MBA - What do I do now?

[mugs82]

I have a B.A. in Environmental Science. About 8 years ago, I decided to get into I.T. I picked up an A+ certification and started knocking on doors. I got a my first job as a PC repair tech. I eventually got my MCSE and after working for a consulting company for a few years, I got a job as the Net Admin for a manufacturing company. The job has been pretty good to me...I have awesome benefits, decent coworkers, and stability that I didn't have before. That said, the job can be tediously boring at times and there is no place for advancement in the I.T. department. Aslo, very little emphasis is placed on training or professional development withing my department.

With that in mind, I decided to go back to school to get an MBA from a well regarded school in my city. As I am approaching graduation in December, I am starting to panic. It seems that most MBAs in the IT field are on the programming and systems side. All of my experience is in networking and hardware. I'm not sure what type of positions I should be looking for and how I should market myself.

I'm curious what other people's experiences have been? I would really appreciate any comments/advice from those of you with MBA's or managerial experience.

 

[bjb123]

What kind of position did you have in mind when you went back to school?

I always felt that an MBA is meant to prepare you to be a decision maker who manages, creates, invents or is the architect of solutions to business problems.

A quick search at careerbuilders.com shows that most of the IT jobs looking for an MBA are: high level data/information/marketing analyst, business intelligence/data warehousing or managing projects and/or IT departments.

You are right, there weren't many hardware/networking related jobs for MBA's, except as a manager.

 

[mugs82]

That a good question. I really enjoyed the project management courses in my program, so I think I might try for a PM position. Also, I have interviewed for a couple of SE positions. I like the interaction with different groups of people.

 

[mugs82]

and the task variety. I think I would make a good IT manager, but I think my lack of experience with programming hurts me there.

 

[hwkranger]

Depends on where you went to school as well. My guess is that you didn't attend Something like wharton (Penn) or Tepper (CMU) (yeah I just happened to choose 2 schools in my state, lol)

You can name your own job when you leave a place like that...

I recieved mine from Katz, which is respected in Pittsburgh -- but it's not an eyebrow raiser. I'm more of the programming, dataware housing side. The reason I pursued the MBA was for a better understanding of finance since I work mainly for financial instituations.

Regardless of your current career path, the MBA opens your eyes for the "bigger picture." The average network guy doesn't think of ROI, NPV, do cost analysis or think about sunk / opportunity costs.

The MBA is a very time specific degree. You only have a few years to act on it, or it becomes worthless (unless you have a top 10 degree, these last a little longer)

You need to stop thinking about "networking" in the technical sense, and "networking" in the social sense...

That's my 2 cents.

Randall Vollen
Merrill Lynch

 

[mugs82]

Thanks for your comments. My MBA will be from Saint Louis University. I think SLU has a good reputation, though it's not as highly regarded as Washington University.

I'm curious Randall - Did you stay with the same employer after receiving your MBA?

I am definitely moving on the social networking. Actually, I have some great contacts and met with several people earlier in the year. One of my favorite aspects of the MBA program is getting to meet some really high quality individuals. My biggest problem now is visualizing what kind of position I want and presenting my skills in a way that makes me attractive to potential employers.

 

[hwkranger]

My situation is unique. At the conclusion of recieving my degree, the business unit for which I was working was purchased by ML. After the purchase I was able to move between departments and positions.

The internal opportunites at ML exceed (in my opinion) the external opportunities of searching for a position (I actually turned down a 6 figure external position to remain at ML.) So, to answer your question: I changed companies, and jobs -- but it was all by luck.

I think you just need to find what you want to do. The MBA opens your doors to more. You can easily be a PM or IT manager, but don't limit yourself to something like that.

Remember, there are 2 types of Managers. Ones that manage cost centers (support), and ones that manage Revenue centers (sales/retail/etc).

Decide what you want to do, and tailor your resume towards that end goal.

Randall Vollen
Merrill Lynch