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How a 1 year MBA transforms your career

1 year mba

What can a 1-year Master of Business Administration (MBA) do for you?

A 1-year MBA is transformative for most graduates – you’ll hear words like “kick-start”, “launch-pad”, or “booster”. The kind of person who will thrive in an accelerated MBA programme is someone who wants to be in control of their career and their life direction. On top of that, they are typically very ambitious – they don’t just want to change direction or move to a new level in their career, they want to see just how far they can go. A third key characteristic is hard-working. Whatever goal you want to achieve with your 1-year MBA, you should be prepared to work hard during the year – and probably beyond.

It’s a year out of your life, and applying is a big decision. Here are five outcomes to anticipate if you take on a one-year MBA. (Number 5 will especially surprise you).


5 Critical outcomes to anticipate if you take on a one-year MBA

1. Solid business skills for knowledge, awareness and confidence in any situation

If you are young and only a few years along in your career, going back to school for two years for your MBA is a manageable prospect. Chances are you don’t have things like a mortgage or kids to manage in parallel – important considerations when you will be without an income and taking on significant tuition.

The traditional MBA programme is a good starter degree that will nicely round out an undergraduate education and bit of business experience. It offers a complete education in business fundamentals, which will help provide a good foundation upon which to start your business management career.

People who take a 1-year MBA tend to be a bit older and more experienced. Part of the attraction for the shorter programme is that taking the time away from “regular life” can be trickier if you’re a bit more established. Fortunately, someone with a strong track record of six to 10 years of business experience – typical of one year MBA students – already has good business knowledge and shows excellent leadership skills potential. This is why accelerated MBA programmes are designed with less time on the nuts and bolts of business management and more time developing skills potential.

Knowledge and skills must go hand-in-hand in business management. That’s why MBA programmes increase and deepen the knowledge you have, so you can access it like second nature in any business situation. Aside from the basic MBA toolkit, at Porto Business School (PBS) the leadership stream runs throughout the year combining experiential exercises, one-on-one coaching (each participant has different coaches following them for the entire year, each coach focusing on a different development agenda), peer learning, and classroom activities.

In experiential learning, students take part in on- and off-campus exercises – all the while getting constant feedback from experienced professionals (professors and leadership coaches), as well as their peers. Because PBS professors are also consultants and researchers, participants get the benefit of their first-hand experience and work with very current case studies. There is also consultancy project work where participants deal with real situations and real companies, seeing immediate results.

The Magellan MBA Consulting Project is the culmination of nine intensive months of learning about state-of-the-art management concepts, tools and trends in distinct areas of management and different industries. It is a great platform for all of Magellan participants to put into practice everything that they have learnt during the year and realize how far they have come. It is a step back into the real world where Magellan participants are working on a real strategic challenge being faced by a company who expects solid deliverables.

2. A whole new direction for your career

MBAs and Executive MBAs are considered to be degrees meant for either “career-enhancers” or “career-changers”. One-year MBA programmes are particularly attractive to the latter group. It is a perfect opportunity for a self-directed, ambitious person to take a step back and really investigate their goals and how their best skills can be applied. The MBA programme gives candidates direct access to new environments where they can test their skills and interests, such as with local start-ups or through the consultancy projects – all on top of the connections students make with their classmates and other alumni.

The time spent in a 1-year MBA is intensive. Many say they have never worked harder in their lives, never gone as far out of their comfort zones and never forged deeper friendships. When that environment is combined with top-level business learning by leading international business minds, it’s a perfect recipe for a transformational experience.

Marianne Baillot, a 2018 PBS grad, had been choreographer before she went to PBS. “Deciding to attend the Magellan MBA at Porto Business School was a great choice,” she says. “Coming from the art and the creative industrie, I wanted to be able to work in another sector. In the end, I got much more! I met a network of amazing people, mentos, and companies; I gained posture learning to be more assertive, focused and self-confident.” Her post-PBS career rose to a highly prominent position as Managing Director and Expansion with luxury hotels Milésime. Stay tuned!

