pm528 wrote:
Hi Alex,
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!
Here's the thing.
I think you're asking the wrong question here (should you get an MBA).
What you need to figure out first is this: is a career in business the right fit for you given your personality, temperament and risk appetite?
The biggest misconception I've seen amongst some engineers is this notion that a career on the business side - whether it's working in finance, consulting, product mgmt, marketing, etc - is that it's "engineering, but with greater pay" - and nothing could be further from the truth.
Think of engineering and business like two completely different sports. If you are a world class cricketer - can you become a professional soccer player? Maybe - but the sports are so different that the skills required to excel will be extremely different. So sure, some cricketers might make it as soccer players, but it's not because they're good cricketers. It's because they have the raw skillsets required to become good soccer players (and such skills may have little to nothing to do with cricket).
Same with engineering vs business.
The biggest reason why business careers tend to have greater upside is because they require greater risk. There is also a far greater disparity in pay between the very top and everyone else. In some cases, it's feast or famine.
And with any business role, the highest positions in any company tend to be sales and/or leadership oriented: your performance is based on your ability to close deals (sales), or to manage/lead a team of people (leadership). It has little to do with your analytical or technical skills. That's why even those with MBAs who aren't sales or leadership oriented tend to hit a ceiling very quickly (a few years after b-school) - and that ceiling may not really pay any more than engineering (and probably more risk, as these jobs are the most vulnerable to cutbacks).
Want to be an entrepreneur? Typically there are two main roles in a startup: you are either building the product (engineering), or you're selling the product (finding customers/clients, raising money from investors, dealing with the media). Again, you said you're smart, hard working and driven -- well, BOTH sides require those traits. But it's not those traits on their own that give you a competitive advantage. In engineering, assuming you have those traits, then what separates you from the other techies is your analytical/technical/design prowess. If you're on the business side, it's your interpersonal skills: your ability to connect with people in a way that gets them to open up their wallets.
Finally, ALL work is tedious - but tedious in its own way. You can't escape tedium, no matter where you go. Even vacationing full-time can be tedious and boring.
And those instances where there's more excitement, there's a lot more stress and risk. That may sound exciting from the outside in, but some folks (especially men) tend to believe they can handle it more than they think.
If you want a career on the business side, then yes, an MBA may be a good transition. And in your case given that you're mid-career (10+ years of experience), an exec MBA or part-time MBA is likely a better fit for you.
If you want to work on Wall Street because you think you can make a sh*tload of money - sure, but if money is your main motivator, you will not succeed. Those who tend to succeed in finance are those who are in it for the long-run (they make their money 10+ years into the business), and they only survive all the short-term pain and ups/downs because they actually enjoy the job itself more than the money.
Again, searching for more money for the sake of it is a foolish game. Especially when it's not rooted in your interests and talents. In business, there's a reason why some folks make a LOT of money - many of these positions are also high stress, high pressure environments - and the only reason why one would be willing to endure all that crap is because of something more than just "more money" -- because only the most sociopathic would endure all that stress/pressure for more money over the long-term.
And you may want to think about whether you are experiencing the "grass is greener" thing -- because you may not fully realize or appreciate what you have to give up to go after something that may not be what you expect.
In sum, I think your motivations (more money, less tedium) for a career change is misdirected, because it's rooted in what you think you don't have today (without fully realizing what you're giving up, which may suggest you may not be fully appreciative of the great things you have right now in your career), rather than rooted in what kind of meaning, purpose or fulfillment you hope to have in your future career.
It's totally okay to make a 180-degree change in careers (and a shift from engineering to business is going to be a bigger one than you realize - it's like changing sports) - and it can even be based on HATING your current career, but being bored and wanting a bigger paycheck are not strong enough reasons to make that drastic of a change - it's half-assing it in a way that can likely lead you to be just as unsure years from now in your business career as you are today in your engineering career.
If you truly are bored and want more money, it could be as simple as changing companies (or changing product groups within your current company), without leaving an engineering career entirely.
close
10 Nov 2014, 10:18
) for an evaluation from your side for the range of schools both in US and UK where I may be competitive ( you kinda missed out telling me where i could probably target in my last post). My targets are top 10 in the US and top 5 in the UK. However I would like you to guide me in choosing the appropriate " realistic schools" and if possible advise on the mitigating factors for attaining so. 
