Technology Careers for MBAs

I didn't look into the mobile areas, but Samsung recruited heavily at Haas and took two people full time to do a 2 year rotational leadership program in their global strategy group.

They will work 1 year in Korea to learn the ropes, and then one year moving around the world to help Samsung's global offices. I suspect Nokia will have something like that.

Hello kryzak

+1 for the effort. Very helpful thread, just what i came looking for

I would like to know few more things about the jobs for MBA grads in Tech sector.

Background:
I am Software Engineer. I have been working in IT sector for last 2.5 years. Worked on a couple of development projects for a big US Retailer which involved developing Ware house management software to developing and supporting web-sites providing E-commerce solutions or E-tailing as they call it. Basically my work revolves around the Retail sector(online business).

Although i have led small teams, I don't have any prior experience in project or technology planning.

Context:
I am planning to apply for fall 2011 and will be starting with application shortly. I want to stay in the tech sector itself. I am trying to get some insights into the future roles and prospects.

I want to be in 'IT Consulting & Strategy' at a later point. So to enable myself to get there, what kind of possible roles and companies should i be looking forward to post MBA?

I am aware that there is no straight forward answer to what a MC role in Tech Sector would be like, but still any pointers would definitely help.

Once again, awesome post....

Regards

May be I can pitch in here on behalf of kryzak to save his time:)

Since IT consulting and strategy is your post MBA goal, there are mainly two paths for you:

1. Join pure IT consulting firm such as Deloitte: This firms strongly focus on IT consulting and also help clients crucially in implementing IT processes and maximizing IT investments. Deloitte also has special strategy consulting arm focussed in IT domain. This you may verify.

2. Join general management consulting firms such as McK, Bain and BCG: All of the the top 3 MCs have technology/IT as their target industries area. Mckinsey has business technology unit. You can join this firms as generalists where initially you are exposed to case studies of various industries and gradually you can show interest in specific practice area such as technology (in your case). During campus hiring you can also show your deep interest in technology practice and then you can directly enter into tech practice of MC firm without going through generalist mode.

I have similar profile to yours but also have 3.5 years of business research experience. To me, 2nd route sounds better as I don't intend to be tied up with any one specific industry vertical.

You can read more about all this in online sources such as consultingmagazine.com. 'Down to consulting' is also one good information thread in gmatclub.

Hope this helped,
time4mba

Thanks time4Mba!

That was a pretty straight fwd response and very helpful as well. I'll start reading through the online sources you mentioned right away.

I also have a question on the original post and i think probably you are the right person to discuss with since we share similar interests.

Kryzak has talked about different career paths including the careers in DME which sound very interesting and also, they involve skills outside the tech domain, for instance researching the consumer behaviour and market potential or the role of product marketting managers. So, how should one go about selecting the curriculums for Tech Mba topped with some essentials of marketting, etc.

What according to you should be some of the key ingredients of the curriculum, if one wants to land up into this sector which is a little diff than the hard core techie jobs?

I have had a pretty straight fwd way of shortlisting b-schools so far.
-->First i researched schools that have strong IT dept.
-->Then i looked into the curriculums to know about the kind of courses offered followed by the placement stats into tech sector.
-->Based on these i shortlisted the schools. But the placement stats breakup doesn't tell much about the the job profiles and corresponding curriculums people studied to develop the required skillset.

But i guess, this isn't enough to shortlist the right schools and right curriculums. I need to know more about the actual role played.

your opinion plz?

Thanks and Regards

Hi Papillon,

Digital and Media Entertainment would be very different industry than IT consulting which you had earlier referred to as your core interest area. Yes, you are right that DME would also require strong understanding of consumer behaviour. THis means marketing based courses would become strong elements in MBA program. It will also be good to read up magazines focuses on DME sector such as Digit to develop the knowledge about this sector. Further UCLA is quite strong in Media and Entertainment sector and one should apply there if this is the post MBA sector to enter into.

