Hailing from a trade background

Applying for an MBA normally sees a number of high flying candidates coming from senior management roles, mid-level managers, finance and consulting. But does this really represent the full spectrum of MBA applicants? I don't think so. Certainly the senior managers, finance specialists and consultants would be prime candidates for executive MBA programs but what about the majority of applicants?

I saw a promotional slide where the MBA graduate reflected on his trade background and I thought that tradespeople are really under-represented in MBA programs. For my way of thinking, tradespeople are excellent candidates with their technical knowledge, project skills, diagnostic and trouble-shooting abilities, work ethic and ability to work under pressure.

Even more so, candidates from technical trades make ideal mid-level managers owing to their extensive operational experience once they have gained experience from leading-hand, foreman and superintendent roles. From an operational perspective, technical tradespeople know the business from a bottom-up viewpoint.

All technical tradespeople need to do is learn the language of business and become more conceptual in their thinking. Such candidates need to learn the art of leadership to get the job done through the efforts of the team - it isn't that much of a step up.