What is the MBA of hard knocks and how does it show up on your resume? Do you just mean good work experience?
Assuming MBA of hard knocks = good work experience
Good work experience is better than an MBA with mediocre work experience for most corporate jobs. A top MBA with mediocre work experience is better than good work experience for elite consulting firms. You don't need an MBA if you plan to bootstrap your own company but the network you build in an MBA program is very useful if you need to find potential investors.
As a signalling tool, anything above a top 10, maybe top 20 MBA program is useless. However, the skills you learn in any MBA program are not useless. Even if you plan to bootstrap your own business, you should master basic accounting, economics, operations and strategy. You can do that on your own but an MBA provides an accelerated, structured way to learn those things and some people just learn better in that environment.
Assuming MBA of hard knocks = good work experience
Good work experience is better than an MBA with mediocre work experience for most corporate jobs. A top MBA with mediocre work experience is better than good work experience for elite consulting firms. You don't need an MBA if you plan to bootstrap your own company but the network you build in an MBA program is very useful if you need to find potential investors.
As a signalling tool, anything above a top 10, maybe top 20 MBA program is useless. However, the skills you learn in any MBA program are not useless. Even if you plan to bootstrap your own business, you should master basic accounting, economics, operations and strategy. You can do that on your own but an MBA provides an accelerated, structured way to learn those things and some people just learn better in that environment.
I've got the dick so I make the rules.
-Project Pat