I have been thinking about doing an MBA from a top 3 US school but I am not sure if it is worth it. I am currently working as a product manager with over 8 years of experience, 4 of which is as a PM in well known tech firms. Will an MBA add any value to my career? I am not sure if I will even make the same salary as I am now after my MBA. Executive MBA seems useless to me.
Only if you need a network
Yes your excel skills and formatting will be off the charts. No brainer.
It’s good if you want to take 2 years off but don’t want gap in your resume. I did it for that reason. Basically a holiday
What exactly do you want to do with your career? Figure out where you want to go, and then see if an MBA will get you there.
With 8 years experience in tech, why? Have a side project and read some business books..
After 8 years as a PM, I would judge your resume by the impact and scope of the products you worked on. Adding an MBA would be strange at a later time and if anything make me wonder if you weren’t able to grow by delivering great products and needed a shiny title on the resume instead.
^ this guy speaks the truth.
Mba from top 10 here and you might have seen my posting on pm entry 😀 Currently the only people post MBA I am seeing getting into pm role in sf bay are A) engagement manager level consultants from top 3 B) PM b school intern converts C) start up PM seekers D) PM rotation role successful candidates Anyone else looking at postings is in for a tough slog. Also as you are already a PM may be investing more in that will payoff a lot more than 300k MBA
I am already making 350k+ so comp wise I am happy. I was thinking about it from getting to a c level perspective
If you are at 350k proceed along that path you are already in the upper few who have made it comp wise 😀 an mba wont super charge it now onwards it will be how much impact company wide that gets you further might have to switch around to seek higher challenges and growth would be my 2 cents
Outside SF bay i think its lot easier is what I have heard from my cohort
I love MBAs. I hire them for lower level positions all the time. Your education will determine your first and maybe your second job if you jump quickly. With 8 years of experience an MBA is pretty much useless. Its probably a negative — I look at those applicants as people that are focused on credentials rather than results.
Had a friend do an MBA. They’re now advising the c-level how to design their strategies. Earning huge cash and loves what they do. Not sure I agree with your generalization. But then again this is blind where SDEs are king and everything else is scum.