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
Since you want to be a ceo, start off at a small start up.. learn from them.. and start your own thing with the knowledge gained from working at a tech start up… again, start in sales or whatever it is you are doing now, just find a role at a small start up. Better work life balance at these places as well
Thanks for the feedback
MS CS
Would love to learn more as to why & any other insights you may be able to share.
Thanks for the detailed post. I'm in the same situation as you
Thanks for sharing. I would love to learn more and what are the path forward things you are thinking through
One idea to consider is UPenn's MCIT, which can be done online and gets you the technical chops without a CS background. You could start taking that online and also pursue an MBA from a different school. You could even do Indiana University's online MBA as well if you want to stay in Canada. My recommendation would be to take 2-3 accounting classes and a finance class (calculate ROI, NPV, time value of money, etc.) at a community college, and then focus on building that technical skillset in a different field (CS, DS, etc.). That gives you enough to be effective with a P&L, and a lot of the other learning from an MBA can be gotten experientially on the job.
Thanks for the suggestion. I will check it out.
US MBA salaries are very bi modal. If you are not t15 then you don't get good recruiting opportunities so the average is 110k. But if you are t15, then anyone who tries will get at least t2 consulting/lower BB IB which pays the same as mbb/better BB anyways. Average is more like 220k here and scales up very fast to 500k+ or even 750k+ if you can survive the poor wlb
Thank you for sharing. I will judging by the poor wlb for consulting and financial services/IB, tech seems more appealing superficially as a post MBA career, granted that's too far off at this time.
Not doing anything is really based. Reading books is the cheapest way to get wisdom.
Thank you. Sorry, didn't understand "not doing anything is really based". Wondering if you can please elaborate. Absolutely, books are great. Would you happen to have any recommendations?
@nidfh11 Sure. What I meant, is that from a certain point in life after your twenies, when you've already experienced enough irl, the best way overall to progress in life is to figure out things by yourself. We live in times where so much quality stimulation can be obtained, so unless you're extroverted or have a weak imagination, it's wasteful to do stuff 'in real life' in the longer term, it's just costlier in terms of the energy you have to spend, and you'd likely just be better off by having more silence, play more with less stimulation, visualize old experiences again and reflect. And by 'cheapest', I meant in terms of amount of stress, if you treasure longevity. (But if you're not feeling well / not sure what to do, then it might be good to try something, but it's good to have seasons where you are really disconnected) "Stillness is the key" is a top book in my opinion.
I'll describe you my non-tech post MBA. I did top 15 school. My initial TC was $200k.. It took me a year or two to to realize how poorly I was compensated when new grad devs were making $160k+ MBA gives you the path to management, so I'll give you that. 5 years later I became a people manager and now I make $285k and it should go up from here... but it's very painful to get each promotion and a minority never get to people manager level (ever). A reasonable timeline to become a sr manager (L7) is 5-7 years post MBA... and another 5-7 for director. Once you get to L8, then you start to really earn money. I think if you do a respectable MS in CS you can get a better paid job you already $300k+... a promotion or two down the line you earn $500k+... I think the safest bet is master in CS
I felt like you as I had 6 years of total experience (all at AT&T) as network/wireless tester. I tried to go into full time CS developer. I did some undergrad courses at a local community college and a MS CS part time. Its been a long road for the last 5 years. Be willing to spend 3-4 hours extra (in addition to your regular work) every day trying things out and learning. Regardless of how much time you put in it won't be a smooth road till 2-4 years. You'll pull your hair quite a bit but it'll be worth it when you get good. I think if you have good people skills or managerial skills it will be very helpful with a technical background. Build a network with other folks online and in your local area. I'm sure there are several folks locally where they are trying to do career change or students/fresh grads. This really helps! Getting help in person, talking things through, or just watching other people code can really help your habits and knowledge. If you do dev work with other devs (lets say you stop your current job and join another team/role as a full time dev) expect to get your butt whipped a bit. It'll sucks but keep in mind that junior dev or fresh grad go through it too. The only difference is that they have a network of friends/classmates that help them and seeing that they are fresh grads people expect them to not know anythign. With some persistence you'll succeed. I recommend with CS too but MS doesn't guarantee anything but gives you somewhat accreditation that you know something. Regardless expect to work like 10-12 hrs a day and lose lot of weekends for few years to catchup. I am not a fan of online MS as I don't focus the same way as in person and tough to build a network. Definitely recommend in person classes but YMMV. Try both out if you can and see for yourself. When you work like this, you will need to find a way to balance with family life too. I hope your current work will be supportive of your career switch. That helped a lot for me.
Thank you for sharing
Well I can tell you - I am from Canada , got my MBA from a Canadian university and have worked in both Canada and for the last 20 years in California 1. Getting a tech degree is better than a MBA , unless you get a top MBA from UofT, York , Western and maybe Queens , McGill or UBC - slight maybe UofC or U of Alberta - in the US Elite schools only - the Harvard’s Berkeley, UCLA etc. in contrast coding is coding - sure the better the school the better the contacts and alumni- if you cannot get into one of them or can’t afford it , being a DS engineer will get u $200K easier than a MBA from a B+ school Also job and profession - very difficult to break into $150+ as a project manager even with x years of experience- become a decent sales / account manager you will make $200 -$300K good oracle sales folks bring in $1M - my friends 30 old kid went from $50k to now $350k selling data solutions - you will not make this in any OPex position unless you can get into a leadership role . Stay away from Ops and Ops x - when the economy goes south and company want to cut cost , they cut OPex
get into sales. Start off as a SDR or bdr
Thanks for the feedback. I feel I am not much of a sales person.