I followed the shortlisting criteria mentioned by you last year. However I changed my approach this year. I asked myself a lot of soul searching questions such as 'Why focus so early in only IT consulting? What is the harm in doing management consulting? I can still work in tech project in management consulting. Can I move into IT domain after MC? yes, I can as my research shows that. Do I have skills for MC? Guess, i have so: analytical, communicative and reasonably smart' These questions came to my mind when I researched post MBA careers with a very open mind. Last year I was also fixated to marketing as post MBA track and now it is not on top of my career choices. I realized that I can be better fit for MC career track. Further to be very frank with you, i shattered my strong thoughts that since I have 2 years of IT experience and comps science undergraduate degree, I should focus solely initially on IT consulting or marketing as my post MBA career track. Why shouldn't I start with a MC track and later on decide the specific track? Why should I miss out the opportunities of solving business problems of several diverse industries? All these questions made me more broad in my thinking and influenced my choice of schools.

I shortlisted schools on following factors:
1. Top MC firms should be in placement report: Enquired with students on hiring pattern
2. Location: I love living in city and am especially targeting b schools in cities which have MCs head offices, after all job hiring is very local in US and closer you are to your target firms better it is
3. Applicant pool competition: I am in Indian applicant pool with IIT education, 730 gmat, 5 years of mixed work ex ( 2 years IT and 3 years business research). I found out colleges where this applicant pool applies heavily. Tuck and Duke came out to be common names. Do I have realistic chance of getting in here? May be, but not sure. have to be lucky, but i was sure that lot of profiles better than me will come knocking at these schools. I wont have edge here and hence my strategy says do look out for other schools
4. First mover advantage: which school gave lot of offers to internationals in 1st round.......also which school gave more scholarships.....this can be my safe schools and they should also meet above criteria........which schools have rolling admissions.....which schools have only cosigner loan (lesser number of applicants)
5. Will also apply to couple of dream schools, who knows lady luck shines on me:)

The above analysis did help me in strategizing and which schools to apply in rounds 1 or 2. there was one school (in top 25) which has early decision and i had initially kept it as first school to apply. But when i read the last year's b school threads, i realized that this schools give interview invites to many international applicants. hence i shifted this school to R2.

I am applying the learnings of GC posts in b school shortlisting and lets see whether it hits the bull's eye:).......But take my inputs as only my guidance....follow only your heart....

-time4mba

time4mba has done a GREAT job answering some of your questions, and it shows that he has thought through his post-MBA goals quite a bit. Good stuff!

I'll try to briefly throw in some different viewpoints or answer anything that hasn't been covered.

Like time4mba said, IT Consulting and Digital Media/Entertainment are VERY different fields, even though both are technology. Even someone called a "product manager" would have VERY different roles and responsibilities at different tech companies. In one company the PM could be doing mostly marketing and consumer behavior stuff, in another the PM would be working with software developers and doing mainly project management. So the biggest misconception that bschool applicants have (even 1st year MBAs have the same issue) is that "all technology industry work is the same" or "all product management work is the same".

Here's another "secret" that you learn from going through 2 years of MBA and landing a job (or two) in the tech industry. The curriculum actually doesn't matter that much. In my humble opinion (which is in no way the truth, but just my observations ), these are key things tech companies look for when they're recruiting:

- Background that apply directly, or very closely to the job (working in IT before, having engineering/CS background, worked in the tech industry as a non-tech person, etc...)

- Knowledge of the specific tech industry you're interested in, whether it is DME, hardware, software, or IT. Being able to convincingly talk the talk during informational interviews and actual interviews is quite important

- Go to a school that is in close proximity or have very strong relationship with a DIVERSE set of tech companies. The top of the shortlist include Berkeley-Haas, MIT-Sloan, and Stanford. UCLA, Kellogg, and Chicago are also good choices. You are right in that a school with very strong IT/tech reputation usually has a halo effect on its business school. And going to one of these schools will make your life a LOT easier when searching for a tech job. It's not to say that if you don't go to these schools you won't get into the tech industry, but it does make life a lot easier.

