Boost your career without breaking the bank

Harvard University, where MBA tuition alone rings up about $80,000, last year launched a cheaper Master of Liberal Arts in Management through its Extension School (price: $19,500 plus fees). The Harvard Extension School program, which filled to its capacity of 140 students in its first year, attracts students with its relatively low price tag and its lax admission rules: no standardized tests or recommendations required.

Harvard Business School is "difficult to get into," says Delia Gerraughty, assistant director of the Extension School's management program. "We're really easy to get into."

But do non-MBA management programs send salaries skyward? It's hard to say with certainty because many programs are too new to have much track record, and salary survey data is scarce.

But Jackson, Wyo., executive coach Kevin Fleming says that developing skills that boost others' workplace productivity is often more important for the salary-boosting quest than the accumulation of particular letters behind a name.

"It's the leadership training. That's what people want to see," Mr. Fleming says. "Are you actively seeking advanced training in authentic leadership and emotional intelligence? That's tied to earning power [because] now you can rally people and generate creativity on levels that you couldn't do before."

Schools are also creating affordable options for professionals who need to ratchet up their cash flow but aren't necessarily cut out for management. Georgetown University's School of Continuing Studies, for instance, is this year launching a master's in professional studies degree with focus options in journalism, public relations, or corporate communications. Tuition costs $21,570, compared with more than $40,000 for a one-year master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

And for the truly thrifty, outfits such as the Boston Center for Adult Education offer two-hour courses in areas intended to boost careers and pay levels. Its "Women's Business Breakfast" course, for instance, has covered networking in the past and will address "everyday negotiations" in October. Price: $25.

Doing professional education on the cheap may come with trade­offs. Professionals who forgo an MBA., for instance, may sometimes wish they had one down the line.

Now "you might not need to do a whole lot of strategic thinking and strategic planning and global strategy on the marketing side," says Judy Olian, chair of the board at the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). "But 10 years from now – after you've been promoted out of your technical expertise – you might need to do that, and, lo and behold, you've got that in the MBA degree."

But for people who already have technical expertise and yet struggle to develop strong working relationships, more technical know-how probably isn't what is needed most, according to Mr. Oldman. Complement hard skills with newly learned soft skills, he says, and "the world is your oyster."

"The great neglected career engine is people skills," Oldman says. In business as in politics, "Those who master the art of capturing human hearts are those who propel themselves the furthest."

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