Personally, I thought it wasn't but after attending various seminars and presentations by the best mba universities, speaking to their alumnus and reading on various blogs, I found out that it IS important. To quote a few alumnus "without work experience, an MBA is a waste of your money and 2 years of your time".. And logically, if an MBA is a practical course, having work experience will help one to add as well as gain more value from high investment in the course, both in terms of time and money.