Prior Work Experience and Academic Achievement Among First-Year MBA Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between students' prior work experience and subsequent success during the first year in an MBA program. We present a rationale for the use of work experience as a selection criterion (based on the training-readiness literature) but also present another argument (based on the career-stage literature) that counters the prevailing view about the appropriateness of this selection standard. Using data from a unique sample of 230 MBA students and controlling for such factors as the type of undergraduate program attended, undergraduate GPA, and total score on the Graduate Management Admission Test, prior work experience was found to account for only a small proportion of the variance in first-semester grades and was found to be unrelated to academic performance in the second semester. Taking these results and other existing empirical studies into account, there is little support for the view that previous work experience (as assessed by typical admission procedures) leads to higher levels of academic achievement. Implications for admissions policy, hiring companies, and those considering graduate study in business are discussed.