Ask HN: Mid career dilemma about pursuing MBA or MS in Tech Leadership?

1 points by devsatish 2 years ago | 1 comment

Mid-career dilemma: MBA - Yes or No?

Hey everyone! I'm at a crossroads in my career and could use your valuable input. As a 41-year-old Principal Software Engineer with significant experience in delivering complex projects and leading engineering teams, I'm contemplating whether pursuing an MBA is the right move.

I've had some good successes with start-ups, running tech consulting business. But my goal is to rise into a senior tech leadership.

My academic background includes a Bachelors in Computer Science Engineering and an MS in Computer Science from the US. However, I'm concerned about potential career stagnation and believe that an executive MBA could propel me into more formal engineering leadership roles.

While I understand that a degree isn't a prerequisite for leadership, I've heard that a technology-focused MBA can help grow into positions like "Director/VP Engineering/CIO/CTO."

I'd greatly appreciate hearing your thoughts on this.

laurentl 2 years ago |

I did a (regular, non tech-focused) executive MBA at 35, after about 3 years as a developer and 10 as a technical manager. I would absolutely do it again. After my MBA, I transitioned into a CTO role; I'm fairly sure I would have gotten the role without the MBA, but it helped. My feeling is larger companies value MBA diplomas more.

Aside from the career boost, what I got out of my EMBA:

* exposure to new topics, some of which I loved (and use on a regular basis), others that I hated (and now I have better clarity on what I don't want to do)

* finance is high-school math with fancy words; it's really easy to pick up if you have a mind for numbers

* this holds for a lot of topics (e.g. strategy, operations management, etc): a little domain knowledge, good heuristics (both of which you learn during the MBA) + general logic and problem-solving skills (which you probably already have as an engineer) go a long way

* I built a good network and made a few great friends