Is the MBA worth all the work experience and hard work?

Legacy User

MBA won't help you at all in this... MBA will help only if your becoming a manager,

so think about it only if your going into a managerial position.

If you are interested in investment and portfolio management, fund management, interest and financial risk hedging...etc consider the CFA and the CMA... CFA ( charted Financial Analyst) would suite you more than CMA.

Turgon

esther.david6 wrote:

MBA won't help you at all in this... MBA will help only if your becoming a manager,

so think about it only if your going into a managerial position.

If you are interested in investment and portfolio management, fund management, interest and financial risk hedging...etc consider the CFA and the CMA... CFA ( charted Financial Analyst) would suite you more than CMA.

I think if you are going the corporate path an MBA could be very useful and open doors for you. It is geared towards management and strategic decision making roles. Typically and MBA candidate shoule already hold several years of managerial experience. I could see it being useful for those hoping to get to CIO, Architect or Senior Consultant roles particularly in the data modelling arenas where you are less concerned about the technology in itself and more interested in making information *useful* for competitive advantage. CRM/SAP, enterprise applications that kind of thing. It's a lever that shows you understand something about how business operates which may help you get away from technical detail into more business driven IT roles.

MBA costs a lot of money so be careful which school you use. Some are hardly worth the paper they are written on.

shednik

esther.david6 wrote:

MBA won't help you at all in this... MBA will help only if your becoming a manager,

so think about it only if your going into a managerial position.

If you are interested in investment and portfolio management, fund management, interest and financial risk hedging...etc consider the CFA and the CMA... CFA ( charted Financial Analyst) would suite you more than CMA.

this looks more like a ramble with no real point, he asks a question in the subject then bashes the idea of an MBA. I agree with you turgon, from what I've seen at my company so far is just getting that masters is the first step. They actually encourage you to get a specialized masters in your discipline and an MBA to round off your experience. so my plan is finish my masters and then maybe 3-5 or so years after that go back again for the MBA unless my career plans change.

darkerosxx

shednik wrote:

esther.david6 wrote:

MBA won't help you at all in this... MBA will help only if your becoming a manager,

so think about it only if your going into a managerial position.

If you are interested in investment and portfolio management, fund management, interest and financial risk hedging...etc consider the CFA and the CMA... CFA ( charted Financial Analyst) would suite you more than CMA.

this looks more like a ramble with no real point, he asks a question in the subject then bashes the idea of an MBA. I agree with you turgon, from what I've seen at my company so far is just getting that masters is the first step. They actually encourage you to get a specialized masters in your discipline and an MBA to round off your experience. so my plan is finish my masters and then maybe 3-5 or so years after that go back again for the MBA unless my career plans change.

I agree, the OP doesn't deserve a real response. Looks like spambot, really.

coffeeking

Turgon wrote:

I could see it being useful for those hoping to get to CIO, Architect or Senior Consultant roles particularly in the data modelling arenas where you are less concerned about the technology in itself and more interested in making information *useful* for competitive advantage.

This statement brings a question in picture that I have had for a very long time. To be in a C-level or senior management position, did these guys have had to obtain a lot of technical experience. You would think that they would have had since they are managing the technical departments in IT. I am still a beginner in the field and am trying to figure out if these high level guys did a lot in technical side or management side of the field to make it to this level. Any thought?

darkerosxx

My personal experience is it works both ways. However, to really be worth the title, experience is required. All theory and no experience makes for lots of mistakes and misunderstandings of real world applications.

nel

Sounds like a rant from the OP but ive felt the same with my Bsc Hons at times. But i would rather have one than not have one.

famosbrown

I think it's very worth it and is something good to have when you decide to compete or go for a promotion up to the executive levels of management. it even looks good at the junior, mid, and senior level of management. The MBA might not be interesting to the pure technical person, but for the person who maybe wants to start their I.T. business, or wants to see how I.T. is integrating more with business, etc., it would be a good thing.

I'm going for my MBA with a TEchnology Management concentration which is almost like my MIS undergraduate degree, except I now I have more business related classes than technology. it's been great so far and I'm learning a whole lot about what Senior and Executive managers go through when we sometimes think they aren't doing much except surfing the net, LOL.

coffeeking

famosbrown wrote:

I think it's very worth it and is something good to have when you decide to compete or go for a promotion up to the executive levels of management. it even looks good at the junior, mid, and senior level of management. The MBA might not be interesting to the pure technical person, but for the person who maybe wants to start their I.T. business, or wants to see how I.T. is integrating more with business, etc., it would be a good thing.

I'm going for my MBA with a TEchnology Management concentration which is almost like my MIS undergraduate degree, except I now I have more business related classes than technology. it's been great so far and I'm learning a whole lot about what Senior and Executive managers go through when we sometimes think they aren't doing much except surfing the net, LOL.

famosbrown, very useful post, for me.

Since you are already in there and doing it, would you recommend that a person with an IT background, or InfoSec background in specific, who wants to go for an MBA, should the person go for MBA (IT) or an MBA in general; finance, corporate and stuff like that. where would you learn most about the business as whole?

BradleyHU

it depends on the career path someone is trying to go. if you're trying to be a CIO or some other type of executive level position, then yes, a MBA definitely is gonna help, i might even venture to say its needed.

MCPWannabe

esther.david6 wrote:

MBA won't help you at all in this... MBA will help only if your becoming a manager,

so think about it only if your going into a managerial position.

If you are interested in investment and portfolio management, fund management, interest and financial risk hedging...etc consider the CFA and the CMA... CFA ( charted Financial Analyst) would suite you more than CMA.

SPAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

famosbrown

coffeeking wrote:

famosbrown wrote:

I think it's very worth it and is something good to have when you decide to compete or go for a promotion up to the executive levels of management. it even looks good at the junior, mid, and senior level of management. The MBA might not be interesting to the pure technical person, but for the person who maybe wants to start their I.T. business, or wants to see how I.T. is integrating more with business, etc., it would be a good thing.

I'm going for my MBA with a TEchnology Management concentration which is almost like my MIS undergraduate degree, except I now I have more business related classes than technology. it's been great so far and I'm learning a whole lot about what Senior and Executive managers go through when we sometimes think they aren't doing much except surfing the net, LOL.

famosbrown, very useful post, for me.

Since you are already in there and doing it, would you recommend that a person with an IT background, or InfoSec background in specific, who wants to go for an MBA, should the person go for MBA (IT) or an MBA in general; finance, corporate and stuff like that. where would you learn most about the business as whole?

With a background like that, an MBA with an IT concentration would be very reliable. In my experience, the MBA programs are the same when it comes to general and concentrations...you will learn everything a general MBA student will, but will take a few extra courses that are I.T. specific like IT Strategy, Project Management, etc.

I believe the business side is important for any leader or supervisor in IT because of changing roles in the business world. The CIO could delegate budgeting, forecasting, etc. down to Team Leads, supervisors, or managers which those business skills would be valuable to accomplishing those tasks. Just my opinion though.