of the region’s population under age 21 and the growing number of residents older than 65.
Entrepreneurship is another route. Penner says “the Gulf countries in particular have streamlined business registration processes with low taxes that support entrepreneurial endeavors.” He says an MBA program can help students “build connections, study the market and design a startup.”
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Bayt.com’s Masri says the company’s job board shows the wide range of career opportunities available to MBA grads in the MENA region. Current job postings on the site using the keyword “MBA” turn up ads seeking a technical invoicing specialist at a telecom company; a marketing manager at a dairy company; a human resources director at a recruitment company; a senior creative manager at a design house; an events manager at an events company; and a project manager at a nongovernmental organization.
MBA graduates of AUB’s Olayan School of Business work as entrepreneurs, bankers and general managers at a variety of companies including Saudi Aramco, American Express, General Mills and Oracle, says Salim Chahine, the program director and a professor of finance at the school.
He says given their backgrounds in engineering, business, science, law and humanities, grads work in a variety of industries worldwide — more than 20 percent of alums are in Gulf countries, 10 percent in the U.S. and Canada and the remainder throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Europe, Africa and elsewhere.
Kalenderian, the AUB grad, says the MBA proved a good investment and provided “a good boost” to his CV. And, he says, “I was a more qualified and reliable candidate in the eyes of the employers.”
See the complete rankings of the Best Arab Region Universities.
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Arab Region MBA Grads Can Bank on Diverse Opportunities originally appeared on usnews.com
