Want proof that an MBA can get you a decent job? Look no further than Simon Lockett, who got his from Manchester in 1990 and is now the chief executive of Premier Oil. Was it all down to the MBA? “Oh absolutely,” Lockett laughs.

And does he now look fondly on people with MBAs when he’s recruiting? “Absolutely not,” he says this time, laughing again. You could be forgiven for thinking that he’s not taking this interview entirely seriously.

However, it turns out that Lockett’s MBA, if not a passport to fame and fortune, has helped him along the way. “I was in my early twenties when I took mine,” he says. “I wanted to move from technical roles into business roles and it gave me the platform to do it. I could see a real benefit in getting wider experience at an early phase in my career.”

Did his salary jump? “It moved upwards, but not enormously. I could have earned more money at a bank, but there was a particular type of career and experience that I wanted. I was only young and a few grand either way was neither here nor there.”

Lockett says that the course allowed him to work for Pepe Jeans, looking at their Eastern European marketing operations, at one extreme, and for a small lighting company in northwest England at the other.

Does that really help in terms of an oil and gas career? “They were very useful,” he insists. “You get real problems to solve.”

Yet he’d never employ an MBA? “I’m joking,” he says. “We often push people through part-time MBAs, particularly in commercial and business development areas. In fact, we actively encourage it.”

Doing an MBA isn’t always plain sailing. Shyngys Kulzhanov is studying for his MBA at Cass Business School in London. The Kazakhstani student sits on the board of his family-owned oil company, Kuat Holding. Relocating to London for an executive MBA with three young children, while still helping to run the business, has proved a challenge.

“I hadn’t realised how difficult it would be to find the time to study,” he says. “But it has been worthwhile. My family’s oil firm has been growing and it reached the point where we were embarking on more complicated projects. We needed more knowledge on aspects such as investments, mergers and acquisitions and general business strategy. We were also looking to expand our business overseas, so the MBA was the natural thing to do. It’s been really useful because I can now look at our business model and see where the theory perhaps isn’t quite 100 per cent.”

Vangelis Stamoulis, a business development manager at RBG, a drilling and construction services company, is also adamant that it is a valuable qualification. His came from Aberdeen university two years ago and he took it to make himself more marketable.

“In Greece, I was a marketing analyst in fast-moving consumer goods. Now I’m in a business acquisition role. What’s more, I’m working very closely with two members of the executive board on strategy, development and business expansion. It’s been a remarkable experience. The knowledge that you accumulate, the people that you work with... It’s not just having a degree. The development that you go through is simply amazing.”

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