advice re Msc or MBA

jon1981

Hi,

I am working in software development in telecoms and hold a senior position. I am currently pursuing the idea of doing a business qualification. Two avenues i'm looking at are a Msc in Business management or MBA. Now ill have to fund these courses myself so obviously if i was to make a decision based on cost i'd choose the Msc.

From peoples experiences would you reckon the MBA would be worth the additional cost and effort over an Msc? what i'm looking to gain is the following:

-more rounded broad business knowledge covering all functions (IT and non IT industry)
-understanding of processes such as procurement, supply chain, sales, capex approval and project management
-as much case study involvement as possible seeing as though its hard to get -the experience in my current role id like the course to offer as much real world business simulation as possible.
-build my confidence when dealing with senior and executive people.

Either are a big commitment but i'm getting opinions back from people like " whats the point in doing an MBA in your current role"

"sure whats the point in doing an MBA when there are no jobs"... etc etc ... no positives.


any experiences or opinions are welcome!

Tom Dunne

In a nutshell, I would ask you where you see yourself in a number of years - in senior management, or a senior technical role?

If it is the former, then MBA, the latter, then MSc.

I'm probably over simplifying it, but that's how I would read it.

cerebus

In my opinion the utility you get from the two degrees will depend on your goals - I agree with the very high-level analysis by Tom Dunne, an MBA will probably be the more useful/beneficial if you decide to move more into the management side.

I'm currently coming to the end of an MBA program which has been a great experience, so my perspective comes with some inherent personal bias. It would certainly be worth your while doing some due diligence on the options and opportunities that both programs will give you. If you have a particular career path or industry in mind, try and figure out which degree will give you the best preparation and enhance your positioning for those goals.

One thing that might also be useful is to do a ROI-style analysis to help figure out the true cost and present value of the two degrees.

gollem_1975

the contents of this post are my opinion, having not done an MBA I am not an expert in this area by any means

heres my 6c anyhoo

Executive summary

from my own experience of doing an MSc and what you want to get from the course: you would get more from doing an MBA

Detailed answer ( please read on )

Obviously the down side is the cost of doing an MBA but if its something you REALLY want to spend one or two years of your life doing then it could be money well spent.

the low cost of entry ( i.e. fees, entry requirements, requisite work experience ) into an Msc program means that people coming straight from an undergrad are going to make up a significant proportion of the class.

1) with the level of experience you have you might become a leader within the class and you can build on management/leadership skills that you already have.
2) due to the variance in experience levels your classmates may learn a lot more from you than you will learn from them ( controversial statement i know but something to consider ).for example having a lot of people direct from undergrads doesn't lead to very active discussions in class.. its typically those with experience that do all the talking.


having not done an MBA myself I am painting perhaps an idealised picture of one but here goes.

In an MBA you are most likely to have people who have several years of business/management experience, they have paid a lot of money to do the course so they have a high level of motivation. finally the networking ( networking as in the business rather than the IT sense ) opportunities are likely to be better for someone like yourself.

rgds,

Gollem