Business schools do not churn out drones that sit at desks all day, gnawing at pencils and daydreaming of the best place to hold a working lunch. Today's graduates of MBA programs demand active, challenging lives that yank them out of their comfort zones and into the heart of the extraordinary. That's why many working professionals who find that their current cubicle lives have flatlined are firing up the modem -- and their glum existence -- and enrolling in schools that offer an online MBA degree.
Want to step out of the mold? Consider these five post-MBA careers that leave you yearning for the peal of the alarm clock:
Restaurant Manager
Can your MBA qualify you for heady and hectic work as a restaurant manager? Consider the plight and triumph of crepe restaurant founder Assaf Tarnopolsky of San Francisco. When the dot-com flood cascaded down to a trickle at the beginning of the decade, Tarnopolsky gave up his international development job with a failing magazine and fell back upon his love of food and concept development background. His successful crepery now has locations in this city of restaurants and across the bay in Oakland.
Tarnopolsky is a hands-on manager, handling company strategy, marketing, and accounting roles in addition to serving customers and fine-tuning the crepe batter. Online MBA programs today offer special degrees in hospitality and restaurant management as well as dedicated MBA degrees in hospitality management.
Business Consultant
Here's one sure way to bust out of your four office walls. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that nearly a third of all management analysts and business consultants are self employed -- a rate three times the national average for all occupations. Even if you work for an established business consultancy, you're constantly changing clients and locations the world over.
The top consulting opportunities will be in human resource management, process oversight and development, and capital investment management for all sectors of the private and public economy including high tech, finance, health care, manufacturing, and government. If you already hold business expertise in one or more of these fields, you can enroll in an online MBA degree program that trains you for consulting work without compromising your current home and family obligations.
International Investment Advisor
When companies take advantage of today's business world without borders, they need gurus to manage their investments abroad. And those gurus hang up the tattered cubicle tie, lace up their traveling shoes, and hop flights across the oceans of the globe. Offshore investment advisors carry their MBA degrees in one hand and a suitcase in the other.
Whether working online via a wireless modem in a busy airport, or flexing their business school muscle at a bustling bazaar in Riyadh, one could hardly call consulting work on private equity, real estate, privatization, or mergers and acquisitions the deeds of a retiring milquetoast. Want to hop aboard? You'll need to become a whiz at international business, finance, and economics.
Venture Capitalist
Venture capitalists may have the image of a silent force that powers start-ups, infuses flagging enterprises, and applies the spark to sizzling bright business ideas, but most are ruthless tacticians and are paid well to ensure that a seed blossoms into a money tree.
The median projected yearly salary for a venture capitalist in the United States today is $150,245, according to Salary.com. That's a solid return on an investment in an online MBA degree program. VC experts earn in two ways: they draw fees on managing the venture budget and take a percentage of the carry (return).
There's not always a direct path to the profession. You'll need to start building a solid network at your MBA degree program and find mentors from the VC boards of directors that are already developing emerging companies.
International Market Development Manager
Feeling stuck? The idea of working for a "typical consumer company" just did not appeal to MBA grad Megan Osorio. While in business school, Osorio took an internship with the international marketing group for UPS and found her calling.
Today, Osorio is the international market development manager for a medical device company that keeps her on her toes across global time zones. She spends about 20 percent of her time traveling to evaluate markets and attend international conferences.
Most companies that have hit mid-size levels are looking to benefit from the global economy. To work in the market development field, you should pack your online MBA program with classes in marketing and consumer planning. Then pack your bags.