????丈夫升職調任馬德里從事新的工作以前，阿根廷本地人瑪麗安娜?薩內蒂一直在布宜諾斯艾利斯擔任殼牌公司（Shell）的產品經理。一位從哈佛商學院畢業（Harvard Business School）的同事這時建議她，到了西班牙之后應該去商學院求學，攻讀MBA學位。

????薩內蒂采納了那位男同事的建議，在馬德里一家名為企業學院（Instituto de Empresa）的商學院報名學習為期一年的MBA課程。她向家人借錢付了這個學位要負擔的學費。2003年，薩內蒂從商學院畢業，然后花了整整一年時間才找到一份和自己三年前沒有MBA學位時收入完全相同的工作，在一家類似美國建材家居零售商家得寶（Home Depot）的西班牙公司任產品經理。

????薩內蒂說，這些年來，她希望能寫一本書，講述自己的親身經歷。但由于害怕影響自己的職業生涯，比如可能在應聘建材業巨頭圣戈班集團（Saint-Gobain）和醫藥供應商瑞思邁（ResMed）的產品經理期間被視為職業污點，薩內蒂并沒有將這個愿望付諸行動。如今，她說既然自己已經離開了那個企業圈子，就可以道出MBA學位的真相。

????薩內蒂給這部自行出版的個人作品命名為《MBA泡沫：并非貨真價實的投資》（ The MBA Bubble: It's just not worth the investment）。她解釋說：“它是與這類學位有關的一種教育界泡沫。我認為這些學位對大家的職業道路沒有多少影響。當然也有例外，MBA在管理咨詢業和投資銀行界一直是價值不菲的金字招牌。可在其他領域，這個學位只是錦上添花。它對人沒害處。但我為寫這本書采訪的所有市場專家都說，今天需要的是專業的知識與技術，而MBA是培訓通才的。”

????薩內蒂如今住在法國，已屆不惑之年。她坦言，巴黎的生活和毫無價值的學位截然不同，“我和一些非凡的人見面，還見了一些有頭腦的教授。我在這兒學到了一些別有深意的商業概念，它們讓我對商業有了全球的視角。不值得為學位投入那些時光，付出那些金錢。MBA畢業的人可以拿到高薪，但他們的薪水和這個學位無關。有公司能聘請我，那是因為我以前有在殼牌的工作經歷。”

????薩內蒂甚至建議人們申請頂級學府，爭取高等學府錄取，然后再主動拒絕入學。如此一來，這份求學經歷便會成為個人簡歷的一段真實記錄。薩內蒂認為，這其中的價值幾乎與學習兩年的MBA課程不相上下。她在書中寫道：“就像是獲得了奧斯卡金像獎提名卻沒拿到獎項一樣。得到入學認可后去上學和沒上學的區別在于，前者是將我們的未來做了抵押，同時還要承擔背負巨額學生貸款的風險。”薩內蒂建議，如果有雇主問起為什么沒去讀美國西北大學凱洛格商學院（Kellogg）或者耶魯大學的MBA，只需要回答：“我更愿意利用念MBA的時間和資金開發有戰略意義的技術，它們會有利于今后雇用我的公司占據競爭優勢……”

????當然，薩內蒂對MBA的這種怨言并不少見。它們與一些越來越抵制高等教育的反對人士不謀而合，那些反對派譴責高等學府一方面不斷提高教育成本，一方面缺少對學生未來就業的任何保障。而薩內蒂對MBA的抨擊與他們有所不同。差別在于，她擁有一家歐洲名牌商學院的學位，卻又決定寫一本232頁的書，設法利用這本書說服他人放棄過去60-70年來教育業經營最成功的學位——MBA。

????她認為，如果不是出于表露反對立場會危及職業發展這個現實，其他商學院的畢業生也會坦率地表達與自己相同的結論。“很少有人批評MBA課程，因為說什么對自身學歷品牌不利的話沒有任何意義，”薩內蒂說。“這本書不會讓我交到多少朋友，可也不會給我樹敵。”

????Mariana Zanetti had been working as a product manager for Shell (RDSA) in Buenos Aires when her husband got a promotion to a new job in Madrid. One of her colleagues, a Harvard Business School graduate, suggested that the Argentina native go to business school for her MBA while in Spain.

????She took his advice, enrolling in the one-year MBA program at Instituto de Empresa (IE) Business School In Madrid. Zanetti borrowed money from her family to pay for the degree. And when she graduated in 2003, it took her a full year to land a job as a product manager at a Spanish version of Home Depot, at exactly the same salary she was earning three years earlier, without the MBA.

????For years, Zanetti says, she wanted to write a book on her experience but didn't out of fear that it would hurt her career, which included stints as a product manager for Saint-Gobain and ResMed, a medical supplier. Now that she has left the corporate world, Zanetti says, she can tell the truth about the MBA degree.

????Her take, in a self-published book called The MBA Bubble: It's just not worth the investment. "There is an education bubble around these kind of degrees," she says. "I don't think they have much impact on people's careers. There are exceptions, of course, in management consulting and investment banking, where the MBA is always valued. But for the rest, it's a nice-to-have degree. It's not that it is harmful to you, but every market expert I interviewed for the book says that what is needed today is specialized knowledge and skills, and an MBA is generalist training."

????Zanetti, now 40 and living in France, says it's not like the degree had no value. "I met wonderful people. I met brilliant professors. I learned some interesting business concepts that gave me a global vision about business. It just wasn't worth the cost in time and money. MBAs get high salaries, but the degree has nothing to do with it. I was hired because of my previous work experience at Shell."

????She is even advising people to apply to a top school, get an acceptance, and then decline to go. Put the fact on your resume and Zanetti thinks it will have nearly the same value as going to an MBA program for two years. "It's like being an Academy Award nominee instead of an Academy Award winner," she writes. "But the difference between the two is mortgaging our future and accepting the risk of getting stuck with a monumental student loan." When an employer asks why you didn't go to Kellogg or Yale for your MBA, she advises, just tell them, "I preferred to use that time and money to develop strategic skills to benefit my employers' competitive advantage…."

????Of course, Zanetti's complaint about the MBA is hardly new. It falls neatly into the growing genre of anti-higher education tirades that decry the rising cost of education and the lack of any guarantees. But what makes her MBA bashing somewhat different is that she has a degree from a prominent European business school and has decided to write a 232-page book trying to convince others to pass on the MBA, the most successful degree in the education industry in the last 60 to 70 years.

????She believes that other business graduates would fess up to the same conclusion, if not for the fact that their views would endanger their careers. "There are few people criticizing MBA programs because it makes no sense to say anything bad against their brands," Zanetti says. "I will not make a lot of friends with this book, but I won't make enemies, either."