Is an MBA degree losing its relevance in 2025 compared to specialized skills and work experience?

The debate around MBA relevance in 2025 is genuinely nuanced — and from what we've tracked across student and professional conversations, the honest answer isn't that the MBA is dying, but that it's evolving in ways that reward intentionality far more than it once did.

An ABS alumnus from the 2023 batch put it well: MBAs no longer guarantee the kind of salary jumps they routinely produced in the 2000s, but they still function as accelerators — particularly when layered on top of strong skills and meaningful work experience. That framing resonates with what we've seen consistently. The degree amplifies; it doesn't substitute.

From perspectives shared by US-educated MBA holders, elite international programs continue to deliver real value through exposure to cutting-edge research and case methodology. Where the criticism lands harder is on a large portion of Indian B-schools, which function more as placement factories than institutions with rigorous, evolving curricula. That's a structural concern worth sitting with honestly.

On the other side of the argument — and it's a legitimate one — roles like Customer Success Manager, Performance Marketing, and Business Analyst are now reaching MBA-level salaries within 3 to 5 years, without the degree. We've seen this pattern emerge with enough regularity that it can't be dismissed. The MBA, in some professional circles, functions less as proof of competence and more as a filtering mechanism. What increasingly matters in those environments is sustained excellence over time, not the credential itself.

That said, certain verticals haven't shifted much. Consulting and high finance — IB and PE specifically — still place significant weight on pedigree from top IIMs. The brand hierarchy matters in those pipelines, perhaps more than anywhere else. But broader management roles are visibly moving toward skills-based recruitment, and that shift is accelerating.

One pressure point we'd flag directly: tier-2 and tier-3 B-schools are under genuine existential strain. Without deep alumni networks or curriculum depth, the value proposition becomes harder to defend — especially as the opportunity cost of two years and substantial fees becomes more visible to aspirants who are thinking carefully.

There's also a cultural dimension worth naming. We've seen this concern raised by experienced hiring professionals: a societal herd mentality continues to push people toward MBA programs without genuine clarity on why. One professional hiring for their firm observed that recent MBA graduates disappoint more often than earlier cohorts did — a signal, in their view, that oversaturation is diluting the overall quality of output.

The picture that emerges is this: the MBA isn't dead, but it has moved from being a golden ticket to a value-add. Its relevance in 2025 depends almost entirely on three things — institution tier, the specificity of your career goals, and whether you're building complementary skills that make the degree work harder for you. Enter with intention, or the two years won't return what you're expecting.