3. Leadership skills & agility – especially for a digital world

An MBA programme must be designed to prepare candidates for the demands of real market forces. This is especially true of 1-year Master of Business Administration degrees, which are much more practice-oriented versus theoretical; it also tends to be more the case at institutions that are business schools focused on executive education as opposed to university-based schools. In the current context, effective leadership skills are critical to enable business managers to adapt to situations – even ones never before seen.

Some of the strategies used at PBS include involving participants in hands-on experiences in global innovation hubs such as Silicon Valley and China. The business school also collaborates with renowed institutions for training in design thinking and digital technology expertise. “International week at UC Berkeley blew my mind with their innovative thought processes and frameworks” says Takahiro Hosoya, a 2019 PBS grad. “The Business Transformation Lab in IE Segovia gave me great insights into innovation thinking. The experience made me realize the Magellan MBA was the right choice to persue my career goal of entrepreneurship” he says.

Leadership is a personal skill – each person’s leadership style is entirely unique. That’s why business schools use self-awareness and leadership coaching to help integrate leadership skills. Executive leadership coaching is integrated into most 1-year MBA programmes. One-on-one and group coaching exercises help participants feel their responses in simulated situations. Coaches provide impartial, expert guidance in a safe environment.

Miguel Gil Mata, graduated in 2004. He says that having an engineering background, the Magellan MBA year made substantial changes and promoted him to managerial roles for the last ten years and, the latest, CEO of Sonae Capital.

4. Great return on investment

Did you know that 1-year MBAs transform into faster, greater return on investment than other types of MBA and EMBA learning? People taking a 2-year MBA are at the beginning of their careers and will climb and earn their stripes after the program. They are setting out, not transforming. Those who select an EMBA are usually a little further down the career track. They also are not necessarily looking to transform entirely, rather, the goal is to enhance a successful path with yet another solid credential and more diverse experiences. Since they, in general, have a higher salary going in, the rise in pay – although absolutely worth it – is not as dramatic.

The cost of a 1-year MBA is high, but less overall than a 2-year program, and of course there is one less year without a salary versus a traditional MBA. But the difference is also about time of life and the desire to transfor. One-year MBA graduates are ready to take a leap, drive their own futures and deliver real business impact wherever they go.

Our recruitment experience at the Magellan MBA has been extremely positive, as graduates bring enhanced business and people skills from day one, enabling them to tackle the challenges of their responsabilities with a renewed mindset and an assertive approach,and effectively contribute to the success of our teams.

Gabriela Castro, Head of Strategic Business Development, Sonae MC

MBA graduates coming out of top-ranked business schools find employment rapidly. 75% of those in PBS found work within the first three months. The Financial Times ranking suggests that 70-100% salary increase, just three years after graduation, compared to before the program, is a reasonable expectation. With a 1-year MBA program, the time it takes you to catch up the investment you made (the cost of the program and the year without income) is usually less than three or four years.

5. MBA skills and knowledge aren’t just for business

The skills you learn in an MBA programme will serve you for life – coming out of a quality program, you will find yourself to be a stronger leader, more mindful and self-aware in all relationships. MBA schools are increasingly actively seeking people who aren’t simply ambitious in business, but who have a vision and a desire to help positively shape the future of the world. On top of that, MBA programmes are attracting more people who aren’t necessarily even looking to apply the skills in the business context. For example, they may become leaders in public administration or non-governmental groups, but wish to apply the rigors of a business education to these fields.

This is why one-year MBA programs like the Magellan MBA at PBS actively integrate global, entrepreneurial and digital dimensions into the curriculum. At PBS, a central “Business and Society” module disclose the talent of MBA participants in the corporate community.


Still looking for an MBA Programme?

  • The Financial Times acknowledged PBS as one of the best institutions in the world for executive education and open programmes.
  • The Magellan MBA is 100% committed to developing global leaders through high-impact executive education.
  • Take your career to the next level today by strengthening your existing skills and acquiring the skills you are missing.

By Issam Oueslati - Last updated on December 13, 2020
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