- Having done some independent study with a professor on a key tech industry issue will help you tremendously, because it helps with the knowledge of the industry and it shows that you have the initiative to solve issues that keep CEO's up at night.

So that's it! Look for the schools that tech companies went to hire in the past 2 years with the down economy. those are the schools that tech companies focus on and will recruit even during times where their budget is tight.

As for IT consulting/Strat Consulting, that's a choice you'll have to make. If you're still young (say, under 28-29) and want to explore the various aspect of the tech industry, then consulting is definitely a way to go (that's what my roommate is doing). But if you're over 30 and/or know the specific tech industry you want to go for (in my case), then just go straight into a PM type role and learn the ropes from ground up. Going to consulting will only delay your career by 2 years (or more).

So in my opinion, here are some ways to shortlist your schools:
1. big/small city
2. strong tech/engineering program in mother school?
3. Tech recruiters recruiting in the past 2 years?
4. Focus schools on the top consulting firm's sites (you can usually find this out by snooping around the university recruiting pages of the company's site)
5. class size? big/small?
6. proximity to the places you want to work - do not overlook this important aspect. being able to do a short drive to interview at a company or talk to people who work there helps A LOT. The tech industry usually recruits late in the season, and the smaller companies have spontaneous job openings that they often just post to nearby schools or send a person to interview on a moment's notice. A lot of great jobs have been found this way at Haas.

Alright, that was a bit scatter-brained, but hopefully you can find good information in my not-so-brief reply here.

Kry

Hi Kryzak,

That was quite an informative post.

I had a query related to product management in consumer electronics firms such as Nokia, Samsung, Sony and Motorola. Since the product manager role in these companies involve marketing and knowing the consumer pulse, I guess these companies would be hiring internationals only for the respective country offices. Please confirm this. I have read at several forums that roles which involve sales and marketing in US region are seldom opened to internationals as they are yet to understand US consumer mind set to do justice to these roles. I think this is not the problem with product manager role in software services company as it mainly involves working with software developers.

I want to reapply to Haas, but have few niggling doubts . Could you please let me know your email id where I could send you some of my queries?

Thank you so much,
time4mba

I didn't really look at the recruiting season this year (since I got my job pretty early), but I know that the only Samsung recruiting that happened was for their Leadership Development Rotational Program. They took 2 Haas students, one international (Spain) and one American. Sony has come in the past (along with Playstation) to hire for leadership position roles and have taken both internationals and Americans. I've seen a few posts by Nokia, but I don't think anyone applied. I haven't heard about Motorola hiring for a while now, so either I missed it or they're aren't hiring? I've never heard of the reason you gave for not hiring international students for US positions. Usually the reason they don't hire internationals is because of visa costs and effort.

PM me for my email address.

Cheers!

What if a person has a technical background (let's say Computer Science) and has worked in an IT Consulting company ( Accenture,CSC,Wipro) in the technical field ( .Net programming,Business Intelligence ), but wants to shift towards the business/executive side of things in technology companies(Microsoft,IBM) ; Is this a common transition ?

I have such a profile , and am interested to know what sort of post MBA options are available for a person like me who has worked in the IT Services/Consulting field.It would also help if you can list the MBA specialisations that are realistic to go for if one does not want to shift both function and industry alltogether.

Yes, that is a common and pretty smooth transition. Lots of good stories to tell about your experience and you can easily convince companies to hire you for that.

As for the MBA specializations, anything in the tech industry you'll have a leg up on other people applying. Especially the more traditional IT stuff that Microsoft, IBM, maybe even Google does.

good work. It's very insightful.

So, I do know a bit here, and I thought I'd try to fill in the same sort of information that kryzak has posted.

