Is MBA a good option for me?

Question

I am an engineer in Silicon Valley with an MS in CS and about 12 years of total work experience. I am doing good career-wise but I am not a super achiever by any means, both in terms of rank and salary. I make about $150K annually, and I suspect as an engineer I am probably getting close to the ceiling. I often have to work pretty long hours (on an average about 50-60 hours a week). Is it possible for me to do an MBA at this stage to change tracks or at least advance my career? To be honest, my motivation is earning more money and doing less tedious work. I am a smart, driven and hard working individual, who is always ready to accept a new challenge. I'm also single with no kids, which allows me more time and freedom to follow my goals. If it was at all possible, I would switch to finance and work in a Wall St type job, but I am open to other options too where I have a chance to make more than what I do now (at least after 2-3 years post graduation).

I realize age (I am on the wrong side of 30s) and the long work experience will probably not make it easy to get into a top school. Also worth noting is that I have a speech impediment problem. I usually do OK speaking to a single person or a small group of people (most times it's barely even noticeable), but not so well while doing a presentation, when my speech gets stuttery and jittery. So I am concerned if this will affect my performance in the program and later in the job (as an engineer, it has not been a problem when talking about work related stuff with my co-workers).

Any advice on whether it will be a good move to get an MBA (in terms of cost vs benefit)? What are my chances of getting in a top 10 school? I am hoping for a 700+ GMAT score, but don't have a lot of extra curricular activities to show on my resume. Any recommended area/specialization? Thanks!

Arjunemerson · Answer

Hi Applicant,

It's understandable that your job is tedious and you have reached the upper limits of compensation. You can certainly change 'tracks', but you should be doing research on what will give you satisfaction. There is no point in moving away from a boring job to get another less interesting job. When someone else makes the decision for you about the specialization, it is likely that you might not find it that great. Also let not the speech impediment be a deterrent for this plan. I think your speech concern will not be an issue unless you make it an issue by not speaking out confidently . Substance in what you say matters more than the way it is brought out. Your age is not a problem, as you have been, I assume, productively employed in a firm for 12 years. People get the desire to study at all ages. If you choose to apply to a top program, you should have at least 680 in GMAT, and try to figure out what's unique about you that will justify your admission to the school. If you can eloquently articulate on your potential to distinctly contribute the program, to your incoming class members, to your industry, citing your contributions in the past as proofs, you are likely to win. Last point, talk to the people in the industry, and see for yourself what job will give you highest happiness. If you figure out what will give you joy in work, you will ultimately find ways to 'earn more money' or this intention becomes irrelevant at that time.

Arjun
Consultant
Emerson Admissions Consulting
emersonadmissions(at)gmail(dot)com
www(dot)emersonadmissions(dot)com

Admissionado · Answer

Well the REAL question is: What do you want to DO? If it's just make more money, I'm not sure that an MBA alone will bring you that. But maybe if you have a goal - say to develop a project, or found a startup, to move to upper management - any of these would work out for you. Moving to finance may be harder than you think (lots of highly qualified competition) but Bschool COULD give you a shot at it (couldn't hurt to do CFA either).

Any thoughts?

pm528 · Answer

Hi Jon, thanks for your thoughts on this. If I wanted to take the b-school route and work in finance after that, do you think doing a part-time MBA or EMBA (from a top 10 school) will help if I wanted to break into say Wall St? In particular, I was thinking about the Wharton EMBA program. Are you familiar with that program? If yes, what would you say my chances are for getting in?

dtse86 · Answer

What kind of role would be looking for on "Wall St."? A lot of the companies on Wall St. have a large variety of roles and, depending on what position you're looking for, certain programs might be a better suited to get you where you want to go or an MBA may not be required at all.

If you're looking to get into investment banking (IB) or private equity (PE) it may be difficult (although not impossible) without prior experience. From all of the people I know in those industries, they either had prior experience before getting their MBA's or worked in a closely related industry. Also, immediate post-MBA salary in IB and PE will not be far from what your salary is today (but the bonus may be substantially more) and your colleagues will likely be much younger than you.

There are also other areas of Wall Street such as sales & trading (S&T), buy-side/sell-side equity research, and portfolio management. I've heard of people career switching into those industries however it does require a good amount of networking, but if you get into and attend the right program those connections may be available to you. I know an individual that graduated from the Cornell EMBA program and successfully transitioned from pharmaceutical sales to buy-side equity research through some amazing networking.

Lastly, I'd suggest doing research on the web for companies and positions that might interest you. WallStreetOasis (WSO) and LinkedIn are great resources for this. You can find the qualifications and skills you will need to obtain the job you want by looking at job postings at Goldman or even looking at people's profiles on LinkedIn. I recently finished Michael Lewis's "Flash Boys" and there's an interesting part where they used LinkedIn to find the small network of guys and skills in the HFT industry. Who knows, maybe you can find a "Wall St." job without an MBA at Knight Capital or Virtu Financial (about to go public). They're always looking for high end CS and IT guys to write trading algos and engineer faster networks respectively. However, it may not be all that different from what you're doing now, just with a different paycheck...

Sorry for the rambling...but perhaps you need to find out more specifically what you want before you take the next leap.

Admissionado · Answer

dtse86 laid it out very well. This is exactly the issue with your goals - lots of folks have some vague idea of moving to the street and making bundles of cash through magic and wizardry.

But there are lots of types of jobs on the street, and at this stage in your career, it will be helpful for you to know EXACTLY which ones interest you. Wharton EMBA? I think you would have a shot. But DO keep in mind that the structure of the program will not necessarily make it easier for you to change industries (although you will surely make some good contacts). But still, for a total industry change, a full-time MBA would make more sense. Best, Jon

Is MBA a good option for me?

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