I recently moved into a new role in my organization. Every person that I’ve talked to that I will be working along side with has at some point said, “Well… you understand. You have your Masters!”
Part of me is bothered by this comment, and here’s why: Just because I hold a Masters of Business Administration, does NOT automatically mean I will “get” everything. Yes, I might pick it up faster… but this new department’s operations are only a fraction of what I studied in grad school. And working in a niche department is far, far, far different than interpreting case studies out of textbooks.
I do appreciate their vote of confidence, and I do hope my MBA training can help me offer up solid suggestions for process improvements or other efficiencies I see in the department. But until I am fully up and running, I feel uncomfortable being told, “You have your Masters, therefore you must know everything!” in our trainings and meetings. Masters Degrees do not always equate to Albert Einstein type smarts.
I figure I might be able take advantage of this and just have people assume I’m smart and maybe it will open the door up to more opportunity for special projects and what-not. But I see a lot of risk in this approach for me because about 90% of the time, I tend to fall short of super high expectations.
Any other perspectives out there?
