MBA vs MS CS
For someone in early 30s (in Canada) who doesn't have a CS or business undergrad, what would be a preferred grad credential to pursue - MBA or MS CS & what's the outcome? Currently work at a Canadian telco in a non-technical job that doesn't pay that well. Want to be in demand, increase my comp & perhaps enter the tech industry. Don't think I will like coding but exploring career options. Don't have conviction clarity on what I should do in my career going forward. So many roles. Product Manager role seems very popular but super competitive. Program Manager is another one I discovered but doesn't seem to pay as well and is more operational/execution oriented. I understand US pays much better than Canada too. MS CS seems to be for technical roles like Software Engineering (coding). Lots of maths & coding. Starting from bottom. MBA seems to be for more management/leadership roles, super expensive, debatable ROI/value (seems that its mostly the brand/alumni & the doors it opens rather than the course content) the MBA grads tend to work in 3 main buckets - consulting, financial services/IB & tech (mostly product management). Previously grads would gravitate towards consulting & financial services/IB but now towards tech due to better work life balance/good comp. There's experiential product management bootcamps too like Co Lab product management where they charge you $3-4k USD and pair you with a dev & designer to build a MVP over a few months. Would love to get your thoughts. Blind tax, TC: 85k CAD (peanuts), YOE: 10 #tech #mba #ms cs #ms #cs #masters #technology
Outside of shithole Canada, very few people care about education unless you study something very specialised (typically PhD stuff). Focus on learning and building a portfolio of projects, bonus points if you demonstrate collaboration (like open source projects).
Thank you
MS CS will give you more opportunities and higher comp
MBA is always useless. MS is only sometime useless
MBA isn't always useless, but it is 100% more valuable if you go to a good school like a t25 or something. Looking at employment reports, average TC from MBA in tech industries clear 160-200+k. Whereas an MS in CS and doing IC roles, it is more merit based versus prestige based for MBA. For CS it's fine if you go to a state school
Lol. No. It’s easy to get TC above MBA TC with just a bachelors and not paying hundreds of thousands for outdated business “education” and networking. At least an MS in CS can let you go deeper on a useful topic like deep learning.