I am currently EM but have an aspiration to grow my career into D+, I am wondering if MBA would help expedite that process or not. There are other approaches like doing courses on Udemy/Coursera but it's less structured so might be wasting time on the wrong learning materials. TC: $350k location: London, UK #engineering #career #growth
Content / learning you get from a MBA program is very hit or miss. There’s value in expanding your network and stepping outside your sandbox to think about different problems but the rigor is not near undergrad levels (in my opinion) Value wise - it’s hard to put direct ROI calculation against it since there are seldom promos / new jobs that happen solely because you have a MBA. However, if you keep your MBA cost <$100K and go to school that people have heard of before… your ROI will be happen. It’s a 1-2 year commitment that you hang on your resume forever. It was a no brainer to me.
But is the ROI greater than the opportunity cost of tuition + salary that you'd be losing over 2 years? That's like minimum 300k /yr if you're a sr. eng/EM in FAANG + tuition which is gonna be like $75k/yr for a top tier in-person MBA program. I would greatly appreciate it if you could convince me that the ROI is worth it cuz I think getting a MBA would be hella fun and helpful but cant get over the opportunity cost of losing close to a million dollars for it.
Agree with the comment above. I'm just over a year out of undergrad and have always seen myself doing an MBA after a few years of SWE to take the next step and transition to something less technical. But the more I think about it, all those costs combined are just too much especially since salaries post MBA could only be a bit higher (based on the salaries of the traditional post-MBA opportunities).
mba worth it if you want to end up building a start up and want to expand connections or do a career change. otherwise waste of money imo
TC? Impacts the answer.
not sure how TC is important but am happy to share it: TC: $350k location: London, UK
I'm finishing my MBA now. From a knowledge standpoint, it hasn't been super helpful. However, I'm at a point in my career where every job for which I apply prefers or requires an MBA. That's why I got it. I don't expect it to change my career progression, but it's a box which needs to be checked.
Wow. Split responses here. Wonder what people think. I think, if you lack the network, and the communicative, cultural and soft skills, an mba can be invaluable. Also gives you a framework to think about things when building a business. That being said, not sure how much of the above can be acquired by just throwing the dice and starting something yourself. If your goal is to shoot up the ladders of the corporate system, then the mba won’t hurt… I’ve often wondered about this myself.