In biotech, there are companies that perform research and companies that make tools (software, hardware, chemical compounds, etc.) for research. My background is stronger on the tools side, so most of what I have to say pertains to that side of things.

If you want any sort of business role in these companies that touches their main operations, the good employers are always going to want you to have some sort of relevant scientific background. But even having the right BS or even MS is not enough for certain sorts of positions. For example, a product manager position in the vast majority of biotech companies requires a PhD, usually in the exact area that the company's technology is based on. Getting an MBA would help you get some of the business roles in these companies. In fact an MBA is an explicit requirement for some of the more interesting roles, but the PM job is almost always going to be off limits to you, if you are not an accomplished PhD level scientist. While this certainly results in PMs who lack some or all of the requisite business skills to be effective PMs, that's just how the business is run.

The good news is that with some sort of scientific background, most of the rest of the business jobs in biotech are reasonably open to you. If you have a BS or MS in something relevant and you get a top MBA, then you have a shot at jobs in business development, alliance management, marketing, sales, operations management, professional services, strategy, etc. An MBA and a scientific background really do combine to make a very valuable skill set for a wide range of companies.

If you don't have a scientific background, but you still want to get into biotech, then I think that, post-MBA, your best options are sales, marketing, finance, and operations management. It's a totally possible route, but it's important to understand that (no matter how incredibly brilliant you are) most employers are only going to be looking at an MBA grad like you for a (relatively) narrow range of roles.

*Footnote-Some people who are familiar with the big biotech side of things (Amgen, Genentech, etc.) would probably point out that another definition of the job Product Manager is sometimes used. That version of a PM is a purely marketing role, and as such, is sometimes staffed by a person without a deep scientific background. It's certainly possible, but I would say that many of these people who have been working in these roles for many years would not be able to get these jobs today. The competition is just too strong.

Its been some time since i logged in to gmc. Good to be back!!!

Thanks for the detailed reply.
I'll have to go through this valuable information a couple of times to extract the learnings to the
last bit.

Also, I am visiting one MBA fair tomorow. FYI!!!

Anyways, I have started application for Austin McCombs for Round 1. Didn't know it would be so hard to write these essays.
The more one reworks the worse they look.

Thanks everyone for taking out time to reply.


Regards

great thread.. i am looking for similar growth areas in my engg. company... good ideas here.

What do you consider "a tech background?" Do you mean somebody that has spent a number of years coding, building web pages, etc? Or are you referring more to a person with a knowledge about the industry, the products, the companies, and what goes on inside a computer?

I fall more into the latter category. Tech has always been a hobby and a passion, but I've never worked as a programmer or been hired to do tech work. I also work for Congress doing tech/telecom policy work. Obviously a job as a PM would be a career change, but would I be able to get any leg up with the overall knowledge of technology and computers?

Thanks again for all the great information.

Tech background = either an engineering/science/CS degree, or years working as a coder/developer/IT admin/etc...

BUT, like I said, one of our most "tech oriented" person at Haas and our VP of Technology and the guru of anything tech does NOT have a tech degree or background. Journalism in fact. And now he's at Microsoft, and his opinions on anything tech is often sought out in school and in the industry.

So hopefully that helps your case.

Thanks for useful information you guys have provided.

kryzak,

Could you please let us know typically what roles people get on the tech companies? I beleieve the roles may vary based on individual's experience too. If that is the case, then it would be good if it can be broadly broken up into couple of buckets. For ex:

Hardware comp:
3-6 years exp: X1 role
7-10 years exp: Y1 role

software comp:
3-6 years exp: X2 role
7-10 years exp: Y2 role

IT Consulting comp:
3-6 years exp: X3 role
6-10 years exp: Y3 role

MC company (Tech roles):
3-6 years exp: X4 role
6-10 years exp: Y4 role

(Age and roles would be indicative)

If that is too much to ask for, a high level detail on the roles would also help.

Thanks.