Passed Over for Lack of an MBA

— Barbara Reinhold

DEAR COACH: I need some help about next steps in my career. I've just been passed over for promotion to a position I've always assumed would be mine when my boss left. But instead, they gave it to a guy from outside our department. When I demanded to know why, they told me it was because he had an MBA. I got my bachelor's degree in business 20 years ago, and that was enough for me. I'm a learn-by-doing kind of guy, and so I've never been willing to sit in a classroom just to look better educated on paper, even though HR has tried several times to get me to take classes. Now I'm being punished for how I prefer to learn.

So I'm wondering if this is fair and what I should do to try to get people to see my side of the story. Should I go to HR or talk to higher-ups about getting what's due me for my service to this company?

-- CLIFF

DEAR CLIFF: Forget about winning people over to your point of view on this one. In your current company, it's a moot issue. You have three choices here:

1. Go to a different kind of company where ongoing training and credentials are not an important part of the culture.
2. Bite the bullet and get the MBA if you want to have a future in your present company or a similar culture.
3. Go into business for yourself and make your own rules.

There are actually three different ways to get the education your current employer is telling you that you need:

1. Take some time out and do a regular MBA.
2. Do an executive MBA while you work, probably with some tuition assistance from your company.
3. Get a degree online. Even there you'll find different flavors. A high-end school like Duke University's Fuqua School of Business offers a combination executive MBA/online MBA program, where 65 percent of the work is done online and the other third happens face-to-face periodically with classmates, or consider a fully online scene like the University of Phoenix. You will be able to study on your own schedule at less than half the price of a more traditional program.

You can visit MonsterLearning to see what educational options out there will meet your needs.

The most important parts of your question, though, have to do with you not picking up on the clues HR has been trying to give you about the importance of education to a promotion within your company's system. It's also unsettling to know you assumed things aren't fair, because they didn't go your way. It was hard to hear the word "demand" in your question, because if you really came across to your company as demanding to know why you didn't get hired, then I suspect you gave the bosses another reason for not hiring you.

Think hard about the choices you have here, taking into account your own work style and values. You can't bully your bosses into wanting to give you a promotion, but you might well be able to find a situation where your individualism would be more appreciated. I'd also think about getting yourself some honest feedback about your style through a coach or career counselor. The stakes are high here, and you want to be making fully informed and self-aware decisions.

CAREER COACH

This article originally appeared on Monster.com.

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