When I ask college students where they see themselves in five years, I invariably hear that they want to have earned their MBA.

When I ask why, I often get a blank look. They’re sure the degree is important, but they can’t tell me exactly what they hope it will do for them.

Employers I talk to, on the other hand, know exactly what they want from a candidate with an MBA — if they’re looking for MBAs, that is. And not all of them are.

From these interviews, and from my own experience earning an MBA, I know that it can be valuable — as long as students and employers have their expectations aligned.

Being the Boss

Bright, ambitious business students want to lead organizations, and they often think an MBA will empower them to do so.

While an MBA may help prepare you for leadership down the road, when you first enter the workforce, an MBA doesn’t say “CEO” to a company. It says, “Here is a young person who has worked hard, is very driven, and is probably pretty smart.” Does this newly minted MBA have the potential to one day be the CEO? Possibly.

But so do a lot of non-MBAs. Only one out of 1,000 MBAs is likely to become a CEO. A lot of them may not even make it very far down that path. This is a harsh discovery for most twenty-somethings, but it’s common knowledge among veteran recruiters.

Employers view an MBA somewhat as they do an undergraduate degree. They don’t hire new college graduates because they’ve learned something about economics, finance, or international relations. The new hires will learn those things on the job.

Instead, they hire college graduates because they have been vetted by their schools. An MBA is a proxy for intelligence, energy, and ambition.

What an MBA Is

An MBA is an academic achievement. It’s not real life. Real life is Steve Jobs and Bill Gates dropping out of college without even earning a bachelor’s degree. Real life is that guy with a B.A. who gets to the office at 6 a.m., has remarkable talent, and just got promoted over you.

An MBA is one to two years of hundreds of case studies from every industry. You’ll discuss and debate what you would do as CEO if you had to fire your head of sales, launch a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, or turn a business around.

This is all theoretical, however. You are not a CEO. You are a student sitting in a classroom. You are hypothesizing about what you would do.

After graduation, you’ll follow the crowd into associate roles in investment banks, consulting firms, or private equity firms. You won’t have much opportunity to apply anything you’ve learned for quite a few years. Instead, you’ll have to put your head down and prove yourself — just as you had to do straight out of college.

How Employers View MBAs

Companies tend to fall into two main camps regarding MBAs.

Those that hire MBAs: These are typically large, established firms. They’ve hired many of them, and they have a thought-out plan to develop them within the company.

Those that don’t hire MBAs: These typically smaller companies don’t have the structure or time to manage and deal with the high expectations that come with an MBA. They don’t want someone who might think he’s above everyone else, so they avoid that possibility altogether.

There is a third, smaller group of companies that does put the MBA on a pedestal, thinking these MBAs will solve all their woes, but truthfully, these companies are few and far between.

Ask the Right Questions

Before hiring a candidate with an MBA, companies should ask several questions to determine the type of hire he or she would really be:

What experience has this person had, and what value can he or she bring to the organization that it doesn’t have already?

What are this individual’s patterns of behavior? What did this person do with his time in high school or middle school? Was he competing in sports or playing video games?

How passionate is this person? What is she trying to do with her life?

The Real Value

For students, there are three reasons to consider an MBA:

If you’re already working, it’s a chance to jump off the treadmill for a couple of years. It will allow you to hit the reset button, think about who you really are, and possibly correct your direction in life. You will meet new people who are smart and ambitious like yourself. They will come from all walks of life. You’ll make friends, as well as potential partners or business contacts. You will learn. Especially if you go to a top school, you’ll study under some amazing professors and grow as an individual.

Getting an MBA can be a fantastic educational experience, but students considering it should be realistic in setting expectations. Employers considering applicants with MBAs should take the degree for what it is: a sign of a smart twenty-something who has worked very hard for a few years. Once these expectations are aligned, the MBA becomes infinitely more valuable to both students and their future employers.