Brave Tech World

May 16, 2008

    I've got quite a few friends that keep asking me what I think of MBA School in the context if they should attend it. First of, I don't have an MBA so it's not 100% clear what value people get of this degree. However, I do have several things to point out.

    The most common kind of friend asking me that is the technical guy/gal. Usually a Developer, Tester or Program Manager that wants to expand his opportunities by attending an MBA School.

    Here is a question back to you: Would you go to learn Micro-biology if you want to be a Chef?

    My point is, if you are thinking about getting an MBA you have to consider that you want to have a career in business management, not continue your technical career path.

    I've got quite a few friends who did attend MBA school, to go back or continue on their technical job as a developer (e.g.). You spend 2-3 years of your life, tens of thousands of dollars for what? So you know how to read a balance sheet?

    We don't have any MBAs at Sampa, but one of our "helpers" is a former Director at Microsoft with an MBA degree. He consolidated my belief that the value of an MBA is two-fold: First, you learn about important business concepts that even if you don't use it, you know they exist and know where to find more about it. Second, you learn how to name things!

    That's right, one of the things I like the most about talking w/ MBAs (or people that have years of business management experience) is that they have name for things that was hard for me to verbalize before.

    As time goes by, I learn more and more and I can fluently use the MBA's terminology as in Conversion, SG&A, NRE, Churn, CAC, LTV, ROI, Decay, Cohort, Capex, Opex, COGS, etc.

    I guess my point is that you should get an MBA if you are the kind of person who learns more at a classroom *and* you're ready to leave your current job to pursue a full-time management gig.

Comments (1) for "Should you go to MBA school?"

This post made me laugh. The problem is, I don't think it was meant to be funny. You obviously have no idea what is going on at business school. You might want to let someone else write a "Should You Go To MBA School" article. By Steve - 6/10/2008 4:08 AM