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 (that too from Canada vs US) and what's the outcome of each. This contrasted with not pursing one at all? Currently work at a big Canadian telco in a non-technical project manager job that doesn't pay that well, I feel undervalued & am in more of a paper pusher process oriented role doing repetitive work every day. I hate it. Want to be in demand, increase my comp, future proof myself, do more meaningful work & maybe enter the tech industry. I feel insecure about my career, future, marketability & skills. Don't have conviction clarity on what I should/want to do in my career going forward. So many roles. I see some people doing MBA and some doing MS Computer Science. I feel lost, drained & don't have a great network to have these deeper career chats with (as opposed to just surface level chats) & find myself googling, watching YouTube videos, reddit forums & blind. I feel terrified every day & ask myself what am I doing with my life, where is it going, what am I meant to do, I am just meandering. I am scared. I feel if I lose my job, I may not be able to find another one (I just know my role's processes). I don't want to worry about money or live paycheque to paycheque. Don't just want to survive but also thrive. Want to be in a high income field/job/career, in demand, valued & financially independent. 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 Computer Science: - Seems to be for technical roles like Software Engineering (coding). Maybe there's more to computer science? - Lots of maths & coding. Start career again from bottom. Competing with 20 something year olds fresh out of uni/bootcamps. - In hindsight I also didn't like maths/wasn't very good at it when I was in high school. - Tech is the future. High salaries, lots of demand. Maybe might help with futureproofing. Work from home. - Potential to create lucrative startups with just laptop & code. - Less fees. More opportunity for TA and scholarships. - Tech employees seem to be in demand, paid well, valued, especially in big tech. 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. - I don't think I will like financial services or consulting. So the tech bucket remains & I see the major roles people go into tech after MBA is tech product manager (some minor ones are program manager, product marketing manager). - People recommend doing full time MBA vs executive/part time as full time MBA helps with career change/network. Part time & executive is more of just moving up your own company/job ladder. But am already on the older side for full time MBA with 10 years of experience and will have to incur high opportunity cost/maybe debt (quit job, loose income, pay high tuition fees, etc). - Doing MBA from Canada doesn't seem to be worthwhile. Average salaries tend to hover around $85k ish give or take. US MBA salaries tend to more around $110k ish USD but more fees comparatively. - My employer has their own MBA in tie up with a local Canadian university (not well ranked) where they pick around 20 employees from the company. Post MBA you need to stay with them for 3 years. I don't think this MBA is good as MBA value is usually the brand (this uni is low ranked) & network (this program only has employees from this company) - Helps move up the corporate ladder. Would love to get your thoughts & advice. Blind tax, TC: 85k CAD, YOE: 10
How about take some free coding courses from freecodecamp to get you into the field and pursuit mba to help you move up
Thank you for the feedback. I will check them out.
I have both MBA (Krannert-Purdue) and MS Computer Science (not Purdue). I loved the classes during my MBA but I will highly recommend going with CS.
I had engineering undergraduate
Thank you. Would love to learn more - why MS CS over MBA? How was your experience when contrasting both?
BS Electrical/computer engineering
Thank you for the feedback.