CageBreak

I am a senior technical professional in the IT Services industry with 10 years of strong technical experience -  a mix of IT consulting and hands on technical work, including software development and project management. For my career growth I am considering a higher educational qualification. Please advice if an MBA is the best option?
-Roy, Bangalore

Roy, you have asked a classic question that most professionals who have not done an MBA will ask in their lifetime! The answer is always person specific. For example, I did an MBA (from a top school, and long-time back) but don’t recommend it to everyone because an MBA by itself doesn’t help in career growth.

Since you have 10 years of strong technical experience in diverse projects. I can help you by asking the right questions:

1. Would you like a CIO or CTO role? (if yes, then no MBA needed, you are well on track for this already. You should just read up and learn the essential/ basics of finance and business management, so that you can communicate better with the leaders of different business functions. )
or,

2. Would you like to manage a business unit (revenues & profitability: P&L) or start your own business of any type? (if yes, then some focused business studies can help — not necessarily a 2 year MBA — because that can be long duration at this stage of your career.

For your case, I will suggest professional development courses from any of the good b-schools, or a 1 year programme. For example INSEAD in France (and now Singapore) has a world class course for 1 year. Within India, IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Lucknow have world class 1 year programmes to suit your experience. They will give you all the foundation and alumni networking, without taking too much time.

Here’s a brief video on why companies take Summer Interns, and what are the three most necessary aspects that you need to have to win an internship. The intended audience are Summer Internship candidates in any institute. This video can also help part-time job candidates. As you will see in this website, part-time involvement is a great way to get started into a new career and change your job. The situation is similar to summer internship.

And here’s the presentation (pdf) used in the above video: Summer Internships Orientation Guide

About the Presenter: Shankar AVSB is the CEO of MyOrbit and Director of 7Avenues private equity. He has interacted with and interviewed over 250 summer internship candidates in the last 10 years.

In this video clip, Geoff Morgan - an of www.linkme.com.au gives important job interview tips.

Are you looking for a job? Do you need help in doing your best in a job interview? Then listen to TJ Walker’s tips for getting remembered in your job interview.