Running head: MY MBA JOURNEY- FROM CONCEPTUALIZATION TO

My MBA Journey- From Conceptualization to Realization Okechukwu Ndukuba MGT: 521 March 29, 2012 Samuel V. Dalrymple

MY MBA JOURNEY- FROM CONCEPTUALIZATION TO

My MBA Journey- From Conceptualization to Realization I was born a dreamer, of a personality of goodness and happiness. My childhood was coated with day dreams of greatness, leadership that protects her followers, searching and longing for justice, peace, and prosperity. A dreamland where there is no lacking, nor pain; a make-belief Eldorado or paradise, effectively supported by family that provided a very cohesive, protective, and loving care to me. In my trajectory from working-class family of origin, to the threshold of middle-class professional status, I have suffered a loss that my present context does not even recognize as a loss; my education has destroyed something even while it has been recreating me in its own image. (Barney Dews & Law, 1995, p1) Growing into adulthood transformed dreams into desired wants, and structured ways and means of accepting rude realities. Gaining admission into the University was one step towards reaching my desired wants. But graduating from a university, or higher institution in a third world country like Nigeria, is a feat achieved for the shelves to accumulate dust as years fly by. Third world university graduates are hopelessly seen as community loiterers, family burdens, and pointers to leadership failure of those in government. No social, political, economic, or environmental institution was strategically positioned, and prepared to absorb these graduates. Regretfully these unemployed graduates convert into professional fraudsters to access the basic needs of life. As disillusionment grip the morally equipped unemployed graduates, unable to fit into the chaotic, lawless society, with government looking confused, seek immigration to more stable societies. Because of the inborn human nature of survival instinct, man always migrates from unfavorable unsafe environment, to a safe favorable place. This conscious flight to other

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countries, especially United States of America, goes with its own tolls on both ways. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), estimated 12.6 million legal permanent residents lived in the country on January 1, 2010. Those, I included, eligible to naturalize are about 8.1million (Rytina, 2010, para 1). This figure was outside the undocumented illegal immigrants. One traveling on my compass in this paper could be wondering about the link to an MBA Program. But this decision has been an internal battle of pros, and cons for years that almost overwhelmed me. I have been asking myself what next, and what benefit is an MBA in this country to me. Yes, gaining a legal resident status is one good, but same time poses very huge problems. As in loss of confidence, loss of trust, frustration, insecurity, anger, loneliness, and worst of all, is depression. A university graduate from another country, especially African descent, faces a Herculean task of absorption into the U.S. social, labor, political, and economic force. The first shock is an evaluation of your school degree requirement, before ever getting hired for a job, assuming mother luck smiles on you. Then you start applying to various job openings, and honoring various job interview invitations. The 2008-2009 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment surveys indicated unemployment rates for foreign born workers, rose from 5.8 percent in 2008, to 9.7 percent in 2009, with blacks (72.4 percent) (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012) taking the largest chunk of the debacle. The wide unemployment disparity amongst foreign born blacks and whites could be care freely explained by claiming lack of work experience, spoken English accent, culture bias, skin color, and many stereotypical labeling of an entire race. Some even came up with the notion that immigrants are taking all available jobs. Some job interview panelists get swallowed with the

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society pulse-rate. With all these subjective constraints, and continuous inflow of bills, immigrants end doing low paying jobs far below their qualifications. Many became frustrated and seem to have lost the American dream. Such situation arise the question of what one could do to liberate oneself from comatose state of self actualization. With the knowledge that foreign-born black immigrants are so limited with opportunities in white dominated countries, furtherance of education became an immediate panacea to that constraint. Second question became what extra educational qualification would effectively reposition a socially disadvantaged individual to an advantaged position in a competitive world. According to the 2008 U.S. Department of Labor business and economics publication, job outlook for those who have earned a professional designation, especially an MBA is expected to grow faster than average, employment opportunities are expected to rise up 19 percent, between 2006 and 2016, which is faster than the average for all occupations. Bureau of Labor Statistics economic releases as modified on February 1st, 2012, employment and total job openings by education 2010 and projected 2020 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012, p.6) . Masters degree grew from 4,409.7 in 2010 to a projected growth of 5,286.3 in 2020. Civilian labor force by age, sex, race, and ethnicity 1990, 2000, 2010, and projected 2020 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012, p.6) , growth is well projected for all with an MBA degree, not only in U.S., but globally. Writing this argumentative paper demanded openness, and objectivity of intellectualism, to give fairness to both opposing positions. I used more of the verifiable materials publications, and surveys from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of the Department of Homeland Security, individual articles on education, to attach credibility to the paper. All the resources enjoy the benefit of verifiability and reliability to the test of time.

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References Barney Dews, C. L., & Law, C. L. (1995). This fine place so far from home: voices of academics from the working class. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Hoch, S. J., Kunreuther, H.C., & Gunther, R.E. (Eds.). (2001). Wharton on making decisions. New York, NY: Wiley Rytina, N. (2010). Estimates of the Legal Permanent Resident Population in 2010. Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/ois_lpr_pe_2010.pdf U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2012, February 1). News Release Table 1. Civilian labor force, by age, sex, race, and ethnicity, 1990, 2000, 2010, and projected. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecopro.pdf U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2012, March 9). Economic News Release Table A-2. Employment status of the civilian population by race, sex, and age. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t02.htm U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2012, March 24) Unemployment rates for foreign-born workers, 2009. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2010/ted_20100324.htm